Nursery World - Lockdown: Why early years are clearly an afterthought for government

Ailsa Monk of Cotswold Montessori Schools calls for help for early years settings in the lockdown, saying her experiences in the past few days have left her in tears

Ailsa Monk: 'We are the women who look after the future of this country'

I am the owner and headteacher of a rural preschool and daycare setting. On Sunday, with the emerging COVID situation, we asked our parent body whether they wanted us to open and got a resounding yes. In our industry we cannot properly socially distance and don’t wear PPE so that we can keep things as normal as possible for our little people. There are also no plans for giving us access to regular testing or early vaccinations. All my staff were understandably very anxious but willing to do their bit to support our little people and their families.

At the inset day on Monday we planned how to stay as COVID-secure as possible given this new situation and were ready for opening up again on Tuesday. Just as we were getting ready to leave for the day, we found out that Boris Johnson was going to make his lockdown announcement that evening. When he spoke, shutting all primary schools and secondary schools and placing the UK into full lockdown, it was as if early years was an afterthought. 'Everyone will still be able to access early years settings such as nurseries' he said.

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