Term and holiday dates

Lateral Flow Device (LFD) Covid-19 testing during October half-term, 2021

Secondary schools

All staff and secondary school students should continue to do LFD tests twice-weekly over half-term and take an LFD test the night before they return to their setting after the break. We also encourage all residents aged 11 and over to regularly test as an important and effective way to help reduce the spread of the infection across our community.

Primary schools

As an extra measure to protect our local school communities we are advising all primary school pupils to do two LFD tests, 3-5 days apart, with the second one the night before returning to school after the break. This measure has been shown to be highly effective at reducing the spread of the virus in secondary schools and by taking this important one-off action now at half-term we can help to keep the number of cases low in our primary schools. All primary school staff should continue to do twice-weekly testing as usual, including over the half-term break. We also encourage all residents aged 11 and over to regularly test as an important and effective way to help reduce the spread of the infection across our community.

All tests are free and can be accessed in the following ways:

• Pick up free rapid test kits from a local pharmacy. Find your nearest one.
• Order free rapid test kits to be delivered to your home within 24 hours at gov.uk (Please note on local public health advice these kits can be ordered for testing in under 11s)
• Get a free rapid test in person by visiting a local test site. Find your nearest one.