The other day I was in the changing room of a pool where I swim every week when my eye was caught by a stack of toilet rolls.

It reminded me of the events of four years ago when the TV news was constantly showing shots of hoarders piling their shopping trolleys high with mountains of loo rolls.

I daresay that the pool changing room supply would likely have become a hot property and pinched to be hoarded away somewhere. 

It seems hard to imagine something as mundane as a toilet roll becoming so controversial in the days of Covid, yet it was just one legacy of what was a terrible time for so many.

I know people who lost family members; there was the sadness of not being able to visit loved ones in hospital or retirement homes; theatres had to close and go dark; shops, restaurants and pubs – those that survived - are still struggling to get back to business as it was pre-pandemic. 
And now I learn of another legacy of the pandemic: the rise in truancy among school children.

It seems that some pupils, and their parents for that matter, can’t see the point of turning up for school every day now when they didn’t have to during Covid.

Quite simply, why bother if you didn’t have to then?

More than one in five children in England are now classed as persistently absent from school; before the pandemic the figure was one in 10.

According to the Centre for Social Justice, almost one in three parents believe the pandemic showed that it’s not essential for children to attend school every day. 

The situation has become so bad in some schools that teachers are having to go round to the homes of pupils to coax them back to school. Letters, texts and phone calls are no longer effective. 

I heard about this from a young friend who’s been teaching for a few years. He loves the job but that love is severely tested by the amount of time spent in supervising detention or contacting parents of absent children. 

Looking back, I don’t remember anyone at my school going AWOL. I suppose it must have happened but not to the extent it goes on today. 

School was five miles away and it meant having to get a bus there every morning. It was often cold, wet and miserable, and oh how I longed to be back in that kitchen with mum where it was warm and safe.

Of course, once I got to school it was fine. It was just the thought of it that was off-putting. 

A friend of mine felt much the same about school. When he went on his first day he seemed to enjoy it, but when his mum got him up the next morning ready for day two he said he’d already been the day before so did he have to go ever again?

If it ever came to playing truant I would have been too terrified to try, not only because of the teacher’s wrath, but because of mum and dad’s too.

Not going to school was never an option. It was a good school, though once in a while I would have preferred to stay at home. 

At school age, whether we like it or not, I don’t believe we’re capable of deciding our own future.

School certainly taught me a lot, enough to go out into the world and get a good job, and to make lifelong friends. I shall always be grateful to the teachers who deserved medals for persistence.

Nothing in life is ever easy, they say, but as I approach my three-score-years-and-ten I can offer one bit of advice: while experience and knowledge are on offer learn all you can and don’t throw it away.