SCHOOLS should not be “revolving doors, open one day and shut the next”, a parliamentary education leader stated today.

Amid calls from unions and teachers’ bodies for all primary schools to remain closed due to the risk of the spread of Covid-19, when the new term begins tomorrow, MP Robert Halfon conceded it was, “a difficult tight rope to walk.”

But the Conservative member for Harlow, who chairs Parliament’s Education Select Committee, pointed to medical experts’ views that children are at low risk of infection and that teachers are at no more risk than other professions of contracting the virus.

“I very much hope schools will remain open as far as is possible.

“They shouldn’t be revolving doors, open one day and shut the next.”

He said preventing children attending school and seeing their friends posed a risk to children’s mental health well-being, a view expressed by the Royal College pf Paediatrics and Child Health.

Speaking on BBC Radio, Mr Halfon said school closures also place huge pressure of parents, leaving them having to juggle child care with work commitments, often at very short notice.