More than 100 teachers in Gloucestershire were absent because of coronavirus on just one day before Christmas, new figures reveal.

Department for Education figures show 31 teachers and school leaders in Gloucestershire state schools were absent with either a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 on December 17.

There were also 90 forced to isolate.

This means 121 were off for Covid-19 related reasons on just one day – 2.7 per cent of all teachers in schools that remained open.

This was up from 2.4 per cent on the same day the week before, and 1.2 per cent on October 15, the first date the survey was conducted.

On December 17, 99.2% of schools that responded to the survey in Gloucestershire were open, after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson threatened one council with legal action to prevent it closing schools.

It is not known how many teachers in schools that had closed and moved to online-only lessons had coronavirus at the time, so the figures are likely to be under-estimates.

The DfE figures also show 145 (2.3 per cent) teaching assistants and other school staff in Gloucestershire were absent for coronavirus-related reasons on December 17.

Of them, 15 had either a suspected or confirmed case of the disease, and 130 were isolating.