Ian Robinson, chief executive of the Oak Partnership Trust, a chain of four schools in the south west of England, told the Radio 4 Today programme that teachers needed more guidance from the government.

"I can't criticise the government at the moment but I do feel the message isn't clear enough for schools. We’re still playing catch up in school. We have within our trust a special school which has a large number of children with medical conditions and we have children on educational health care plans, also with medical conditions and they are also at increased risk [of] the coronavirus," he said.

He compared schools to petri dishes with children washing their hands then immediately holding hands with each other and then with adults.

Mr Robinson said that he had staff members who were pregnant and had underlying conditions - both categories of people who have been told to self isolate for 12 weeks - but who are still expected to come into school.

He said schools were trying to plan what to do for children whose parents were key workers and for children from poorer families.

"It’s a bit of a minefield - if we stay open for some who do we ask to stay in school? Do we put them at risk? They are still potentially going to bring the virus into school and then spread it out into the community."