When I read the news that schools are being urged to trial a four-day week to tackle the teacher shortage, I let out a sigh. Here we go: yet another clever way for schools to operate entirely out of sync with families of the children they teach.

There’s a reason why parents at the school gate are holding a tiny palm in one hand and their smartphone in another, or giving a hug and kiss goodbye before sprinting down the road to the bus stop – they work. Not that schools seem to have noticed. They still behave as if it’s the 70s, expecting the omnipresence and constant involvement of parents (or at least, a parent) during the working day.

Here we are in December, the nadir of this particular quirk of the British schooling system. In the next three weeks alone I will down tools and head in

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