Just a few thoughts for home-schooling parents as a parent who has had a 12-13 year old daughter out of mainstream school for most of the last 18 months. I appreciate that this won't help everyone (maybe just one person) but hope it brings comfort.

Our daughter has been in and out of mainstream school since October 2018 due to an ongoing medical condition she’s being treated for. The first few months were hard as she completely fell between the cracks of education and health care. She had no education for about 3-4 months

Her condition is not aided by extra anxiety and therefore we have had to take a soft approach to her education. Since sorting things out through various services, she was back at school part time for the last semester. Things were taken day by day

Although she is only studying certain subjects, she soon made up ground in those areas, and though she may not be top of her class, she is doing OK. Her mental well being remains most important to us.

Remember that the school system was very anxiety inducing for some of our kids. Some have thrived more under lockdown without peer pressure, constant testing and anxiety/expectations. As adults we can better coping skills to deal with anxiety and we can share them with our kids