Can a primary school make children do lft age 4

[FoamBurst]

My neices school has said all dcs from reception age have to do a lft every day before school. Which seems extreme for young children. My sister can't find the guidance for this online. Does anyone know if there is a guidance on this.?

School I'm at have requested daily lft, but have made it absolutely clear to parents that if a child refuses, they can't be made to. So it's advisable, but not enforceable here.

@SonicBroom

I honestly don’t see the big deal with it. I’d rather test my kids than have them a) ill b) off school for a week or c) taught by random unknown staff and subs because teachers are off.

If your child won’t do it, or won’t do when asleep, then tell the school but it shouldn’t stop them from trying to manage numbers at least.

Surely testing daily you’re more likely to find a random positive and them then be off for 5/7/10 days though? Not less?

Not necessarily arguing it’s the wrong thing to but it does seem odd this stage in the pandemic when we’re talking about removing isolation to *only then start^ to test primary children daily.

Our school has never mentioned it and none of the schools my friends kids go to have thank God. They do all have cases but it’s not something they are emailing about these days.

@thewhatsit your “random positive” could mean that many more people then have to take time off, potentially including staff meaning they kid you left in school without testing isn’t learning anything. But crack on, as long as Jack’s alright right.

@MiniatureHotdog not sure why you don't think it is true. I'm a teacher and my reception year group is overrun and at breaking point. The other schools in the area have said the same and two have closed down due to staff shortages. It is rife.

We're having to do the same, it's part of the school's outbreak procedure. It's been spreading like wildfire over the last week so I can see why they want to try anything they can to mitigate, they're struggling a lot with staff shortages.

[quote SonicBroom]@thewhatsit your “random positive” could mean that many more people then have to take time off, potentially including staff meaning they kid you left in school without testing isn’t learning anything. But crack on, as long as Jack’s alright right.[/quote]
I didn’t say it was the right or wrong thing to do I was simply saying that I don’t agree with you that asymptomatic testing lessens the chance that your child will be off with Covid. As it happens I am testing my child (who I have to pin down while he cries) regularly now because I’m doing what I’m asked in a class outbreak but I can’t keep doing this honestly and I disagree that doing so makes it LESS likely that he will have to spend next week at home.

As for what it achieves.. do we know? We’re talking primary school levels so people are only being asked to test daily if there is already an outbreak - 10% in a year is I think the definition. So the testing only starts once a significant portion of the class are down with Covid and almost certainly another significant portion are incubating Covid. I don’t know if by finding an additional one case we are actually stopping further infections .. are we? Or are we not just trying to show we’re doing something too late?

Testing twice a week before adults go into the office probably makes more sense as we’re talking about testing pre outbreak which may stop one happening.

I’d be very interested in how long the daily testing is supposed to go on for btw from other schools. Our class has now hit the number for testing so we’re being nudged that way (still no actual email though ) and I’m complying but I am definitely not willing to put a young child through this for very long.