It is Friday June 24. Everyone is tired from staying up all or part of the night watching the results of the EU referendum. The playground this morning seemed more silent than usual and I could see mums hugging each other. One was crying.
One of the parents, an EU national, came over and talked to me in her own language knowing that I speak it too.
“What does this mean for us?” she asked. I don’t know what to say. I want to reassure her but I can’t, because no-one knows. They have recently sold their house in their home country and invested the money in a property here. No wonder they are worried.
A parent I don’t know, except to see at drop-off and pick-up times, glared at me as she walked past. I wondered why but quickly realised it must be because I wasn’t speaking in English. I glared back. Is this what it has come to? I speak four languages and I’ll speak in whichever one suits best, if it’s okay with you, I wanted to say.
Already, so soon, I sensed the divide descending on us. We all used merely to be parents of children attending this excellent school. Suddenly we are split along social and political lines we hadn’t been aware of previously and which had never been an issue. It is palpable that we have become us and them.
It was sharing assembly for our class on this particular morning, and one of the last of the academic year. Truth be told, I would rather have been anywhere than in school despite the fact my own child was involved. I wanted to scour social media and the news channels for some inkling, some explanation of how this country had arrived at such a momentous decision.
As we queued to enter the hall I heard parents speculating about where in Europe they could move to, and how they planned to check out their heritage to find out if they and their children were eligible for an EU passport. Someone thought, “thank God”, that they have an Irish grandparent. I already knew that in all likelihood we are eligible for an EU passport, for me and hopefully and most importantly, for our child, which feels mildly reassuring.
Some were already fearful for jobs. I overheard one say that the local company a relative works for would probably now close, as it was already in difficulty and reliant on orders from the EU to survive.
Within a week this company had, indeed, gone to the wall when European orders were withdrawn.
Sharing assembly means that a group of pupils in every class shows off their work to the rest of the school, and to parents, grandparents and everyone who support his half-termly event. The time came for year 5 to tell us about their recent Erasmus trip.
I didn’t catch where they travelled to because the headteacher’s voice broke off at the mention of the scheme – I suspected with the realisation that it was now in jeopardy.
He looked sad and subdued, like he was going through the motions. Later, he told me about the benefits of this scheme to many pupils and his fears for its future. For some it had been their first trip abroad. I felt a sudden surge of anger for those lost opportunities and that there might be parents in this hall who voted to leave whose children went on this exchange. It is a chance my six-year-old may not now get.
And therein lies the rub. I have spent the summer raging at the injustice of it all on behalf of my little girl. Angry at the friend who works in the travel industry who voted to leave, and irritated at two other friends, also leavers – in one case because the UK “needs to grow a pair” – but wrote delightedly on Facebook how their children would be spending their summer breaks on pupil/student exchanges.
I want to scream at them for their hypocrisy and that they might well have now denied these opportunities to my child. As a student more than 30 years ago I travelled around Europe at will. Now, in the 21st century in a global economy where nations are interdependent as never before, the same opportunities might be denied, or at least made more difficult, to future generations. It feels like the world is going backwards.
So as my child enters year 2, I ask this of you, headteachers. Whatever your political persuasion or your thoughts on the EU, immigration and every other argument that has divided our country these past months, please continue to strive for opportunities for our children. Please fight for Erasmus and any other educational scheme that might be imperilled, and don’t be silent on what this decision means for education and the life-chances of our young people. The future of our children and our country depends on it.
- Diary of a parent is written anonymously by a mother living in the South of England who has a child in year 2 in primary school. Names have been changed where appropriate. Email your views and questions to editor@headteacher-update.com