Halton school teacher writes book for his Ingleton pupils to help them understand how Covid-19 has changed their lives

Mike Forde, who lives in Halton, put together a book to help children at Ingleton Primary School, where he is a Year 3/4 teacher, to understand the school shutdown.

The book is called "How to NOT go to School" and it follows the whimsical daily adventures of Parsley Mimblewood, who doesn't go to school. In fact, Parsley's never been to school.

Instead, she spends her days looking after her one imaginary guinea-pig, two real guinea-pigs and three goats while solving mysteries with the (imaginary) Detective Dracula and writing books explaining how to not go to school.

Each chapter explores an issue that might be weighing on children’s minds at the moment such as dealing with emotions, missing friends and feeling cooped up.

At the end of each chapter, there are prompts and questions to support you to discuss these issues as a family.

And due to its popularity, Mike has now set up a website so that the book is available for free.

"I initially shared it as a Kindle book with the class and since last Friday it has been downloaded hundreds of times and shared by teachers with their students in various schools across the country," he said.