Every month for six months, 4,000 pupils and 100 staff in Bristol schools will provide nose and throat swabs to track COVID-19 infections in real time. The problem is that schools faced the pandemic with almost no data. No one knew how the virus moved through classrooms, corridors, and staff rooms, or how to contain it without shutting everything down. This project fills that gap by testing everyone monthly, then following any positive case back into the household to test family members weekly for four weeks. It also uses postcodes to map infection hotspots across the city, so resources can be sent to the most affected areas. If this works, schools will get practical tools: a digital contact-tracing system that works faster than manual methods, and a version of the 'Germ Defence' app adapted for school life. The project also tracks mental wellbeing among pupils and staff as they return to the classroom, identifying which support activities actually help. The result could be a replicable model—not just for COVID-19, but for any future respiratory outbreak—that keeps schools open without becoming transmission hubs.
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This project will create new knowledge and tools to help schools deal with the practical challenges of preventing and coping with an outbreak of COVID-19. The project will test for infection in the school environment and test whether staff and pupils have current or past COVID-19 infection, over a 6-month period. We will test 4000 pupils and 100 staff members monthly. Any positive case identified as part of this study or reported within the city during the study period will be followed up to establish whether the household concerned is connected to a school (via a pupil or member of school staff). If so, we will test the members of the household weekly for 4 weeks to improve our understanding of infection transmission in this setting. We will use staff and pupil postcodes to identify the areas of the city with most infection, so that they can be given targeted support for infection control. We will improve systems for rapid and effective contact tracing, using digital support. We will work with staff, pupils and parents to adapt and use the 'Germ Defence' app to help everyone improve their infection control at school and outside school. Finally, we will assess the impact of returning to school on pupil and staff mental wellbeing, and their attitudes to this project. We will explore what schools are doing to support pupils experiencing difficulties, and assess which activities are most helpful. Our project builds on our team's wide range of very relevant research expertise and a well-established, strong partnership between the University of Bristol and Bristol City Council, Public Health England, local schools and other city stakeholders.
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