COVID-19 test bookings for January now open
Thursday, 10 December 2020
The following message was sent to all colleagues from Professor Julian Park and Professor Dominik Zaum, Co-Chairs of the University of Reading Major Recovery Team.
Dear colleagues,
Following our previous message about plans for the ‘staggered' return to face-to-face teaching in the spring term, we are writing let you know that bookings are now open for colleagues who will be on campus in the first few weeks of term to have Lateral Flow Test for COVID-19 if they wish to.
Testing at the end of the autumn term
Friday 11 December is the last day of our rapid testing service at the SportsPark this term. We have published the numbers of positive test results received so far on our online dashboard.
Please remember that if you test positive from any type of COVID-19 test, you should let your line manager know as soon as possible. We will need to ensure that your ‘close contacts' in our University community are not unknowingly spreading the virus and we may need information to identify the possible source of transmission. Our students should continue to use our online form if they test positive.
Testing in January
Bookings are now open for colleagues who will be working on campus in the first few weeks of term to book a Lateral Flow Test. Testing will be available from Tuesday 5 January to Friday 29 January and will, once again, take place in the sports hall at the SportsPark. If you wish to take a test, please book as soon as possible, ideally before the Christmas closure.
These tests are also available for all students, whether they have travelled over the Christmas break or remained in Reading. As with the end of the autumn term, we strongly recommend that students use this service, although it is not compulsory. Colleagues are welcome to use the service if they wish. The government advice to take two Lateral Flow Tests for a negative result, three days apart, continues to apply.
Face-to-face teaching on campus in January as part of ongoing blended learning
As outlined in our email earlier this week, we are continuing with blended learning in the spring term and we will be following government advice to phase the return to face-to-face teaching in January.
For the University of Reading, this means:
- term will still start on Monday 11 January for most programmes, with a small number of programmes starting from Tuesday 5 January as originally planned;
- we will continue blended online and face-to-face learning in the spring term;
- the start of face-to-face teaching in January will be staggered, prioritising programmes with practical or placement elements, meaning some modules will be taught online only for the first one or two weeks of term;
- all on-campus teaching will have restarted by 29 January.
A full list of when face-to-face teaching will resume on modules in each School is published on Essentials, along with further information for students about planning their return to campus in the spring. We will shortly be sending this email update to all students.
Academic timetables for the spring term will be published on 18 December. For students, this will show all of the scheduled online and face-to-face sessions in each of the modules for which they are registered. Joint Honours students and students taking modules from other Schools can start to attend face-to-face classes in line with their timetable.
Our postgraduate research students should continue their research activities and supervision meetings as planned, in consultation with their supervisor.
We hope this update has been helpful. If you have any questions, our COVID-19 support line remains available on 0118 214 7813 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays and 11am and 4pm on weekends.
Best wishes,
Julian and Dominik
Professor Julian Park (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education and Student Experience) and Professor Dominik Zaum (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation)
Co-Chairs, University of Reading Major Recovery Team