SCHOOLS will want to mark the day of the Queen Mother's funeral and many will make special arrangements to enable pupils to watch the event on television, headteachers said today.

While it may prove inappropriate for three and four-year-olds who may not be able to understand fully what is going on and have difficulty concentrating throughout, schools will respond "imaginatively" to Downing Street's call for them to participate, said David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said schools would want to offer children the opportunity to watch if they could.

However, it could be a "bit of a logistical nightmare" for large comprehensives with 1,000 or more pupils to gather all of them around television sets once the funeral begins at 11.30am on Tuesday April 9, said Mr Hart. As well as watching the funeral on television, primaries and secondaries may hold special assemblies to commemorate her life, and build it into lessons, for example in history or general studies, he added.

The NAHT has a membership of around 30,000 heads and deputies, many of them working in primary schools.

Mr Hart said: "I would have thought that the vast majority of schools would want to respond positively to Number 10 Downing Street's wishes.

"It will vary enormously - there can be no one pattern. The age of children might make it difficult as you can't expect infants to concentrate for long periods of time.

"For very big schools, it could be a bit of a logistical nightmare to sort out.

"My guess, though is that individual schools will want to do something to mark the day of the funeral."

Lessons reflecting the Queen Mother's life and the contribution she made to the nation's life were likely to take place in many schools.