Back to School - AIBU to expect further chaos?

[DadAManger]

We are less than one month out now from both our children returning to school. Like many others, my DD and DS were taken out of school and had to isolate because of cases within their year several times during the last school year. The whole period was stop:start for them.

I feel like we are making progress in lots of areas and feel much more freedom than we had before of course, but we know now that the Delta/Indian Variant spreads very easily and with a greater viral load amongst our kids. And Autumn does tend to see an increase in cases.

Are schools going to have to pull kids from school again and follow the same approach as before and AIBU to expect more chaos again?

They're not swabbed by a stranger. They do the test themselves, presumably the same as they do at home.

actiongirl1978
It looks to me like common sense will return.

If someone is ill, they stay at home.

Comedy gold

@noblegiraffe the guidance is very clear that 11 year olds in secondary school should not do the Swab themselves.
They should just do them at home.

Or rather their parents should do them for them

@FrippEnos

actiongirl1978 It looks to me like common sense will return.

If someone is ill, they stay at home.

Comedy gold

Unintentionally funny, but funny nonetheless.

My daughter starts yr 7 in sept. Apparently they are supposed to go in for one test the afternoon before they start, then another a few days after. Thereafter twice weekly at home until send of September.

As staff we will still be testing twice weekly, but only need to isolate of positive, not if just in contact with a positive as long as double jabbed.

They are definitely testing in secondary

Dh's school have just been sent thousands of tests

They might be offering the test, but it's not mandatory and can just as easily be done at home. Actually, it would be far easier for it to be done at home.

No. I think it will go OK from September to be honest.

Testing and masks in my school. I have no idea what form self isolation will take, but yes, I am expecting further chaos.

YABU for not putting this in the COVID topic where it belongs and all the panic mongers unite.

Lots will catch covid, so yanbu in that respect, but unless your own child has it, they will still be able to go school. BUT, whether there will be enough staff to teach our kids is another thing, as supply was getting very hard to come by before summer holidays, certainly round here.

[quote Tryingtryingandtrying]@noblegiraffe the guidance is very clear that 11 year olds in secondary school should not do the Swab themselves.
They should just do them at home.[/quote]
The guidance for secondary schools is that students self-swab while supervised, I don't know where you have got the idea that a stranger will swab them?

It's the new LFTs too, so nasal only, no throat swab anymore.

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cT6adcSVsLer0kvcSuI4QcBYdlmdgb5x (green handbook)

I suspect the biggest problem in primary schools will be the lack of supply teachers. If there's no requirement to isolate then it will circulate pretty widely and plenty of vaccinated staff will catch it. Those staff will still have to take 10 days off (minimum) and there will be class closures where there aren't enough supply teachers to go round.

11 year olds should be tested by an adult

Not if they're being tested at a secondary school, trying. It's a supervised self-swab.

If you want to do it at home that's your lookout, but schools are like well-oiled machines with this now after doing it in March.

It shouldn't be as much of an issue for staffing, as the isolation rules are due to change and many/most have been vaccinated

Either 11 year olds can bectrusted self Swab or they cant. Being at secondary school does not change their age.
The majority of parents I know are not consenting to testing at school. Because they can do it at home. Especially as they do not want their child treated in the way they are in schools should it be positive. Much better dealt with at home.

trying The majority of parents consented last time, and Y7 were fine with it.

If you want to do it at home then do it at home, that's up to you.

@noblegiraffe It wasn't Year 7s first day and people didn't have easy and free access to LFTs they could do in their home. Very different.
Year 7s being sent in on their first day to be tested and potentially turned around and excluded from the school because they are diseased is not an ideal start. Much better to test at home and not send them in.

No idea why you're trying to persuade me, trying, if it's not an ideal start take it up with the DfE who have told schools to do it.

Not trying to persuade you, you made it sound like it's a condition of entry back to school and it's not. There's a much better, simpler and kinder option than treating yp in this way. DFE of course don't recognise that, not a surprise really.

'If we stop testing, cases will fall!' is certainly an interesting take. Does that work for all illnesses? Perhaps the lab technicians were the real villains all along.

Testing in schools has never been mandatory.

I've said you can do it at home, trying, in fact you don't have to do it at all.

But describing it as 'being swabbed by a stranger' is inaccurate.

The DfE want it done in schools to make sure they are being done properly and recorded (lots of home tests weren't being recorded last time).