Mr Stewart Jordan is Theatre Manager at Queenswood. In his additional capacity as the Quality Lead/Supervisor in our onsite Covid-19 testing facility, Stewart updates us on this week’s lateral flow testing of pupils.

The start of the Autumn Term is always full on, but to keep us on our toes the government have asked us to add onsite asymptomatic testing to the organisational maelstrom of the first week.

The testing allows us to start term with a clean bill of Covid health and gives us the confidence to move forward with a return to a more ‘normal’ Queenswood environment. Luckily we were able to rally the majority of our testing team from last year to take on the challenge and they, along with a few new members of staff, have made the process quick, slick and once again enjoyable.

I would like to extend my thanks to Ian Williams (Bursar), Ian Sheldon (Senior Deputy Head) and Paul Keen (Health and Safety Officer) for their organisational input, and to the entire testing team for their time and work at this extremely busy time of year. A special mention should go to Jean Lewsley (Senior IT Technician) whose work on the data side of the operation is invaluable. In case you were wondering, at the time of writing we are half a day through the second period of testing, and all tests have come back negative!