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  • schools are largely closed.

  • But up and down the country, you might not know it.

  • Beatrix Potter school, in ones with south London, has a role of over 350.

  • In March, around 30 kids of key workers on vulnerable Children were in.

  • Today, over 100 came through the doors.

  • It ranges from about four in the lowest, which is nursery at the moment.

  • 2 22 22 22 in one class.

  • That's basically it's near enough.

  • Obviously, remote learning is not simple as of what he thinks on.

  • We've already had lots of issues with devices at home.

  • They were getting their hands because you've been touching things.

  • Wandsworth isn't alone.

  • Newsnight has spoken to dozens of heads across the country, with much increased numbers.

  • In some cases, over half the pupils are in.

  • A poll of 6000 teachers last week found that 35% of primary school teachers had 1/5 orm or of their roles in attendance.

  • Three.

  • Guidance isn't bought generous as such, but it is the case that it has been made explicit that only one parent needs to be a key worker.

  • To qualify.

  • Um, ministers have made clear that the lack of I t.

  • At home qualifies to on That's a driver because 10 months in I t.

  • For the poorest kids remains a significant problem.

  • We've had the first lot.

  • We've got 10.

  • Then we got We're having another 11 haven't arrived.

  • I've just bought 18.

  • We've had another from somebody to support some.

  • Or we've also got some old laptops.

  • We've converted into Chromebooks, so we're doing OK.

  • But obviously, now more kids are asking for remote learning because there's more home.

  • We're trying to see how we do that and parents because they're struggling because some devices of old so they don't support the software we use on the replacement Free School meals program sometimes isn't very helpful, either.

  • Things Picture sent, a newsnight from a parent in Devon shows the limited fare available for a whole week, including How did Tomato Soup?

  • One had told us he thought he had kids being sent in because parents knew they could guarantee a square meal when the parcels were so poor, it all adds up.

  • This isn't just about a challenging situation for teachers.

  • It also goes to the heart of what this locked down is supposed to be about the risk.

  • Potential risk in continuing as we are is that schools remain to empty to provide a consistent and quality education for all of their Children, but far too full to significantly suppress the disease.

  • In so far as closing schools can that schools remain a vector off infection to use the prime minister's term?

  • In other words, that we risk not for the first time in this pandemic having the worst of both worlds.

  • There's a wider lesson here.

  • There is so much emphasis about individual compliance but to take schools as a microcosm if parents increasingly can't get time off from their bosses if their income is disappearing.

  • If the ICTY isn't there, if the food parcels aren't there, if the structures aren't there, how can they reasonably be expected to adhere to the spirit of the rules people talk about?

  • Adherence is a general thing, but it's very different washing your hands, which every could do easily to self isolating for 10 days.

  • If you're working in a precarious economy where you may lose your job if you don't turn up, so in that sort of situation, it's actually imperative that this government does what countries all over the world are doing, which is paying people to stay at home, on checking daily to see.

  • Are they at home?

  • Do they need any practical help?

  • Many countries offer free accommodation because most people actually can't isolate at home.

  • They have shared bathrooms or kitchens.

  • You know, this is a really, really important part of the equation that we're really getting so wrong.

  • The case against us, the public, is that we're not doing is we're told in so far as that might be true, the case against the government is that still after three lockdowns, it hasn't given us all the tools we need to do so.

schools are largely closed.

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