Testing teachers and pupils, regardless of whether they have Covid-19, is essential for keeping schools safe, according to a report by the Children’s Commissioner for England.

It will also be crucial to prevent entire “bubble groups” or year groups from having to be sent home once a case of Covid-19 occurs, the briefing from Anne Longfield adds.

Released to set out key actions to ensure that children and their education are a priority in planning for future lockdowns, the briefing says testing will be particularly important this winter, when clusters of flu could be mistaken for a Covid-19 outbreak and result in unnecessary closure or interruption.

Children’s Commissioner: Schools should be ‘the last places to be locked down’

Research: Opening schools risks double-strength second Covid wave

News: Schools could use 90-minute Covid test, says minister

Study: Give teachers PPE to keep schools open, say researchers

The briefing reads: “With rapid testing of pupils and teachers, any confirmed Covid-19 cases and their close contacts can be isolated without necessarily having to send entire classes or year groups home.”

The testing policy in the Department for Education’s plans for all pupils to return in September reads:  “Where an outbreak in a school is confirmed, for specific detailed investigations a mobile testing unit may be dispatched to test others who may have been in contact with the person who has tested positive.

“Testing will first focus on the person’s class, followed by their year group, then the whole school if necessary.

“All staff, pupils and their families will continue to have access to testing if they develop Covid-19 symptoms and schools will be provided with easy to use home testing kits for children and staff who would otherwise be unable to get a test.”

Coronavirus: Reopening schools safely

The children’s commissioner report makes the case for pooling the results of testing teachers and students with attendance data to model risks of transmission and test effective strategies for minimising risk.

It also suggests that any outbreak in a school should be thoroughly investigated so that potential links in the chain of transmission can be pre-emptively broken.

The report comes after a major study published this week highlighted the risk of schools reopening without a robust test-trace-isolate system in wider society.

The study found that without a major scale-up of test and tracing capacity, the UK could face a second wave twice as large as the original by December 2020.