All educational settings – summer and autumn testing arrangements
FAO: All Schools / All Phases
We want to update you on plans for testing over the summer and into the autumn so you have sufficient time to plan ahead of the summer break.
We are confirming that regular asymptomatic rapid testing will stay in place until the end of the summer term. Thank you for all your efforts to encourage students and staff to test themselves twice a week at home – please do continue to do this in these last few weeks of term.
Regular testing will pause in education settings over the summer except for in those that remain open such as summer schools, out of school settings and those that do not operate on a term-time basis. In these cases, only those attending should continue to test regularly. However, testing is still widely available and kits can be collected either from your local pharmacy or ordered online.
Please use the online re-ordering platform to place orders for further test kits after reviewing your stock levels to enable testing over the summer holiday period, if your setting remains open (for example Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) nurseries, Independent Training Providers (ITPs) and Adult Community Learning provider (ACLPs).
The guidance for children in year 6 and below remains the same and we will not be advising them to test. This includes year 6 pupils attending transition days or summer schools over the summer break.
We want to help education settings to be prepared for all scenarios, including testing on return after the summer holidays. We will provide all schools and colleges with refreshed guidance, test kits, and PPE so that you can be ready to stand up on-site Asymptomatic Test Sites (ATS) from the start of the autumn term. We expect to be able to confirm the position alongside announcements on Step 4.
Given the uncertainties about the Covid situation we will face in the autumn, we want to help secondary schools and colleges to be as prepared as possible for all scenarios, including testing on return after the summer holidays, if needed. Schools and colleges may choose to start testing students and pupils no earlier than three days before the start of term, or stagger the return of pupils during the first week of term if they would like to do so. This is voluntary and at the discretion of each school and college.
Test kits for ATS will be delivered from Tuesday 29 June to Friday 23 July. There is no need for you to make separate orders for this. Information on delivery schedules and refreshed guidance is now available on the school and college document sharing platform. If you do not have access to this, please contact the DfE helpline on 0800 046 8687