Letter from the Secretaries of State for Education and Health
The Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have written a joint letter to parents about the vaccination of children aged 12 to 15 and the importance of continuing with twice-weekly COVID-19 testing and reporting.
The letter provides information on COVID-19 testing and advises that, in response to potential outbreaks, local health teams may advise additional testing and isolation protocols at your school or college. For example, if a student or pupil is identified as a close contact by NHS Test and Trace, they may be asked to take daily lateral flow device (LFD) tests, while they wait for their PCR test result. In this scenario, they should continue to attend school or college as long as their LFD test results remain negative. Alongside the letter are some frequently answered questions for parents, from Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation.
A copy of the letter is available to download. Please share this letter and the frequently asked questions with your parent networks.
Could I ask that if any students carry out lateral flow tests, that only positive results are reported to the school, as a reason for being off, to the main office. This information is classified as Personal Health Information (PHI) and we at school will treat it as such. I would therefore ask that you as parents please do the same, for example, not report results on social media.
If you have any questions regarding guidance, testing or reporting please see the following hyperlinks: