Huge variety in secondary school attendance across local authorities, see graph I've made up below. In Medway it was 53% in secondary schools last week. Compare to Isle of Wight at 96%. By my calculations more than 30 local authorities have attendance rates of less than 75%.

To some extent at least, this is the context the school closure row has to be seen in. Some schools are barely able to function as a result of pupil/staff absence.

Kent is a good example where attendance has just continued to decline as term has gone on- now stands at 55%.

If you dig down into DfE's stats website you see that they say that last week 20% of Reading's schools were closed. 12.5% in Hull. 11% in West Berkshire. I'm told 35 schools are closed across Kent alone.

More on this on Newsnight shortly, tune in