The ‘School Covid tester’ recruitment drive has begun...

[Whattimeisdinner]

What could possibly go wrong?
AIBU to think ‘a lot’?

www.google.co.uk/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#fpstate=tlexp&htiq=school%20covid%20testing%20jobs%20uk

Has anyone seen guidance on if parents do not consent to their child being tested?

@batmanandbobbin If a student is a contact and they won't/don't test for whatever reason, they have to self isolate.

And of course - the test is only about 50% sensitive.

So that means that out of about 100 positive people, only 50 of them will be detected.

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4744

The lateral flow devices used in the community testing pilot in Liverpool only picked up half the covid-19 cases detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and missed three out of 10 cases with higher viral loads, according to the government’s own policy paper.1

Because they are designed to be used on people who are suspected of having Covid-19 instead of being used as general testing.

@Fieldofyellowflowers

Actually most secondary schools hire midday supervisors. Teachers are entitled to a lunch hour.

teachers are entitled to a lunch hour is a good joke!

Thank you! @Houseplantmad I didn’t know if any guidance was trying to ‘force it’ to become mandatory with a threat of home learning only for those whose parents do not consent.

So the kids, who are already doing short hours at school due to staggered starts are now going to miss half an hour a day of school due to testing?

The purpose of this is to identify and isolate cases immediately

The purpose is to attempt to improve attendance. I don’t think it will work.

support staff who won't be doing extra hours, they are just being re-directed. Not ideal as their roles are important, but so is this.

If I was the parent of a child with SEN, I would be pissed off as it’ll be your child’s support that will be missing for this to take place.

I am happy for mass testing. I don’t think it’s ideal to take place in schools but if it has to, there are countless ways it can be done that would be better than this and announcing it in the last day of term ready to be running by 4th January is just incompetent.

The fact that this plan is based around replacing self isolation of positive contacts/siblings, with daily testing, is frankly dangerous to other pupils, their families, staff and the community.

If you don’t put in place means to mitigate risk in school, you have to isolate contacts when you find them. You can’t just replace isolation with inaccurate testing.

We need jobs locally so I'm pleased this opportunity is coming up. 6 hours/day. Great.

The fact that this plan is based around replacing self isolation of positive contacts/siblings, with daily testing, is frankly dangerous to other pupils, their families, staff and the community.

If you don’t put in place means to mitigate risk in school, you have to isolate contacts when you find them. You can’t just replace isolation with inaccurate testing.

//\

I 100% agree with this.

@Fieldofyellowflowers

Actually most secondary schools hire midday supervisors. Teachers are entitled to a lunch hour.

Blimey. I've worked in 3 high schools now over 15 years and that has never happened. I'm head of year 10 and do lunch duty in my area every day, I rarely have a lunch break. It's just part of the job. I'll do whatever has to be done on our return in January.

@Fieldofyellowflowers

Actually most secondary schools hire midday supervisors. Teachers are entitled to a lunch hour.

No, they really don’t.

Well, all the “schools must remain open at any cost/no social distancing/no masks” brigade should volunteer to help with this mass testing...it’s easy to spout such bollocks from the safety of your own home.
Put your money where your mouth is or stfu!!

@Plsv87

There's really nothing to panic about.

No DBS because they will be supervised at all times - this isn't new, has always been the rule. Otherwise parents evenings etc could never happen.

Supervision from SLT and support staff who won't be doing extra hours, they are just being re-directed. Not ideal as their roles are important, but so is this.

People being recruited are largely from the families of the staff and children we teach - people who have lost their jobs this year, uni students who aren't going back until late Jan or Feb.

The only time it will take away from teaching staff is the time it takes to test them twice a week. Totalling around 10 mins in theory.

The purpose of this is to identify and isolate cases immediately so the rest can get on with getting an education. We could pick holes without offering a solution, sure - or how about we get behind it and see if it has the desired effect?

Misinformation and speculation galore there Plsv

@Frazzled2207

I’ll be volunteering if needed. Anything that helps keeps the kids in school. I have a DBS and lots of experience working with kids which hopefully helps. I don’t disagree with the principle but expecting schools to sort this out themselves is extraordinary

Get your application in...

@Achristmaspudsskidu

I worked as a midday supervisor in plenty of secondary schools when I was working for a teaching assistant agency. No teachers were giving up their lunch breaks in any of them, believe me. It was all hired midday supervisors who came in for an hour or two and then left.

The same goes for the secondary school I went to as a kid. You never saw hide nor hair of the teachers between 1-2pm.

@subeccoo @Achristmaspudsskidu

What area are you two in? Because lunchtimes are fully run by midday supervisors in both Northern counties that I have worked in.

The school that I am in now, the teachers don't want to know about anything that happens during the lunch break unless there is a fire or a kid might actually be dying.

@2020out

That's what the schools where I have worked as a midday supervisor have always told me whenever I've needed them for something.

Our lunch ‘break’ for students is 35 min a day.

We have no extra lunch time supervisors other than those doing to food cooking and serving.

If we do a lunchtime ‘duty’ we get a free lunch for that day.

SLT have no lunch ‘break’ what so ever.

We are also on a rota to do 2 break ‘duties’ a week, these are not paid and not negotiable-
Oh actually here’s a yearly fight of who supervises where as no one wants to be by the bike shed!

@Malbecfan

I've worked at many secondary schools while working for a teaching assistant agency. They all had midday supervisor staff who came in for an hour or two over lunch time, supervised the kids during the lunch break and then left at the end of it while the teachers hung out in the staff room. Maybe depends what area the school is in.

I worked as a midday supervisor in plenty of secondary schools when I was working for a teaching assistant agency. No teachers were giving up their lunch breaks in any of them, believe me. It was all hired midday supervisors who came in for an hour or two and then left.

Mid-day supervisors are becoming rarer in primary schools, I thought they were pretty much extinct in secondaries. I really don't think the majority of secondary schools have mid-day staff to supervise the children at dinner. It might be your experience, but in my area it's the teachers / support staff who take on this role.

I don't understand what the problem is, teachers have been crying out for schools to be noticed and acknowledged as a place where Covid is spreading and now they are testing that's wrong. Serious question and I'm not trying to provoke anyone, what do teachers actually want?

[quote Fieldofyellowflowers]@Achristmaspudsskidu

I worked as a midday supervisor in plenty of secondary schools when I was working for a teaching assistant agency. No teachers were giving up their lunch breaks in any of them, believe me. It was all hired midday supervisors who came in for an hour or two and then left.

The same goes for the secondary school I went to as a kid. You never saw hide nor hair of the teachers between 1-2pm.[/quote]
When was this please and which area/s?

All the schools I work with in the West Midlands rely on staff to do 'duty' of a lunchtime. No luxury of buying in staff.

@AaronPurr

Must be the area. They are certainly not rare in the counties I've worked in

@middleager.

It's currently ongoing. I am a midday supervisor in cumbria and have been a midday supervisor in various schools throughout north yorkshire/Durham as well.

I was considering volunteering so I'm pleased there's money involved!

I think mass testing is the future and we will have to get used to it for some time to come but I totally understand the concerns of teachers that this is being sprung on them at the last minute with not enough consultation and planning and funding. Obviously things have to move quickly but this should have been planned out months ago and properly funded.