The Department of Education would like to update the public on the process that has been put in place to support the safe return to school of staff and students in January 2022. These same procedures, which were in place when staff returned to school in October and after the November break, require all staff and students to present a negative PCR test result that must be dated within 3-days of entering school buildings.
Given that school commences on January 4th for staff and January 5th for students, the Molecular Diagnostic Lab (MDL) determined the testing schedule for the nearly 5,400 staff and students to have access to testing within the required 3-day period. These dates were sent to staff, parents and guardians earlier this week so they know in advance when to schedule their testing appointment.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Teachers and Staff only
Bermuda College Cafeteria 10:00am – 3:00pm
Bull’s Head Car Park 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Student Testing
Bermuda College Cafeteria 10:00am – 4:00pm
Bull’s Head Car Park 12:00pm – 3:00pm
CedarBridge Academy Staff and Students (Self testing) 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Monday, January 3, 2022
Student Testing
Bermuda College Cafeteria 10:00am – 4:00pm
Bull’s Head Car Park 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Student Testing
Bermuda College Cafeteria 10:00am – 12:00pm
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy Student Testing (At School site) – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
The booking form for testing will be active as of December 20, 2021, at Schools.resqwest.com.
The schedule which includes testing on a public holiday was prepared by MDL based on capacity constraints, logistics, and the public health needs of the public school system to ensure that staff receive test results in time to report to their respective school sites on January 4th and students on January 5th 2022.
As such, staff are scheduled to test on Saturday, January 1st. However, MDL has determined a window of time for appointments on Monday, January 3rd for staff testing with an absolute cut off of 12 noon. It is critical for the Department of Education to know if there are potential staff shortages in advance so that coverage can be arranged.
Staff and students are asked to follow the schedule and to test on the days that have been allocated. This does not however, rule out persons wishing to test at other private locations, as long as the result is no older than 3-days and presented at the school prior to entering the buildings.
Commissioner of Education, Mrs. Kalmar Richards said: our goal is to have schools open for in-person learning in January because we know that face-to-face learning provides the best learning opportunities and experiences for children. We encourage everyone to work together so that our children can start the 2022 New Year with in-person learning.