We should praise staff and heads in our schools for carefully planning for the reopening of schools from Monday onwards. But, very late in the day, we received the news that there was great confusion as to the fourth week. Shouldn't you have secured the agreement of all parties, including all of the unions, before placing that expectation that schools should open for four weeks? And, in light of the fact that the disagreement continues—it would appear—isn't it your duty to give national leadership on that fourth week?

You should lead, rather than put pressure on local authorities and individual schools to make difficult decisions that will only create confusion and further ill feeling. The situation that has arisen is not fair on the schools, and it's certainly not fair on the pupils who are caught in the middle of all of this.