Headteachers have responded cautiously to leaked plans to extend the school day and provide pupils with an additional 100 hours’ worth of schooling from 2022.

Under a £15 billion Covid catch-up plan drawn up by education recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins - leaked to The Times today - the school day would be extended by half an hour, and schools would be given £12 billion directly as part of a “recovery premium”, with the money targeted towards disadvantaged pupils.

However, as Tes revealed on Sunday, Downing Street and Department for Education hopes that the plan will happen are fading as the Treasury is so far only prepared to fund £1.5 billion - a tenth of the cost.  

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Today school leaders have said that without being fully funded by the Treasury, the plan is likely to “fall at the first hurdle”.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the “devil will be in the detail” over proposals to extend the school day.

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“It sounds as if there will be much to welcome in the education recovery plan - the scale of the ambition for all young people, the general sense of trusting leaders to know how best to deploy additional resources in their own contexts,” he said.

“But the devil will be in the detail of any extended day proposals: we know that quality of teaching is more important than quantity.

“It will be vital that these proposals are properly resourced and don’t become an unsustainable burden on schools, leaders and teachers. And there will be many questions about exactly what the expectation will be over the content of longer school days.

“There will be alarm bells, in particular, over the suggestion that Ofsted will play an expanded role in monitoring schools. It is hard to see how more inspections would be helpful for schools that are already under the cosh of an accountability system that is extremely harsh.

“However, what is most concerning is reports that the Treasury is thought to be offering only one-tenth of the money that is said to be needed for the recovery package.

“Frankly, if that is the case, then the plan is likely to fall at the first hurdle. It is hard to see how £1.5 billion spread over three years could possibly deliver the proposals that have been outlined.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “The government must be mindful of the trade-offs and unintended consequences of any recovery idea being proposed.

“The marginal gains that might be possible through extending the school day must be weighed against the costs of such a strategy, including the impact on pupils’ mental health, reduced family time and less time for extracurricular activities.

“The government could end up doing more harm than good by adding more classroom hours to children’s school day.

“The government must also realise that the success of any big ideas about recovery, including additional school hours, relies on equally ambitious funding from the Treasury.”