COVID-19: Parents of England secondary school pupils 'will be asked to test them twice a week'
According to a report, they will have to use rapid lateral flow tests under plans to reopen schools as lockdown is eased.
Thursday 18 February 2021 13:52, UK
Parents of secondary school pupils in England will be required to test their children twice a week once schools return, it has been reported.
According to the Daily Telegraph, they will have to use rapid lateral flow tests under government plans to reopen schools as the COVID-19 lockdown is eased.
Latest coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world
Asked about this report during an interview on Sky News, care minister Helen Whately did not confirm or deny the story.
"Next week more will be set out about how the return to school is going to work," she said.
Ms Whately said later in a BBC interview: "There is work being done to look at how testing will help schools come back. But there will be more details set out about that next week."
Sky News has also contacted the Department for Education for a comment.
Boris Johnson is due to reveal his plan for easing lockdown on Monday.
The prime minister has said getting pupils back in the classroom is the government's priority, with 8 March proposed as the earliest possible data on which this could happen.
It is not clear at this stage whether all year groups would go back en masse, or whether there would be a more staggered return.
According to the Telegraph, DfE officials will meet with education unions today to finalise arrangements for mass testing of secondary pupils.
Schools will only oversee one round of testing, when pupils return for the first time, it reported.
This will require some secondaries to stagger the return of year groups in order to carry out the tests, the paper said.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders union, told Sky News: "If what we're reading in the papers today is the direction of travel, there will be some mass testing in those secondary schools and further education colleges initially.
"But then the responsibility for that would pass to the home, to parents, that's something that we would endorse, that seems a good idea."
Asked about the timeline for pupils returning to the classroom, he said: "I don't think all young people will be back on the 8th of March, I think from the 8th of March is much more sensible.
"Remember we've got 10 million children in England, so suddenly on one day to take almost a fifth of the population and to have them moving around the communities and back into schools and colleges is unwise.
"But also, if that mass testing is going to happen, it would need to be a phased approach because of the amount of time it takes to do each child."