Coronavirus: How it feels to be going back to school

As millions of pupils in England return to school after lockdown, the BBC went to two primary schools in Luton, Whitefield Primary Academy and Southfield Primary School, to find out how parents and children felt.

‘I didn’t want to send them back’

“It’s scary but we don’t have a choice really,” says Iram Kanwal. “You have to pay your fine or bring them to school. I would’ve been happy not sending them back right now because it’s too soon, but [I’m] hoping for the best I guess.”

Iram says she worries about a second coronavirus peak, but admits having her children, aged 3 and 5, at home for so long was a bit of a “juggling act”.

Now her kids are returning to school and nursery, she says she’s been telling them to not get too close to other children and to keep washing their hands.

But she says her daughter, Samavia, is still “too small” to really understand about the virus: “She doesn’t even know what coronavirus is at the moment”.