More than half of schools were forced to shut their doors to some pupils during the latest round of teacher strikes, new figures show.
Tens of thousands of members of the National Education Union (NEU) took part in walkouts on April 27 and May 2 as part of an increasingly bitter dispute over pay and working conditions.
But Tory Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is refusing to re-open pay talks with unions, despite the massive disruption to children's education. Instead she has passed the dispute to the pay review body.
Official figures from more than 16,000 schools show just 48% were fully open on the April 27 date, with 47% restricting attendance and 5% completely shut.
London was hardest hit, with 12% of schools forced to shut, followed by the North West where heads closed their doors in 9% of schools.
On Tuesday, only 45% of schools in England were operating normally, 50% were open with restrictions on pupil numbers and 5% were closed.
Again, London saw 11% of schools shut and 8% were closed in the North West.
NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said: "The Government is consistently misreading the mood of the profession.
"The members of all four education unions rejected their offer in very high numbers - and the fact that even fewer school were able to fully open during our strikes shows that support is not falling."
He added: "None of this should be necessary and it is Gillian Keegan's refusal to negotiate on a resolution to the fully funded pay dispute that has strengthened teachers resolve.
"The Governments in Scotland and Wales have settled on teacher pay leaving only England in a position of non-negotiation or settlement.
"This will only be resolved when the Education Secretary faces up to the responsibilities of her role and re starts the talks with all the education unions. As yesterday’s strike shows teachers will not accept such poor treatment from their Government."
The NEU is expected to announce three more strike dates over the summer term and is poised to begin balloting its members again to renew its strike mandate.
School leaders from the ASCL and the NAHT unions, and the NASUWT teachers' union are all balloting for strikes.
All the major teaching unions have rejected the Government's pay offer and have vowed to coordinate walkouts in the autumn term if their members vote for strike action.
The Government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment this year, and a 4.3% pay rise for most staff from September, with starting salaries reaching £30,000.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We are extremely grateful to our head teachers for all their work to keep 95% of schools open today – minimising the disruption to children and their parents.
"Children’s education has always been our priority and they should be in classrooms where they belong.
“We have made a fair and reasonable teacher pay offer to the unions, which recognises teachers' hard work and commitment, as well as delivering the additional £2 billion in funding for schools which the sector asked for.”
