to think that it's a massive ask to ask schools to be ready for mass testing by the end of the first week of Jan

[chomalungma]

Mass testing is a good idea
Although the test used only detects about 1/2 of positive results - so a negative test doesn't mean it's negative.
It will need people to organise it To run it. To allow these people to administer it to children.
Oh - and it all needs to be ready during the first week of next term.

So teachers, forget your Christmas holiday. You may be knackered, you may need a break - but the Govt expects you to plan for remote learning, but keep some year groups in and other pupils in for school learning, and get your school ready, including recruiting people, to administer tests.

[quote redsky21]@FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue its daily testing for close contacts. Weekly testing for all other students.[/quote]
Not according to the govt guidance, it's weekly testing for staff, not students.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-asymptomatic-testing-in-schools-and-colleges/coronavirus-covid-19-asymptomatic-testing-in-schools-and-colleges

Space as well. So if they test group children they cant go back to their bubble class as might be positive and cant sit together until results. Where do they go.

Apologies, I must have misread.

Watched Nick Gibbs this morning - who could only say it was a good news story and was annoyed that he was being challenged on the logistics.

I feel sorry for all the school staff and the effect this will have on their Christmas break.

Place your bets now for remote learning lasting longer than a week...? And for the news about Week Two (of several) to be "leaked" - sorry, announced - on the Thursday night of Week One.

You can hear him at 1 hr 50

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000q8n1

Don't worry the DfE are allegedly handing out £1000 bonuses to their staff to get it sorted over the Christmas break.

So it hasn't been planned or properly thought out yet but don't panic as the Whitehall civil servants will get more money

Yes, the weekly testing is for staff. Which I am in total support of.

I’m SLT in a primary school and I really feel for secondary colleagues. I’ve also heard hints of the testing being rolled out to primary schools later in the term - that’s madness. It could only ever work if parents had to come in with the child and administer the test themselves.

It's a brutal interview on Radio 4

My daughter goes to one of the four schools where rapid testing has been trialled since September. The teaching staff do help with the tests and I think the army have assisted too.

I do completely agree that the way the mass roll out is being is implemented is a shit show and they should absolutely not be adding this to teachers' workloads on the last day of term, however, my daughter's school has found it really beneficial in keeping pupils in school and school open. It has meant that only people who have actually tested positive have had to self isolate (also, one yeargroup broke up a few days early for October half term because they were struggling to get a small outbreak fully eradicated)

Not sure if my post is helpful or not but just wanted you all to know that this has been trialled, although I'm not sure if the roll out will be exactly the same as our experience.

So teachers, forget your Christmas holiday. You may be knackered, you may need a break - but the Govt expects you to plan for remote learning, but keep some year groups in and other pupils in for school learning, and get your school ready, including recruiting people, to administer tests.

Nah, I've told SLT that I'm not checking my email until 4th January. Got as much done as I could today and now that's it, I've deleted my email app from my phone, had a class of wine and I'm in full Christmas mode. The government can shove it all up their arses. Happy Christmas all!

I do think it's a good idea.
I think it's being planned awfully.

But the proviso is that a negative test is not always a true negative.

@RMRM

It's absolutely ridiculous to expect schools to implement this with no notice and no extra money. It's not their job. The DfE is not fit for purpose. There are so many things wrong with this idea. Idiots. Feel so sorry for schools.

^ Emphatically this

@chomalungma

It's a brutal interview on Radio 4

yes - more mumbling and avoiding the question

The teacher and schools have my sympathy this has been a total disaster

The government have just lurched from one disastrous decision to another

Our school has been shut, twice, bit late for testing now

This is to cover for the stupid decision to allow people to meet over Christmas

We are heading for another lockdown

This could have been avoided

According to Gov.uk there are 3.41 million children in state secondary schools.

That is a very ambitious testing programme to implement in 1 working day.

Remember 3 months ago in Sept the DfE issued schools just 10 tests each! The only consistent thing from them is that they wait to communicate policy changes to schools at the very last minute.

Williamson has made a total dogs dinner of everything so far. What could possibly go wrong with mass testing with no notice with no-one to do it in Jan?

I realise that secondary children can administer the test themselves, but I can't imagine many will or do it correctly. Also, children under 16 would still need parental permission and perhaps a familiar adult supervising.
I'm all for testing to help minimise spread but this seems more to do with keeping schools open for childcare than safety or education. It's nigh on impossible to provide quality education when also losing teaching spaces and adults to testing areas and the disruption to lessons while the tests are happening. Far less the nightmare which is online learning! I may be wrong but I don't think the promised laptops have all been delivered to ensure this would be possible as there was 'a worldwide shortage' which delayed it all!
The endless last minute decisions and information is awful as well. Parents end up in a tizz asking for information ( understandable as it directly affects them) but they are informed at the same time the schools are so there's no way of giving reassure and calming the situation down. They then cause problems for the schools because so much time is needed to placate them. Both the secondaries my DC attend sent emails out asking for patience and to stop phoning/emailing unless it really was urgent as the admin teams were overwhelmed and weren't able to get on with their day-to-day jobs. And yes, there should be some sorting system but parents don't email/phone with a work view in mind but a customer service attitude ie everything is urgent because they want to know NOW and they're paying for it, so it should happen!

@FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue

"It's not mass testing of all students, it's only for those who are close contacts of someone who has tested positive."

It IS mass testing of the whole school in the first week.

Thereafter, it will be testing of any close contacts to positive cases.

If 3.41 million secondary school pupils get tested in the first week of term I will eat my hat!

Watched Nick Gibbs this morning - who could only say it was a good news story and was annoyed that he was being challenged on the logistics.

Knob.

They are strong on announcements but flaky as f* on delivery and giving adequate time to prepare.