Around 15,100 schools and colleges in England - 61 per cent of the total - have been open during the past two weeks of the coronavirus lockdown.

They were educating around 84,000 children, representing 0.9 per cent of pupils who normally attend, according to new Department for Education data.

They were taught or cared for by 59,000 teachers, with 43,000 non-teaching staff also in attendance.

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The DfE says the number of teachers going into schools continues to fall having been “around five times this figure at the start of the first week of partial closures” - at around 283,000. That means a drop of around 80 per cent.

Coronavirus school closures

This suggests that schools are “adapting to lower numbers of pupils and the latest advice on social distancing”, the DfE says.

The number of schools that are open has been stable during the past two weeks, but has fallen since the first week of partial closures when around 19,000 were open.

DfE analysis suggests pupil attendance has also fallen. On Monday 23 March it was more than 3 per cent, but dropped to 1.3 per cent on Monday 30 March and then 0.9 per cent on Monday 6 April.

Attendance during the following two weeks has remained stable at that level.

But because this two-week period of lower attendance corresponds with the Easter break in most parts of the country, the DfE says attendance may have increased yesterday.

In general, it says, attendance has been higher midweek.