This isn’t quite right, but it highlights an important issue. There are some inevitable implications of track and trace for headteachers (and those who support them) and some unreasonable expectations too imo. As follows: https://twitter.com/tes/status/1321679407040335873

It is correct that the school is expected to identify and contact all close contacts from the school environment. The former (identify) is inevitable and sensible, the latter (contact and instruct to isolate) is a questionable expectation. Which other org’s do we expect this of?

It is very time consuming task. When school is in session, you have the resources and support to do this. The problem comes at weekends and holidays. If you are informed outside of school hours, headteachers (and their teams) have to drop everything to start tracking.

This problem is worse for headteachers in small schools (e.g. primary schools) I expect, as they end up doing it themselves. It can wipe out the best part of a day.

The TES article is incorrect about this being a 365 days responsibility. It is only those in close contact in the 48 hr period prior to symptoms emerging who must be identified. Therefore, there is a 2 day ‘risk’ window after the last day the school was in session.

In practice, this means every weekend and the first 4/5 days of each holiday (as the school may not hear about a positive test until a couple of days after symptoms/test taken). Headteachers can ‘stand down’ only at the end of a half term break and in longer holidays.

One practical implication is that headteachers may not risk leaving the area (for a break or to visit relatives) unless they have a backup plan in their absence.

The other implications are that it makes it more difficult to switch off from work at weekends and holidays and that any downtime or leisure activity may have to be abandoned at no notice.

For schools in tier 2/3 areas, this could kick off multiple times in a short period.

I don’t see any way around this, and I have just accepted it as an inevitable consequence of running a school in a pandemic. However, government should be aware of this and, in my opinion, centralise the task of contacting close contacts. This should not be expected of schools.