Commenting as the government publishes its school attendance data from the first week of December, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“This latest increase in Covid-related absences comes as no real surprise given the current situation nationally. However, our concern is that this data is already out of date and actually underestimates the scale of the issue schools are currently dealing with.

“Over the last few days we have heard from our members that there has been a significant jump in Covid cases in schools, amongst both staff and pupils, as the new variant has started to spread. Some have told us that this has been the hardest term of the whole pandemic.

“The situation is not being helped by schools sometimes receiving contradictory advice from central government and local public health teams. Now more than ever schools need clear and consistent advice from central and local government so that they can respond appropriately where there are cases in their communities.

“Everyone is concerned about how this will play out over the next few weeks and the implications for January. No-one wants to see the sort of disruption to education that we experienced last winter. However, we are already seeing signs that schools are coming under increasing pressure.

“The government needs to think very carefully about the mitigations it needs to take to keep schools open next term. Doing nothing is not a plausible or realistic option.

“It is essential that the government does everything in its power now to reduce the spread of Covid in schools. That should include reviewing mitigation measures that could be reintroduced whilst transmission rates are high.

“The government also needs to remove unnecessary burdens like inspection, pointless assessment exercises and other bureaucratic procedures that feed the Westminster machine but do little to support schools at this difficult time.”