Simon Townsley/Panos Pictures

Junior Tams (9) looks out from his home on the Byker Estate. His mother says that since the COVID-19 lockdown began, Junior's education has worryingly regressed. Like so many others he shuts himself in in bedroom for hours at a time playing online games like Fortnite.

In places like Byker education provides vital social mobility for a community blighted by the impact of decades of unemployment and underinvestment. There are fears here the government's failure to reopen schools could result in a new lost generation.