Dunard parents speak on last school pick-up for foreseeable

Melissa, a primary seven mum, said her son had been out of school all week, having had pneumonia in January.

“It’s definitely the right decision. For primary sevens and the ones leaving high school, something should be put in place.

“It’s a hard one and it’s pretty rubbish.”

She added: “That last part of the year, for them not to have that and then step right into secondary. It’s a bit much.

“My wee boy suffers from anxiety and they really do need settling in.”

Lisa Dowie, whose son is in primary seven, lamented the lack of a proper send-off for those going to secondary.

She said: “There’s no leavers’ assembly, no shirts signed, no going down the stairs and getting clapped, no transition to secondary schools.”

She thought that the decision to close schools was the wrong one.

Another parent said that her son’s class had seen numbers fall from 25 pupils to eight.

Satwant Uppal, a gym manager, was concerned about his childcare options if he was forced to shut, but said: “We’ll manage.

“There’s no right or wrong decision, it’s unfortunate for the kids and for the parents.

“The whole country, the world is at a disadvantage.”

He said trying to manage a school closure that lasted up to the end of the summer holidays would be very difficult but he thinks his children would cope.

“We’re going to manage at home, we have enough people around us to help out.

“We have teachers in the family, so we’ll do what we can at home.”

Shona Cameron’s son Bruce was happier than her schools were out until further notice.

A worker at Strathclyde University, she said working from home with no childcare was going to be hard.

“The difficulty is not knowing when it’s going to go back - if they said 12 weeks then you can plan for that,” she said.

Martin Cathcart-Froden said his son would not miss the big send-off and he was more disappointed about losing around 20 weeks of schooling.