London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Covid bubbles to be axed in England's schools

Covid bubbles to be axed in England's schools

Covid rules that have seen hundreds of thousands of pupils miss out on learning due to self-isolation are being axed in England, it is confirmed.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the system of sending "bubbles" of children home after a positive case would cease at the end of summer term.

The bubble system had been necessary to limit virus spread but was now causing disruption to pupils' lives, he said.

Teaching unions warned against easing rules as cases are still rising.

The changes to schools guidance will take effect at the same time as the country eases restrictions and moves to stage four. This is expected to be on 19 July - with confirmation of this due next Monday.

However, some schools break up a few days before that.

'Disruption'


The need for face masks, social distancing measures and staggered start and finish times in schools will be scrapped from September, Mr Williamson said.

The Covid testing regime for pupils will be transferred to the NHS track and trace system, Mr Williamson said.

Instead, secondary schools will be asked to offer pupils two Covid tests at the beginning of the autumn term, as a one-off event.

The changes were announced as the latest official statistics for England show the number of pupils out and self-isolating due to Covid hit a record high of 641,000 pupils.

Only 28,000 of these had a confirmed case of Covid-19.

The "bubble" system in England's schools is to be scrapped

Mr Williamson told the Commons: "Keeping children in consistent groups was essential to control the spread of the virus when our population was less vaccinated.

"We recognise that the system of bubbles and isolation is causing disruption to many children's education.

"That is why we'll be ending bubbles and transferring contact tracing to the NHS Test and Trace system for early years settings, schools and colleges."

Department for Education figures show that in the autumn term (2020), some 33 million days of school were missed by pupils observing Covid isolation rules.

Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that from 16 August under 18s would not have to isolate unless they themselves had tested positive for Covid.

This will prevent large numbers of youngsters having to stay at home because they have been in contact with someone who has the virus.

Sacrifices'


Mr Williamson said: "I do not think it is acceptable that children should face greater restrictions over and above those of wider society, especially since they have given up so much to keep older generations safe during this pandemic."

He said: "Where there are outbreaks schools and colleges may be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and they will also work with local health teams as they currently do now.

"We're also setting out new rules that mean from the 16 August children will only need to isolate if they have tested positive for Covid-19."

A pupil's view
Alice has been sent home to isolate three times this year

Alice is a student at Westhoughton High School in Bolton, one of the areas of the country most significantly impacted by Covid.

She has had to self-isolate three times this school year and says it has been very difficult to study at home.

"I'm really lucky because my mum's a teacher so she's been able to help me on some things, but I've been struggling on how to do the difficult work in isolation," says Alice.

"It was hard because you're not face-to-face with a teacher - when you're in class teachers can read your facial expressions and tell when you're struggling and they can come and work individually with you.

"But when you're at home you're kind of struggling on your own."

Alice has also struggled not seeing her friends.

She says being in school is always the best option and makes her feel more confident about her GCSE study. "I'm not worrying as much," she says.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of National Association of Schoolmasters and Women Teachers, said it was unclear how the changes would prevent disruption from happening.

"Removing the requirement for pupils to self-isolate when they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive may well accelerate the spread of the virus in schools and cause even higher levels of disruption for pupils and teachers. "

Geoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said this significant relaxation of measures would be greeted with some trepidation after the past 15 months.

But he added that it simply would not be fair to continue with the current controls which have "blighted the lives of children and young people", when the adult population was largely vaccinated.

The education secretary also said there would be no restrictions on in-person teaching and learning in universities as national restrictions are lifted.

Analysis:

By Sean Coughlan, BBC News education correspondent

The latest huge increase in pupils being sent home shows the chaos threatening the end of term in England's schools.

Scrapping the bubble system and changing the rules about isolation is intended to reduce the disruption - because as this week's figures show, 96% of those at home because of Covid do not have Covid.

This is now about "managing Covid" next term rather than expecting it to disappear.

There is also another troubling issue revealed by these attendance figures. While more than 641,000 are off school for Covid-related issues there are almost as many again who are absent for other, mostly unexplained, reasons.

The non-Covid absence numbers are way higher than would usually be off sick - and it raises questions about whether families are keeping pupils off school or large numbers of children have effectively stopped attending.

The reasons, like the risks, are unknown but worrying. But it means more than 1.2 million children are missing from school.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
×