School leaders have told the government that it needs to urgently provide answers on how schools will be expected to manage Covid from this September.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools need answers on the future of Covid testing and tracing pupils, on whether bubbles will be still be in place and on whether schools will still be asking people to self-isolate when the next academic year starts.

And as new figures showed that Covid-related absence has almost trebled in a week, he warned the Department for Education that it needed to think “urgently” about how to reduce educational disruption in 2021-22.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, has also called on the government to provide  “clear instructions” about what scenarios schools should be expected to plan for in September.

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Mr Barton said: “We simply cannot have another term of large numbers of children spending time out of school because of coronavirus.

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“Schools are doing their very best to provide high-quality remote education to pupils who are absent but this can never be a complete substitute for the interaction of in-class teaching.

“This is a crucial and pressing matter because it also has implications for the shape of next year’s public exams in GCSEs, A levels and other qualifications.

Mr Barton told Tes that the ASCL has been pushing the department for answers on what will be expected of schools from September.

He added: “We are pressing the government for an urgent response on the plans for schools and colleges in September in terms of Covid safety measures and how educational disruption will be minimised.

“There is an important decision to be made over whether public health experts consider it necessary to continue with the full battery of safety measures that are currently in place, or whether these can be removed or relaxed, and exactly what mitigations will be needed.

“Of particular importance is whether schools and colleges will still be expected to operate bubbles, trace contacts when there are positive cases and ask pupils and staff to self-isolate accordingly.

“There are significant timetabling implications in maintaining bubbles, and the process of contact tracing and self-isolation causes a great deal of educational disruption and is extremely time-consuming.

“For schools and colleges, September is effectively now in terms of the planning that they have to do and the communication that is required to students, staff and parents, so they really need to know what will be asked of them.”

“These questions also have implications for next year’s GCSEs, A levels and other qualifications because if education is still disrupted by periods of self-isolation for groups of students this will need to be reflected in the arrangements for public exams.

“It is important that this uncertainty does not slide into the summer holidays without any clarification and that the government doesn’t end up once again doing everything at the last moment and expect schools and colleges to pick up the pieces.”

Mr Whiteman said: “As the prime minister says, Covid will be with us for some time yet. With that in mind, it is imperative that the government also gives schools clear instructions about what scenarios they should expect to plan for in September.

“Schools are already thinking that far ahead, so the government needs to do the same.”

The DfE has been approached for comment.