At Bushey Meads School we want to make the workplace and school environment as safe as possible and have fully engaged with the national initiative to offer Lateral Flow Tests to all staff and students. We are delighted that a superb core team of staff have volunteered to undergo the extensive training to be able to oversee this scheme at the school. The tests will help to identify asymptomatic cases and minimise the spread of the virus, bearing in mind that statistics indicate that 33% of cases are asymptomatic and 15% non-Covid symptoms.

The scheme is completely voluntary and stakeholders are not obliged to take part. Clearly the more who take part, the safer the school will be for all concerned. Staff testing sessions are being offered at convenient times throughout the school day, before school and at lunchtime in the first instance. Testing for children of critical workers and more vulnerable students currently attending school has also started this week.

I would like to thank Ms Jackman, Mrs Isles and Mrs King for stepping up and being so willing to go the extra mile for the staff and students at the school and for setting up a state of the art, hospital-grade testing centre in our Restaurant Extension. From the very first day of term they were willing to engage with a number of webinars delivered jointly by the NHS and Department for Education to establish this rapid flow testing regime at our school. We are extremely grateful for the outstanding leadership and dedication they have shown.