'A punch to the stomach' - Family with two nurses as parents fear Edinburgh council's schooling plan

For key workers, the possibility of schools going back to a semblance of normality was viewed by many as a potential step back to normality.

But, following Edinburgh City Council’s announcement that pupils will only be in school on average 1.3 days a week, fears over the impact on their children are coming to the surface.

Julie Fitzsimmons, 38, is a nurse at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s intensive care unit and has two children, Kayla, 11, and Noah, eight.

She said the announcement felt like a “punch to the stomach” following months of home-schooling, and that it felt like the city was failing its children.

Ms Fitzsimmons said: “I think we are really failing them by not sending them back. I am worried about the impact on the kids.

“I see my son who is eight starting to struggle to do any working from home. In the last two weeks he has become really quire subdued and fearful. He used to be good fun and a bit of an actor and I see a change in him and it is worrying.

“I don’t know what to do and if I try to force him to do schoolwork the tantrums are bad. He has kept it all to himself up until now and he just needs a structure at school.

“I am worried about them both socially because they have not seen any children their own age since we went into lockdown. That creates an awkwardness amongst peers and it has a big impact for them.”

The challenges have also created tensions between parents. Ms Fitzsimmons and her partner work opposite shifts to allow for childcare, but it has not been an easy ride.

She said: “We have not seen each other because we are just working opposite shifts and that is quite difficult to then get a structure around home learning which has been really tough.

“It is stressful because we have different views about their learning. He might get on at me if he feels I have not done enough and I will do the same to him.

“We are not teachers, we are their parents and I feel we are doing it wrong.”