COVID case in School

[FairyLights2]

I'm a Year 3 teacher and today we found out a child tested positive in another class. My school is four form entry and are trying to have 'class' bubbles but the children are always mixing during break and lunchtimes. I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant and feeling incredibly anxious that they've only shut down 1 class instead of the whole year group. I raised my concerns but was told that it's our own fault for not always staying 2m apart.

AIBU?

I just posted about a similar situation and was resoundingly told I was overreacting. IMO you're not, but who knows anymore.

The dinner ladies at our school have it. The head sent a letter round lying about it basically so everyone's still in.

Op this is what I do not understand - why are some whole bubbles sent home and some times not - who decides this. Its the lack of info thats so infuriating, of course they cant give out personal info but by the same token they could be more informative.

Congrats on your pregnancy. My understanding (not a medic but recently had a baby so I read a lot re this risk) is that pregnancy (unless you have other risk factors) doesn't make you any more likely to become seriously unwell than the average woman of your age, ethnicity etc. It's a precautionary decision to flag pregnancy as an at risk group. See RCoG guidance. Hopefully it helps you feel a little calmer. www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/guidelines/coronavirus-pregnancy/covid-19-virus-infection-and-pregnancy/

Why are the bubbles mixing at lunch and break?? Surely each bubble should have its own area, even if its part of a playground. There's no point having individual class bubbles if the whole year group is going to mix

Hi OP,

I’m also a primary teacher and am 17 weeks pregnant. We had two cases a few weeks ago in two separate year groups and only the two classes that the two students were in went home. Everyone else in their year group bubble stayed at school and all siblings of children in the closed bubbles stayed at school as well, under the advice of PHE. The classes had been mixing as year groups during playtimes and lunchtimes just as your school had.

I thought it was crazy at first and was convinced it would spread like wildfire but we didn’t get any new positive cases from either of those two cases, so hopefully good hygiene had done enough to stop transmission. Coincidentally we’ve not had any positive cases since those initial two.

I know it’s really scary but I think that as the child wasn’t in your class, you are probably at less risk of exposure than the class teacher of the child who is positive.

If you feel really unsafe then contact your midwife or doctor for advice and see if they could sign you off. Good luck ❤️ xxx

@Autumngoldleaf Public Health England decide which bubbles close. It’s not up to schools. If a school has a positive case, you have to ring them and they make the decision based on how much contact children have had with each other. If the year groups have only mixed at playtime, PHE don’t consider that the same level of risk as inside the classroom because it’s outside. The same way that there were originally less restrictions about meeting people outside.

@Seaswims The guidance issued to schools says that you can form year group bubbles. That’s why secondary schools have had problems, as they could potentially have 200 kids in a bubble. The aim is to keep children in class bubbles as much as possible but they are allowed to form year group bubbles as it would be too difficult to operate full time school if you had to keep year groups separate for the whole day. There are not enough staff, there is not enough time in the day and there is not enough space. That’s why year group bubbles were introduced in the first place.

Taken that a lot of cases at school I’m sure going unnoticed for being asymptomatic, I think YABU.
I don’t think there’s any benefit of shutting the whole year group.
I know I sound pessimistic, but it’s up to you now - to accept the risk or not. I know a few people who decided to go off work for this reason. They are not that different to those who already lost their jobs due to Covid situation. I know quite a few other people who are vulnerable or pregnant and continue to work knowing there is a risk but chances are they will get covid and it will be mild.
I’m not at all criticising you. But behind every class there are 30 families on average who also need to work and study. That’s why the school is only sending the closest contacts home.