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News From Our School


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St Julie’s Catholic High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, governors, volunteers and visitors to share this commitment

Mass Asymptomatic Lateral Flow Testing

Jun 28, 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,
Re: Supervised Self-Test Project - communications for schools and colleges to use with parents and
pupils about the model
We are taking part in a project run by the Department for Education and NHS Test and Trace to
encourage participation in regular rapid testing amongst secondary school and college students.
Testing has been playing a vital role in the response to COVID-19. It is helping to break chains of
transmission by identifying asymptomatic positive cases quickly. This means those who test positive
can self-isolate, keeping other pupils and students in face-to-face education. Reporting all test
results, positive or negative, helps the health experts have a clearer picture of any potential
outbreaks in different parts of the country. That is why we would like all students at our school to
take part in the project.
Currently, students take lateral flow device tests twice a week at home to detect asymptomatic
cases of COVID-19 and report the results themselves, with the assistance of their parents or carers.
As part of this project, we are now asking students to take at least one of their twice weekly tests at
school. Students will be asked to self-swab and process the test (as they have been doing at home)
in a designated area. A trained staff member will then monitor the test result as it develops (allowing
the student to return to class and will read and report the result on the students' behalf. This is
different to the previous Asymptomatic Test Site (ATS) model where students self-swabbed and
trained staff processed the test, as well as reading and reporting the result.
Testing in this way should make the process faster and easier for students compared to when they
test and report themselves at home. It should also make it easier for trained staff to oversee the
testing compared to the previous ATS model. This quicker process will encourage and support more
students to participate in testing and report results.
We plan to start testing in this way from Tuesday 29 June.
If parents have already given consent for testing they don’t need to do so again. If parents haven’t
previously given consent, they can do so now by visiting this link:
http://survey.stjulies.org.uk/index.php/415783?lang=en. Students without consent will not be
asked to self-test and a parent can withdraw consent at any time.
Students should be testing twice each week, 3-4 days apart as per:
(https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-ifyou-
do-not-have-symptoms/)
What will happen if a student tests positive?
As before, if a student has a positive test result, they will need to self-isolate immediately in line with
the stay-at-home guidance until they receive their confirmatory PCR test. They should inform their
educational setting of their result so the setting can identify close contacts. Anyone who lives with
them and anyone in their support bubble, should self-isolate in accordance with current national and
local guidance.
We will continue to manage and notify any close contacts of students with positive results. Thank
you for your support at this time, as we see the number of cases continue to rise.
Best wishes
Mr Alderman
Headteacher