School attendance has plunged due to coronavirus as more than a fifth of secondary pupils are now stuck at home. Grim new figures show 22% of all state secondary pupils in England missed classes on November 19 - up from 17% in a week.
And almost three-quarters of secondary schools have at least one pupil self-isolating due to a suspected coronavirus case in the school.
The number of secondaries with at least one Covid-19 case is now 73% - up from 64% in just a week. The figures are less dramatic for primary schools, where attendance was 87%, while 29% of primaries have at least one case.
The Department for Education admitted there was a “steady increase” since half term in the number of schools with cases. The data is collected as schools