One in 27 secondary pupils and one in 39 primary pupils had coronavirus on Christmas Day, new statistics show.

The data, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today, shows that 3.77 per cent of pupils in Years 7 to 11 and 2.54 per cent of children aged 2 to school Year 6 had Covid-19 on 25 December.

The modelled daily rates of the percentage of school-aged children testing positive for Covid-19 peaked over the festive period, the statistics show.

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Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “The government can’t seem to decide whether schools are safe or unsafe. Let this data end their confusion.

“Schools are clearly driving infection among children, and then on to the wider community.

“This peaked on Christmas Day, with one in every 27 secondary-age children and one in 40 primary-age children infected. This is truly shocking and entirely the result of government negligence.”