Minister's plea to keep Covid out of classrooms

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has urged pupils and their families to continue taking regular coronavirus tests to keep Covid out of the classroom.

Mr Williamson is encouraging secondary school children and parents to carry on testing at home, twice a week, to help "break chains of transmission".

The call comes after academics called for the suspension of daily Covid-19 testing trials in schools amid a range of concerns.

In an open letter to secondary school and college parents in England, Mr Williamson said: "With the increase in cases with variants of concern, it is important to continue regular testing in order to stay ahead of the virus and keep Covid out of the classroom.

"This means that regular asymptomatic testing for all will continue, and we need you and your children to carry on testing at home, twice a week."

Currently around 200 schools and colleges are participating in a trial, with one group following the national guidance of quarantining contacts of positive cases, and the other allowing daily testing of contacts for a week instead of isolation.

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “When a pupil tests positive they have to self-isolate and schools have to trace all their close contacts and ask them to self-isolate too.

"The pupil who tested positive is asked to arrange a PCR test which, if negative, overrides the lateral flow test and they can return to school and so can their close contacts.

"But all of this is hugely disruptive and time-consuming.”