This is news to me! Households with children in primary and secondary are expected to perform two lateral flow tests at home each week ...

[justanotherneighinparadise]

is this common knowledge? I honestly had no idea. I knew secondary schools were going to do on site testing and that’s all I had heard.

My child’s primary mentioned yesterday to one of the parents that the expectation is that all the parents should be testing weekly and now we have literature from the local council saying the same. How has this completely passed me by?!!!

You're not being asked to swab a 6 year old. They are for parents and other adults in support bubbles of school children.

Secondary kids will be given their own tests.

@noblegiraffe

You're not being asked to swab a 6 year old. They are for parents and other adults in support bubbles of school children.

Secondary kids will be given their own tests.

Oh good! I read the thread and got more and more confused!

Yes correct, they want the parents of primary age kids to test themselves. Not test the kids.

@minipie

And yes “school tests only” means the ones you want!!

Oh, I read it as just for schools to get their supplies! And couldn’t see any FAQs, so didn’t want to drive all the way there and then find out I couldn’t have them as I’m not working for a school.

They really should have done the advertising a bit more clearly!

The tests are for the families of children at school
The tests aren't for under 11s
The tests can be picked up from a centre or delivered through the post
They are a separate thing to the secondary school testing programme.

I'd have to drive 20mins to nearest testing centre to pick up the tests, given how unreliable they are and how little contact we are having with anyone I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

You can order them to be sent through the post here
www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

@superduster

I'd have to drive 20mins to nearest testing centre to pick up the tests, given how unreliable they are and how little contact we are having with anyone I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

No you don't.

@superduster you can order them online to be sent out of if you drive there you’ll get 14 tests. It’s not just about you having been to places it will also help to uncover cases that have been brought into the house by asymptomatic children in the absence of it being feasible to test primary school aged children twice a week. The more parents who take part the more cases will be picked and the more chance we having getting back to normal. Yes they aren’t hugely reliable but they are the best we have. I say this as someone who had to drive 30 mins to our local test centre and where our only contacts are school related and with the Tesco delivery driver. We really need all parents to get on board and the government and schools to advertise this better too!

We'll be doing this. The tests were easy to order and arrived the next day. We're a low risk family but some of the teachers at our dc's primary school are vulnerable, as are some of the families. It's easy and feels like the responsible thing to do.

Think about it this way, families are being asked to do it so that primary children do not have to.

There are many vulnerable people in most school communities. You doing the lateral flow test may help them.

I only found out about this on Facebook, our school (primary) hasn’t mentioned it. But I thought it was to test the children, but now I’m reading on here it is for the parents to test themselves? I don’t think so?

Ok so yes it does seem to be for the parents. I was all ready to test the children tomorrow (ages 6 & 8!) 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Rainbowsandstorms if you look online the website discourages people from ordering online as we are supposed to be leaving these for the most vulnerable. I'm not most vulnerable, just not sure I can be bothered to drive 40mins (total) for inaccurate tests.

I've taken the proper tests 3x now when I had symptoms so not against testing and we have so far followed every rule set. This is guidance rather than a rule, and I'm not sure I see the benefit. I've seen so many people not really caring about 'the rules' now that I'm not sure I should bother going out of my way when there is no obvious benefit to me, it feels very much like everyone for themselves. The school didn't exactly show a caring attitude over lockdown either, quite the opposite, which hugely upset me, so perhaps that is influencing my feelings on it.

we are supposed to be leaving these for the most vulnerable.

It doesn't say that on the website, just to try the alternatives if you are able.

*actually - got my maths wrong.
By a factor of 10

This is the actual maths.
Data taken from Government Link
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-11-oxford-university-and-phe-confirm-lateral-flow-tests-show-high-specificity-and-are

It's great having such a high specificity BUT a positive test needs confirming with PCR as the prevalence is so low now that a positive test is very likely to be a false positive.

Otherwise many people will be self isolating who don't need to.

Yep. Primary. Both parents tested twice a week

It's absolutely not compulsory. If there were home text kits or if our school provided them then it maybe logistically doable we would do it but the literature discourages registering for home tests unless you can't get to a testing site which is fine for a one off, but not two e a week every week.

@Redwinestillfine

It's absolutely not compulsory. If there were home text kits or if our school provided them then it maybe logistically doable we would do it but the literature discourages registering for home tests unless you can't get to a testing site which is fine for a one off, but not two e a week every week.

You can go to a testing site and pick up two weeks’ worth of home test kits. No need to visit twice a week.

@superduster if it’s the going out of your way for the tests that bothers you but you’re willing to do them then order them on line. They aren’t saved for vulnerable people they’d just prefer people to drive and get them if they can. There isn’t really any personal benefit to you to doing the tests but there is potentially a huge benefit to your children’s teachers and classmates and their families. I’m not testing us for our benefit I’m testing us for the benefit of my daughter’s class mates and school staff. I just hope they will afford me the same protection though I’m realising from this thread that many of them won’t because it’s too much trouble. I’m utterly fed up of the selfish nature of people when it comes to stuff like this. Covid is so random we never know if we’ll carry it without symptoms or be one of the unlucky younger people with no underlying health conditions who end up seriously ill or dead. Not to mention the number of clinically extremely vulnerable parents who have only had one vaccination but are being forced to send their children to school despite still being advised to shield. Every little bit helps and could save lives and help keep schools open and safe. I honestly completely despair.

I had heard about this but as we've had nothing from the school (tests for the school pupils are being done regularly) I shall be ignoring it until further notice. With five, sometimes six adults in the household it's going to be an almighty faff if we are required to do it.

You can order them to be sent through the post here
www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Our youngest DD has just returned to school. We live a long way from any of the test centres involved in the scheme so I used this link with the intention of ordering for the whole family (me, DH, adult DD and DS) but it only accepts individual orders. There is a note on the website stating that "you cannot use this service if you go to university or a higher education college, or work in one. You should speak to your university or higher education college." So that ruled out DH, who works at a university, and adult DD, who is enrolled at a university but studying at home at the moment. The implication is that the testing should be arranged by the university concerned, but neither her university nor DH's knew anything about it when "spoken to"! So today DD drove the 35-mile round trip to get the rest of the tests from the nearest participating centre. Tests handed over quite happily. We don't mind getting involved with this, but the whole thing really does seem a bit half-baked, to be honest...

I'll be doing it. I hybrid work so I've been going to the test centre twice a week as per employer advice and this is much easier for me. Given that we're all out and about (kids at school, me at work for part of the week) I feel better about this if we can all do something that helps track infections and so on and having them sent to our address makes it easier to do this.

There's been two positive cases at the kids' school just in three days so obviously keen to try and keep a lid on it.