School staff 'broken' by England's late Covid test plan

Lateral flow testing will be rolled out in secondary schools and colleges from January

School staff feel "broken" by last minute demands for them to run testing schemes in secondary schools in England, a head teacher has said.

Nicola Mason, a Staffordshire school head, said she was staggered to hear, as the term ends, that heads have to set up testing for pupils next term.

It meant staff would be working through Christmas to get ready for January.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the idea was to get pupils back safely when they returned to school.

A joint statement from teachers' unions and the National Governance Association, representing school governors, says schools should not feel under pressure to carry out the testing, if it is not a realistic possibility in the time available.

The advice, also signed by the Association of Colleges and the Church of England education service, says the announcement of the programme has been "chaotic and rushed".

It also says the plan in its current form will be inoperable for most schools and colleges, and stresses that the Department for Education guidance refers to an "offer" of testing rather than a requirement for schools to test.

'Too late'

• Staggered return for England's secondary schools

• 'Huge expansion' of secondary school Covid tests

• Wales' schools and colleges to get Covid tests

General secretary of the ASCL head teachers' union Geoff Barton said the scheme was "undeliverable" in the timescale set out.

"It is beyond belief that they were landed on school and college leaders in such a cack-handed manner," he said.

"It is not possible to recruit and train all the people needed to carry out tests, and put in place the processes that would be necessary, over the Christmas period."

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said the government was "in danger of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory once again".

'Dad's Army'

The plan involves using the first week of term to test pupils as they return gradually to classrooms in a staggered way.

Those in exam years, Years 11 and 13, would return first for face-to-face teaching, while the rest would be taught online.

Ms Mason, head teacher at Chase Terrace Academy in Burntwood, said: "The government at the very last minute again have literally broken the teachers."

She said local public health teams already had plans in place to phase tests in next term which were now not valid.

"Leaders are confused at best," she said. "The guidance is way too late to plan effectively, there are still a number of things we don't know.

"We found out through BBC News, we weren't even told directly that this was being put into place. Frankly I am staggered."

Another head teacher, Simon Uttley, of Blessed Hugh Faringdon School in Reading, said he also first heard of government plans from the BBC News app.

"The rhetoric is very much Battle of Britain, the reality, I'm afraid, feels a bit more like Dad's Army," he said.

'Social justice'

But the prime minister told reporters that in terms of "social justice" it was important to make sure as many children as possible were in school.

"Everybody in the country agrees this is a massive priority. If you listen to the Chief Medical Officer, for the health and well-being of young people, they have to receive their education," said Mr Johnson.

Head teacher Ms Mason said already exhausted staff now had to use the Christmas holidays to plan for remote lessons, recruit volunteers, do safe-guarding checks, and organise the logistics of the testing and gain consent from parents.

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Parent of two Ian Ahern from Sandymoor, Cheshire, said: "What ridiculous timing!

"My two children are in Year 11 and 8. They have just finished for Christmas.

"My wife is a teacher and finishes school today. How are parents, teachers and staff supposed to organise this?"

He added that as a school governor, he knew how hard schools have been working to organise for the next term.

Another parent, from Altrincham, Mark Simpson, said: "It's ridiculously last minute to announce something like this on what for many schools in England is the last day of term, it seems nonsensical."

The late notice for the plan to test "millions of pupils" meant it was not going to work, he said.

'Swift action'

Mr Gibb defended the plans, saying fuller guidance would be published next week filling in any gaps.

He said: "This is a fast-moving pandemic, we have to take action at pace.

"We do have to take swift action, we've been testing these tests in schools over the last several weeks."

He said the programme would be a national effort supported by the Ministry of Defence and that schools would have the costs of agency staff covered - but it was not clear whether these staff would be health professionals or supply teachers.

"It is very important that we are testing 5.5 million students twice, three days apart, to make sure we are breaking the transmission of the virus after the increased mixing over the Christmas holidays," he said.

"It's all about making sure we have more young people in the classroom over the spring and summer term as we go forward, and this is an amazing initiative to get these tests into schools."

The Department for Education guidance says schools would have to provide one to two members of staff and several volunteers (for example governors) to organise and run the testing.

Agency staff may be used and schools would be reimbursed, but it is not clear if this means teaching staff or health care professionals.

And armed forces personnel are to support the scheme directly by planning with schools and colleges.