Exclusive: DfE considering delay to start of next term

[herecomestheSon]

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-considering-delay-start-next-term?fbclid=IwAR1QLOa7VrpJz2QeOpMo90R45SfwOfIPsr9pI_SMYEoClaJwJuAjbGB9cB8

According to the Times Educational Supplement.

Yesterday the NEU teaching union urged the government to move teaching online for the first week of next term to give schools enough time to train staff in administering Covid-19 tests.

The Department for Education is expected to make an announcement about the potential later start tomorrow, according to sources close to the DfE.

I thought it would interest you lot.

Lunar

You’re also not meant to use a lateral flow test for 3 months after a positive covid test. How is that going to work out? Those kids all have to isolate? At the moment the party line is that you have to keep isolating every time you’re in contact whether you’ve had covid or not. Also presumably kids who’ve had it and been asymptomatic (and not known) could well test positive on lateral flow within 3 months without having covid. So there whole family would isolate for no reason??

Kids will do it

Dds school manages to test 360 kids in one day every four weeks as part of ons study fine

All kids test themselves

Be a struggle for teachers to administer tests while staying the constant 2m away. We're going to need some really long swabs and a good aim

Will not be sending DD back in first week. Single parent here. Cases in our area doubled over past week. "Slightly" vulnerable.

There is no way can administer tests. I am currently lucky to get 20 mins break per day. During this break I need to go to the toilet, boil the kettle to make a drink (staff room with hot water dispenser out of commission due to social distancing), grab a bite to eat and set up for afternoon lessons. I work at least 10 hour days and am on my knees by the end of the day.
I wipe down tables, serve lunch and supervise the children eating, then clean up again.
I am already doing far more than in my job description. I am willing to do my part and to work hard but this is going too far.

@Humbersausage

I’m sorry if this comes across as goody I am just so frustrated

@Humbersausage, I'm now retired. But when I was teaching I worked every sodding minute of the day. When would I be supposed to be administering these tests? While I'm teaching? While I'm gathering equipment and clearing up after a lesson or setting up my classroom or the technology for the next lesson during my breaks?

If a school full of kids need to be tested, it's going to take a long time. If teachers are to do it, lessons will have to be disbanded for some time.

The only way it's going to work is if the people testing do not have jobs at the school. Because believe it or not, everyone working in a school is already really busy with what they're paid to do. The school can't run if those jobs aren't done because those TAs/school meals staff/admin staff are testing children.

@Achristmaspudsskidu

Page 4 of you link says "Lateral flow antigen tests detect the presence or absence of coronavirus by applying a swab or saliva sample to the device’s absorbent pad"

My school is doing a lateral flow saliva test.

Could existing testing staff not be redeployed to schools what about offering additional hours to test and trace staff to do this

Many on this thread who just seem to yet again shying away from the challenge to really do something almost patriotic. In the sense that they would really be serving their communities by keeping our children an teenagers in school

This sounds just like the tripe trotted out pre-the shit hitting the fan in schools, that Covid would never kick off in schools, etc. But under another name.

Is that you, Ecosse?

Why will staff be administering tests when over 11s have to carry out the tests themselves with supervision?

Why is it that they always announce bullshit like this just before the holidays, so we have the whole holidays to stress over it, before almost inevitably backtracking in the new term when it becomes clear that the idea is unworkable.

Honestly, I would assume the majority of secondary age kids can do their own tests with supervision but what I don't get is when this testing of self isolating pupils will take place.

Surely it has to be before the normal school day, so that any positives are caught before the mix with the school community (ignoring the low accuracy rate)? So how are we going to get these kids, and only these kids in 30-40 minutes early and have staff available to observe and administer the testing? What happens when we get the inevitable positive and no-one is available to pick up?

I'm thinking particularly of rural schools where lots of kids arrive by school bus, although obviously these aren't the only schools that will have this issue. I have a suspicion that busses are great for spreading the virus too.

I think long term it will actually result in more kids off/closures as more teachers will get ill and have to stay off. Presumably if you are actually symptomatic, not just a close contact, then the normal rules apply?

@Lifeisgood1

Why will staff be administering tests when over 11s have to carry out the tests themselves with supervision?

I guess the question is what happens if the child can't/won't do it themselves?

@Lifeisgood1

Why will staff be administering tests when over 11s have to carry out the tests themselves with supervision?

The handbook specifies a minimum of 7 roles that need to be staffed.

Who is going to be doing them?

Yes, Sansa. That's almost the most daft part of this plan.

In some areas, a huge percentage of students come to school on school specific transport. They test positive and then can't get home. Utterly ridiculous (again, wouldn't be as bad if it were looking for asymptomatic positives as these students would unwittingly be in school anyway, but if it's instead of close contacts isolating, it's a totally stupid idea.)

There's a lot of drama on the thread. Here in Liverpool where a handful of military staff came into secondary schools and tested everyone in a couple of days and then again the following week, the pupils did the test on themselves, and simply handed over the swab for the soldiers to do the testing process and email/text the results. So there will be no manhandling of children by office staff etc.

There will be logistical and administrative considerations. I suspect all support staff will be doing the bulk of it, but then who will do their normal duties? Possibly they might decide to bring classes back to school one at a time after Christmas, so they can be tested by support staff first, while teachers carry on with online teaching.

Those tests have an almost 50% false negative rate when done by untrained staff. Not fit for purpose. And children will be getting the bus to school potentially contagious, the government needs to stop this obsession with kids in school no matter the cost.

@CurlyhairedAssassin Here in Liverpool where a handful of military staff came into secondary schools and tested everyone in a couple of days and then again the following week, the pupils did the test on themselves, and simply handed over the swab for the soldiers to do the testing process and email/text the results. So there will be no manhandling of children by office staff etc.
Maybe in your school that wasn’t the norm.

I think there is a lot of good will going on in many jobs at the moment and it is becoming unmanageable. I am a nurse, we are running our ward as per usual but with sicker patients, , more complex patients longer waiting lists ,we also have to test all staff weekly , submit data for staff off with Covid related absence, run screening stations daily for our patient admissions, Train staff to give Covid vaccines and then release them to vaccinate. No extra staff, plus more sickness absence, self isolating absence etc.
Teachers have similar issues, how can they teach and screen plus support with the extra psychological damage that Covid is causing?
It’s unsustainable.
We need a Covid army to take on some of the unprecedented roles.

As much as I think testing is needed, there's no way I'd expect DSs teacher to administer a test on him, or allow it to happen. He's 4, and the three tests I've done on him so far have resulted in me and DH having to forcibly restrain him. Completely traumatic for us all and not something I will be putting him through again unless absolutely necessary.

I really don't know what the answer is, but this is not it in my opinion.

Here in Liverpool where a handful of military staff came into secondary schools and tested everyone in a couple of days and then again the following week, the pupils did the test on themselves, and simply handed over the swab for the soldiers to do the testing process and email/text the results.

This would be fine. This is not what is happening. This is very far from what is happening. So far as to be irrelevant.

Covid-19: Lateral flow tests miss over half of cases, Liverpool pilot data shows, BMJ
www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4848?cf_chl_jschl_tk=43bb0641a653aa37dd28a1d5c44f3d709f1b619b-1608161301-0-AUZHryNpWI6vJAcFVJT-xnXEhCkNyJ8NJqG7Oeg7wfaKKQR9J9lJDt2kK3IimsypHTv-g0dFGcg-gd5dUFLedxzoPHpppzvF32w_fgi5CW4F9o7cnC2-InYG8QYopyNAt-y2zi39B0RfxP7aNtNpRlpNyiBsHhThCrAwwLK7T9GekMq5VO0xv9tm5PN9Rbe-1HT-Vm-Wf4z_gpFq9xw5FoOVKhiExXfzPHA13yM-ERCmUzwnIlka6qzc1T3QAmbeVuCo2hVFMSfPSniWjcJwzDkyHJOVZsv0_VfcMAaNSHdHJ-2IiTVrXnhX8E7M1cfPGRf6MIoT11UU32VQHH1XAC0

Maybe in your school that wasn’t the norm.

It was in all the local schools where the military came in. I don't know of any schools locally where the pupils had the test performed ON them.

I hope private schools will be able to carry on as normal.

@CurlyhairedAssassin well I could name three Liverpool schools where that was the case.

What are they, out of interest, Aldi? Were those schools were NHS staff went in and performed the test on the pupils?