Parents! Please don’t send your kid to school with a cough or temperature

[noblegiraffe]

We’ll have to send them home again, and that’s a whole lot of hassle that could have easily been avoided by parents following the government advice.

No, you don’t get to decide whether the cough or a fever is ‘simply a cold’. Neither do we. Just follow the guidelines please.

Apart from anything, it’s freaking their classmates out and we can really do without stressing out the kids even more about this.

Thank you.

@Heihei this is my worry. I’m a secondary teacher and have only been back at work from mat leave since Xmas. Time off is very much frowned upon. I’ve already had one day off because DD had bronchitis. She has a terrible cold at the minute that is making her cough. It’s not new or continuous so we are not isolating but she has just passed it on to her brother. I’m fully expecting my childminder to phone me and tell me one of them is coughing so I have to collect them. My husband works for the NHS so he is unable to share the childcare duties as the minute as they are swamped.

@Gruffalosandbuffalos

It’s not new or continuous so we are not isolating but she has just passed it on to her brother.

I'm sorry, and I have so much sympathy for your circumstances (I'm really not trying to be a dick) but can you not see this is exactly why people need to be isolating?

You're saying it's not Covid, fair enough, but you're sending your children out when they are clearly contagious with illness during a global pandemic?

What if the childminder catches this on Monday, and then the day they get over they catch Covid? Their immune system is weakened, and they need hospital treatment because of it?

Again, totally not trying to be a dick but this is the attitude that will be our downfall.

The continent are locking down. Italy are prioritising respirators for UNDER 60s! 60 isn't even old. This will be us if we don't do everything possible to keep each other safe and healthy.

I picked DD up from school on Friday and her teacher said she’s been feeling a bit unwell (pale, stomach ache). I said ‘ok, I’ll check her temperature when we get home and if it’s high I’ll keep her off next week’. Her teacher said ‘yeah well just see how she goes over the weekend, if it’s a stomach bug follow the 48 hour rule as usual’. Clear as mud! She didn’t have a temperature and was fine after a good nights sleep but she’ll be off (along with my other 2 DC) next week as I have a cold and cough and can’t get them to school.

It is a persistent, not consistent, cough you should be looking out for.

Persistent - continuing to exist or occur over a prolonged period.

Consistent - acting or done in the same way over time, especially so as to be fair or accurate.

So not a continual cough or a quick cough in the morning to clear out your throat.

@may50. The advice my DH found said that if the symptom had started in the last week, that counted. I think you need to keep your child off for 7 days from when they first got the symptom in question ( ye fever) . So keep him off til.next Friday ( Thursday earliest)

My youngest had what I think was hand foot and mouth last week. Blisters on hands and face, high temperature. A cough that I would describe as persistent started yesterday.

I am convinced this is the tail end of her cold and not covid 19, but I shall be keeping her at home this week. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old why they cant go to nursery, maybe I'll just tell her its closed!

By 'new' they mean not a cough from a pre existing condition which means you always cough.

They mean that it's a cough that has started recently, unless you're child has bad allergies or asthma etc and has always coughed most days of their life then it is a new cough.

If they are passing it on the their siblings it is a new contagious cough!

bumblingbovine49 - I’ve decided to keep DS off Mon am and phone school. I am happy to do so - and keep off til next Fri. I just don’t want them to mark him down as unauthorised absence - my school can get really shirty. In the past most terms DS gets the 100% attendance, rarely ill.
I have already prepared some work - maths, English etc - he’s asking when he’ll get break time I am a full time working single mum but at least I can work from home when kids are sick so that’s good.

Haven't rtft but something a lot of people are glossing over is the 7 days from when symptoms began.
My daughter has had a cough for about 3 weeks now, therefore isn't she past the isolation timeframe as that's when it's most contagious?
Not trying to be irresponsible but it is relevant if someone has had a cough for ages. Sometimes they linger on.
On those grounds I'm expecting to send her in tomorrow...I don't think I've misinterpreted the advice and in some cases it is unclear. Not however if you get ill from this point on

@Bedsheets4knickers Please don't send your child in. The government has said any cough or a temperature for a bloody reason. Saying that my friend is going to work with a cough as she thinks it's just a cough. She's going to cough over the public all day and nothing i can say will stop her going.

People will lilt keep having time off for every cough now, have you not seen italy? Like healthy people in their 40's with kids dying as they can't get an ITU bed with ventilator?

Why are not OFSTED saying that attendance figures don’t count this year

@InASense I do understand, but if I kept her home for a snotty nose she wouldn’t have left the house for weeks.
I assume her brother has caught it from her, however he is an active 3 year old so could it reality have caught a cold from anywhere.

At 1 and 3, our house is full of snot from October till April, I realistically cannot keep Then in for this long. However if they show any signs of Covid-19 I will of course self isolate.

My daughter has had a cough for about 3 weeks now... I'm expecting to send her in tomorrow

If she's had the cough for 3 weeks it isn't new, so you don't need to keep her off.

However if they show any signs of Covid-19 I will of course self isolate.

They already are, you son has a new cough, so he needs to stay home.

Your son, not you son

(Wish I could edit posts for spelling errors.)

Thanks Watersheep, I've been stressing about this all weekend, wanting to do the right thing but confused too as we've been ill in waves for the last 3/4 weeks

@Gruffalosandbuffalos

You are ignoring the advice set by the government.

Your DS has a NEW cough. It doesn't matter that he probably got it from his sister. The key her is that it is NEW. So that puts him into the 'self isolate' category. The fact that you don't think it's COVID-19 is irrelevant. Nobody is asking people to stay at home if they think they have it, they are asking people to stay at home if the have a new cough, or temperature.

Why can you not just follow the advice? Why?

Dh is trying to stay away from us because as a teacher he’s got a hugely busy time ahead and if he gets mine and ds’s 2-3 week old cough now, he will have to self isolate regardless of whether we think it’s that or not.

Government has NOT said ANY cough, and has not defined “continuous” or “repeated”

Government need to define “continuous”, or clarify that anyone with any cough should SAH.

I’m not sure people who don’t work in schools understand that classrooms are essentially Petri dishes for breeding infection.

30 kids, 1 or possibly 2 adults all within a foot of each other. Then breaktime there are hundreds of children milling around.

At the very least, there should be a strict adherence to govt guidelines. Really, schools should be closing.

The problem is that government guidance is unclear.

The Government advice is clear. She is not “missing out” on her education, schools and colleges have the facility to e-mail work home, she can keep up very easily. If you don’t have e-mail, paper copies still work. It will only be a matter of time before all schools are closed for a prolonged period (I believe Arlene Foster has suggested, for example, 16 weeks) and no individual children will be disadvantaged. Education authorities are already planning across the board calendar revisions.

Sending her in may have extremely serious consequences for another child or member of staff whose health is not as robust.

Think of others, please. This is difficult or at best inconvenient in one form or another for everyone. The only way we will all manage this and emerge from the other end with as little loss of life as possible is by pulling together as a society, following all advice and taking responsibility, for ourselves but also for those less able to look out for themselves.

The advice isn’t clear. GPs and nurses are saying this on Twitter. If it said SaH with ANY coughing, that would be clear. “continuous” and “repeated” are subjective.

I wouldn’t blame schools if they send home any staff or DC coughing more than once or twice. But that isn’t what government has (so far) required. It is likely to mean closure, in practice.

A temperature of 37.8 or higher or a new, continuous cough. “Or” not “and” (one of those symptoms is sufficient, not necessary to experience both simultaneously before isolating). Continuous is not subjective at all, it means exactly that: continuous (ie non-stop).

How could it be clearer?

If still in doubt, exercise caution for everyone’s sake.