Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “We want to see the minimum amount of disruption to education for children and young people this year. They have already missed out on so much, so keeping schools open is the priority. These figures show how hard schools are working to maintain provision for as many pupils as possible, but the support from the government is not good.

“The safety of both staff and pupils must be paramount. Given that there are still risks, schools will continue to need to spend money on safety measures and cleaning for many months yet. We are seeing across the country that more staff are out of school either through illness of isolation. This requires a hefty spend on supply staff in order to keep classes and bubbles open.

“At present there is no additional money from the government to cover any of these costs. More than 15,000 people have now signed our petition to put pressure on the government to fund schools covid costs in full. This could be the difference between maintaining these present high levels of attendance and yet more disruption for pupils.”

Press and Media contacts:

Steven George
NAHT Head of Press and Media
01444 472886
07970 907730

Rose Tremlett 
Senior Press Officer 
07545 354363

Email : press.office@naht.org.uk