Schools could be asked to re-introduce daily Covid testing this autumn, in a bid to reduce the number of pupils being asked to self-isolate, the BBC reports.
Figures show that 172,000 children in England were self-isolating this month, having potentially been in contact with a positive case in school.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has pledged to address the issue after parents and teachers expressed frustration at the disruption caused by rising school-related self isolation periods.
The Department for Education has written to secondary schools asking them, provisionally, to prepare for a change after the summer break.
Automatic self-isolation rules could also be watered down or scrapped.
England’s Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said there was an urgent need for children to get back to normal as lockdown restrictions had been a “real trauma” for many young people.
Grouping pupils into bubbles should end as soon as possible, she told the Daily Telegraph.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL said that it was “completely unacceptable” for the DFE to tell schools and colleges that they may have to set up “something akin to field hospitals at the start of term” in order for in-school testing to take place.