Once you decide to join the programme, we just need a few simple things from you:

1. Basic information about your school (name, size, postcode, contact details etc)
2. A list of the Bubbles at your school (named in a way that the parents will easily recognise) and the size of each.
3. Send out communications to all parents of the children at your school requesting use of the app (we have template emails co-written with headteachers at the ready for your convenience) plus a link to our Guidance for Parents microsite

We have created a website to make it easy for you to enter this information and access all the materials mentioned above - we will send you a link to this website in due course.

No, this is not needed.

Once your school’s network is Active in-app, we will share the following information with you for both each bubble and for the school as a whole, and it will always be shared anonymously (i.e. children’s identities will never be revealed to you):

• Number of children being reported for
• Proportion of children feeling well vs unwell in the last 24hrs
• Number of children confirmed positive via testing
• Number of children previously tested positive who are likely to be safely out of self-isolation
• Symptoms combinations in children who have reported unwell

Once your school’s network is Active in-app, we will share the following information with parents for both their child’s bubble and for the school as a whole, and it will always be shared anonymously (i.e. children’s identities will never be revealed to other parents in the Bubble in association with any information we share with the Bubble):

• Number of children being reported for
• Proportion of children feeling well vs unwell in the last 24hrs

Whilst we will give parents a view of how children are feeling in the school and in their child’s bubble, we will not directly inform parents about confirmed COVID cases and other detailed insights - as we believe that this is the duty of the school. We will instead provide you, the school, with these insights in an anonymised and aggregated form so that you can make the best decisions you can around keeping children safe and keeping parents informed appropriately.

No. All the insights for you, the school, will be shared with you via a website, which you will be able to log in to.

Yes. You will simply need to provide them with the link to the website and your log-in details. It will be your responsibility to ensure that these log-in details are not shared improperly

Once we have initiated your school in-app and you have sent communications to parents to join, you will enter a warm-up period in the app during which all the parents in each bubble join and start reporting on behalf of their children in the app.

The warm-up period is expected to last 1 - 2 weeks but will vary depending on how quickly parents join. During this time, we will show both schools and parents how many children are being reported for. Tip: From our Pilot, we saw that the schools that completed the warm-up period the fastest were those where the headteachers engaged regularly with parents asking everyone to join, and where they reached out to parents in a targeted manner (emailing bubbles with lower levels of take-up).

Once your school is at least 10% full in-app, your school network will activate and we still start to share insights with both you (the school) and the parents.

Our app has been running on a self-reporting basis since the early days of the pandemic in March, and we have not had any problems with false test reports, so we expect that it is unlikely for this to change. If you have reason to suspect false reporting (e.g. what you are seeing in the data is very different from what you are hearing from parents) you may flag this to us via our mailbox: covidapp-schools@joinzoe.com

No. The COVID Symptom Study is a not-for-profit initiative. Use of the app by parents and provision of the data insights for your school are free.

At this stage, we are focused on reporting for schoolchildren via their parents, so teachers are not included. We may include teachers at a later stage. To enable this, please encourage the teachers at your school to report for themselves via the app from now.

The COVID Symptom Study is funded by a combination of government grant and generous donations from our study contributors - who have both recognised the major value that we have been and are continuing to provide in the fight against COVID.

At this stage, we are focused on reporting for the children at the school only. We may share insights on household members at a later stage. To enable this, please encourage the parents of children at your school to report for themselves and other household members via the app from now.

You will be able to change the Bubbles in your school shown in the app directly via the website where we will share data insights with you. Please note that you will be responsible for informing the affected parents at your school that they will need to re-assign their children’s profiles in the app to the correct bubble. This is simple to do - they can do this via “Edit Profile” for their child’s profile.

Absolutely! As long as their school is for children aged below 18. The more schools that participate in this programme, the more powerful the data will be for carrying out scientific research into the impact of COVID in children and young people. Simply send them a link to this page and the sign-up form here.

Yes, we would strongly encourage schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to participate.