Parents agreed with the opinion of one Yate dad who took to social media to blast the decision to close schools, after opening them for one day, saying it was ‘cruel’ to allow children to return - with an imminent lockdown in place.

Dad-of-three and St Nicks U7s football coach Ben Hopson expressed his anguish at seeing his children’ s upset at being told they were once again to stay at home.

On Facebook Ben said: “Our children keep being given snippets of their lives, only to have them snatched away again.

"Having to home school is borderline impossible and no fun for anyone, they are losing out on interaction with friends and are almost growing up in a world where being with people is deemed wrong or unsafe.

“What must it be doing to the minds of these young children?

“Surely, we are going to have more struggling mentally than with the virus itself.

"Why does it all have to be so irrational? Schools open today then closed tomorrow? Schools have been closed two weeks, why open for one day?

"The decision should have been made much earlier, it doesn’t need to be this messy.”

Prime minister Boris Johnson said during his televised address on Monday night: “Parents whose children were in school today may ask why we did not take this decision sooner. The answer is simply that we have been doing everything to keep schools open, because we know how important education is to children’s life chances.

"The problem is that schools may act as vectors for transmission.”