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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be very cross at school?

41 replies

Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 12:07

DD'S year were told to self isolate from Friday till end of Friday 30th coz of covid case.
Surely the SI starts the day pupils last had contact with thr covid sufferer?
Unlikely to be the Friday? HT has bene contacted and they have confirmed in whole year email it's till the Friday. In a separate email to another concerned parent, HT states pupil was not in scholl on the Friday.
This is wrong isn't it?
24 hours extra in half term would stop these children. 150 of them. Being couped up.
Also. HT sent whole off another year home yesterday. They have only got to self isolate till Friday 30th.
There are another 2 years self isolate too. About 600 kids.
A friend has children in both years and can see the obvious differently applyed dates.
I'm not going to email but I'm so cross.

OP posts:
Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 12:08

*being couped up when they could be enjoying one measley day off school in half term.

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 20/10/2020 12:08

Yes it should be 14 days from last contact with the infected person not some other random date

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 12:41

Yes that is what public Heath at our local council say too.

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 20/10/2020 12:47

we got an extra three days too due to some fuck up withthe testing. whole year gorup off instead of just close contacts. bloody nightmare.

Ellovera2 · 20/10/2020 12:51

It is public health that will be telling the school what to do - schools have to follow their advice they can't decide themselves.
Public health are not advising school staff/pupils to SI in the same way as the general public. They are deciding on a case by case basis. I'm sure the school are frustrated too.

OverTheRainbow88 · 20/10/2020 12:52

I would just be grateful they are in school at the moment. The school is being cautious, maybe there was another case in the same year at a later date. Our year 11s we’re off for 2 Weeks, 4 days into those 2 weeks another year 11 had a positive test so the dfe made us extend the 2 Weeks from the second case. There’s usually a reason something is happening the way it is.

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 12:58

The friend who has spoken to Public Health says that pH say they're advisory and school make their own decisions.
Pp I've no idea wgat you mean by maybe there's a later case Confused just doesn't make sense @OverTheRainbow88

OP posts:
OverTheRainbow88 · 20/10/2020 13:01

So Sarah in year 11 got a positive covid test on 1st Oct. year 11s told to self isolate until 15th Oct.

Meanwhile; in the same school; on the 4th Oct John in year 11 gets a positive covid test... now all year 11s have to self isolate until the 18th Oct!

Names and dates made up!

Blackdog19 · 20/10/2020 13:05

I thought it would be 14 days from the first incident of Covid- and if that child wasn’t in school on the Friday then your dc shouldn’t need to isolate on the Friday of half term.

AriettyHomily · 20/10/2020 13:07

14 days from when the infected kid had symptoms here, so symptoms Tuesday, test Wednesday, result Saturday. Kids isolate from Monday until Monday. Only 7 days. Absolute bollocks.

dementedpixie · 20/10/2020 13:07

If year 11s are already off then why would the date be extended? Anyway it should be 14-days from symptoms/last contact, not the test result

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 13:08

@OverTheRainbow88 well that's wrong.
3 out of 6 of us had it in September. The non infected had to isolate from the first person symptoms, despite the 2 other people getting it 2 days later. Your sch stuffed you over. Check very thoroughly next time your kids have to SI bc of sch.

OP posts:
Fink · 20/10/2020 13:09

Maybe there's a later case means it's possible that more than one child/teacher in the class is infected.

So Child A is unwell in school on Wednesday. Stays home and gets a test. Results come back on Friday and class is sent home. Class should self-isolate until Wednesday fortnight.

But Child B is in school on Friday. Gets sent home with everyone else. Gets a test (possibly even without symptoms, which they shouldn't, but when my DD's class were sent home at least 10 kids then got tested though asymptomatic, by lying). Test comes back positive.

So the last contact of the class with an infected person would have been Friday & need to isolate until Friday fortnight, even though that contact wasn't with the first infected person.

School won't reveal details of who is infected so you'll probably not know unless you have something like a group WhatsApp and Child B's parent says it was them.

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 13:09

@dementedpixie yes ecatly that Sad

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 20/10/2020 13:09

If it is half term, how will the school know if you've isolated til the date they say rather than the 14 days from last contact?

ExhaustedCatLady · 20/10/2020 13:10

Without being too outing, I work in a school in such a capacity that covid outbreaks and our response to them come under my teams remit.

PP is correct. As schools don't use Test and Trace, they have to use a dedicated team run by Public Health England and the NHS. Having gone through this within the last month, I can assure you that not only are the assessments we complete with them gruelling, we are not given any choice in various factors.

All decisions are then reported to the local authority outbreak control/environmental health team who verify them.

We had to identify channels of contact going back two days before the test, we had to assess the closeness of contact, length of contact etc. We were then given a date that their isolation started from - the date we were given was 14 days from the date that the results were received. The letters we sent out were the template ones received from Public Health England, which we modified to suit our circumstances - these even featured the date they wanted us to use.

We had very little to do with the timeline to be honest. Whilst I can understand your frustration and concern (quite rightly too - kids wellbeing is important), the school is doing its best and is being guided firmly in its actions. It's a scary time for everyone, you're not alone.

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 13:11

Pretty impossible for child b to be in sch on Friday and have a test result resulting in an email Friday 4pm. And no previous email regarding child A?
Sch know they've made a mistake but are not going to admit it Sad

OP posts:
Cruachan31 · 20/10/2020 13:12

@OverTheRainbow88

So Sarah in year 11 got a positive covid test on 1st Oct. year 11s told to self isolate until 15th Oct.

Meanwhile; in the same school; on the 4th Oct John in year 11 gets a positive covid test... now all year 11s have to self isolate until the 18th Oct!

Names and dates made up!

Why would the date change? Pupil 1’s last contact with class is 1st October. If there isn’t any contact with Pupil 2 after that, then don’t see any reason for date change.
ChloeDecker · 20/10/2020 13:13

The friend who has spoken to Public Health says that pH say they're advisory and school make their own decisions.

This is 100% not true and I am afraid, in the nicest possible way, your friend is talking rubbish or hasn’t misunderstood.

Don’t be cross with the school. The school has not made this decision. They have been told what to do by the DofE and PHE, over the phone and the emailing of the situation.

Original poster
Changes123456 · 20/10/2020 13:15

I know how long it takes schs to deal with pH abd make decisions as we had it in Sept. So the date of starting has to be incorrect. If the child wasn't in sch on the Friday, the positive test was prob Thurs for all the asmin to be done b4 email sent out. Which confirms that Thurs 4pm is the latest poss start date. Abd IF pupil was on on Thurs, then prob they where in sch whilst waiting for the result of test

OP posts:
Musicalmistress · 20/10/2020 13:15

It's unlikely school made the decision - I know when we had a positive case the NHS told us exactly what to say and to whom.

Marmite27 · 20/10/2020 13:18

One of mine was sent home to isolate on Wednesday last week the deputy head specifically said as the child hadn’t been in school that day if DC had no symptoms their isolation ended the 2nd Tuesday at midnight.

lionobserving · 20/10/2020 13:19

The thing is, say pupil A is the infected person and he wasn't in on Friday.

Pupil B might have been in contact with pupil A on Wednesday.

Pupil C might have never been in contact with pupil A, but might have been in contact with Pupil B on Friday.

That's why isolation starts from Friday. 2 weeks from the latest date each child might have been in contact with a potentially infected person!

AliMonkey · 20/10/2020 13:22

We had same. School letter stated affected pupil not in since the Monday but told to SI until the Friday. I did wonder whether they gave that extra info as they disagreed with what PHE told them.

But remember that unless contacted by test and trace your child is not required by law to SI. We’ve not been contacted. So we intend to stop the SI 14 days after positive case last in school (unless notified of another case or DD shows symptoms). Will still be careful (as we are being anyway) but will at least enable DD to go out for a walk or bike ride!

ChloeDecker · 20/10/2020 13:24

@Changes123456

I know how long it takes schs to deal with pH abd make decisions as we had it in Sept. So the date of starting has to be incorrect. If the child wasn't in sch on the Friday, the positive test was prob Thurs for all the asmin to be done b4 email sent out. Which confirms that Thurs 4pm is the latest poss start date. Abd IF pupil was on on Thurs, then prob they where in sch whilst waiting for the result of test
Sorry but no you don’t. Each case/situation takes a different amount of time and it has also changed since September. The gov put more power in the DoE to make the decisions at the start of October (after the lack of testing debacle) and they are more likely to only want to send those kids home who have sat 2m less near that pupil (I know as I have had to deal with this). It will only be passed to PHE by the DoE if more than one case and they can make a different decision (usually the closing of the bubble one) I agree with you in being cross. I just don’t agree with you being cross specifically at the school went you don’t know all the facts and are just hearing snippets from different parents, probably over WhatsApp.