The independent study, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care and supported by the Department for Education and Office for National Statistics, ran between April and June 2021. The results were published today in pre-print.
201 secondary schools and colleges of further education were randomised into two groups. Over 200,000 students and 20,000 staff participated. Half of the schools continued a standard policy of routine mass testing, and isolation for close contacts of positive cases for 10 days. The second group of schools invited close contacts of positive cases to come to school and take lateral flow tests in a supervised school testing site over 7 days. Those who chose to do so were released from isolation to attend school or college if they tested negative for COVID-19. Around half of all eligible students and staff chose to do daily testing. Close contacts, from either group of the study, were invited to provide a research PCR test for COVID-19 on day 2 and 7 following contact, in order to determine how many close contacts became infected.