On Tuesday the 22nd of February, the UK Prime Minister announced that the remaining COVID rules would be dropped in England. But what does this mean for England’s school and colleges? Here’s what we know along with the latest recommendations.
An end to mandatory isolation
It is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate after receiving a positive COVID test. This means students and teachers are allowed to attend school and college if they have COVID. However, the advice from Public Health England remains that anyone who receives a positive COVID result should self-isolate.
An end to mandatory testing
Students and teachers are no longer required to do a lateral flow tests twice a week. However, regular testing is still advised for SEND settings, alternative provision and SEND units in mainstream schools or the equivalent in colleges.
If staff or students wish to continue with weekly testing (although not recommended) they can still access them online here or through their local pharmacy if they wish.
Recommendations
COVID-19 will remain part of our lives for the foreseeable, and so we need to continue to reduce the spread of the virus in our schools and colleges as much as possible whilst still getting on with our lives. There are 3 main ways we can do this:
Ventilation
Good ventilation in classrooms in one of the best way to prevent the spread of COVID. Simply opening the windows will help with this. The UK government has provided over 360,000 carbon dioxide monitors to all state funded education settings including early years, and further education providers. The monitors help staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and to help get a good level of ventilation whilst keeping the classroom warm.
Hand hygiene
All through the pandemic we’ve been encouraged to regularly wash our hands with soap and water and this advice remains the same. Hand hygiene is a simple and easy way to slow the spread of germs.
Vaccination
Vaccines remain the best protection against the virus and everyone who is eligible for the vaccine (age 12 and over) is encouraged to get fully vaccinated.
You can view the UK government’s update on COVID restrictions for England and the implications for your school or college here.