Lateral Flow Testing at home 18/3/21

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Update 18-3-21

Please read carefully the letter emailed today to parent/carer(s) about lateral flow testing at home. Letter will also be linked in the ‘Letters Home‘ page under ‘Parent & Carers’ menu shortly.

Update 15-3-21

We are very pleased to report that Day 6 of testing has been completed which means all students, whose parents/ carers consented, have completed two tests in school. All tests taken at school today have registered negative results.

Phase 3 Testing (Final In-School Phase)

Tuesday 16th March (Years 7 and 11)

Year 7 will be tested during registration, period 1 and period 2 tomorrow, with Year 11 being tested during periods 3, 4 and 5. All testing will be completed before the end of the school day.

Wednesday 17th March (Years 8, 12 and 13)

Year 8 will be tested during registration, period 1 and period 2 on Wednesday and the Year 12 and Year 13 will be tested at the same time as their phase 2 test last week. Please see the table below for details.

Year 12 Testing Schedule Timings (Wednesday 17th March)

Students who are in lessons will need to come out of their lesson to be tested at the allocated time, other students will need to come in to school for their allocated testing time, all students will need to report to the Sixth Form Centre to register for their test. It is vital that all students are on time for their appointment.

Year 13 Testing Schedule Timings (Wednesday 17th March)

The same as for Year 12, students who are in lessons will need to come out of their lesson to be tested at the allocated time, other students will need to come in to school for their allocated testing time, all students will need to report to the Sixth Form Centre to register for their test. It is vital that all students are on time for their appointment.

Update 10-3-21

Details of Testing on Thursday 11th March
It is our intention to test all the students, whose parents consented, in Year 7 and Year 11 before 3pm tomorrow. We will begin testing during registration in the morning with Year 7 and then move on to Year 11 mid-way through the morning. We are very hopeful that we will have concluded the testing of Year 11 before 3pm, however, we may need to ask some Year 11 students, whose surname begins with letters towards the end of the alphabet, to remain in school after 3pm. If necessary, we will send a communication just before 3pm outlining the details of which students have been asked to remain after 3pm.

All students who travel to school via local authority transport will be prioritised during the afternoon to ensure that they have been tested before 3pm.

As the arrangements for Friday depend upon how the testing runs tomorrow, further details on the testing schedule for Friday will communicated via email tomorrow afternoon. On Friday I will communicate the arrangements for next week.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to the GMS staff and particularly our volunteers who have been outstanding in their work in the GMS test centre over the past three days, just the six more days to go!

Update 9-3-21

It was very good to see so many of our Year 13 cohort in school this evening as part of the lateral flow testing programme and even better that there were no positive test results recorded. However, we have not been able to upload the test result spreadsheet to the NHS website this evening so you will not receive a message from the NHS confirming your son/ daughter’s negative test result.

This does not affect their ability to attend lessons in school and I very much look forward to seeing all Year 13 students in school for lessons starting from tomorrow.

Update 5-3-21

We have emailed all parent/carers details of the lateral flow schedule for every year group as well as updated information regarding face masks. Please read the letters carefully which can also be found under the ‘Parent & Carers’ –> ‘Letters Home’ menu page.

Update 4-3-21 – 8th March Arrangements

Please read the attached letter, which is also added in the ‘Letters Home‘ page on the school website regarding arrangements for a phased return from 8th March and in school lateral flow testing.

• GMS School Arrangements from 8th March 2021

We have also included a short video demonstrating our testing facilities to help ease any tension people may have.

Thank you to all of the people that have volunteered to support GMS with the testing process so far.