But the school said this was only down to an “intense” undertaking from its Covid testing team. The majority of secondary schools have started with a phased return this week, but not so the Ledbury high school, where staff and volunteers went more than the extra mile last week, with early mass Covid testing, to ensure full classrooms from the off. Andy Collard deputy headmaster said: “It s been intense and a huge amount of time to prepare but we were determined to make sure that all students could come back on Monday! “I hear that around 75 per cent of secondary schools are having phased returns, but thanks to the incredible work of our testing team and phenomenal support from parents and carers, we ve managed to complete the first phase of testing and we ve moved onto the second phase now.”
SECONDARY schools in Herefordshire are gearing up to reopen to all pupils in less than two weeks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the return to the classroom on Monday, with all pupils due back on March 8 after two months of learning from home. Secondary school and college students will be expected to carry out twice-weekly testing, but this is voluntary and not compulsory. Initially testing will be at school, but students will then be expected to carrt out tests at home. Headteachers are urging parents to give permission as it should prevent any outbreaks. The lateral flow devices which will be used can return a result with 30 minutes, and are being used to find asymptomatic cases.
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EARLY mass Covid testing for John Masefield students means that a mass return to school will be possible for all students on March 8. Earlier this week, the High School was looking to a phased return, saying it was impossible to test all 900 pupils on March 8, before they start lessons. But now the school has been give the green light to test pupils the week before, a single day return for all is students is now the plan. Headteacher Andrew Evans said: Schools can commence lateral flow tests for students from Thursday March 4. Therefore, we have decided that we will test all students on that day and Friday March 5.