Eleven-year-old Elliott was excited about moving up to secondary school this year. He was out meeting another child, who was also due to start at the same Durham school, when the government announced that school buildings constructed with a particular type of concrete had to close immediately.
Elliott has not had much chance to speak to his new friend since then, nor to any of his other classmates - because his school was one of those impacted by the announcement.
St Leonard's Catholic School was told it could not fully open at the start of term, due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) on the school site.
Instead of going to school, Elliott has spent most of this term doing six hours a day of online lessons, from home, on his mother's laptop. There are more than 150 other children logged on to the online lesson on his screen - but no-one turns their cameras on, and only the teacher speaks.
"I feel quite isolated," Elliott says. "When it's breaktime, I normally just watch YouTube in bed."
