Anger as schools ‘forced to set up field hospitals for Covid testing’

Schools are setting up “field hospitals” to Covid-test returning pupils and risk being distracted from teaching because they have to focus on public health responsibilities, school leaders have warned.

All secondary school pupils must have two on-site lateral flow tests at the start of the new school year in September because of concerns they will have mixed with lots of other people during the summer holidays. Some schools will be forced to stagger the return of pupils during the first week of term to allow them to manage the testing, while others will call pupils in for tests during the last days of the holidays.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It is a huge undertaking which involves setting up and staffing facilities akin to field hospitals and it is hugely frustrating that the Government is once again landing this responsibility on schools and colleges rather than organising and supplying suitably trained staff itself.

“We are continuing to make the case for substantial support so that schools and colleges are able to focus fully on educational matters rather than on public health responsibilities.”

It comes as changes to Covid rules means that from Monday people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or who are under 18, will no longer have to isolate if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

Instead, they will be advised to take a PCR test, but that will not be compulsory, and they will not have to self-isolate while they wait for the result.

The rule change should see a reduction in the number of children absent from school after being identified as close contacts. Teachers have already had a busy summer — they had to grade pupils’ GCSEs and A-levels after exams were cancelled, deal with the fallout from results days, appeals and university applications and plan catch-up work for lessons missed during the pandemic.

Chris Woolf, headteacher of Pinner High School, said students at his school will be Covid-tested from August 31 to avoid disrupting their start of term. School staff have been coming in to set up the testing centre during the holidays.

He said: “Because the tests have to be three to five days apart, and we have to do two of them for all students, we have to recruit additional staff to make this happen as all staff already have jobs to do in September. It is a significant logistical challenge. Students have been home testing for weeks and it is the same test we do at school, so it is frustrating to have to divert school resources on this when there is an entirely viable alternative at the start of what will be the third year to be disrupted by Covid.”

Schools were previously asked to carry out on-site Covid tests in March when they fully re-opened, to detect asymptomatic coronavirus cases.

After students have taken their two Covid-tests at school they will be asked to continue to test themselves at home.

ASCL is calling on the Government to provide funding for high-quality ventilation systems to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission, and to better fund education recovery programmes.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “We are hugely grateful to teachers, leaders and staff for supporting asymptomatic testing in schools and colleges, which can help to break chains of transmission.

“As students will likely mix with different groups during the summer holidays, we are asking them to do two tests at their school or college at the start of the autumn term. These are the only on-site tests, and then pupils should continue to test twice weekly from home until the end of September, when this will be reviewed.”

The Covid rules being introduced apply to people who had their second dose of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before coming into contact with a positive case. People who test positive will still be legally required to self-isolate.