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A London council has become the first to tell all primary schools in its area that children should wear face masks all day. Redbridge Council in east London has written to all 56 primaries under its control, advising that masks should be worn by pupils as young as four all day apart from when they are eating. Children from Reception to Year Six have been told to wear face coverings “in all areas of the school” including both “teaching and non-teaching spaces”. Last week the Prime Minister announced that secondary school students should wear masks in the classroom when they return if it is not possible for them to keep two metres apart. Official guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) states that children in primary schools do not need to wear masks. The Telegraph has previously revealed that individual primary headteachers started to write to parents telling them that children will need to use face coverings when they return to the classroom on March 8. However, Redbridge is understood to be the first council to instruct all the primary schools under its remit that pupils should wear masks. It came amid warnings that the secondary testing plan was in chaos, with some reports that up to half of parents are declining to give permission for their children to be tested. Siobhain McDonagh, the Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, told the Commons that some schools are “unable to test up to half of their pupils”, as she called for testing to be on an opt-out rather than an opt-in basis to ensure greater take up. Schools minister Nick Gibb said that the Government expects parents to give permission to “all secondary school pupils” to be tested twice a week. Meanwhile, the Government was accused of risking creating "mask anarchy" unless regulations on face coverings in schools are made clearer. Robert Halfon MP, the Tory chair of the education select committee, insisted "definitive regulations" must be put in place on whether students should wear face coverings. Redbridge council officials first wrote to primary schools in January to say that all pupils attending schools – which at the time was limited to key workers’ children and vulnerable youngsters – should wear face masks “given the increased transmissibility of the new Covid variants”. Cllr Jas Athwal, leader of Redbridge Council confirmed today that the advice to primary schools remains unchanged. “We have provided comprehensive advice to our schools. In some cases, where we have gone beyond the DfE advice, we have used the advice from Independent Sage,” he said. “We have advised primary schools to encourage the use of face coverings indoors, as per the Independent Sage advice that pupils at both primary and secondary should be encouraged to wear a face covering indoors as one of a range of health and safety measures.”
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Download Festival has been cancelled for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers have confirmed. The rock and metal event was to be headlined by Kiss, Biffy Clyro and System of a Down from June 4 to 6. The government’s so-called road map out of lockdown has a June 21 target date to remove all legal limits on social contact.
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Police at Formby beach in Merseyside had to turn cars away from as far as Leeds and Manchester at the weekend. Merseyside Police said patrols have been increased in the area following reports of "large numbers" of people at the coastal beauty spot looking to enjoy the nice weather. Superintendent Graeme Robson said there was a "large increase" in people travelling to the Formby beach area due to the good weather, some of whom had "travelled a significant distance".
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A photographer in London witnessed as schoolyard scrap of an unusual kind on March 1, when a disgruntled driver and a skateboarder traded blows at the gates of a school.Thomas Butler, who recorded the footage, told Storyful that the “driver of the car almost hit the skater” and things escalated from there.As the car pulls in at the gates of the Riverstone School, the skateboarder hits the bumper with his board. The driver then gets out, and grabs an umbrella before confronting the boarder. The umbrella is soon dropped, as the boarder gets the upper hand.Butler told Storyful he stopped filming and went to break up the fight. The driver was left battered and bloody, Butler said, and drove away. Police arrived some time later, Butler said. Credit: Thomas Butler via Storyful
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