Now TEN schools tell pupils to wear face masks for when they return in September in defiance of Government advice that they are unnecessary

Schools are flouting official guidance by requiring pupils to wear face masks when they return in September, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

While most head teachers are following Government advice that masks are unnecessary and could actually increase transmission of Covid-19 through misuse, at least ten schools have broken ranks to make the coverings either compulsory or ‘strongly encouraged’.

One comprehensive, Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, has even told parents the masks are now part of the school uniform and can be bought for £3 at a designated shop.

Its July newsletter said: ‘The wearing of face coverings will be compulsory for students and staff when inside the school buildings.’

Yesterday the school pledged to ‘review our position regularly’.

All seven schools in the Bohunt multi-academy trust in Hampshire, West Sussex and Berkshire will be ‘strongly encouraged’ to wear masks in classrooms and corridors.

Fallibroome Academy in Macclesfield said it ‘expected’ students to wear masks in corridors. And Brighton College, where boarders pay up to £51,000 a year, has told parents the ‘current expectation’ was that masks would be required when pupils move around the site.

Read More: Now TEN schools tell pupils to wear face masks for when they return in September in defiance of Government advice that they are unnecessary