It's 8.45am on a cold Monday morning and I nervously approach the school gates, holding on to my son's and daughter's hands tightly. A few of the mums look surprised to see us. "What are you doing here?" asks one. "Look who it is," jokes another. I smile through clenched teeth. It feels good to be back, but I have some explaining to do …

Two weeks earlier, I had decided to take my children, Arthur, then 6, and Beatrix, 4, out of the village primary school near our house in Derbyshire, England. My plan was to home-school them. But within a fortnight I had packed them back off to school.