Schools uncertain over changes to Covid control

Schools minister Nick Gibb has said the Government was conducting a review into using testing to end self-isolation for school pupils in bubbles.

Currently, the control system in England's schools means that groups of pupils have to self-isolate if one tests positive, with official figures showing 172,000 children were self-isolating having potentially been in contact with a positive case in school.

Schools across the region have been affected by this, with many closing for weeks at a time to different ages groups after a positive case has been identified.

The Department for Education said that in order to keep as many children in face-to-face classes as possible, it has written to secondary schools asking them provisionally to prepare for a change after the summer break.

Mr Gibb said the government's priority remained to get children back into school and to keep in school safely and said the testing trial would be key towards this.

He told ITV News: "We have to make sure this daily testing trial is effective in controlling the virus and that’s a matter for the scientists to advise us on having looked at the data from the trial."

East Park Academy in Wolverhampton has been one of the worst-affected schools in the region, with 14 current positive cases and half of the current year groups self-isolating for a fortnight.

The school has also undergone a deep clean over two days to allow for pupils to gradually return to the school, subject to any further positive cases.

Headteacher Hayley Guest said she had heard about the announced changes, but said she wasn't convinced how much could change in the next six weeks.

She said: "I think this is an easy solution to take a headache away and I really can't see what can change between now and September.

"We test our staff twice a week and have done since January, so that process has been firmly in place for us, but I wonder how parents are going to feel about daily testing with their children, particularly primary school age.

"I doubt it'll be put on the schools to do the testing, so it'll mean the parents doing the testing, so you have to wonder about the reliability of that as we have 700 children here.

"It just seems drastic to me to go from the situation we are in at the minute to no bubbles at all in September and I think it's a quick fix."

Q3 Academy in Tipton was hit by a positive case in September last year, with year 11 pupils sent home to self-isolate after the case was identified.

Headteacher Keziah Featherstone said she was broadly supportive of anything which would keep children in school and learning as much as humanly possible.

She said: "We did a really good offer of online learning and we found children coming back had recovered their learning, but there's no alternative to actually being in the classroom learning.

"When we brought children back in March and did onsite testing, it was quite a challenge as we have 1,500 pupils, 300 in each year group, and it took a lot of organisation.

"However, if it's something that's going to help the community and mean that children are in school, then we will do it to ensure they are educated in a safe environment.

"It will take time and staff to get it done, but the number one priority is have kids in classrooms and whatever we have to do to make it happen, we will just make it work."