Schools in England will stay open during the new four-week lockdown, the prime minister said tonight.

Boris Johnson told the country: “Our priority, my priority, remains keeping people in education.”

He added: “Our senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be.

“We cannot let this virus damage our children’s futures even more than it has already and I urge parents to continue taking their children to school.

“I am extremely grateful to teachers across the country for their dedication in enabling schools to remain open.”

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The decision will disappoint England’s largest teaching union, the NEU, which this afternoon called for schools to close for four weeks during lockdown to all but vulnerable children and those of key workers.

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The union has also said that schools should be moved to a rota at the end of the lockdown period.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “It is clear from Office of National Statistics data that schools are an engine for virus transmission. It would be self-defeating for the government to impose a national lockdown while ignoring the role of schools as a major contributor to the spread of the virus. 

“Such a lockdown would impose pain on the whole community - but not be as effective as it could be if schools were included. Ignoring the role of schools and colleges in the spread of the virus is likely to lead to the need for even longer lockdowns in future.” 

The union has previously called for rotas to be introduced into secondary schools in high-risk areas for Covid-19 and for schools to close as part of a two-week “circuit-breaker” lockdown.