Shielded or High risk DC, and School

[CovidProblems]

I'm interested to know what other parents are doing in September, for those DC that are in either of the above groups.

Are you sending them in, as advised?
If so, what makes you confident that it'll be OK?
If not, what are you planning to do instead?
How about siblings?
Not sure it makes a difference, however Secondary or Primary, and do you think that makes a difference?

I have a DC who falls into those groups, and I'm very anxious about September, and what is the right decision. I think it would be helpful to know what others are doing, as I know no other DC personally that this would affect.

I've accidently enabled voting, so how about YANBU = Keeping them home. YABU = Sending them in.

Do you have any other options? I think I would really struggle to send my child to school in those circumstances. It’s bad enough for people who are trying to shield another family member at home.
I would communicate with the school and see what provision they can make, but in all honesty I would keep them away if you are able. I know a lot of people won’t be able to though.
I imagine that secondary schools would be a higher risk than primary. But both will be a lot of people mixing, then going home to their family and friends and mixing again.

Unless guidance has changed, secondary in England appears to have insufficient infection control (notional bubble of up to 250 in each year group = no bubble no mandatory distancing).

Shielding guidance has and will change depending on the nature of the medical conditions as learning evolves from COVID.

You will have already but, if not, I would contact school to confirm how they are proposing to run things then discuss what they say with your DC's consultant or GP (depending on whether still being treated in outpatients or discharged) then use your judgement. Some children's medical conditions won't be safe in education and some will. To some extent, this happened before COVID. Some children had illnesses that meant they couldn't attend school for period (bone marrow transplants - c6 months isolation).

English (UK) government appear to want things back to normal and I wouldn't 'trust' their decisions for vulnerable DC based on their magnitude of incompetence over the last four months.

It is worrying. Good luck.

Honestly, I don't trust the government in regards to shielding and I think the decisions are based around getting people and kids back to normal as much as possible whether that is a risk or not.

My consultant has told me to keep shielding as much as possible after August, going against the government as he said unfortunately, everyone else is going to go back to life as normal and it is up to the vulnerable to protect themselves.

But of course all of this does depend on the options you have.

"All decisions on whether children and young people should be removed from the shielded patient list (and therefore will not be advised to shield again in future if transmission starts to increase significantly) should be based on a consultation with your paediatric specialist or your GP who will be best placed to determine the most appropriate care. Your paediatric specialist or your GP will be in touch over the summer to have these discussions."

www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19#clinically-extremely-vulnerable-children-and-young-people-0-to-18

Government withdrawing shielding guidance on 31/08 won't magically prevent COVID infectivity. In our locality, we're planning on a ramping up in infections given secondary schools' proposed approach looks like an incubation chamber.

Thanks for your replies.

Not really sure what my alternatives are. We've been using the online resources up until now, and they do seem to have some very decent ones out there.

Seems most of you say you would keep home. Wonder who the 2 votes are for YABU, send them in? Doesn't line up with the replies and would be helpful to hear those viewpoints too.

My DS falls into this category, I will be speaking to his Consultant to discuss it but at the moment I am planning on sending him in. He needs it for his mental health & education but if his Consultant says no, I won’t.

It depends on the school, and the degree of risk linked to the child's condition. For example, a genuinely shielded child with a very high risk condition, I would keep home unless there was a robust individual plan for them and I really trusted the school to follow it.

A highly vulnerable but not shielded child - my answer would be based on the size of school, its resources, and the plan in place and how much you trust them to stick to it. For example, at my child's old school I would no way have trusted them to follow the required cleaning never mind the behaviour change needed - discipline was poor, some kids did whatever they wanted all the time, and there was a time when a stomach bug went round and round the class for over a term until they finally shut the classroom for deep cleaning.

However, at child's new school, they created tiny bubbles for more vulnerable children through lockdown, so I've felt safe to send DC in - children and adults were masked, outdoor areas were zoned for bubbles, bubble size was 4, hand hygiene was incredibly strong. Obviously there will be a new plan once more children are also back, but I fully expect it to be careful and sensible so I am anticipating sending them in.

It's a secondary, I don't hold out much hope for the school enforcing the social distancing TBH. How would they, even if they tried though?

My DC is under the highly vulnerable, not shielding.

@MutteringDarkly - your DC's new school sounds like they have the solution.

Bit of a shameless bump or maybe a teeny bit of shame as I really would like more opinions.

I have had a little search, and a lot of the threads I've found have been regarding shielding family members, rather then the actual DC.

Bumping for you again

Would your DC's condition have an expert organisation who could advise? Or put you in touch with other families with children in the same situation, so you could compare ideas?

I have to admit I don't want to send my dc back, secondary age, we have been shielding for 4 months and think it is madness not to have any social distancing if its true. DC always picks up every bug going from Sept onwards as it iswe are in Wales so may be different to England by Sept.

I don't envy your decision to make. The vast majority of children will be perfectly safe going into school since they are not so affected by the virus anyway. The measures, such as hand washing, that are in place keep the risk low. I'm not sure I'd want to send a high-risk child in though.

I work in primary school and with the best will in the world, social distancing is not consistent. That's with 15 in the class. With 30 it will be non-existent. It's just not possible to fit 30 children in a classroom without them practically sitting on top of each other. They put their pencil down or drop it and someone else picks it up. Etc. Etc.

As long as the prevalence of the virus is very low in the population it would be a minimal risk, but where it has gone up in Leicester, there have been a lot of children who have caught it. Fine if they are resilient to it but if they were high-risk? With the reactive strategy the govt now has in place it would be too late by the time you knew the risk had gone up.

Children that are high risk could do with being able to enrol in a state online school so they at least get an education. Your only alternative would seem to be to home educate, which is great if it's something you want to do but not so much if it's not.

We got a letter from our school today for the cc, saying that it is compulsory to send your child in from september, if they are shielding or clinicaly extremely vulnerable only if you have written advice from consultant that you might be able to have flexibility. Probably the same with all the vulnerable and shielding staff having to return in september, eith no face mask or pipe, not good enough in my opinion.

Take medical advice from your dc’s consultant is probably the best thing to do.

I think it is very dependent on individual circumstances. Medical reasons for vulnerability vary so that is a factor (having severe asthma isn't the same as being on immunosuppressants but are in the same group) the school type, size and location makes a huge difference and the schools arrangements for your child will vary. A small village secondary with 600 students all from surrounding villages on dedicated buses, unlikely to be mixing much outside of the area isn't the same risk factor as a large inner city school with kids coming on public transport. 6 weeks is also a long time still in terms of the pandemic, the prevalence is dropping and hopefully will continue to, however if it has a resurgence then the decision may be different

Thanks @MutteringDarkly

@Butwhhhyyyyyyy - do you know what you will do then, come September?

Yes, I agree with you all. It isn't good enough, and some more options are really needed (such as the online school mentioned)

My vulnerable DC has sibling too, and what about them? It's the same for families all over I expect, I feel like they're being ignored.

@covidproblems, honestly I have no idea yet, we are shielding until August 16th, I think. I also have an older DC who is also shielding. A lot may happen before September but they are saying here that there will be no distancing and everyone in school but they can wear masks if they want too! Younger DC has learning difficulties and keeping a mask on him would be a nightmare.online schooling is not ideal but I would be happy to continue for my dc health as well as my own.

I don’t have at risk children, but am on a school leadership team at a secondary school. I don’t think there is any chance of a secondary school offering social distance within a bubble (between bubbles is almost impossible true but most are having a go at this) and so we are looking at individual risk assessments for students who are not safe to be at school in a bubble of 300+ (we have 12 tutor groups in a year team) plus staff.

I would email the headteacher and the safeguarding officer and ask what may be possible to plan for your child. They may not be able to offer much at all due to their financial/staff/space restrictions, but at least you will know your individual school’s current thinking, and hopefully make a decision from there.

I think I would seek guidance from my child's specialist ( if they have one) if not someone medical?

I'm not in your position as DS is now well, but a few years ago he was on Chemotherapy so we had a similar issue of school not being a safe place to be, really quite scary. I don't envy you at all!

I am a teacher who was initially shielding until my council said 'computer says no' to that and so I've been in. I have a risk assessment that said I've to wash my hands and stay 2m away from others which I refused to sign as I said that was government guidance not additional measures. My council think this is adequate. I can assume that children coming in under the same circumstances will have the same useless risk assessment with no considerations.

I would say there is no way a school can keep the children safe come September. In my school we have crammed the kids in so much there isn't room to move. They will be unable to get out from their desks because there is no space to walk behind. We have needed a substantial amount of extra desks to ensure they can all face the front and this has meant there is no room for movement at all. In fact it poses another risk - a fire hazard but it falls on deaf ears.

Cleaning of desks, chairs, resources and toys and high traffic areas and monitoring of hand washing is being done by teachers who have additional pressures on them to ensure maximum teaching time and progress. They can't do all the teaching and the huge cleaning load expected. I can say now, that cleaning will fall by the wayside because of the pressures of progress and teaching that they will have on them.

I think it’s appalling that parents are going to be fined if they don’t send their vulnerable children in.

People are going to die and the government just doesn’t seem to care.

My Y6 (none vunerable) has been back at a fairly large primary. I've been very impressed. Primary I would send back a vunerable child.

I've also been very impressed with what the secondary we will start in September are putting in place, but it is much less secure in terms of keeping kids apart and in their bubble (and of course the bubble is much bigger). Depending on how vunerable the child, I would have doubts about sending them back - and I'm very much of the frame of mind the kids need to be back in school.
Good luck with what sounds like a very difficult decision.

All my DC will be going.

I've already been in touch with the school so they are aware who is recently deshielded, in hope of being able to talk through the arrangements and whether there can be any add-ons

It's a secondary school, and best friends are well aware; siblings friends have also been very good at supporting them in staying low risk. But there will be indoor contact with a lot of people once term starts and I am nervous. I am hoping she'll be sat at end of row, or near an openable window or open door (air circulation) that break times can all be outdoors even when raining (they have a sports gazebo, so perhaps it could be permanently erected), that she can use the visitors loo (less crowded)

Then hope for the best.

We know that we might be recalled indoors if case numbers rise (shielding is paused, not abolished), so need to make the most of this time of relative freedom in case it's curtailed. Especially as (on current guidance, but more promised by the start of the pause) most indoors leisure (including non-essential shopping) and outdoor larger gatherings remain against advice

I have 3dc and I'm the shielded one and a lone parent. Primary school will be bubbles of 30 with teachers moving between bubbles secondary is a one way system, year group bubbles (360 for year 9) and eating outside. Hand sanitizer at the start of class and then again at the end. Not sure what they are doing about toilets as there aren't enough for each year to have separate facilities. Secondary dc both has asthma but nowhere near as bad as mine. I can't keep away from them so I have no way of protecting myself once they are back at school.

I'm hoping there will be further guidance nearer the time. The government have backtracked on lots of things so they might in this too.