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?!!!

Does anyone know if teachers in primary are tested?
We have a small village school, and so far no cases amongst the children, but two staff members have had COVID. The staff group are much more spread out, commuting from the nearest city etc, so I guess more likely to catch it.
I just wondered if they’re tested regularly or not?

Teachers from our local primary are being tested at the local secondary school.

I know of a local primary whose staff are home testing twice weekly.

Our primary staff are all testing themselves at home twice weekly

As far as I know all teachers now have twice weekly tests though it’s not compulsory

This is open of those things that relies on goodwill and a sense of community spirit, because it’s not enforceable.

People want schools open. They want their children to be able to go and to go safely. The wearing of masks and the testing of children helps reduce the spread by isolating those with a positive test or positive contacts. If children need testing, so do their families as the children don’t live alone.

But lots of people aren’t willing to do it. They can’t be bothered or they do t actually want to know they might have it asympotmatically because they don’t want to isolate. Lots of people aren’t actually interested in stopping the spread or in keeping it out of schools, but they do want their kids to be back at school. It’s a paradox.

Ultimately, it seems the government isn’t serious though about all families testing. The message hasn’t been proclaimed loudly enough and accessing the tests involves more efffort than many people are willing to make...ie to go to the testing centre to pick up or going online to order them for delivery. So the take up rate amongst families will be pretty low and they know it.

People want their kids back at school but lots don’t provide them with masks to wear, or haven’t signed the consent for testing in school form, and won’t encourage them to do the home tests after the 3 at school.

The irony is of course, that it’s the schools where most people don’t take these steps where cases will be highest and there will be more children sent home. Those schools have already been impacted most by closures and lockdown.

It is the lack of parental compliance with these measures that ultimately causes the gap between the haves and have nots to grow over this period. Government can run lots of catch up classes, but areas with lots of families who won’t engage with mask wearing or testing are exactly those who will have more school closures or year groups sent home due to more cases. They are also areas where take-up of catch-up provision will be low.

Some schools in the other hand have pretty much 100% mask wearing and parental agreement to testing. The children in those schools will have a less disrupted time of it now and will have done before lockdown too.

If I was going out to work I'd do it, but DH and I both WFH. The ONLY interaction we have with other people is outside socially distanced. We get online supermarket deliveries (and wear masks while unloading). The only place we can realistically get it is from our two primary aged kids who are in classes with no social distancing and no masks.

I did get some tests with the idea of testing older DD who is in a very small very crowded classroom with 30 others and is not allowed to wear a mask (year 6) but the info I got specifically states "Primary school aged children must not be tested" - so if DH or I test positive that means one of our children has had it asymptomatically and presumably been spreading it in school as well as to us.

Given this, it seems rather pointless to test. If I could test DD then I would as that could have some impact on onward transmission. I'm a bit worried if I test her (she's happy to be tested) I'll be in trouble since it says we shouldn't though.

It would be quite useful to know if she has it for us too so that DH could try and isolate from the rest of us, as we have no back up childcare at all and are stuffed if we both get ill.

But it explicitly says not to do the common sense thing.... I don't know why I'm surprised.

Whilst it’s true that primary children are not being asked to test, I haven’t seen anything that says they “must” not be tested?
The guidance says “ Children of primary school age or younger will not be asked to test at this time” and the instructions in my test kit merely say that if being done by an under 12 year old, this should be administered by an adult.

This is the relevant section of the email I got about it

3. Testing twice a week Members of households, childcare or support bubbles of school staff and pupils without symptoms should test twice a week 3 or 4 days apart. GOV.UK has more information on how staff and pupils should get tested. Primary school aged children must not be tested.

It explicitly says they must not be tested - same on our Local Authority site about it.

I think it's quite possible that parents in different parts of the country will be advised differently.

That’s very possible- like it’s not confusing enough already!

I've been helping with in school lateral flow testing this week (secondary). Home testing kits for pupils arrived yesterday so all of our pupils have been given a pack (containing 3 tests) to go home. We're meant to test on Sunday and Wednesday nights. I believe you can collect them from local centres if you need them.

I have to say the pupils did a great job of self swabbing this week. A few found it a bit tricky to locate their tonsils rather than tongue/cheek but, having done three tests at school in the last week, they seem to have taken it in their stride.

My little lad in Primary doesn't have to but my elder boy in secondary has had to go into school twice this week to do the tests. He will have a third when he returns next week . His school are providing allocated packs of tests to bring home for wedsnesdays and Sundays up until the Easter break. They will be issued more on the last day of term. If positive we have to let the school know a%nd implement a quaranteen period. So far 98% of the kids at his school have tested and so far not one positive result but wait and see what happens when the restrictions ease a bit more.

I was aware (have a 17 year old child and a teacher husband) but I'm not doing it.
Why not?

I genuinely cannot add another shitting task to my to do list right now. Its a no from me.
It's an 'ah, now I see how this kind of virus spreads' from me.

I can’t understand how they’re going to manage to supply the kits.

I work with GP practices including some that are vaccinating and they are starting to struggle to get enough to test all their staff.

I didn't know about the primary testing and DD is in reception. Nothing has been mentioned by the school either. Both my high schoolers have brought home two test kits and been advised which days to do the tests.
Will wait to see if primary headteacher says anything.

I do know that the teachers at the primary have been testing twice weekly since January and those in work at high school have also been doing the same

@IloveJKRowling

If I was going out to work I'd do it, but DH and I both WFH. The ONLY interaction we have with other people is outside socially distanced. We get online supermarket deliveries (and wear masks while unloading). The only place we can realistically get it is from our two primary aged kids who are in classes with no social distancing and no masks.

I did get some tests with the idea of testing older DD who is in a very small very crowded classroom with 30 others and is not allowed to wear a mask (year 6) but the info I got specifically states "Primary school aged children must not be tested" - so if DH or I test positive that means one of our children has had it asymptomatically and presumably been spreading it in school as well as to us.

Given this, it seems rather pointless to test. If I could test DD then I would as that could have some impact on onward transmission. I'm a bit worried if I test her (she's happy to be tested) I'll be in trouble since it says we shouldn't though.

It would be quite useful to know if she has it for us too so that DH could try and isolate from the rest of us, as we have no back up childcare at all and are stuffed if we both get ill.

But it explicitly says not to do the common sense thing.... I don't know why I'm surprised.

I think the point is that you and DH are supposed to be tested as “canaries” for your kids.

They want you to test because if you are positive, you’ve likely got it from your DC, and that means they can identify (likely) covid positive schoolchildren.

Basically you are being used to test whether your DC have got it. Without the trauma of regularly testing primary age DC.

So it’s not relevant that you WFH and have no other exposure - you have exposure from school and that’s enough reason to test. Indeed the cases caught from school are the ones they would most want to know about!

But by the time we'd test positive it would be too late for spread in school from our DC, the most contagious phase would have passed.

Incubation period.

It would be far, far, far too late.

I work in a primary school and do two a week now.
The head texts us all to remind us.

I went to get a kit they gave me one kit with 7 tests in it

We are a family of 4

I qued up for over an hour at the drive thru testing company they said "come back next week for another one" I told them there were 4 of us and assumed there would be 8 in there only opened it after

Secondary's are giving them out at school but infant/primary/ juniors have to join a que probably for some people with little ones In the car kicking off

I'll be honest it's not exactly a good option is it?

Just order more online then.

It's well to see that people on this thread don't work out of home. Those of us who do have been physically going to the centres twice a week for months doing our best to follow the who advice of test test test in order to help monitor and contain the spread so that your kids and ours can go back to school, so that shops and hospitality can reopen, so that we can all get our lives back. I have colleagues who have been travelling on foot/by bus to the centres before and after work who do this and then go home to see to their children, throughout winter.

Now that more people are being given the chance to do their bit to try and nail this thing, from their home, suddenly it's a major imposition and no one has time. Ffs.

Yes, you don't have to go and pick up but can order for delivery. They only send one box per order, but each adult can order and the school will provide for secondary kids anyway.

Takes 5 mins to order them. Go on the site and do it tonight.

People should be prepared to put the 5 mins it takes to self test twice a week into this. It's not a big ask, but it's amazing how people aren't prepared to do anything really.....lots won't even travel 20 miles for the jab but insist on waiting for a local appointment. Lots won't sign the reply slip so their kids can be tested in school, or won't get round to buying their kids some masks. But they want the schools open and lots of these people have been sending their kids all through lockdown, again without masks etc.

Maybe people have just got used to being sat at home all the time and anything else seems like a massive effort? But this really couldn't be easier.

@IloveJKRowling

But by the time we'd test positive it would be too late for spread in school from our DC, the most contagious phase would have passed.

Incubation period.

It would be far, far, far too late.

Not far, far, far too late. You're still contagious for some time. And not everyone in a household picks it up at once. More likely that one DC has it, gives it to you as main caregiver, you give to your DH, meanwhile your other DC(s) have caught it, and only then does your DH show symptoms, as you could have been asymptomatic. All in school and going for distanced walks with friends or in the supermarket meanwhile.

Alternatively, you do the lateral flow test, see a positive, all isolate for a few days while you wait for the PCR result, show a positive on that (and maybe DH has started coughing in that time).
The class becomes aware of a positive and the other parents all do the test too, finding other asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic carriers, or the ones who knew they had a cough but preferred to chalk it down to hayfever or a cold go and actually get a test.

Easily could be 3 or 5 or 10+ fewer people infected. That won't be the case every time, but often enough that it makes sense, if we want the schools to be open and minimise spread.