Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Schools are simply following government guidance here. The government has once again asked secondary schools to effectively transform themselves into Covid testing centres ahead of the new school term. The reality is that there is very little in the way of meaningful support being provided for these schools and so most are having to re-deploy existing staff to oversee these complex arrangements at the start of term.

"This is a public health task, and we have repeatedly called on the government to do more to provide public health staff to implement on-site testing. The government’s guidance has always stated that schools can stagger the return of pupils across the first week to manage this. Staff in these schools will be working as hard and quickly as they can to ensure all pupils receive both tests the government says they should have prior to returning.”