‘It will be up to parents to make sure children are tested regularly’
Education Secretary’s plan to keep schools safe
PARENTS must make sure their children take home Covid tests when they go back to school, the Education Secretary said yesterday.
Gavin Williamson said secondary pupils should have two tests a week when classroom lessons resume.
Fathers and mothers will be told to “support” their offspring in carrying out lateralflow tests – nose and throat swabs – at home from March 8.
Mr Williamson added that schools will be required to keep open some space for pupils unable to do them off-site.
He said: “I certainly hope that parents will be encouraging and supporting children but we are also asking schools to keep open an asymptomatic testing centre.
“So if children haven’t been able to get the support or help they need to do the test at home, it is possible to do the test in school as well.” Jenny
Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, said the virus checks are “very simple things to do”. She added that “many of the public” were doing them.
She said: “The testing programme in schools is clearly going to mean that people – parents, grandparents and teachers and other school children – can be very assured schools will be as safe as they can be because we are trying to remove infection from that environment.”
Mr Williamson also revealed that the Government is putting responsibility for summer’s exam results “firmly in the hands of teachers”.
Full details of his plans to replace sit-down exams are to be announced to MPs today. A-level and GCSE students are set to receive grades determined by their teachers earlier in August to give them more time to appeal.
The Education Secretary also ruled out any lengthening of the school day to help children catch up on lost learning. Regarding the summer exams, he said there would be “no algorithms whatsoever” used in determining grades after computer-modelling was scrapped last year. He said: “As I said many times before, we are putting trust in teachers. That’s where the trust is going. There are going to be no algorithms whatsoever. But there will be a very clear and robust appeals mechanism.” He added that extra