The head of National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Damien McNulty, has revealed just five per cent of pupils at one school agreed to to take a lateral flow test at the start of term and wear a mask.

“Sadly, we have had reports in the last 24 hours of at least six secondary schools in the north-west of England where children, in huge numbers, are refusing to take lateral flow tests or to wear masks.”

McNulty said as the Government’s own study does not justify the mask policy starting this term.

Using masks in schools to reduce spread of Covid is “not conclusive”

Studies suggest clear evidence that not all schoolchildren want to wear masks, other scientists have said that the broader evidence on the use of masks in schools remained strong.

However, the documents show the government’s own research failed to find they had a significant effect in lowering transmission.

The study compared 123 UK schools that had a mask mandate in place with almost 1,200 schools that did not during the Delta wave.

In both groups at the start of October the absence rate was 5.3 per cent. By the third week of October this had fallen to 3.6 per cent in those not using masks. In schools that did use masks, it was 3 per cent.

This concern comes as a study which was used to justify the implementation of mandatory masks in schools has implied they have only a marginal benefit, according to documents form the Department of Education.

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