Head teachers have been told to stop sending “whole school bubbles” home to self-isolate when just one pupil tests positive.
Downing Street issued the warning on Wednesday night as it came under mounting pressure from Tory backbenchers and former ministers about the hundreds of thousands of healthy children who are being forced to stay at home each time a classmate catches the virus.
This week, The Telegraph has launched a campaign calling on ministers to put children first as the country recovers from its repeated lockdowns, with action to bring an end to the disruption in schools.
On Tuesday it was revealed that a record 385,500 pupils are off school as a result of Covid – the vast majority of whom do not have the virus. This includes 10,500 children whose schools have closed completely.
And an analysis by this newspaper has found that at least three dozen schools around the country are currently closed due to Covid, with some telling parents that they have no plans to reopen until September.
On Wednesday, Downing Street suggested that schools should be more cautious about sending healthy children home to isolate for 10 days.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “There is guidance available to schools and that is something that is being picked up through the regional schools commissioner teams, which does set out that it is not a requirement necessarily that whole school bubbles need to isolate.”
