Head teachers are urging ministers to produce consistent guidelines on facemasks after being censured for deciding that pupils must wear them.
The government says pupils and staff at secondary schools in lockdown areas should wear coverings, but has left it up to other head teachers to choose whether to introduce them or not.
A survey of schools by The Times has found some will insist all secondary pupils wear them in corridors and other communal areas, with one making them mandatory in the classroom.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the decision by head teachers on whether to make pupils wear face coverings would depend on factors including “the width of corridors”. “It will depend on the layout of the school and local factors,
