Amanda Holden has passionately urged the Government to ‘stop isolating kids’, saying that she wants to see her children ‘happy, healthy and thriving in school’.
In a new Instagram post, Amanda, 50, shared a selfie with her children Alexa and Hollie, alongside a caption expressing how ‘strongly’ she feels about Covid-19 isolation rules for schools.
On the Government’s website, it states that students, members of staff and other adults must not come into school if they have been ‘in close contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19’, adding that if an individual is told to self-isolate because they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive, they have a ‘legal obligation to do so’.
The Government emphasises that using ‘bubbles’ in schools makes it ‘easier in the event of a positive case to identify those who may need to self-isolate’ – meaning that if a pupil tests positive, all of the classmates in their bubble would be told to self-isolate.
In her Instagram post caption, Amanda urged people who feel ‘strongly about #covid isolation in schools’ to ‘send a letter to your MP’, in addition to contacting the Children’s Commissioner.
‘Matt Hancock said we have special rules for elite football because it “brings people joy”. As a parent, what brings me joy is seeing my children happy, healthy and thriving in school,’ the Britain’s Got Talent judge wrote.
Amanda added that in her view, it’s ‘very clear where the Government’s priorities lie, and it’s not with children’.
The TV personality referenced a Freedom of Information request from November 2020, which reportedly said that the ‘Department for Education is not tracking what ultimately happens to the 30 or so children who are isolated along with the original positive case’.
Although Metro.co.uk was unable to find the specific FOI request Amanda was referring to, she added that this supposed finding means that ‘we do not even know if this policy of mass isolation if healthy children is effective at mitigating viral transmission, or whether it is proportionate’.
On the ONS website, it outlines that approximately eight in 10 adults, or 86.8% of the adult population, are estimated to have Covid-19 antibodies.
Amanda brought up this statistic, saying that the ‘unfair, damaging policy’ of sending children home to isolate if they have been in contact with a positive Covid-19 case ‘needs to be urgently reviewed’.
‘How much longer are we going to destroy children’s educational prospects?’ she said. ‘Where is the roadmap for stabilising children’s learning? There is none because it is not a priority.’
The presenter implored others to contact the Secretary of State for Education, the Secretary of State for Health and the Prime Minister ‘to halt this damaging mass isolation policy so that children can normalise and begin to recover from this experience’.
She also included the hashtags ‘#stopisolatingkids’ and #becausechildrenmatter’.
Dr Raghib Ali, a clinical epidemiologist, recently spoke out about school isolation rules, telling LBC that the Government needs to have a ‘rethink’ over its guidelines.
‘I mean my kids have been affected by this as well, as have most parents and their children over the last few months,’ Dr Ali said.
‘So I think we do need to rethink the rules on bubbles because it’s causing a lot of disruption to children who have suffered a lot already.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Department For Education for comment.
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