Summer holidays could be changed or school days made longer to help pupils catch up on time lost to the pandemic, ministers have suggested.

The Department for Education are thought to be considering multiple proposals to help children recover, including after-school classes run by volunteers and charities so teachers don’t have to stay late.

It comes as the Government prepares to reveal its plans to ease the national lockdown later this month, with classrooms expected to fully re-open from the week of March 8.

Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon told the Sun: ‘We should extend the school day but not necessarily ask teachers to do it.

‘It could be funded by the catch-up programme and use civil society groups to provide sports or other support.

‘It would hugely improve the mental health of children — they’ve been locked up so long.’

The Tory MP also backs drafting in educational professionals to help pupils make up for lost time.

Changing summer holidays to allow more time for learning is also being considered by ministers, but it is thought this is less likely to happen.

The Department for Education did not comment on the proposals but a Government spokesperson said: ‘We will invest a further £300million in tutoring programmes, building on the existing £1billion Covid Catch-Up Fund, but the Prime Minister has been clear that extended schools closures have had a huge impact on pupils’ education, which will take more than a year to make up.

‘The Government will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their lost education over the course of this parliament – and we have just appointed Sir Kevan Collins to the role of Education Recovery Commissioner, to specifically oversee this issue.’

The reported proposals come amid ongoing concerns over the impact of the pandemic on children’s education and welfare.

Children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield told BBC Breakfast: ‘What we all realise now is the impact on children of not being in school, both educationally and in terms of their wellbeing, is absolutely immense, and one that we hadn’t really anticipated in the first instance – but now, a year on, is very clear to see.

‘The pressure now on getting that catch-up in place, getting children to the point where they can start to get their confidence back and rebuild, really needs to start in huge earnest.

‘Which is why I’m really pushing for not only a kind of one-year catch-up, but something that will go over the next two to three years to try to get children, as many as possible, not only back to where they should have been, but also ahead.’

The devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland have both announced that some primary schools year groups will return by February 22.

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