A SECONDARY school is appealing for volunteers to help carry out thousands of Covid-19 tests when it reopens next month.

Ulverston Victoria High School is calling for volunteers to aid its lateral flow testing programme due to start when pupils return.

Following on from the various announcements from both the Prime Minister and the Department for Education, all secondary schools now have to offer three lateral flow tests to all students on their return to face-to-face learning from Monday March 8.

Assistant headteacher Richard Butler said the school would be ‘exceptionally grateful’ to any volunteers willing to come forward to help with the programme.

He said: “We have to plan for carrying out almost 5,000 tests over a two-week period – an immense task for any organisation.

“However, at the same time as all the tests taking place, the school has to run ‘as normal’, with all teachers delivering live teaching (either face-to-face or online depending on the staggered return to school), and all other non-teaching staff continuing to perform their roles, whether in support of our students’ learning or in an administrative capacity.

“With this in mind only a very small number of our LFT-trained staff can continue in this role (our testing of staff and those students who have been attending school since the beginning of January has always taken place over lunchtimes), hence the need for community volunteers to come into the school to help us.

“If we can carry out the logistical operation that the government is telling us to do, it will hopefully give more confidence to both our school community and the wider Ulverston community in terms of the transmission of coronavirus amongst our student population.”

The school is looking for the following voluntary roles: test assistant, processor and student supervisor (to help manage queuing and waiting areas).

Test assistants require a valid DBS check but the other roles do not.

Children who need support to administer the swab will be tested by the school nurse.

Any volunteers will need to complete an online training module, which will take no more than 30 minutes, then bring their certificate into school.

If you register your interest, the school will provide all the information required to do this.

The school plans on inviting volunteers into school on March 4 and 5 can observe the testing process being carried out by our staff on other colleagues.

If you are interested in volunteering between March 8 and 19, visit the UVHS website or email Emma Dyson at edy@uvhs.uk.