The children's commissioner for England has urged the UK Government to consider Wales' model for reopening schools, after plans for primary school children in England to return to classrooms before the end of summer have been abandoned.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning, children's commissioner Anne Longfield said the UK Government should look at Wales' plans, which include reopening schools for all pupils from June 29.
Under the Welsh Government's plans, all year groups in Waleswill be able to attend for limited periods each week, with only one-third of pupils in school at any one time.
Ms Longfield said: "First of all, when we look at Wales, they're running a very different model where actually children are coming into school for a third of the week before the summer, which I think is interesting and Government should look at.
"And the other is that children will still need to learn during this period and there will need to be mitigation to compensate for the fact they're not in school through online learning but also potentially catch up and summer camps to help them emotionally."
England's Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted on Monday at a Downing Street briefing that secondary schools in England may not fully reopen until September "at the earliest".
Ms Longfield said the possibility of a delayed return is "deeply worrying".
"We've seen the great things that can be achieved when everyone puts their mind to it - you know the job scheme, the business continuity scheme, the Nightingale hospitals," she said.
"It's of this scale of challenge, and it's this level of determination that I think Government now really needs to focus on."
She expressed concern for a huge variation in learning between students, as some children are left feeling "isolated" and many are living in "fragile" family environments.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was not surprised the plan to bring back all primary pupils before the summer holidays had been dropped.
He said: "The 'ambition' to bring back all primary year groups for a month before the end of the summer term was a case of the Government over-promising something that wasn't deliverable.
"It isn't possible to do that while maintaining small class sizes and social bubbles, so we aren't surprised that the policy has been jettisoned."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to speak with his Cabinet on Tuesday morning before education secretary Gavin Williamson delivers a statement to Parliament on the wider reopening of schools.
It is expected that schools in England will now be given flexibility by the UK Government over whether or not to admit more pupils.
