Wee thread: Will bow out of the #schoolsreopening #blendedlearning debate now - said my piece. Thought long and hard about saying anything as I usually wouldn’t get involved, but as a parent the issue is too important to ignore.

Grateful for public and private support from politicians from 4 of the 5 parties at Holyrood. And of course so many parents and teachers. This is not about party politics, which is handy as I don’t have any.

I knew I’d get heavily personal attacks from activists and vested interests, and they have come today which has given the green light for their supporters to pile on. Not pleasant, but in the grand scheme no regrets.

I won’t apologize for replaying the views of the many teachers who told me they feel misrepresented by the union. I don’t think we can tolerate a situation where a union thinks it hold a veto over whether our children can go to school. They’re not epidemiologists.

But I do apologize for one error - one previous tweet said ‘most teachers’ without caveating it with ‘of the ones I’d spoken to’. Got a wee bit of flak from good people for that which was fair. Sorry .

I’d implore people to remember two things. Please don’t blame teachers. They really are trying. Those I have spoken to have told me they are being limited in what they are allowed to do e.g. video calls. They are some of our most important public servants - love them!

Secondly please give @scotgov space to evolve its position. @JohnSwinney is a great person in a hard job. Nobody I’d rather have in it. He is listening, I think. Be grateful, be kind. Don’t talk about u-turns. Talk about responsiveness.

Education is as important as healthcare. There is never any question about ensuring hospitals can serve all. Let’s make schools the same. My initial thread had thoughts on how to do it. . Over and out, have a lovely week.