Parents voice anger at schools over Covid tests ‘blackmail’

SECONDARY schools are accused of “blackmailing” parents into giving consent for lateral flow tests after being told their children will be banned from face-to-face lessons if they refuse.

Some head teachers have also written to parents explaining that any pupils who do not agree to take the Covid tests at the start of term will be segregated.

Parents said they are “gobsmacked” by their school’s stance, adding they feel as though they are being subjected to “coercion bordering on blackmail”.

All secondary school students will be offered four lateral flow tests during the first two weeks of term. They will be allowed to continue at school as long as their tests are negative, ministers said.

Students will then also be asked to take two lateral flow tests each week at home and report their results to teachers. If they get a positive result, they will need to immediately isolate and follow it up with a confirmatory PCR test.

Official guidance from the Department for Education (DFE) says that the lateral flow tests are “voluntary”.

But The Daily Telegraph has learnt that schools have already started telling parents children will be banned from class if they do not consent to the tests.

Val Mason, headmistress at Hornchurch High School in Havering, east London, wrote to parents saying: “If you do not provide consent your child will not be permitted to return to face-toface lessons. They will instead be required to complete their work remotely whilst being accommodated on the school site in a separate space.”

One parent said: “The salient point was if you do not provide consent, you will not be allowed to take part in normal lessons. This is coercion bordering on blackmail.” Ms Mason said that all pupils will be taught the “full curriculum” and that the school’s risk control measures will be reviewed at Easter.

Anthony Bodell, the headmaster of Blenheim High School, in Epsom, Surrey, wrote to families saying: “Any students not consenting to being tested will continue with remote learning from March 8, which will involve some electronic access to the face-to face-lessons occurring in school.” He said the situation will be reviewed on March 18.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We encourage all parents to consent to their children being tested if they are in year 7 or above.

“Where parents do not consent, schools should ask those students to return at the same time as their year group and no later than March 15, and they should not otherwise be denied education. Whenever it becomes clear schools are not following our guidance, our regional schools commissioner teams work with the relevant ... local authority to make sure they do so.”