Boris Johnson is coming under renewed pressure from Tory MPs to end school bubbles when lockdown restrictions in England are lifted at the end of the month.
Former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is one of 48 MPs who signed a letter to the Prime Minister warning that current policies are “disproportionate” and “unsustainable”.
The call came after official data showed that 279,000 children in England are in quarantine due to possible contact with a Covid-19 case.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has indicated that school bubbles will be lifted when classes resume in September after the summer holidays.
However, the letter said it was critical that schools “return to normal operations” after the curfew is lifted – scheduled for July 19 – even if it was “only for the last few days of the school year.”
“This will be an important signal in the run-up to autumn that the road to freedom is a ‘one-way street’ and indeed ‘irreversible,'” the letter says.
It said students had suffered “unnecessary and significant disruption” to their schooling during the pandemic to ensure the safety of the rest of the country.
“They have lost physical fitness, suffered psychological damage and suffered catastrophic learning losses,” it said.
“Children need normality, security and certainty. If we are to hope to get the situation under control and build back better, we need to normalise children’s school life so that they can regain their health, wellbeing, education and future.”
Other signatories include former Cabinet Minister Esther McVey and House of Commons Education Committee Chairman Robert Halfon.
Molly Kingsley, co-founder of the UsforThem campaign which organised the letter, said she was “delighted” by the support of so many MPs.
“Children have been at the bottom of the decision-making process over the last 15 months,” she said.
“The children have had enough and now need normality, safety and certainty. They need to regain their health and well-being, their education and their future, and we owe it to them to put their interests first now.”
Elsewhere, an NHS source said isolation rules would also need to be reviewed for medical professionals.
They said the country was in an “intense period of change,” adding: “The (self-isolation) rules need to be reconsidered.”
“(We have) many doctors who say: ‘I’m double vaccinated, I’ve done a flow test, my result is negative, can I go back to work?'”
