The problem is that the debate about N95 masks is frankly a distraction when we have schools without decent ventilation and air filtration - both of which only have positives and no negatives. And, as a bonus, will help reduce children being off with other airborne illnesses too.
The science shows that air filtration and ventilation is extremely effective and I've seen it in DDs school.
I asked the school if they'd let me buy an air filter for DD's classroom. They accepted. Her class is the only one with an air filter - and it's the only class largely unaffected by a massive covid outbreak that had more than half the children in the school off sick in one week (there were a couple of kids in her class who caught covid - they were the siblings of kids elsewhere in the school that caught it).
Her teacher is also amazing about ensuring there's adequate ventilation - and is lucky in that the room they're in has plenty of opening windows. Her class was the ONLY one without a teacher off at one point or another since term began. As a consequence, her schooling has been consistent and normal, but the rest of the school have suffered badly.
The common sense thing to do would be to ensure every class has decent ventilation and air filtration. Then see if masks are needed on top. There's NO POINT having the argument about masks until the most basic step has been taken.
It's insane this hasn't been done and shows that the Tories give not one tiny flying fuck about kids health OR education or indeed anything to do with them at all. THEIR kids are at Eton or other private schools with tiny class sizes and decent buildings. And, I'm betting, air filters.
They could have paid for air filters in classrooms with all the LFTs they've funded. At one point the entire school was told to test on LFTs daily it was so rife with covid. If they really cost 10 quid each, that would have paid for air filters for the entire school several times over.