A government-backed online school has seen a threefold increase in pupils using its online lessons in some areas of the country as Covid has disrupted education at the start of the new term.

Oak National Academy, which provides learning resources and online lessons for free, said its weekly user figures last week were 340,000 - the highest level since schools returned from the national lockdown in March 2021.

The virtual school expects the numbers to grow as schools try to keep children learning despite Covid-related absences.

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It said that, as well as pupils using Oak for remote learning while off ill or self-isolating, schools are also using it for cover lessons to ensure that pupils can carry on learning in school if their teacher is absent.

Oak National Academy has also announced that BT and its subsidiaries, EE and Plusnet, have now agreed to remove data charges for its content from the start of next week.

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Tes revealed last year that the online school was urging BT to restore a zero rating for its content, to ensure that pupils did not face charges for accessing remote education.

More than one in five Oak users are accessing the platform on a mobile phone, and are likely to be those from the lowest-income households.

Oak National Academy data shows that the highest increase in engagement was in Leicester and Luton, up threefold compared with last term, and in Lancashire and Cheshire, where it was up twofold. 

In London, where the Omicron variant first hit last year, the number of users has plateaued.

Matt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, said: “The best place for a child to learn is in school with their teachers and classmates, and schools are doing all in their power to ensure they can attend safely.

“The sharp increase in users of our online classroom shows learning moves smoothly online when pupils cannot be in class or their teachers are off.

“Pupils and parents are now used to this approach, and teachers are becoming highly skilled in the different methods of online learning.”

But one headteachers’ union has called the rise in demand for online lessons “ominous”, adding that the situation could “become worse”.

A poll by school leaders’ union the NAHT, carried out last week, found that 36 per cent of school leaders had more than 10 per cent of their total staff absent on the first day of term as a result of Covid-19.

Around 4 per cent of school leaders had to send some classes or groups home, according to the survey.

The Department for Education is set to release its pupil and staff attendance figures for the start of term later today.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is ominous if we are already seeing an increase in the number of teachers and pupils using online lessons, because it suggests that there are a lot of children having to remain at home and learn remotely at a very early stage in the term.

“While we will have to wait to see the government statistics on Tuesday to understand the scale of this, it does suggest that many children are absent with Covid-19 and that schools are then having to provide them with remote learning.

“This is extremely demanding at a time when many schools are also likely to be facing high levels of staff absence because of Covid-19, and unfortunately the situation may well become worse before it becomes better because of the very high levels of infection in the general population.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “With staff absences of more than 10 per cent for many schools, according to NAHT’s own data from the start of term, schools are doing a brilliant job to keep things going - but it is very far from business as usual.

“The rise in the use of Oak online lessons reflects that, with some schools turning to preprepared lessons that cover staff can easily deliver, in a format that students at home can also access.”

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said there is no doubt that staff absence levels will rise in schools, with pupils having now returned from the Christmas holiday, and warned that the next two weeks will be “bumpy”.

He told BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live show that staff absence levels were around 8.5 per cent last week, but “will increase, no doubt, because now schools are back we’re going to see an increase in infection rates”.

Mr Zahawi said he was making contingency plans for rising rates of staff absence, saying some schools have had up to 40 per cent of staff absent.

Last month, he called on former teachers to return to the classroom to help tackle staff shortages.

Teach First said more than 100 of its alumni who trained to become teachers through its programme but now work outside the profession had expressed an interest in a temporary return to the classroom.

But the total number of former teachers who have returned to teaching this month following the government’s campaign remains unclear.