Approximately 15 per cent of all pupils on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance on 28 January - up from 14 per cent in the previous two weeks, Department for Education data shows.

Attendance on 28 January was 22 per cent in state-funded primary schools, 5 per cent in state-funded secondary schools and 33 per cent in state-funded special schools.

Attendance has increased in primary and special schools, where it was 21 per cent and 30 per cent respectively on both 13 and 21 January. Attendance in state-funded secondary schools remained the same.

Read: School attendance five times higher than in first lockdown

Covid: Attendance in secondary school dropped as low as 14 per cent in the final week of term

Attendance: ‘Hidden’ data shows ‘huge’ school attendance gap

Last month, headteachers warned that increased attendance was putting schools “under tremendous pressure” after figures revealed that primary and secondary attendance rates were five times greater than in the first lockdown.

Today’s attendance data also shows that around 38 per cent of teachers and school leaders, and 52 per cent of teaching assistants and other staff, were working on-site in open state-funded schools on 28 January. Both figures were up 1 percentage point on the previous week.