Most secondary school pupils in the Netherlands will attend physical lessons just one day a week when high schools reopen on June 2, according to research.

The secondary schools council VO Raad polled 400 head teachers and found a wide variation in plans.

Some schools are only admitting pupils for meetings or tests, while a handful of schools are only allowing children from certain classes back. Most are opting for a mixture of meetings and lessons in school and online lessons at home.

Over the past few weeks, only pupils who need to take exams and those from vulnerable backgrounds had actual physical teaching.

‘It is a major challenge to reopen schools with the proviso that both pupils and teachers keep 1.5 metres distance from each other,’ said VO Raad chairman Paul Rosenmöller.

‘It is asking a lot of teachers and support staff, but our survey shows that the agreements which have been made about reopening might be tricky, but can be put into practice.’