EXC: Newsnight has been given exclusive access to one of the biggest studies yet undertaken to measure how the pandemic has affected children's education.

Study of over 5900 Year 2 pupils across 169 representative schools in England by @EducEndowFoundn.

Findings are worrying.

Findings

-2020 Y2 cohort are "significantly behind" where they should be in English and Maths.
-On average pupils around two months behind.
-Gap between richest and poorest students now at a very significant seven months.
-This is only taking into account lockdown 1.

-Some children had even apparently forgotten how to engage with the tests. There were three times as many children who weren't able to engage with the tests at all than would be typical.

To repeat, this only addresses the lost time from spring. Much of the lost time in autumn (variable across the country) and lockdown this winter will not be included in the results of the study, so we can expect the problem to get worse.

The concern I'm picking up from teachers is that the government tries to "catch up" via a cram it all in approach. Try and do the normal curriculum in less time and simply overwhelm children in the process, many of whom are completely out the rhythm of learning.

Much better, some teachers argue to use this as a chance to remodel what primary education in particular is offering, moving away from testing and rigidity, focus on physical and mental health to begin with, then do less curriculum but better. Either way big thinking is required.

Much more of this to come, including my full report on Newsnight, BBC 2, 1045pm.

Losing count of the number of people who seem extraordinarily blase about the prospect of our children losing a lot of school time. "But lots of countries start schooling later!", they say. That's a red herring. Here's why.

Firstly, yes many European countries start schooling later. But in the main they also have comprehensive and well funded preschool childcare systems which actually look a lot like our Reception and Year 1. There is a world of difference between what kids in those countries...

...do in those preschool systems and just sitting at home. They socialise. They learn. They have communal experiences. That isn't what our children are doing now.

Secondly, all children are off not just early years so what relevance is that anyway?

Thirdly, THIS IS EMBEDDING ALREADY PROFOUND EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES. I am deeply disturbed by the gap between rich and poor children in educational attainment in normal circumstances- this is making it worse. Disadvantaged kids are, guess what, already deeply...

...disadvantaged. Much is stacked against them. We should all be deeply disturbed about their task being made harder.

Fourthly, talk to any head and they'll tell you how worried they've been about safeguarding, how many children are slipping through the net, whose home lives..

...are becoming more, not less chaotic. School closure isn't good for any kid but it much worse for the most vulnerable.

You can think that schools needed to close, whilst also recognising the consequences of this lost year and that it could be calamitous for parts of this...

...generation.

And we should be worried about it and thinking about we tackle it.

This crisis has many elements to it. But for me, its most acute are these.

The deaths we're seeing primarily among the old.

And the significant loss of education, opportunities and socialisation for our youngest.

Ultimately both will need to be tackled with the same urgency.

These children and young people have done nothing wrong- simply born at a time when the pandemic wheel of misfortune stopped. The moral imperative to ensure that their life chances don't suffer as a result is profound.