School turning child away due to mild cold even with negative test?

[Justneedadvice636465]

My sister has 2 dc and one has a cough. It's clearly a cold she has a runny nose and just sounds snotty and phlegmy. She of course got her tested and it was negative twice three days apart (her partner works for a testing site and she is also a keyworker) she informed the school that she has a mild cold snotty nose and a little cough if she's running around a lot etc she told them she has tested negative the last one being just yesterday and the one before Thurs when she first got symptoms but the school have said that she can't attend school for the 10 day isolation period which means she also cannot work. She feels the school are being unreasonable as she has tested negative so doesn't understand why she can't go in as prior to this a mild cold wouldn't stop them going school?

Who is being unreasonable?

So she goes in with a cold, 5 others get the non covid cold with a cough, now 5 families have to isolate while going for covid tests. Yabu

If you still feel unwell after a negative test, stay at home until you're feeling better. Contact a GP if your symptoms get worse or do not go away

Advice from the NHS website ^ If you feel unwell then you stay home even with a negative test.

Maybe people should learn not to go into school/work while they're ill full stop. Some adults are terrible for it, they act as though still making it to work with a nasty bug is an achievement.

@Butchyrestingface

I'm asthmatic, spend every winter coughing, colds etc. If I were a child now, I'd never bloody be able to attend school at all.

School is unreasonable.

I was like this as a child - diagnosed with asthma as an adult mid 30 after having flu after several winters with very young children and near with near constant chest infections, flu and debilitating colds it was bloody awful last few years before diagnosis.

My Dad not diagnosed with asthma was same as well as a child- winter full of cold all winter then hay fever most of spring/summer.

We'd have both got next to no education with the attitude of cold symptoms however mild stay home.

I'd suggest she checks directly with the head of the school and then with the LEA that it really is their position after two negative covid tests.

Maybe people should learn not to go into school/work while they're ill full stop

Some people would never be in if they took off for every sniffle

@AnneOfQueenSables

If you have a negative test when you start to show symptoms, you're supposed to still self-isolate because there is a window when tests are more and less effective. You can have symptoms, test negative, stay home, test again and be positive. The fact is schools should be aware of the guidance and working closely with the NHS so it doesn't really matter if posters on MN don't understand it. Schools are quite clear on which pupils can be in and which will be sent home.

But this child has tested negative twice, several days apart. It’s unlikely she tested too early both times, too late both times or the first test was too early and the second was too late.

If you feel unwell then you stay home even with a negative test.

She doesn’t ‘feel unwell’, she has a runny nose.

School is unreasonable. We have had this scenario and school keen for kids back ASAP after negative test and when well enough for school. All colds go to my sons chest and linger so he has had a few tests now but school have always been very pragmatic.

Meredith - there are two different discussions going on. One is about this child and one is about the general principle of staying off with symptoms and a negative test.
The NHS and the school guidance is clear. Regardless of how many posters on MN want to argue with it.

@itsgettingweird

I think the issue will be passing the cold with cough to other children and that setting off isolation and testing on masse.

This.

No way would I be sending in a child with a contagious illness of any sort at the moment. Better me take the hardship of arranging childcare for one child than dozens more who will have to test and isolate when they come down with the same symptoms...including staff!

It is a difficult one. She has already had two negative tests. Kids get colds in winter all the time so she could end up missing another of school if she is sent away everytime she has a snotty nose. Your sister has to work.

But;

If she gives her cold to other students in her class, or the teacher then they are going to have to isolate until they get negative results.

Here I am thinking if we DON'T pass mild illnesses like colds around and give our immune systems something to do, then eventually they'll stop working properly and something much nastier than Covid will come along and wipe us all out. We're already facing bacteria that are becoming resistant to anti-biotics, what's next?

Yeah, I think the school are being unreasonable. We're going to mess up a whole generation of kids if this carries on much longer.

Your sister is being selfish. Every kid her child gives their mild cold to is going to have to get a covid test and their parent will therefore miss time off work. She wants to inconvenience multiple people in order to save herself.

I live in Australia and kids have had to stay home with the mildest of cold symptoms until they return a negative COVID test and are symptom free. We are not living in usual times here, people need to change their mindset and accept personal inconvenience for the greater good.

@ProfessorSillyStuff - bit OTT to call it child abuse! There’s a difference between a mild cold/cough where the child is a bit snotty but still running around and otherwise healthy (like the one the OP is talking about) and a more severe one which can make you feel more unwell.

@Gobbeldegook

regardless of the pandemic you shouldn't send kids to school when they are snotty and phleghmy and coughing. For one how can they learn in that state and for two your just gonna spread it around. Pure ignorance.

You really want kids to never be in school?

What a ridiculous comment.

I was constantly phleghmy as a child . I wouldn't have bad an education.

My child has had a cough for months before. Bugger all wrong with her. She was just prone to it becoming a habit.

We've been instructed by the school to send kids in if they only have a cold. The school IBU in this situation with the double negative test.

@emilyfrost has form for taking the opposing view with no reasonable explanation for it. I don't take them seriously.

The school are unreasonable -last year my son had a cough and cold all winter -this year not so bad but you can’t keep every kid at home all the time they have a sniffle. The world has gone mad. Spot the parents who can work with kid at home or have childcare

I think it's child abuse to drag a sick child to school in freezing cold, wind and rain so they can be exposed to even more bugs before they have fully recovered.

Ffs it gets worse.........

The guidance for schools does say that even where a child has tested negative, ideally the child should stay off if they still present with symptoms of other illness like a cold or flu.

@borntohula

Maybe people should learn not to go into school/work while they're ill full stop. Some adults are terrible for it, they act as though still making it to work with a nasty bug is an achievement.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/call-misleading-school-sickness-absence-8144165

2014 Welsh assembly was suggesting a whole range of illness zero school days off were needed including glandular fever, tonsilitis, conjunctivitis, hand foot and mouth- many employers have policies that penalise employees for taking sickness days.

People have been taught presenteeism over many years.

In OP sister place I'd double check the policy with the head and LEA and if that's what it was then I'd comply.

It might depend on the child as to whether or not they should be in school.

Some will be coughing without covering their mouths & not blowing their noses often enough!

If your sister wasn't working would she have kept her daughter off for a day or two?

I have had a "cold" for past 3 weeks. Negative covid tests etc. And I'm 23 weeks pregnant. I have the most horrendous constant cough, nose bunged up for weeks, feel like complete s**t if I'm honest.

My two year old also is lethargic and coughing, we both cannot sleep all night due to coughing.

So tbh I'd rather if someone has a cold, not to spread it around unnecessary. And I wouldn't send my child to nursery if they had a cold, because then they spread it to other kids, then eventually they get it back.

It's just hygiene and keeping well.