Striking catering staff, caretakers, classroom assistants and library administrators have brought the school year to an early end for thousands of pupils.
Hundreds of schools across the country have closed as a result of the pay strike of council workers. Some local education authorities closed all their schools.
In Newcastle, all but three of the LEA's 102 primary and secondary schools were expected to close. In Manchester, 66 primary, 10 secondary and eight special schools were expected to be shut, while pupils at 28 schools in Birmingham were expecting an extra day off. Forty primaries and nine secondaries in Leeds were either closing or offering restricted services.
In Cardiff, at least 65 schools were due to close, while in Swansea the number is expected to reach 105.
Graham Lane, Labour education chairman of the Local Government Association, said the picture was " patchy" but a "substantial number" of schools were closed.
"In quite a few cases the schools are closing due to lack of backup staff - tomorrow could be affected as well if cleaners have not been able to make it into the school overnight. Special needs schools are likely to close because of lack of transport.
"But schools are winding down now for the holidays in secondary schools, the exam season is over and year 11 have finished, so the impact is less. But primaries rely more on ancillary staff so the impact could be greater." he said.
Eric Spear, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, played down the impact of the strike and said most schools would be able to cope.
"A lot of these services are privatised - such as cleaning and catering - so the impact will be less," he said.
