Government set to halt daily mass testing in schools

It is expected the DfE will put a halt to the daily testing of pupils after teachers warned the government policy was not approved by the UK’s medicines regulator.

Therefore, the testing of secondary school and college pupils and teachers will likely revert back to two per week, as reported in the Guardian.

Trowbridge secondary school, the Clarendon Academy, were due to roll out the scheme for pupils this week.

Head teacher Rob Price said the school will keep its test centre running as he believes it gives extra levels of assurance to both teachers and pupils.

Mr Price said: “I think it’s just in the instance of a positive case, they’re putting a halt to the mass testing of close contacts to keep them in school.

“That seems to be what they’re saying.”

Mr Price said the families of all 80 of the schools keyworker and vulnerable children were sent consent forms for the testing, and have all agreed to the scheme.

“All of these have readily given consent to be tested. It seems that the overall mood is one of positivity. Better to have a test than no test at all,” added Mr Price.

The centre, which is housed in the school’s science block, can turn over test results in 30 minutes.

Mr Price said when the rest of the pupils return to school the Edward Hyde hall would be used as a test centre and pupils would wait at an outdoor marquee for their test results. Pupils will be allowed to go back to their bubbles following a negative test result.

Anita Ellis, head teacher at the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy has expressed concerns over the testing.

She said any scheme that took place in schools would need to have a higher degree of accuracy.

Mrs Ellis said the pilot studies and other programmes carried out showed the possibility of false negative results was too high and that was a “risk that we, in schools cannot bear.”

Andy Prendergast, regional officer for the GMB said the union is supportive of the scheme but that there are concerns about the expectation of current school staff to carry out the work.

“As they are neither trained nor paid to do so, we believe that such testing regimes should be run by professionals as opposed to school staff already struggling to educate children during this pandemic,” he said.

Concerns are also raised by the accuracy of lateral flow testing, however, Mr Prendergast added this is still better than no testing.

Mrs Ellis added that if the mass testing is halted it would have meant school leaders spending “significant time” putting the schemes in place when focus could have been on remote learning, providing meals and sourcing digital devices for families.

“None of this includes the day to day strategic and operational goings on of any school. All we ask is that before rolling out a nationwide programme, ensure it can work. Time, effort and energies are finite and precious,” she said.