Thread by @HT_StMonicas

Today we completed our first onsite testing walkthrough. Here are some thoughts..
1. Planning is vital. We looked at a number of phases- planning , training, communication and walkthrough. Rather than rush we have tried to plan so it works effectively.

2. Our plan made clear who the key site operatives were. It’s vital that the right people have the right roles. We designated 3 site leaders and have made sure that they are all SLT. We were lucky to get some help from Bury LA. 👍

3. We have made sure that all people in the core testing team have completed all the training (sounds obvious), but this helped in the walkthrough as we could all spot errors etc. One of the leads led a full team online briefing yesterday, and training completion was mandatory.

4. Registration online is time consuming. This part needs to be carefully considered, and mass testing of a whole school could fall down on the registration process. It took our volunteers longer to register online than complete the test. We may model registering with pupils.

5. The actual testing is straightforward, and the results etc were simple to decode. It’s vital that schools keep their own records of the results. Staff felt better after the walkthrough, and this will really help when more pupils are tested.

6. Upscaling to whole school is something I suspect will be vital to schools reopening. We should be planning for this now though, in terms of extra people. This is a worry, as bigger scale is harder to quality manage etc.

7. Schools should give thought to impact of time of day on testing. If a teacher tests positive in the morning what is the impact? Same with pupils. Consider the challenge of test timings and if pupils should go back to class etc.

8. I’m happy to share our school critical path, just follow and DM me.👍