Thank you for this useful article.

We face a similar situation. We live in London, where our two young children attend a French school. One set of grand-parents reside in France, and the other couple of grand-parents live in Lebanon.

It is difficult to plan our upcoming holidays because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Half-term

Usually the French grand-parents visit their grand-children during half-term. However, travelling via public transport would put them at risk, as they are in their 70s. Also, they would need to arrive ahead of the school holidays as they would have to self-isolate on arrival in the UK.

We are considering travelling to Lebanon instead because the children have not seen their Lebanese family since the summer of 2019. We are however concerned about to stay safe from Covid-19 whilst on the flight. We would also have to take a PCR test before departure and within 72 hours of our arrival (and self-quarantine whilst waiting for the results). Most importantly, we would have to submit to a two-week quarantine at our return to the UK. The kids would miss school for a fortnight as online schooling is not available.

Christmas

Whilst half-term is perhaps not worth the effort described above, the Christmas period is crucial. Our children miss their family and ensuring their psychological welfare is more important than missing two weeks of education at their age.

Besides, we hope that the UK will reduce the quarantine period to seven days. It would be great also if the French schools based in London were to organise online schooling in January. One could imagine that teachers and school staff would also want to celebrate Christmas their loved ones in France.

Mind you, by then the UK could be in a second national lockdown that would prevent any international travel and shatter our best plans.