Dear Parents/Carers

Lateral Flow Device Testing in Years 7-13

I am writing to you to sign post you to the link to give consent to the lateral flow device (LFD) testing consent and information documents that are located here in our school website:

Click here to read more.

As you know, on 22nd February 2021, the Prime Minister announced some measures regarding the lifting of some current restrictions and the government has now published the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’, setting out the roadmap out of the current lockdown for England. Schools will continue to remain open to vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. From the 8th March, we will welcome all our students back to school and roll out a LFD testing programme in line with government guidance.

Only pupils who have consented or whose parents and carers have consented on their behalf, can be tested. For those pupils who have consent, we will be carrying out three LFD tests in school over 2 weeks between 8^th March and 19^th March, spaced out at between 3 to 5 days. After the three tests, pupils in years 7-13 will be provided with two tests to use each week at home. I will write to you again with further information about these home test kits.

We are very positive about the potential for the mass asymptomatic testing of pupils and staff in schools as a way of reducing the spread of the virus and enabling less disruption to learning from covid-19. I attended Department of Education webinar yesterday and the rationale behind the need for three tests was explained. Three tests are conducted to improve the accuracy of detecting the virus and also to support pupils to practice swabbing themselves - something that they will do at home when we issue the self-testing kits.

If you are giving consent, please complete all sections of the paperwork (the link is above). You will appreciate that setting up the LFD Test Centre in school is a big logistical undertaking, so to support our planning, if you are giving consent, it would be very help if you could complete the forms by Thursday 4^th March. Consent can still be made after this date - the forms will still be available.

I will be sending out a detailed letter of our full re-opening plans in the next couple of working days, to include start dates for each year group during the week of 8^th March and further details on year 11 and year 13 centred assessed grades.

We are also making a video in school this week to show pupils how we have set up our LFD Test Centre and how the tests are conducted - a way to reassure and to explain. We will communicate the link to you next week.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Lloyd

Head of School - Secondary Phase