COVID-19 Lateral Flow Device Testing for our school (8 Dec 21)

 Dear parent/carer,

 COVID-19 Lateral Flow Device Testing for our school

 Thank you for all you do to help keep our school safe for everyone. A vitally important part of this is regular testing at home using Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests. For that reason, I am asking you to encourage or support your child this winter to:

·         Test regularly (twice a week) at home; and

·         Report all results, whether positive negative or void, at www.covidtest.scot or by calling 119.

Why does testing and reporting results matter?

·         Regular, twice-weekly testing at home can identify people at an early stage who have Covid with no symptoms. By asking them to self-isolate, we can reduce the risk of the virus being passed on and avoid more of our young people and staff missing school over the winter period.

·         Reporting positives means your family will receive the advice and support you need. Reporting negative and void results helps public health experts to understand the full picture of COVID in our area, and to plan to protect communities and keep schools safe and open.

What else do I need to know?

·         The online portal for reporting results has been improved following feedback – you can now register family accounts that save key information for all your family members, so it only takes a few minutes to report results using your phone.

·         We have now ordered new test kits that are “nose-only” – this is to address feedback that some young people found throat swabbing uncomfortable. This link shows how to do the new tests: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk3LLAD7ybk]. All our school pupils can access LFD test kits free of charge from our school.

·         LFD tests are very good at identifying people who don’t have symptoms but who have a “high viral load”. Those are the people who are most infectious and likely to pass the virus onto others. All LFDs supplied by schools have passed rigorous safety tests.

NB: If your child receives a positive result from their LFD at home or has symptoms, they must report any LFD result online (or by calling 119), self-isolate and book a PCR test via NHS Inform at www.nhsinform.scot. Everyone in the household should also self-isolate and follow the advice about next steps on NHS Inform.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for contributing to the shared effort to test, report and keep our school community safe during the winter period.

Further information for parents is at: www.parentclub.scot/articles/covid-19-testing-staff-and-pupils, and more general information on LFD testing can be found at www.nhsinform.scot. Frequently Asked Questions for young people, designed in partnership with Young Scot, can be found here: https://young.scot/get-informed/national/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-for-young-people-at-school.

Yours sincerely,

Ross Hunter - Head Teacher