I don't understand the opposition to mass testing in school

[Blanketyblankblankety]

I thought that's what teachers on here wanted. Won't it mean school will be much safer as you'll be able to identify asymptomatic DC plus not have to rely on parents not to send DC in even with symptoms. Why is there so much negativity?

We've been piloting the testing at our school. The students do the test themselves under supervision. You need staff to register each individual's barcode; process each test (takes about 5 mins); clean and disinfect in between each test; wait 30 minutes for the test to develop then another member of staff records the result by scanning it on the NHS app which automatically sends an email with the result.

The student has to remain in the testing hall for about 35 mins, because of social distancing you have to test students in batches. It takes 9 members of staff around 3 hours to test 100 students.

@MakeWorkYourNewFavourite You might want to retract your statement it takes seconds per kid...

Also i'm quoting the post because it shows the reality of why this is a ridiculous idea and just won't work.

@MakeWorkYourNewFavourite

Honestly... I can't see the problem with it. I just don't think it would be that hard to organise. It takes seconds per kid. How will the schools be asked to pay? They won't. Swab up the nose. Into a plastic bag. Off to a lab. One person could do 100 kids a day easily. You need a couple of corridors, halls with two chairs set up at the end. Kids line up.. Parents give consent. Kids get vaccines at school? Our school nurse did 150 in a day and half the kids were hysterical. Just get on with it.

Here’s the instruction leaflet.

schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Schools_Colleges_Testing-Handbook_version-3.3-Copy.pdf

As you can see, your idea was a tad simplistic.

@RememberSelfCompassion

Also tied in with it is the announcement that close contacts will no longer have to isolate but be sent into school everyday amd tested in school... so spreading it.

This is EXACTLY what is going to happen.

It's not about making schools safer, it's about attendance figures. If it was about safety, they would still expect close contacts to self isolate.

It isn’t mass testing though.

@MakeWorkYourNewFavourite

Honestly... I can't see the problem with it. I just don't think it would be that hard to organise. It takes seconds per kid. How will the schools be asked to pay? They won't. Swab up the nose. Into a plastic bag. Off to a lab. One person could do 100 kids a day easily. You need a couple of corridors, halls with two chairs set up at the end. Kids line up.. Parents give consent. Kids get vaccines at school? Our school nurse did 150 in a day and half the kids were hysterical. Just get on with it.

This is not what is proposed by the DfE. If you read the guidance produced for schools, you'd see why it's unfeasible.

Can't do 100 per day per person. Can't be done in a corridor. Not being sent off to labs.

When is consent going to be obtained? Schools are closed.

@NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy

1. The volunteers need to be DBS checked which takes weeks even at normal rate of checks, let alone when every school in the country needs to use the DBS service.

1. So while we wait for the volunteers it's down to staff, who are already doing the FULL TIME jobs they get paid for, who already have lost all breaks due to increased cleaning tasks and staggered break times.

1. School staff are the only sector who are NOT ALLOWED to wear PPE, so I'm a bit at performing close up medical tests - still without PPE

On the other hand I welcome parents coming in to see what schools are like at the moment, it will hopefully prevent any future teacher bashing?

Apparently they don't need to be DBS checked as schools can provide someone to supervise.

Yes, because we have extra staff hiding in cupboards just waiting to be called upon.

I absolutely despise this government.

We’ve given millions on testing contracts to Serci, and now schools snd community volunteers are being roped in - if you’re not angry, you bloody well should be.

As a teacher on Twitter pointed out -
it’s taken 7 months / £22bn to get national testing to 400k/day (actually 150k) yet they expect teachers to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people a day with 1 day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests. Plus all of this comes with just 1 working day’s notice at the end of the most exhausting by term ever.

@GingerandTilly

As a teacher on Twitter pointed out - it’s taken 7 months / £22bn to get national testing to 400k/day (actually 150k) yet they expect teachers to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people a day with 1 day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests. Plus all of this comes with just 1 working day’s notice at the end of the most exhausting by term ever.

Remember we just need a postive attitude...

It's fucking impossible, and I can't believe people are angry at teachers / schools rather than the Government.

Sorry I meant false negatives.

I'm just so so cross.

Just started reading the guidance; it is utter madness to expect schools to set this up, recruit people to do it and supervise it. They should publish the guidance in the media so that everyone can see what utter idiots this dfe are.

Wow ginger that really puts it in persective doesnt it 😯. This should so be on every thread where someone clueless asks what the problem is.

Lookong forward to schools receiving the 22 billion and 7 months to sort it. Oh wait...

As a teacher on Twitter pointed out -
it’s taken 7 months / £22bn to get national testing to 400k/day (actually 150k) yet they expect teachers to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people a day with 1 day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests. Plus all of this comes with just 1 working day’s notice at the end of the most exhausting by term ever.

Hit the nail on the head

@Blanketyblankblankety

I thought that's what teachers on here wanted. Won't it mean school will be much safer as you'll be able to identify asymptomatic DC plus not have to rely on parents not to send DC in even with symptoms. Why is there so much negativity?

It’s the principle - to be negative about absolutely everything.

As a teacher myself, it’s embarrassing.

Crafty is your school expected to set up a mass testing covid lab over Christmas too?

Not sure if it applies to private schools.

@noelgiraffe

Crafty is your school expected to set up a mass testing covid lab over Christmas too?

Not sure if it applies to private schools.

We already have the plans in place.

I think whilst they want mass testing they maybe didn't expect they'd have to do it themselves?!

Come on now troups. Roll your sleeves up and crack on. Do you think we would have won 2 world wars with such a defeatist attitude? Mass testing set up in a day no problem. Remember schools are the magical places where reality doesn't exist when it comes to covid.

@GingerandTilly

As a teacher on Twitter pointed out - it’s taken 7 months / £22bn to get national testing to 400k/day (actually 150k) yet they expect teachers to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people a day with 1 day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests. Plus all of this comes with just 1 working day’s notice at the end of the most exhausting by term ever.

This.

I'm not a teacher and I'm fuming on their behalf. It's fucking ridiculous and won't lower the risk if close contacts are no longer asked to isolate.

@starrynight19

*As a teacher on Twitter pointed out - it’s taken 7 months / £22bn to get national testing to 400k/day (actually 150k) yet they expect teachers to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people a day with 1 day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests. Plus all of this comes with just 1 working day’s notice at the end of the most exhausting by term ever.*

Hit the nail on the head

@CraftyGin read... this... slowly...

Got it yet?

🤦‍♀️

@ethelredonagoodday

I think whilst they want mass testing they maybe didn't expect they'd have to do it themselves?!

Would be nice to have tests with more than 48.9% efficacy too.

Schools are increasingly expected to do the parents' job for them. Anything that's deemed to be lacking in a child's life = "get the schools to step in. Now there's a lack of suitable testing facilities and once again it's "get the schools to step in

This.
I bet if we lived in a Socialist state where individual freedoms were minimal and Government organisations stepped in and got onwith it, people would be kicking off left, right and centre,

We already have the plans in place.

And the staff? Who is staffing it in January?

We already have the plans in place.

Good, so I am sure that every single member of your school's staff will have volunteered to contact every one of the secondary schools in your area, to support them in getting exactly the same thing set up over the next 2 weeks, so that every school student can be tested on or before 4th January?

However, you do have to bear in mind that state schools will have larger numbers, no money and no space, so you will have to advise them how to do it under those circumstances?

[quote starrynight19]@WildWaterSwimmer have you done this with solely school staff / volunteers ?[/quote]
We ran the pilot sessions with a combination of staff from Public Health England and school staff that were trained (watch a few videos, pass online tests on the video content, then on-the-job training from the PHE staff).

The volunteers being tested were most of the school's staff and willing volunteers from the older year groups for whom parents had given consent. We felt the younger year groups would struggle to self-test without a parent present.