Commenting as the Department for Education makes 1,000 government-funded air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces and staff rooms in SEND and Alternative Provision settings, James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders' union NAHT, said:

“For many months NAHT has been calling for government to do more when it comes to improving ventilation in schools. We are pleased to see that some action is finally being taken, but it really is hard to fathom why it took so long, especially when other countries seem to have been doing this much earlier.

"If there is a limited supply of the devices, then it clearly makes sense to prioritise the most vulnerable, but this needs to be the start of a national programme where all schools that need them are provided with such devices. We simply cannot work on the basis that only those schools that can afford them are able to access them.”