Is currently at the worst point of the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson says 2. 4 Million People across the uk have now been vaccinated against coronavirus headteachers have called for limits on the number of pupils able to attend school during lockdown with attendance rates surging in some areas and staff reporting streets packed with parents during drop off. More from our education correspondent elaine dunkley. At parkinson lane primary in halifax, teachers are struggling with the numbers. During the first lockdown, 13 pupils attended. Today, there are more than 17 classes. I mean, you say a lockdown but it doesnt feel like a lockdown, does it . I mean, teachers are having to split their time not only teaching the children that are coming to school, but also you then have got the vast majority that are trying to get online. We have had children go home with covid and pass it on to grandparents who are living with them, and those grandparents, sadly, have passed on. More than 600 pupils here are eligible for a school place. According to the governments criteria, a child needs one parent who is a key worker to be in school, and the government has expanded the offer of a school place to children who lack devices for Remote Learning and for those without a space to learn at home. Sajida is a teaching assistant and iram is a school receptionist. Both are key workers but have come to different decisions on bringing their children into school. My child is actually at home because me and my husband have had to make the decision, because of the infection rates and because the government told us schools are closed. I have got the younger one here because i cant leave her on her own. My husband works hes a key worker as well. So this time round, of course the infection rates are higher but what the feeling is that social interaction, the Mental Health side, is more important. Just down the road at Ash Green Community primary school, classrooms are full. The government says all children who can stay at home should, but the head teacher says parents are being given mixed messages. To have advice like last week coming from the secretary of state for education, who said that children without laptops should report to school is just extremely unhelpful, and theres going to have to be things that come in place, possibly looking at whether its both parents being critical workers, possibly whether that list needs to be less ambiguous and it needs to be slimmer. The government says it expects schools to work with families to ensure that all critical worker children are given a place, but some schools fear unless there is a limit on numbers, the lockdown will do little to stop the spread of the virus. Elaine dunkley, bbc news, in halifax. Now on bbc news, the travel show. Hello and welcome to the travel show, with me, lucy hedges, coming to you from the jungle in northern rwanda, where i am hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the worlds most majestic creatures. Theme music. Rwanda, despite its diverse wildlife and natural beauty, has for decades been an unlikely tourist destination. 25 years ago, the genocide here grabbed international headlines. Over 800,000 people were killed in inter Ethnic Violence injust 100 days. But a quarter of a century on, and rwanda has become one of africas bucket list destinations. And its biggest draw, the furry, curious cousin to us humans, the mountain gorilla. So i have been promised a chance of a date with a silverback gorilla. I feel like i should help them push. That is, if i ever make it up the mountain. Oh my god, be careful yeah, yeah, yeah i am standing here at the foothills of rwandas Volcanoes National park, which is the home and sanctuary of 20 troops of gorilla. It is very exciting, off we go. The park is part of the larger virunga Conservation Area and a World Heritage site. It is also the only place in the world where the gorilla population is on the rise. And this year marks a0 years since money from tourism was first used for their conservation. Francis, hey welcome to the park. So this is where the park begins, you can see the bamboo. There is a trench here, this marks the difference for making the communities understand where the park begins, and where the buffaloes cannot come over. Ahead of me there is a team of trackers. Hey, trackers, im lucy, good to meet you before any traveller takes to the mountain, the rangers share essential knowledge. Its so beautiful walking through here. Yes, sometimes gorillas come down to the bamboo. Really, they come this far down . They can even come outside. Once we come to the gorillas we need us to stay together, we are creating a distance between us and the gorillas, we need to have seven metres distance. We need to respect their movement. There is a sound, they have to do like a. Clearing throat sound. Once they do that, it is confirmation everything is ok. 0h, 0k. But once the silverback, or any gorilla say. Coughing sound. That means thats not good. Thats not good. So what i am doing, i have stopped. But then if i hear. Low grunting. So i make the situation feel ok. Its pretty huge. These are gorilla droppings, it leads you to where the gorillas are. So you follow the paths of poo. As i walk, branches are gripping my legs, but the trackers have cleared a path for us, and i can hear gorillas, i have heard at least three grunts and gorilla noises. The walk is pretty tough, i am not going to lie. The higher we get, the higher the altitude, my breath is getting shorter. Three hours, and 4,000 metres above sea level, and i was beginning to fear i might not ever find a gorilla. Whispers oh my god its there this is the susa group. Its made up of 23 gorillas, including, unusually, three silverbacks. You really should be scared, but they are so big, ive got francis like my life depended on it. And then a moment i have been waiting for. Time to put my gorilla talk to the test. Throat clearing noise. I know you have the trackers, but how do you make sure you always find them . How do you know . The thing is, make sure you dont lose them any single day. You follow their movement every day. So that when you spend the night you study them the next day, so you follow them all year round. How long have you been doing this . For now, 18 years. 18 years . Wow, you must love them. Yes, this is the work that is dynamic, you always see new, different things. What you see of the gorillas today, is not similar to what you see tomorrow. Whispers we have really lucked out here. We have the mother cradling her baby, weve got blackbacks, and weve got the mother of all gorillas, the silverback right there. He is watching us watching him. I cant believe we are this close. My mind is absolutely blown, they are so beautiful. And when you think we share 98 of our dna with these great apes, you understand why they, too, are curious about us. Rwanda, in collaboration with International Conservation partners, has achieved remarkable success in not only protecting but growing the mountain gorilla population. In fact, there is now 1,000 mountain gorillas up here in the wild, up from 200 just two decades ago, when they were on the brink of distinction. This is primarily down to the decrease in poaching, when gorillas were hunted for meat. But in an effort to protect the gorillas, poachers were trained to become Mountain Guides and porters here, further supporting tourism. Talk to me about poaching here. Poaching, there is no problem. But there is no problem because we keep avoiding it from happening, by working with the communities and having better poaching pathways. You cant say it is done and we leave, so we keep on. But of course gorillas means they need more space. The government has now pledged to expand the forest by 23 , adding almost 4,000 hectares to its current 16,000. The expansion of the park, it is about making the space biggerfor the gorillas, but its another way to bring the climate to where it needs to be. So, its good for rwanda, good for the planet. Yes, it will be for all of us. And whilst the numbers here are increasing, the conservationists here cannot become complacent. Between patrolling the park for any remaining poachers and monitoring the gorillas health, there is an army of people involved in protecting them. Noelly bosco is a gorilla doctor, and the jungle is his clinic. Today he has come to check on one of his patients. Hey, noelly im good. Welcome to the jungle. Thank you. Yeah. How do you know which one, exactly who is who . Each one of this group has a specific nose print. These guys have the gorilla card, you look at the nose print, and you think oh, it is this one. Then over time you get used to it. Talk to me about how important your work is to conservation. Well, very much important, gorilla doctors is credited for half the population growth. But everyone has contributed, including tourism. This increases 4 every year. In fact, tourists pay 1,500 to spend an hour up here with these great apes. Thats an expensive trek, but it is contributing to conservation. When you are preparing for maybe a medical action, you are so stressed, you dont know what is going to come out, you just come here stressed, have to be responsible for these guys, you have to be responsible for gorillas, you have too much new in a very short time. But then you come back the next morning, and you see the guy playing or picking some food, youre like, i made it. So thats why you like it. Now that the trackers have located the gorillas, the tours for travellers have began. So now i am tagging along with one of francis tourist groups. Squaking. Aggressive gorilla. High flyer gorilla. There he is chowing down on some leaves. You can just hear the little grunts in the distance, it is quite hard to tell if it is aggressive or playful grunts. How did you feel when the gorilla came out here and ran and jumped out at you . Scared just standing there, waiting to see what happens. Whispers hes up there in the tree somewhere. I think hes getting ready tojump down because hes heard how good this food was. Weve been planning this trip for 12 months, its been on our bucket list for quite some time. Its been amazing. What kind of feeling . A wonderfulfeeling. Its very rare, these beautiful majestic creatures have just completely taken my breath away and just being able to watch them eating, interacting, and even communicating with us in their natural habitat is one of the best experiences that ive ever had the pleasure of having on my travels. I highly recommend it. Still to come i have signed up to explore some alternative ways to experience this. the country of 1,000 hills. I take on these african champs. Oh, no im last and i head down to explore one of the deepest lakes in the world. Once a hotbed of violence during the conflict, but now i a go to destination for any traveller here. It looks like there is a party over there, a beach party my kind of place. So now that ive spent time with the awesome gorillas, im heading off the beaten track to see what else rwanda has to offer. The last two decades have seen a real turnaround in the countrys International Appeal and tourism is really on the rise. In fact, rwanda has set itself up as africas new big Luxury Travel destination. So its no surprise that tourism economy here is booming, its growing by 15 every year, making it one of the Fastest Growing tourism economies in the world. The government traditionally focused on attracting big spenders to stay in Luxury Lodges and spend a small fortune treking with gorillas. But it is opening up to cater for people with all kinds of budgets, and if you are an adrenaline junkie, you can have one hell of a ride here. If you dont mind, i can show you your bike. So, are you going to ride with us . I look forward to it. This is your bike, its an e bike. It has a battery, so if you need assistance, just press that. Press right here for assistance. Third and fourth. Ultimate power. Yeah so i think youre very excited. Im very excited. How could i not be excited . Look at this view he runs four new bike routes to the country, covering over 400 kilometres of track. What is the bonus of having these bikes to tourists . The e bikes, it doesnt matter how steep the hill is, anyone can go. Rwanda has so many beautiful views, wonderful places. Many hills. Supported by the world bank, the governments 2020 vision for the reconstruction of the country after the genocide has led to Huge Investment in rwandan infrastructure. Thats why these roads are a joy to ride. Whats it been like for you witnessing just how popular cyclings getting here. It makes my heart feel happy because im doing the cycling trips with the guests, people from all over. He tells me that over the last few years cycling has really taken off here. Perhaps inspired by these guys, the National Rwandan cycling team they are african champions. Hey, guys they have inspired the nation and International Cycling community with their Success Story and olympic performances. From struggling racers a few years ago, they are now one of africas most successful tea ms. I know im on an e bike but shall we race . Go laughter oh, my god oh, no im last yeah, i was never going to beat these champs. So where are we going now . Were going to visit some locals just to taste the real rwandan life. Oh, im going to get a true rwandan experience . Hello nice to meet you. Nice to meet you this is a cooperative made up of women whose husbands have abandoned them. To support themselves, they now sell traditional banana beer. And im going to help make some brew. Women are playing a pivotal role in rebuilding the country and economy, particularly since hundreds of thousands of men lost their lives during the genocide. Now rwanda has the highest number of women in parliament in the world 68 of lawmakers here are female. Do you enjoy sharing rwandan culture with tourists . We are just crushing them . Oh, my god, you have got to be strong. Singing that was amazing thank you, thank you very much collect it like so, pour it back over, it leaves the bits behind. Once weve distilled the juice, its time to grind the millets to allow for fermentation. A lot less strenuous than crushing the bananas. How is this, am i doing a good job . Yes. Its all right. I was relieved to hear they have plenty of banana beer already made for me to try. Delicious. I was not expecting this at all. I mean, just the level of hospitality theyve welcomed me, i genuinely feel like one of them. Theyve been nothing but kind. And to think weve gone from a pile of bananas and grass to this is just incredible. What an experience. Singing it was great to meet the locals benefiting from tourists who pass through and spend their time and money in these communities. Next on myjourney, lake kivu. This is one of the african great lakes, and sits on the border between rwanda and the democratic republic of the congo. I am here to explore the water by kayak. Are you all right handed . 0k . On this side you go forward. Seems easy enough. For years after the civil war, the shores of this lake were no go zones. This was one of the epicentres of the fighting in 1995. Now theres a huge push to develop this area. This is parts of the kivu belt tourism initiative. Beep, beep this is absolutely spectacular. Kayaking doesnt get any better than this. It certainly beats the last experience i had, a lake in the uk. Elwa is part of the new generation pursuing a career in travel and entrepreneurship. This is such a great example of tourism and innovation in rwanda. So its important then to show the world there is more to rwanda than just gorillas . Yes. What about the beautiful tea estates, what about the coffee . What about kayaking . You can stay over on an island overnight and its a beautiful experience. We have the Monkey Island that you can see something that is exciting, something that people love but they dont know. And how do the local people feel about it . Are they excited to welcome tourists into the area . As rwandans, its part of our culture. So they are excited to see it. We see the kids running around trying to grab you a kayak. Its been an incredibly wild and exciting day and i am certainly onboard for more this year. While the history of the genocide will never be forgotten, these travel experiences really shows a different side of rwanda. Everywhere you turn there is just something new on offer. This place really is amazing. The people here have been so eager to welcome me on my first ever trip to this country. Tourism is providing an excellent opportunity for rwandans to reshape their countrys image, and you can only hope the dark days are well and truly in the past. Hello there. Weve got a battle of the air masses taking place across the uk during this week. On monday, it was pretty mild, breezy for most, but today, it is brighter and sunny but colder. For many of us, that is away from the far south west which will remain quite wet and mild. That plume of cold air has been moving southwards overnight into tuesday it will be across most of the country away from the south west corner and where this weather front here will continue to bring outbreaks of rain. It is a cold, bright, icy start across much of scotland, Northern England through the morning. We will see wintry showers affecting North Eastern scotland, perhaps some north sea coasts being blown in on a cold wind. Wales, South West England stays rather dry, cloudy outbreaks of rain but mild here as you can see temperatures in double figures, much of northern ireland, scotland, for most of england and wales to the north east, it will be bright but much chillier as temperatures in the low single digits. As we head through tuesday night, a cold one across central and eastern areas, perhaps frost around, rain out west will continue to slowly work its way eastwards. It could be heavy in places, bumps in the cold air and likely to see some sleet and snow on its leading edge, but quite a contrast in temperatures to start wednesday from east to west. A bit of a complicated weather story going on across the middle part of the week, a real battle of the air masses, the wedge of milder air with outbreaks of rain will be slowly pushing east and bumping into the cold air to the east of the uk. A bit of a headache to where the sleet and snow will be falling. But it could be very wet across central and Western Areas with localised flooding in places as air, sleet and snow and particularly across the high ground of Central Eastern scotland and Eastern England as well and the far north staying dry again in a real temperature contrast from west to east. Through wednesday evening and overnight, we could see some disruption from the snow across central, eastern and northern scotland and Eastern England, but further west, itll be mainly heavy rain. We have to stay tuned to the forecast, still some uncertainty with it. As we move out of thursday and into friday, that weather front fizzles away as the pressure builds in, but we see a return to the blue colours, it will be turning colder. So that rain slowly fizzles out on thursday and also some wintriness in eastern areas, mild in the south and drier and brighter and cooler on friday. What are