Student Home Testing Kits
Dear Parent/Carer
To support the NHS finding every case of Covid-19 as quickly and easily as possible, families, households and support bubbles with secondary age children can now access regular testing. About a third of people with coronavirus show no symptoms and potentially spread it without knowing, so targeted, regular testing will mean more positive cases within households are found and prevented from entering the Academy.
The Government has now confirmed that twice-weekly testing, using rapid lateral flow tests, will be given for free to all families and households with primary, secondary and college aged children and young people or employees, including childcare and support bubbles, to help find more COVID-19 cases and break chains of transmission.
Secondary school students will be tested twice a week, having received three initial tests at the Academy (where consent has been gained) before transitioning to twice weekly home testing.
A home test kit will be issued to your child(ren) at the Academy, on Friday 12th March 2021. Please ask your child for these test kits when they return home from the Academy, ensuring that the box is intact. You need to administer one test every 3-4 days following the instruction leaflet that accompanies the testing kit. Whilst testing is not mandatory to allow your child to attend the Academy, we would encourage you to participate in this process in order to keep both your child, your family and others safe.
Comprehensive guidance on self-testing is contained in the ‘Instructions for Use’ leaflet which comes with the test kit. There is also a useful video to show you how to administer the test using the following link How to Administer an LFD Home Test
Twice weekly testing involves taking a test twice a week (every 3 or 4 days apart) and reporting the result to both the NHS and the Academy on the same day you take the test by clicking the following links:
NHS Test and Trace – NHS Covid19 LFD Test Result, or by calling 119
Academy – Academy LFD Test Result
[For information: primary school children will not be regularly asymptomatically tested due to low levels of transmission between younger aged children, but will continue to need to come forward for tests if they have symptoms.]
Twice-weekly testing is already provided to all school staff and will now also be offered to adults working in the wider school community, including bus drivers and after school club leaders.
Testing families, households and support bubbles is an additional tool, working with other protective measures that are in place in schools to help protect staff and students, including social distancing, handwashing and face covering. Rapid testing detects cases quickly – in under 30 minutes – meaning positive cases can isolate immediately.
Please note that whilst this is encouraged (but not mandatory), the Academy will not be providing test kits to families or administer the family testing process. The tests are available for adults in these households. You can get a twice-weekly tests in one of the following ways:
- through your employer if they offer testing to employees
- at a local test site – find your nearest site here
- by collecting a home test kit from a test site – please check in advance if you need to book an appointment.
- by ordering a home test kit online here or by calling 119.
We hope you have found this information useful. The latest Coronavirus information for schools in the Cabot Learning Federation can be found on our Covid-19 hub here.
If you have any specific concerns or questions about COVID testing please do contact us using the [email protected] email address
