Ella is now working from home.
She joins many around the world, fellow Brits and her parents in succumbing to safety over normalcy. She is 12 years old, a high school student in south London.
“When I was in Year Seven and the first lockdown came, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so good! We don’t have to go to school! ” she said from her dining room, via Zoom. “And now I’m just like, ‘Oh please let me go back to school. ”
As in much of Europe, the British government has made face-to-face learning a priority in the pandemic. Apart from the first lockdown in spring 2020, it had managed to keep schools open through the autumn. That was done, despite, at times, shutting all non-essential retail and restaurants and telling people to stay at home unless absolutely necessary.