Honiton principal 'incandescent' over school testing tweet goes viral

Honiton Community College Principal, Glenn Smith, has caused a stir on social media after tweeting his frustration following the recent Government announcement that schools will begin rapid coronavirus testing in January.

"I'm incandescent!" Mr Smith posted on his personal Twitter account.

"It's taken seven months and £22bn to get national testing to 400k a day (actually 150k) yet they expect us to create a parallel testing regime which can manage 500k to 1m people tested a day with one day to train, no up front funding and no staff to carry out the tests!"

The tweet has so far received 5.8k likes - almost six thousand - since it was posted on Friday morning (Dec 18).

Two thousand people have also retweeted the post, with many adding comments in support of the statement.

"I am not surprised by the response to my tweet regarding rapid testing in schools," Glenn told us.

"It made me incandescent and clearly struck a chord with a great many people – and not just the teaching profession; that is evident from the variety of people and professions that have commented, re-tweeted and liked it."

'The latest farce in a long line of debacles'

"Though the idea of regular testing of school staff and the serial testing of students is welcomed, once again we have had to make sense of the Department for Education's (DfE) discombobulated and ill-timed approach to many aspects of Covid-19.

"The chaotic and rushed nature of this announcement, the lack of proper guidance, and an absence of appropriate support, the government's plan in its current form will be inoperable for most schools and colleges.

"This is just the latest farce in a long line that includes the debacle over national examinations last summer."

'Penalised for following government guidance'

"If a school led and managed in such an abysmal manner then it would expect to be put into special measures, yet the DfE have repeatedly let down schools throughout this pandemic.

"The laptops for vulnerable students came at the end of the lockdown and so had little impact, and we received a fraction of those promised.

"We, like many schools, have been refused reimbursement for the cost of Covid. We have currently spent around £30k and estimate that will reach £50k by the end of the academic year.

"Politicians said we would receive extra funding but we (like so many schools) have been penalised because we have followed government guidance and ensured we have reserves of approximately four per cent of our annual budget."

'The way schools have been treated is criminal'

"Consequently, we have been told we can't claim for the costs of the pandemic. The PPE, sanitiser, cleaning costs, safety screening, and the supply staff (when teachers are isolating due to close contact), are all expenditure no school had budgeted for and most will not be able to reclaim – money that was supposed to be spent on resources and staffing to support and enhance the education of our young adults. It is criminal the way schools have been treated!

"Ironically, the DfE have confirmed that their staff will be offered £1000 bonuses to work over Christmas on preparations for mass testing and this will surely anger school staff across the country who will now have to oversee test and trace duties during holidays, including the Christmas break and plan for the roll-out of Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) which are expected to start as soon as we return on 4 January 2021 – without extra pay."

'Most difficult term in education since Second World War'

"We will not have time to recruit, DBS check (safeguarding), train, and organise a team of volunteers to staff and run testing stations in college by the start of the Spring term.

"It is simply crass that anyone would believe it could be done unless we worked on into the Christmas holiday, after what is widely viewed as the most difficult term in education since WW2!

"Instead, my senior team and I have held virtual meetings since the end of term and have formulated a plan, using our own staff, who will have to be taken off their normal duties until we can employ the services of either volunteers or temporary staff.

"This will cause additional issues for us but is an unavoidable consequence of this latest initiative.

Government plans for schools to start testing next term

On Thursday (Dec 17) the Government released a statement saying: "To support public health efforts during the return to school in January 2021, we are offering secondary schools in England access to additional coronavirus (Covid-19) testing from the first week of January.

"This will help deliver the national priority of keeping as many pupils and teachers as possible in school beyond the start of term, minimising the spread of the virus and disruption caused by coronavirus cases arising in education settings.

"Secondary-age pupils are being prioritised for testing in response to the recent high rates of coronavirus infection.

"Primary schools will return as normal and these measures do not apply to early years providers.

"All schools with secondary-age pupils (including special schools and alternative provision) will be offered the opportunity to test their pupils, reaching as many pupils as possible from the week of the 4 January.

"The government will encourage as many as possible to take up the offer."

'Chaotic saga set to continue'

"Obviously, ministers haven't got a clue how mainstream schools work and are completely out of touch with the real world," continued Mr Smith.

"Furthermore, because they ignore the teaching profession or just pay lip service to the education unions this chaotic saga will continue.

"It's about time teachers were given the same involvement in the upper echelons of decision making as our colleagues in the medical profession, maybe then our schools would receive useful support and guidance in a timely manner.

He added: "Rest assured though school staff will continue to steer a safe and steady course through the viral rapids, despite the political medalling because of the collegiate spirit and the effective teamwork we have within our schools and colleges."