School not telling teachers Covid status

[Lovebeingmama]

Hi,
I received a message approx a week ago from the school saying that a particular teacher was self isolating due to being in close contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid. There was no mention of this teacher getting tested for Covid and since we were informed no confirmation of a positive or negative result.
We have only been told that the teacher is feeling well still and has no symptoms, that is it. As you can be asymptomatic, I know this doesn’t automatically mean that the teacher is negative.
My son has had direct contact with this teacher and I work with vulnerable people, so it’s important for me to know. The school won’t divulge the covid status (or even if there has been a test) as they say it is personal information.
I don’t care about the individual status of the teacher, just about our exposure to risk. The school decided to tell us about the individual teacher involved.
I feel this is unfair - aibu?

What do you expect the school to be telling you? Sounds like they have told you everything as it is.

She doesn't need a test if she has no symptoms. Your family don't need a test as you have no symptoms. Not hard!

'Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test'

Oh give over and untwist your knickers.

Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test

If you are in England I think you’ll find you can’t do this unless you have symptoms - and neither can the poor teacher.

@Lovebeingmama YABentirelyU to take your family for a test, people like you are hugely contributing to testing shortages and problems because you clearly are either too selfish to follow the procedure or too stupid to understand what so many people here are telling you.

If the teacher develops symptoms now and tests positive, I doubt your son will be treated as a contact anyway as the teacher has been off school for a week.

If you work with vulnerable people what is your organisation doing about being COVID safe?

If we take that as a measure to get a test we might as well shut the whole school down indefinitely

To be fair, I think it’s pretty clear that your school should absolutely not be open and that the policy of only sending kids home if they sit next to a positive case on the seating plan is not working. Positive cases in children and young people are very much the tip of the iceberg, as they are overwhelmingly likely to be asymptomatic and thus not even tested. 17 positive cases in students suggests quite a lot of spread.
We’ve just closed a bubble. There’s only one positive case in the bubble but we’ve been increasingly aware of the fact that we likely had an outbreak in that bubble over the last week or so because of the amount of parents and grandparents of kids in that bubble testing positive, alongside a load of kids with sniffles and tummy bugs. It seemed fairly clear to us that we likely had a lot of asymptomatic (or symptomatic but with symptoms that are not on the list for isolating and testing) spread in that bubble and that parents were likely catching it from children who were spreading it at school. The positive test was not a surprise by the time it happened.

some teachers have been told to turn off the app and ignore positive contact results on the app

Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test

No that is NOT what you have to do FFS. To do that you would have to lie on the website as none of you have any symptoms. The school are following protocol. If you're in direct contact with vulnerable people then why aren't you being tested weekly like others?

@Lovebeingmama

Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test. The teacher is young and fit, it is perfectly possible that she could be positive and not showing symptoms. Unfortunately the people I work directly with are far more vulnerable.

Ffs. DO NOT take all your family for a test. You only take a test if you have symptoms. There aren't enough tests in many areas for those who DO have symptoms, and having had a test myself it's not something I'd be putting my kids through unnecessarily.

Schools are told precisely what to do in individual cases by the DfE. DH works in a secondary school where there have been at least 10 positive tests. Two have been staff members but the DfE said that students should not be sent home if a staff member tests positive as teachers are expected to socially distance from the pupils at all times (completely impossible of course). Two year groups have had a single pupil test positive so only close contacts as advised by seating plans have been isolated. One year group has 4 pupils that have tested positive so the whole year group has to isolate.

I think this strategy is ludicrous. Given the number of asymptomatic cases that were found when university students were tested, I would say that a school with ten known cases clearly has many more untested cases.

My son was sent home after a positive case. He self isolated and went back to school.

If your son was at risk, school would have notified you.

There are multiple cases at both my son's secondaries. One writes to us about every case, whether we are affected or not. The other only tells impacted families and not the wider school. My son has three people in his class with positive family members, a teacher is off and at my other son's school it's similar.

We have not thought about testing once.

I think you are fortunate your school has been so open with you, identifying a specific teacher, who has their own right to privacy.

Just chill. You will be informed of the teacher tests positive within the timeframe. You're not entitled to know otherwise

@MadameMinimes I quite agree. When we started back the implication was that a positive test would send a whole bubble home. The academy trust clearly believe that this would be too disruptive and stealthily altered it to "close contacts" which doesn't legislate for shared resources, light switches, door handles toilets, and closed spaces

We are told that the cases are community driven - but how can we know that?

I just have my fingers crossed we get to half term without being further impacted

If you work with such vulnerable people would it not be a suggestion to speak to your employer about regular testing for you?

This is clearly the answer. You’re talking about testing for third hand contact.

Please don't go and get tested. You don't qualify as you don't have symptoms and neither does your family. What a waste of nhs resources.

The school probably has nothing more to tell you. The teacher is SI and if they haven't become ill, they won't get a test. Talk to your employer about their policy, but the general policy is no-one needs tests in this situation. Whilst I understand your concern, at the current population rate this is likely to happen a lot sadly.

@Lovebeingmama

Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test. The teacher is young and fit, it is perfectly possible that she could be positive and not showing symptoms. Unfortunately the people I work directly with are far more vulnerable.

Why? Do you or any of your family have symptoms? If no then you are not entitled to testing. It’s people like you that are stopping people that actually have symptoms from being able to get tested. The teacher probably doesn’t have symptoms and therefore hasn’t had a test, as the guidance states. The school are keeping you updated by telling you that the teacher is fine and has no symptoms. Do not waste NHS resources when you have no symptoms, it is irresponsible.

The school have managed the situation very well by the sounds of it. The teacher has no symptoms and neither do your family, so no testing required. You need to chill. If every family who are a contact of a contact all took tests, how would people who actually need them ever access a test? It is selfish. Many of us work with vulnerable groups but that does not give us the right to abuse the testing system. I would hope that you are taking universal precautions and wearing appropriate PPE anyway. If you are this anxious about such indirect contact, how will you feel if you care for a positive patient, then have to move on and look after negative patients

Maybe you need to review the school situation and educate at home? I think there are many cases that don’t get shared until a bubble pops and lots of parents who won’t test or think they can tell an illness is not Covid without a test. There will be much unseen.

The other thing to remember is that you won't get told about children in your child's class who are in the same situation as the teacher. Mainly as there is no reason to tell parents other than to risk causing stress.

We have had no positive tests at school amongst staff or pupils.

However we have had both staff and pupils have to SI due to a household member having symptoms and/or a positive test. These children have sometimes been taken out of class mid way through the day, and return a fortnight later, sometimes earlier if the household member with symptoms then tests negative.

None of these occasions are passed on to the parents of the children in their child's class.

The teacher is self isolating, and presumably has been since they discovered they were a close contact. So it’s really unlikely that even if they do develop COVID (symptomatic or asymptomatic) that they were in school during the time they were contagious.
Without symptoms the teacher should not be getting a test, and neither should your family. If all potential contacts of contacts of positive cases, plus their whole household got tested each time we’d all be testing constantly.
If you work with very vulnerable individuals then the more sensible route would be to speak to your employer about regular employee testing.

Threads like this anger me and just show how people do not understand how it works.

OP, FFS do not waste resources testing your family. It is pointless. The teacher is self isolating due to a possible exposure to someone who was positive. If he or she does not develop symptoms in that time, then he or she was not exposed. Your son, having been in contact with the teacher beforehand will not have been exposed as he or she wouldn’t have developed the virus by then.

Testing now would also be pointless as it doesn’t mean you won’t develop it from elsewhere. And tying up the precious little testing facility we have access to will likely prevent someone who actually may have it from being tested, leading to them potentially going on to infect others.

The school have informed you that the teacher is self isolating and why. They are being transparent.

If the teacher develops symptoms, only then would they be eligible for a test. If they test positive, then their contacts will be notified. The school will follow the necessary guidance and government policy for such circumstances.

That’s how the system works.

There is no point in getting frustrated that staff in a school can’t discuss or disclose individual teachers’ private medical information. They would be breaking the law if they did!

@lockeddownandcrazy

some teachers have been told to turn off the app and ignore positive contact results on the app

Shocking that some schools have done this. It just shows lack of care for their staff

@Lovebeingmama

Think I’ll have to take all the family for a test. The teacher is young and fit, it is perfectly possible that she could be positive and not showing symptoms. Unfortunately the people I work directly with are far more vulnerable.

People like you are why people with actual symptoms cannot get tested.