Govt plan to one-off test all secondary kids on return to school, too late to Christmas safer

[noelgiraffe]

The DfE have just woken up and realised that schools might be in even deeper shit come January than they are even now, due to Boris's Insane Christmas Covid Bonanza.

So they are going to offer a round of tests to all secondary and college students and staff on return to school in January to try to mitigate the effects.

It will be optional and consent will be required. This will be two lateral flow tests 3 days apart and is separate to the daily testing for close contacts.

This is good news, but it's a shame they didn't think of this before Christmas and allow secondary kids and staff to be able to visit elderly relatives more safely and minimise the Covid Bonanza in the first place. Reactive rather than proactive as ever.

www.gov.uk/government/news/staggered-rollout-of-coronavirus-testing-for-secondary-schools-and-colleges

@LunchWithAGruffalo thank you!

"They just can't keep on putting ever more demands on teachers - it's not as if they're paying them any more"

True they are freezing pay which in real terms is a pay cut!

Susan Acland-Hood said to parliamentary select committee this morning that 'other people have done it ' (by which she meant uni staff and careworkers. The chair of the committee's eyeroll was an exceptional thing to see. She pointed out that teachers would be kind of busy elsewhere.... ummmm... teaching . She also took extreme exception to the DfE's beyond last minute notice on everything.

I would very much like to hear of a teaching member of staff at a university who squeezed in mass lateral testing in between (or maybe even during!) lectures. I know some were asked. I imagine most did not accept the generous offer.

This also spectacularly ignores the point that students could roll along whenever they had a moment, which will and cannot be how it works in schools.

Can Yr 9 and up not:
a) Consent for themselves anyway (Gillick competence) and
b) Self swab (mine aged 13&16 both have).

I woild suggest it happens in form time on for eg: Monday and Thursdays.

At what point is the expectation on teachers too much.
Teaching face to face, also teaching online for those at home whilst looking after keyworker / vulnerable students and then learning how to test and actually testing students on the first week back. How is this actually physically possible

@hopefulhalf

I woild suggest it happens in form time on for eg: Monday and Thursdays.

20 minutes of form time to test a year group of 240? Are you sure?

I've had email from school asking for parent volunteers for the covid testing. The application form asks if have any medical experience eg St John's ambulance etc.

They test themselves at the begining I did it this morning it takes about 30s, then do the form time (your school has form groups of 240 ?). Read the tests at the end. Honestly most NT 13yo s could do this.

My understanding (from someone who has read the guidance) is that it states testing can be done at a rate of about 11 per hour per station / booth.

So a class of 33 would take 3 hours (or take up 3 stations for an hour)

A year group of 220 would take 20 hours at 1 booth, or 1 hour at 20 booths.

The logistics aren't pretty.

@hopefulhalf

They test themselves at the begining I did it this morning it takes about 30s, then do the form time (your school has form groups of 240 ?). Read the tests at the end. Honestly most NT 13yo s could do this.

You’re suggesting this happen in the classroom?!

Well, that’s just bonkers. Would the teacher go round with a bag for them all to pop their swabs into?

You know that the school has to set up an on-site covid testing lab with bays and cleaners and processors and a non-porous floor, right?

Year groups at my school are 400.

What do you think happens to the swabs in the hospital noble ? They go in a bin, a clinical waste bin why on earth couldn't the kids put the swabs in the bin ?

Year groups but not form groups surely ? Classes are 30ish aren't they ?

Did you read the bit about the non porous floor and the testing stations?

Well if you can't allow the DCs to do it and you can't do it in the classroom (don't really see why not). Then obviously it's going to be more difficult. We are talking about basically sticking a glorified cotton bud up your nose here- why all the angst ?

The table on p8 of schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Schools_Colleges_Testing-Handbook_version-3.3-Copy.pdf is instructive.

100 people - 3 hours of 3 testing bays, requiring a workforce of 9.

This means that for a year group of 300, currently sent home to isolate, 9 hours per day would be spent testing for daily tests if 9 staff are available. 3 hours if 27 staff were available....

Non porous floor means lino right ?

What do you think happens to the swabs in the hospital noble ? They go in a bin, a clinical waste bin

So you’re suggesting that they do the swab then throw it in the bin? What about the bit where you mix it with chemicals and wait 30 minutes for a result?

Remember tutor time is 20 minutes.

You definitely can't put swabs of bodily fluids in a normal bin. In normal times we occasionally do cheek swabs in science for microscope work, the swabs have to be disinfected before being disposed of - doing cheek swabs is currently banned due to the pandemic. You definitely can't put swabs from potentially infected children in a normal bin...

@hopefulhalf - read the guidance linked to above. That is what schools have received, and have been asked to implement.

@hopefulhalf

Non porous floor means lino right ?

Well that rules out most classrooms.

@hopefulhalf

Can Yr 9 and up not: a) Consent for themselves anyway (Gillick competence) and b) Self swab (mine aged 13&16 both have).

Yes to both in theory. However: a) "Oh yuck, I'm not doing it", "I'll look silly", "My friend isn't", "It'll give me a panic attack", "It made my sister throw up, I'm not doing it", "I'd rather have 10 days off school anyway"... I'd reckon you'll get relatively few tests that way, as get one refuses the lot will. You may be fine in the 6th form.

b) Indeed. But doing it while Mum stays next to them is very different from doing it in limited time next to a teacher, or worse a volunteer they don't know.
If you're doing it one at a time in a room, then it's going to take quite a time; if you give it out and say "do it now" you'll have the child who sticks it up their nose, announcing they're a walrus, and trips over their friend's kindly placed foot etc...
I would absolutely hate to have the responsibility for 10 year 9 boys (I have one) doing it in a room because the capacity for one to think that it's funny to "just nudge" another and end in pain is pretty high.

and why are they talking about social distancing in the testing station as the DCs don't socially distance the rest of the time they are at school ?