WATCH: Edinburgh headmaster warns of "mental health tsunami"

The head teacher of an Edinburgh school has made an emotional plea to keep pupils in class.

Rod Grant from Newbridge private school, Clifton Hall claims home learning lockdowns are creating issues unlike anything he’s seen in 31-years of teaching.

In a post on the school's Facebook, the headmaster said the pandemic is causing isolation among young people, and speaking to Radio Forth News he warned: "There's going to be a mental health tsunami coming our way down the line, unless we get children socialising with their friends."

WATCH:

Mr Grant, who's calling for schools to reopen now, posted on social media: "In 31 years of teaching, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so despondent and so concerned at the same time.

"In the last three months, in my school and in schools like it, I am witnessing mental health issues unlike anything I’ve seen in my career.

"This is not me trying to be dramatic or to overplay what lockdown actually does to children.

"I am seeing children being diagnosed with clinical depression, increasing rates of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and something I haven’t seen for at least 20-years - a resurgence of eating disorders.

"Add to this, those students who are displaying worrying levels of stress and anxiety; the same students that describe online learning as stress inducing.

"Anyone that has been involved in a Zoom meeting knows how stressful it can be and yet the great solution to our educational recovery is online learning.

"Well, I’m an educator and I think, at best, it’s a horribly poor substitute for in-school learning."

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