A lack of access to quick local Covid-19 testing will “undermine” efforts to keep schools open, a head teacher is warning.

Passmores Academy principal Vic Goddard said parents of pupils at his school were currently facing an “impossible” round trip of up to 100 miles to access testing sites.

His comments come in the first week that many schools are reopening fully after the summer holidays, and as education secretary Gavin Williamson claimed today that all staff and pupils who needed it would have access to tests.

But Mr Goddard warned that the 10 home testing kits provided by the Department for Education for each school were nowhere near enough, and would take at least two days to produce a result.

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At the same time, he said, parents are currently unable to get a local test.

He said: “This is a real problem. We will be coming into cold and flu season. I have parents calling now to say they think their child just has a cold but they are not sure and they want to do things right.

“But they can’t get a test locally. I had a look on the government website today and the nearest ones to us are now Bedford, well that is 50 miles away or Gatwick, which is a bit closer, it’s 35 miles but it’s the other side of London so you have got the M25 to contend with or most of London to get through. For some parents, this is impossible.

“They are either going to err on the side of caution and keep their children at home, and we would encourage them to do that, but it could also mean pupils come in who have the virus because they think they have not got it and they can’t get a test.”

He added: “The government has been banging the drum for us to get all pupils back into schools and we have done it but they are not giving us the tools we need to stay open.

“Having no access to quick local testing will undermine the effort to keep schools open and undermine the effort to fire up the economy too because parents will have to stay off.” 

On home testing kits, he said: “I have 10 for a school of more than 1,000 pupils and 300 staff. That might last me a week. And, on the kits, it says that results will take two days, so that is pupils and their parents off during that time.”

There have been calls to ensure that schools have access to rapid testing to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has backed a suggestion from epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson for “rapid testing” to be introduced in schools, using a similar model to that used in Germany.

Mr Hunt - now Commons Health Select Committee chairman - speaking to the BBC about Professor Ferguson’s suggestion, said: “I think he is right, and the reason he is right is because we know something now we didn’t know back in January, which is that about 70 per cent of the people who transmit coronavirus don’t have any symptoms at all.”

During the summer, Tes revealed that a report published by the government had warned that schools and parents will need access to widespread and rapid coronavirus testing during the winter to ensure that teachers and children with seasonal flu are not mistaken for having Covid-19. 

The report was produced by the Data Evaluation and Learning for Viral Epidemics (DELVE) group, which advises government scientists.

In a message thanking schools for reopening this term, Mr Williamson said today: “I want to reassure you again that all your staff and pupils have access to testing if one of them should develop Covid-19 symptoms.

“We have provided a small supply of home test kits if anyone develops symptoms while at school or college and who may otherwise be unable to access a test.”