Tech start-up Wonde launch ‘TestRegister’ to aid schools with new COVID-testing regime

• British tech start-up Wonde is launching a new platform to help schools automatically record and report COVID-19 test results
• TestRegister will help save valuable school hours every day so teachers can concentrate on catching up pupils 
• New platform will support Public Health England to manage the spread of the disease, by improving the speed and accuracy of schools test data reporting. 

 

British tech start-up, Wonde is today launching TestRegister, a new platform to help schools manage the new COVID-19 school testing system and help manage the spread of the disease. From 8 March, schools will need to make sure that test results from staff and pupils are safely and securely recorded and reported to the Government. Wonde will help them to do this automatically, saving valuable school hours so teachers can concentrate on catching up pupils who have lost out on education due to the pandemic. 

 

According to the new Government guidelines, pupils and staff will need to take two COVID-19 tests every week to prevent the virus spreading in schools. Wonde’s TestRegister is designed to save teachers time and help schools to record and report the data to the Government. The new platform will help Public Health England to manage the spread of the disease, by improving the speed and accuracy of schools test data reporting. 

 

TestRegister, which is launching in hundreds of schools, will help to manage and report the significant quantities of data in a safe, secure and timely manner. 

 

The portal will:

• Give staff, students and parents a single portal to submit test results to – this can be done on desktop or mobile.
• Allow schools to monitor and track who is and isn’t completing tests, and automate reminders to students, parents and staff. 
• Allow for daily reporting of results to Public Health England, the Department for Education and local authorities, plus a further real-time positive test alert to notify the school and authorities if students or staff are required to self isolate. 

 

Wonde works with 21,000 schools across the UK to help them protect pupils’ data while using external applications, such as Google for Education. On a daily basis they handle the data of 33 million students, teachers and parents with the highest security accreditations. 

 

TestRegister, which Wonde built following the announcement on the 22 February, in response to requests from schools and local authorities, is the latest in a number of new services the start-up has created in response to the crisis. 

 

At the beginning of the pandemic, Wonde lept into action and built a platform to provide 750,000 families in need with Free School Meal vouchers. While the selected provider, Edenred, system crashed, Wonde was able to step in, identify eligible children and get them the vouchers quickly and securely. 

 

During the school holidays, Wonde’s voucher platform helped local authorities distribute vouchers through the Covid Winter Grant Scheme. Wonde supported over a third of local authorities in England to get vouchers to vulnerable families to access food and essential items – quickly and at scale. 

 

Peter Dabrowa, founder of Wonde said: 

 

“Headteachers and school staff are facing an enormous task in helping Public Health England to manage the spread of COVID-19 through the new schools testing system. We have built TestRegister to help schools with this task, saving them valuable teaching hours every day and improving the accuracy of reporting for the Government.

 

“TestRegister will help to ease the burden of schools so they can concentrate on catch-up teaching and getting pupils back on track.”

 

Peter Naudi, Head Teacher at Cheam High School said:

 

“Cheam High School has over 2,000 students. As a large secondary school we are always looking for systems to improve school wide efficiencies. Wonde’s voucher platform saved the school administrative staff a huge amount of time and stress, and vouchers were delivered to parents on time. We are confident that Wonde’s Test Register platform will save us significant time each week, in our delivery of the DfEs return to school COVID testing programme” 

 

Cllr Ray Gooding, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, said: 

 

“We know the best place for children and young people is in the classroom – not only in terms of their educational needs, but also their emotional wellbeing needs. As a Local Authority, our priority has been to support pupils transition back to on-site education and help all schools and colleges across the county to implement mass testing of secondary-age pupils as per the latest Government guidance.

 

“We absolutely support and encourage the roll out of increased testing as an additional protective measure for managing the potential spread of COVID-19 in the school community, however we also recognise the additional administrative pressure that this would have placed on schools in terms of logging and managing pupil’s test results. As a result, we have worked hard and at pace with Wonde to develop and implement an effective solution to save schools and colleges time and allow colleagues to continue with their important role in educating and supporting children and young people.

 

“Implementing the new Wonde TestRegister system across Essex will mean school colleagues can focus on creating a smooth and sustained transition back for their pupils. It also provides us with the intelligence and assurances that we need as a Local Authority to ensure appropriate processes are in place and being managed effectively.”