Covid/school closure. Children made to feel so unwelcome

[Lettuceforlunch]

Has anyone else had this? AIBU? I’ve never known a school be so ultra conservative in their interpretation of the rules around Covid. I’m at the stage where I think they’re now using it as an excuse not to have the children in. This week they’ve had all of four year groups out because of two confirmed cases in two individual classes. They’re in class bubbles FGS! Or at least, that’s what parents have been told.

It might be the staff that are unavailable. We've had to send year groups home when we can't staff the absence. We have no money left.

Where in the country are you? Are you close to holidays and teachers frightened their holidays could be interrupted?

Are there more cases than you know about?

SE, low rates here to be honest. They have staff who appear fine at least on the (limited) online calls they do.

Are the staff at home or in school? If the staff are having to isolate that may explain it.

Why don't you ask the school?

I don't think it's schools that decide who goes home. In my setting (which isn't a school) we were told by the public health team exactly who to send home.

@Lockdownbear

Where in the country are you? Are you close to holidays and teachers frightened their holidays could be interrupted?

Are there more cases than you know about?

Frightened their holidays could be interrupted?! Do you realise how ridiculous you sound?!

In our county PH tell the school who to send home.

I’ve asked the school but they’re very tight lipped.

Schools do their own contact tracing; public health don't get involved. There is huge disparity between how schools do this. My DC's school will only send direct contacts home to self isolate. Some schools send year groups and some groups send classes. Some obviously do something different.

I also assume it’s to do with staff shortage rather then cross infection across the bubbles.
Not that I think YABU. Sick to death of my child spending more time at home alone then at school.

Our school do 1 of two things:

Close whole year groups as staff work across both
And close the bubble of the siblings of a confirmed case so could easily have 2 or 3 year groups out if there's 1 or 2 siblings in a school.

I thought that was pretty standard as other local schools are doing the same

Schools are in contact with PHE about who they send home. Rules are constantly "evolving" on this and different PHE teams advise differently.

It may be that a staff member is positive and has been in contact with the whole year group.

We had whole bubbles going home at on point, then close contacts only, and now back to whole bubbles.

Public health decide here at our local schools. Every single time there’s a case, school follow public health’s advice.
We are in an area where all 12-30 yr olds have been asked to get tested as our numbers are climbing.
We have a fair few out from school now, either isolating or positive themselves.
Thankfully, both my dds bubbles have survived so far.
One of our local high schools have over 500 pupils and staff isolating now. It’s looking like they will have to close before the end of term.

SE here too but ours is hanging on by its fingernails. I'm amazed they are still open. 16000 new cases across the country yesterday, and you have to assume a decent chunk of those will be schoolchildren. I think our teachers are doing an incredible job.

The schools here don't do their own tracing anymore.
How do you know how many cases there are? A few weeks ago we got a call to pick up DC as they were a close contact, the letter we got sent said a pupil in the school had tested positive after 5 days more than 40 kids had tested positive, yet a letter was still going out saying a pupil had tested + the only reason we know the numbers are through the parent grapevine. The schools are full of covid just now and they seem to be keeping it on the lowdown!

I'm currently following an outbreak in a small isolated community on a Scottish island (I used to live there), they are currently on the lowest level but after one single case caught on mainland Scotland transferred into the islands directly infected 5 more (now 9 confirmed cases) before detection. They currently have around 500 people isolating as the infected person visited the pubs in the last week potentially infecting hundreds of people. They have also tested over 1000 people over the last few days, on Saturday only 40 people were isolating. It's very clear in this closed community how easily just 1 case could impact so many people. In your case it could be a teacher who has sat in a meeting with the majority of other teachers that has tested positive. I also don't see why they have to share the minute details of who has tested positive with all the parents, all you need to know is that it's safest to close the school and what provisions they can and will make in the mean time.

Of course the school are tight lipped - they can’t tell you who is off and why!! Perhaps the well looking teachers live with someone who has tested positive and the school can’t afford cover, perhaps they’ve been told by track and trace to stay home, any number of reasons really. We’ve had multiple closures and each time the teachers are gutted - we don’t want to teach online, it’s awful!!!! I think parents should stop sending sick kids to school

Our school (secondary) would be permanently closed if it did this - they are getting 4 or 5 cases a week at the moment and teachers move across bubbles a the time. They do liase w PHE (they say) and have had to shut the entire school once during the second wave when 40 staff were off sick or self isolating.

The school would never tell you who the positive case was. I work in a school and even we're not told - just that there's been a positive case in school. Although you can guess the year group easily as then the class or whoever are out too.

I think you're being massively unreasonable to say children are being made to feel they're "unwelcome" at school. We just follow protocol. Blame the government, not the staff at your kids' school.

Why do you think the school would tell you the medical details of someone?

My eldest can't go back to school till he gets his PCR test result...

I also don't see why they have to share the minute details of who has tested positive with all the parents, all you need to know is that it's safest to close the school and what provisions they can and will make in the mean time.

I do think parents should know the reasoning behind decisions taken, not the specifics of who exactly is off but how and why certain steps have been taken. Children have a right to an education and mine certainly haven’t had much of one this year. There have been too many times now where closures have happened and the days haven’t added up or there seem to be way more children off at any one point than in other local schools.

@KatherineOfGaunt - but they have been made to feel unwelcome. Today one of mine was turned away at the gate as they’d made the last minute call to close her bubble at 8:30. No online learning until this afternoon as no one seemed to have prepared for this kind of situation (god knows why given how many times they’ve closed recently!).

@UserAtRandom

Schools do their own contact tracing; public health don't get involved. There is huge disparity between how schools do this. My DC's school will only send direct contacts home to self isolate. Some schools send year groups and some groups send classes. Some obviously do something different.

Yes, ours only sends home close contacts and there is the option of lateral flow tests instead of isolation (think it's a pilot).

According to our school, four whole year groups are close contacts. That is physically impossible 😭 Is it any wonder I’m questioning the school policies?