More than 400,000 children in England were off school last week for coronavirus-related reasons, as the government admitted that “unevenness” in lost learning could affect 2021 exam results.

Weekly attendance statistics from the Department for Education (DfE) estimated that up to 5% of England’s 8.3 million state school pupils lost classroom time, including as many as 50,000 with confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19.

The number of schools having to shut completely increased by 50% compared with the previous week, with 60 estimated to have closed, affecting at least 12,000 pupils, the statistics showed.

Read more in The Guardian