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.

[bunburyscucumbersandwich]

@Lettuceforlunch

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?

Maybe it's a staff member who has been working across the "bubbles"?

[KatherineOfGaunt]

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@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!).[/quote]
That's not the fault of the school though! What would you have them do?!

[Namechercanged]

No online learning until this afternoon as no one seemed to have prepared for this kind of situation

It takes time to change lessons from face to face to be suitable online. Add in the logistics of closing the bubble, the paperwork, the phonecalls. Not hard to see why it isn't an instant turnaround.

Btw schools have barely any extra funding to do any of this.

[KatherineOfGaunt]

@Lettuceforlunch

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?

There could be several positive cases! You just don't know enough details.

Look, the situation is shit for everyone, but I feel blaming the school is massively unfair of you.

[ladygracie]

Schools have 24 hours from closure to set work so getting done this afternoon was well within that. We have contingency planning but I’d much rather use the 24 hours to see what we could is that aligns to what we are teaching than rush to put something random up.

[Lettuceforlunch]

@KatherineOfGaunt - be prepared for online learning for a start. Not just do a quick ten minute call each day and pretend that that’s sufficient and covers a whole day’s worth of learning…

[Lettuceforlunch]

We’ve been told specifically two cases. Again, that may be wrong but why state that in an email to parents?

[KatherineOfGaunt]

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@KatherineOfGaunt - be prepared for online learning for a start. Not just do a quick ten minute call each day and pretend that that’s sufficient and covers a whole day’s worth of learning…[/quote]
Have you ever tried adapting lessons from live to virtual with just a few hours' notice?

[KatherineOfGaunt]

@Lettuceforlunch

We’ve been told specifically two cases. Again, that may be wrong but why state that in an email to parents?

So not necessarily in the same year group. Could be staff members who are in more than one year group. Like I said, you don't know enough details.

[Namechercanged]

be prepared for online learning for a start. Not just do a quick ten minute call each day and pretend that that’s sufficient and covers a whole day’s worth of learning…

10 minute call per child? Or for the whole class?

What year group is your child in? A 10 minute call would be appropriate for ks1 students. Ks2 do need more input.

[ChristmasCovid]

@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.

It’s test & trace that don’t get involved.
Public Health England are the ones who decide who needs to isolate at each school.

[cantkeepawayforever]

It does depend on whether the whole class is out, or it's a mixture of in and out.

During lockdown, or a whole class isolation, I would do 2 hours live a day + videos (primary). If I am setting work for some of the class while teaching the rest in school, it's much more asynchronous, simply because we don't have the technology to teach via Teams and live in the classroom at the same time.

[twinkletoesimnot]

It's mad to say the school wants to close.
Have you any idea how much harder it is to set remote learning?
I'm sure the staff aren't relishing the idea of isolating either.

[chaosrabbitland]

its enough to drive me nuts , from the 11 june my dds whole form and 3 others was sent home to isolate for 10 days , when i took her back on monday it was a disorganized mess and they werent letting any of them into the school until 11 am when theyd finished pissing about with the lateral flow tests that dd and several of her friends are opted out of , so even though those opted out should have been allowed straight in as per the email the school sent me , they made them wait outside anyway , she got fed up of it and rang me wanting to come home , so shes literally only had 2 days and lo and behold , the school ring me at work , boy in the form has tested positve and they have just decided to send home the whole lot again for another 10 days .

this farce has only come about since these lft were given to schools and are now being used , its just absolutly ridulous and im starting to wonder if shes going to be at home more than at school . the only parents taking it seriously must be the ones doing these tests , as when i went up to the gate , one mum collecting was reassuring her son and his mate that they would be meeting up for a playdate and my dd spoke to her friend in the form whos mum had taken her to sainsburys , she is opted out of testing like my dd , and the school are sending them home to isolate when in reality i bet most of them actually arent anyway

[cantkeepawayforever]

We have standard generic work for the first day of any isolation, to enable us to get the full set of resources etc sorted for the following day. It's not perfect, but it means that what we provide from day 2 onwards is much higher quality because we have time to e.g. make and post the lesson videos to go live from the second morning.

We did have to 'bounce' a class at 8.30 am in the latest wave - the class were coming into school when a parent finally let us know that 'oh, yes, the PCR was positive -sorry for not letting you know'. We couldn't risk them coming into school, mixing again and then being sent home later. There was a cluster within that class, revealed by tests during isolation, as it was.

[cantkeepawayforever]

the school are sending them home to isolate when in reality i bet most of them actually arent anyway

That is not the school's fault, but the parents'. The school is doing what it should - in fact what it must. A child going to Sainsbury's, ironically, will probably have many fewer close contacts than they would in a day in school, tbh.

[Scarby9]

We're back to bubbles of no more than 30 again, strictly no contact or mixing across bubbles within school, so staggered miving round the building, bubbled lunches etc. Adults in masks except when teaching from the front.
Schools don't decide who isolates. They identify the close contacts and then are advised by PHE who should isolate. As a result, a local secondary is completely closed except for an onsite testing centre for kids, their parents, staff and families. Cases were rising too rapidly through sibling and friend transmission to risk staying open. The staff hate the online teaching - would far rather be in classrooms, but there is a global pandemic. It has nothing to do with fear of missing a holiday...

[Lockdownbear]

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

Do you realise that some areas had last day today and others will be stopping for summer next week?

If there is a risk of covid going through a school so close to end of term I can well imagine HT and Teachers being keen not to have their holiday plans interrupted.

[Demelza82]

Get a grip, there is notably a higher rate of pupil to pupil transmission than at any other point during the pandemic, possibly due to the nature of the variant. Your language seems to indicate that you just don't like the school and everything nthry do would be wrong

[cantkeepawayforever]

If there is a risk of covid going through a school so close to end of term I can well imagine HT and Teachers being keen not to have their holiday plans interrupted.

I know that we hold our breath in the run up to every holiday because we don't want all our children's families to have their holidays disrupted. We know that ours will be disrupted anyway, because the extra Covid workload means that much stuff that normally gets done during term time now ends up being done in the holiday....

[Lettuceforlunch]

10 minute call per child? - err, no! For the whole class…

[theluckiest]

@Lettuceforlunch

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?

Oh give over. Of course they could all be close contacts. Schools are not, and have never been ' COVID safe' despite the bullshit fed by the Government.

Both my secondary kids are self isolating. Shit happens. The delta variant is burning through schools mainly as none of the people in them are vaccinated.

In my own primary school, one staff member has tested positive despite being double vaccinated. It's completely shit. And I can guarantee that at this point in the year, not a single teacher wants this shit to be happening. Don't take it personally!!

[yeahdarling]

@Northofsomewhere

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.

Schools aren't having meetings where staff are together. We stay in class bubbles all the time. It's the same in all schools I know.

[theluckiest]

Oh, and I've been amazed by how my kids' school immediately switched to online learning. They are incredible. Despite having to also teach in reality. I have no idea how they are doing this magic.

Online teaching is horrible. No one wants this.
Perhaps you could be a bit more supportive?

[Lettuceforlunch]

I disagree @theluckiest. 4 whole years, two classes in each, meant to be kept in at least year group bubbles. 240 children who at most have crossed paths in the playground are not close contacts. They have not all had the same teacher or TA who could have spread Covid.