The government has confirmed that bubbles and isolation will be scrapped in schools.
Following growing pressure to ditch the rules, which have seen thousands of pupils sent home to learn remotely - many on numerous occasions - Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed it will happen next month.
While it won't make any difference to the rest of this academic year, with children finishing in just a couple of weeks, it'll mean a big change for the new school year in September.
Close contacts of anyone testing positive for Covid will no longer need to isolate, preventing the need for schools to send whole classes or year groups home. They will instead be advised to take a PCR test.
READ MORE: Schools warn parents over other Covid symptoms "before the big three"
Speaking in the Commons today, Mr Williamson said that in line with the government's step 4, from August 16 children will only need to isolate if they test positive for Covid.
He said when schools and colleges return in September, they should provide two on-site tests, after which students should be encouraged to test from home.
This will carry on for the first month before being reviewed at the end of September.
The minister also said there will no longer be a need for schools to stagger the start and finish times for pupils and masks won't be required either in classrooms or communal areas.
Saying the rules were 'essential to control the spread of the virus' when the population was less vaccinated, he said: "We recognise the system of bubbles and isolation is causing disruption to many children's education."
Instead of schools managing cases, it will now be in the hands of the government's NHS Test and Trace system, which will work with education settings and local health teams to manage any outbreaks.
There was no mention of the roll-out of daily tests, something that's been trialled at a number of schools and colleges, including Westhoughton High in Bolton and St Mary's Catholic High School in Astley, Wigan.
The scheme gave close contacts of positive cases the option to remain in school instead of isolating, providing they consented to daily Covid tests for 10 days and it was thought the government may roll this out to all areas.
Despite that, the scrapping of bubbles and isolation is likely to be welcome news to many parents and education leaders who have been calling for the 'ridiculous' rules to end.
They say the constant bursting of bubbles is not only having a detrimental impact on children's education and mental well-being, but leaving parents struggling to meet their own work commitments as they need to take time off.
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Leaders in Oldham - where last week more than 6k (14%) of the borough's kids were at home - have already warned of the summer term being 'a write off', with council leader Arooj Shah requesting an urgent review of the rules.
However, not everyone will be happy about the decision to ditch its isolation guidance at a time when infection rates are still rising - with the Labour party among those raising concerns about the pace of the lifting.
We reported on Sunday how health experts are calling for schools to have mitigation measures in place to prevent transmission in classrooms.
They fear a 'do nothing' approach to build herd immunity will put too many youngsters at risk - and increase the chance of the virus mutating into a variant that will eventually evade the vaccine.
In yesterday's announcement about the lifting of all Covid restrictions from July 19, Boris Johnson suggested now is the best time to lift controls, with the school holidays and good weather offering a a 'natural firebreak'.
