What was, just a few days ago, the object of excited speculation among British children has become a reality. Schools are shut. For an unspecified period, learning will take place at home, except for a minority of pupils who are deemed to be vulnerable, or whose parents are key workers. Closing schools was a necessary step that should have been taken sooner, as it was in other countries. But the change in our national life that will begin on Monday morning, when more than 10 million children – 8.8 million of them in England – have nowhere to go, should not be underestimated. Across the world, school is part of the rhythm of life – for parents and teachers as well as pupils. Because of coronavirus, an estimated 800 million children globally are now having their education interrupted.

Some may welcome this, at least at first. Nobody wants to catch Covid-19, or be responsible for spreading it. British schooling has become narrowly exam-focused and in the run-up to primary school Sats, GCSEs and A-levels, lessons can be more like drills than investigations. Some parents have already begun sharing plans (and jokes) about home schooling. There is an undoubted novelty factor.

Most parents will feel less well equipped to teach older children. On Friday, the UK government announced that teacher assessments would determine grades for GCSE and A-level pupils, along with the option of sitting exams late. Such clarity was badly needed by students, some of whom have spoken powerfully of feeling that their entire secondary schooling has led to a dead end.

The social impact of being separated from peers also varies for different age groups. Almost all children, including some who find school difficult, benefit from the social experiences that it offers. But for teenagers, whose emotional development requires them to become more separate from their parents and carers, being forced back into the family nest carries particular stresses.

But economic inequality will be the biggest variable between the experiences of British children over the next few months, and between richer and poorer children in other countries. Even in a society that is starkly unequal, and an education system that does worse by disadvantaged pupils than by advantaged ones, school is a leveller. When they are there, pupils share the same spaces, lessons, menus and teachers. At home, children of well-off parents invariably live in bigger houses, are more likely to have their own bedrooms, two parents rather than one to support them, and better access to technology as well as books and other learning resources, and food.

We must all do our best over the coming months, and no one should begrudge those who are looking forward to lessons, or weekday lunches, with their children. But during this strange, frightening period, the government must do everything in its power to ensure that more vulnerable children and families do not lose out. When things get back to normal, any who have fallen behind must be helped to catch up.