Coronavirus is affecting 'one in five' schools

Nearly one in five state secondary schools were unable to fully open last week due to COVID-related reasons, new figures show.

Although the proportion of schools that were fully open dropped, pupil attendance increased slightly, according to the Department for Education's (DfE).

About 82% of state secondary schools were fully open on October 1 – down from 84% a week earlier.

Schools are considered to be not fully open if they are unable to provide face-toface teaching for all pupils for the whole school day and have asked a group of students to self-isolate.

Overall, about 92% of schools were fully open, down from 93% on September 24.

The cause of schools not being fully open was mostly "due to COVID -19 related reasons", according to the DfE.

Despite fewer schools being fully open, pupil attendance increased in secondary schools from approximately 84% to 86%.

The figures also show about 90% of pupils in all state schools were in attendance, up from 88% a week earlier.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "This is the second week of a downward trend in the number of fully open secondary schools, and means that since September 17 the number that are fully open has fallen by 10% from 92% to 82%.

"It reflects the extremely tough circumstances in which schools are operating due to the impact of covid.

"We remain concerned that schools lack the sup - port from the Government that they need in this challenging task."