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?

Of the 2 proposals:

Proposal 1: mass testing on school return, excellent idea but completely impossible to implement in the time frame - there is no way schools are going to be able to test all secondary school pupils twice in a week with no working days before the role out. Do we even have 6.6 million tests available? Never mind the space and volunteers...

Proposal 2: testing instead of isolation with tests that only pick up 50% of positives - stupid idea, it is going to lead to more cases not less, and at current rates of contact in school would require around 700,000 tests to be done a day - this is more than are currently being managed by testing centres.

I hope the teachers and staff all go on one massive strike. I know it won't happen of course , but id support them and I think more would than wouldn't.
It all needs a rethink.

Never mind the space and volunteers..

Or the PPE. Schools don't have PPE, so every single pair of gloves, visor, apron, goggles etc (all changed regularly) will have to be bought in.

maybe they've gone to pen a letter to headmistress to clarify their school's ever so simple plan.

Schools will need lots more money for this to be a success and it won't be forthcoming from this lot unfortunately.
It'll be ' bring your own mask and sanitizer in'. Bring your own testing kit too if they could possibly get away with that one!

@willsantausesantatize

I hope the teachers and staff all go on one massive strike. I know it won't happen of course , but id support them and I think more would than wouldn't. It all needs a rethink.

I don’t think they need to strike, just to say-we can’t do this testing, it’s not possible, so we’ll carry on self-isolating close contacts and siblings or positive cases. Just like every other work place.

What would the DfE do if heads did?

gloves would need to be changed with each person being tested. There is also safe disposal of clinical waste and handling of a live virus. Schools are designed for education .

Strikes wouldn't work ( it's just wishful thinking on my part there) but maybe a simple no might work?
Teachers need someone from the media on your side : unfortunately there is too much teacher bashing on most media forums to get such support , but this is what they need here I think.
I do feel so sorry for them all.

I actually wonder if that is my schools plan. I've seen the letter sent home to parents today, says y11+13 back on 4th, everyone else back on 11th. Says about remote learning provision. Explains about keyworker/vulnerable spaces and how to get one. Information about free school meals. Absolutely no mention of testing...

@FiggyPuddingFiend

I actually wonder if that is my schools plan. I've seen the letter sent home to parents today, says y11+13 back on 4th, everyone else back on 11th. Says about remote learning provision. Explains about keyworker/vulnerable spaces and how to get one. Information about free school meals. Absolutely no mention of testing...

Same here figgy, that is why I was so surprised to read about testing before going back to school as the letter from the school I got today never mentioned it.

If you have symptoms, or are a close contact, you are in a completely different category
You tell me

I genuinely can’t tell the serious posts from the piss takes anymore.

Parents should be informed of the need to show two sets of negative test results spaced 3 days apart so that their child can return to school.

The usually testing sites and staff should then work separately with schools who will identify which of the kids won't be tested (known family issues/SEN/lack of comprehension) to mop up any untested kids prior to 4 Jan.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Parents should be informed of the need to show two sets of negative test results spaced 3 days apart so that their child can return to school.

The usually testing sites and staff should then work separately with schools who will identify which of the kids won't be tested (known family issues/SEN/lack of comprehension) to mop up any untested kids prior to 4 Jan.

Is this a definite though or just hearsay as I can’t find anything anywhere that says children won’t be able to return to school with two negative tests.

This going to be another failure from the government.

Teachers are teachers they are not medically trained staff or lab technicians. These tests only have a 49% success IF and that's a very important IF they are done by professionals. Watching a 30 min video is not going to have the experience to them correctly so the success rate of picking up any Covid even lower.

@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 actually needs reposting again, just so everyone sees it.

@Blanketyblankblankety

Can't a secondary school age DC do their own test with supervision?

In the letter we got from to he head of DSs secondary school , he says they are considering getting the children to do themselves during the 30 min tutor time in the morning . It isn't for certain but it is an option apparently

There is no ppe

There is no staff to do this

There is no space to set this up

Volunteers (who’d volunteer?!) would not be crb checked

It would take 10 members of staff / working a full week (or two) to test the 4000 kids in DS college. And this needs to be done weekly?!

It’s all so badly thought out and poorly organised

The MHRA have stopped lateral flow tests being sent to homes as they are not accurate enough when people test themselves.

So basically there are loads going spare.

In the letter we got from to he head of DSs secondary school , he says they are considering getting the children to do themselves during the 30 min tutor time in the morning . It isn't for certain but it is an option apparently

The self swabbing is easy and quick, the kids can do that part themselves with supervision BUT that's the smallest part of the whole process. Students are not allowed to process their own test as that invalidates the process. You will need staff to register, supervise swabbing, process the tests, clean between testing and processing, time each individual test strip and record the result at exactly 30 mins, scan the results onto the NHS app, inform the student of their results.

I can’t see the problem, these tests are extremely easy to do and can be done by the students themselves. The test equipment just gets thrown away in the household waste. If students are able to be taught how to make apple crumble, play the piano, saw pieces of wood safely, play rugby etc I’m sure they can manage to do a simple test using a nasal swab. I can’t imagine it would be hard obtaining consent either from the majority of parents as schools are always asking for consent for different things. I don’t think it should be used instead of the isolation period but as an a additional tool. The government should have given more notice, but that is the government for you, it has never given any notice to anyone.

And you know better than the MHRA, stairway?

In the letter we got from to he head of DSs secondary school , he says they are considering getting the children to do themselves during the 30 min tutor time in the morning . It isn't for certain but it is an option apparently

Where in the job description of any school staff does it say that you should risk having numerous children in front of you, day in day out, who may be infected with a virus that may kill you? That you should be responsible for administering said tests and completeing associated paperwork?

Would you be happy to sit in a room packed with people who had been close contacts of a known covid case?

I am afraid you are asking too much of us. This is the cherry on top. There will be yet more resignations. I won’t put myself through this, nor my family. Our health is more important than this.

Same here figgy, that is why I was so surprised to read about testing before going back to school as the letter from the school I got today never mentioned it.

I’ve heard absolutely nothing from my DCs school but my own school has just sent a letter to parents saying that there will be remote learning until the 11th and the government has proposed mass testing but not given any more details and so they will send a letter out with more details after Xmas as they don’t want it to ruin our Xmas thinking about it and chances are the government will charge their minds anyway so it is best to wait a few more days.

I think teachers have been treated appallingly, and I am so so grateful for all you have done to keep the schools going. Thank you

Just a quick question about the tests: if they are the same ones NHS staff are having to use, with the same failure rate, then aren't those the best and fastest we have at the moment? Surely the other tests would take too long to process in a school set up.

Not letting close contacts isolate absolutely sucks! Does anyone know if NHS staff have to isolate if they have been in contact with a positive case? As i worry that the positive cases they are exposed to will be from adults and therefore have an individually higher viral load?

It's barbaric that teachers aren't being allowed to wear PPE. And disgusting that CEV staff can't still shield.

I feel so sorry for you all. I just hope everyone remembers this at election time

Just a quick question about the tests: if they are the same ones NHS staff are having to use, with the same failure rate, then aren't those the best and fastest we have at the moment? Surely the other tests would take too long to process in a school set up.

So, with that being the case, wouldn’t it be best to just keep the situation as it was, and continue to self-isolate close contacts/siblings of positive cases rather than use tests that are known to be unreliable instead. You shouldn’t change policy to something worse just because you have a stash of faulty tests you bought and need to justify having.