Back to School, self isolation and pods

[Thewoodstar]

So, just had a letter from school outlining what they have planned for September. School have been fabulous and I can’t see that they can do anymore. The teachers have been brilliant and I thank them all.

However I am concerned about sending DC back. They will be in pods of their class. But sharing bathrooms with other year groups. Hand washing is unsupervised. And just the smell from the boys bathroom is at the end of the day Gives me zero confidence in any hand hygiene.

However my primary concern is the families of other children in the pod. I am confident school will do whatever they can to keep everyone safe. And life isn’t without risk. I get that.
But having spent the last 12 weeks watching older children or siblings from my child’s school, hanging about at the beach, in parks etc. No social distancing whatsoever. Massive big groups. The adults freely having parties and bbqs etc has made me worry. I know it’s all subjective and I have been using my parents for childcare as I had to have several hospital appointments, And I have now started meeting others. So I’m by no means overly anxious or the corona police . But I guess I am just worried that we are at the mercy of all these families who don’t have anyone vulnerable and don’t care about the rest of us. And even without the risk to health, if we have to keep self isolating because our children have been at school in a pod with someone who is symptomatic, are the parents of the said child going to financially compensate all the self employed people who won’t be able to work or get paid? I guess once schools in back, if people decide to ignore the social distancing advice etc, they are making decisions not the whole class and not just themselves. Which seems wrong.

Am I missing something?

The point I feel people keep missing is that although schools are the hardest place for distancing/hygiene etc the BEST way we can keep schools safe is by all the other measures we are taking outside of school. If we social distance, work from home where possible, wear masks in shops, green zones/red zones in hospitals etc it keeps community levels low and THIS PROTECTS SCHOOLS whilst letting children get on with their much needed education. The virus will not spontaneously arrive in schools if it is not prevalent in the community.

So if one person from my child’s/husbands school tests positive everyone has to isolate?

@Mummabeary

The point I feel people keep missing is that although schools are the hardest place for distancing/hygiene etc the BEST way we can keep schools safe is by all the other measures we are taking outside of school. If we social distance, work from home where possible, wear masks in shops, green zones/red zones in hospitals etc it keeps community levels low and THIS PROTECTS SCHOOLS whilst letting children get on with their much needed education. The virus will not spontaneously arrive in schools if it is not prevalent in the community.

Which is why it’s making me mad & scared that hardly anyone is doing this. The pubs are full, households are mixing, no one is wearing masks.

@Comefromaway no, PHE will only potentially close a school where it has 2 positive cases.

This is the flowchart

And the two people positive per bubble was confirmed via PHE yesterday.

Part time school with social distancing would in my opinion be preferable to full time with high risk of transmissions and closures.

I agree with this, but also recognise it's not the way it's going. However, if infections are much higher in Sept they may have to think again.

They need to provide funding for heating (to allow better ventilation whilst keeping classrooms warm) and extra sink facilities.

I also think that the government is not thinking creatively. The Independent Sage group were saying it would be possible to social distance if other buildings were used for teaching e.g. community centres, leisure centres, village halls. My daughter's school has been offered a number of community spaces but the DfE is blanket refusing to allow schools to use them - why?

@Comefromaway
True but I am quite optimistic about this. The virus was absolutely rife in February/March and even though people are starting to do some of these activities like pub/shopping etc it is a world away from where we were then. My partner was taking several flights per week, I was crushed up next to hundreds of other people on the tube, the kids were running around at soft play parties, I had a night out dancing in a club with lots of sweaty strangers, we would hug all our friends in greeting etc. Life is very different now, even if we do occasionally nip into Sainsburys without a mask or meet friends at the park. These small changes made my millions of people WILL make a difference I'm very hopeful.

Part time school with social distancing would in my opinion be preferable to full time with high risk of transmissions and closures.

The problem with this is staff. You can't have a part time socially distant TT with decent online provision because your staff will be teaching.

I agree @Mummabeary. There have been so many little nudges and changes in our behaviour outside of schools that we are "naturally" spreading it less. Old people barely go out, most people meet outside or in small groups, offices are mostly still closed. It's a very different picture to Feb/Mar.

@DominaShantotto what I would like is for the parents of the children attending school, to adhere to social distancing and ensure all their children are too (appreciate not possible with a toddler in nursery I agree). I would be happy with the risk if I didn’t think families were allowing their teenagers or older children out and about mixing in large groups with no social distancing or masks, or weren’t off to bbqs and other social events with different households and no social distancing every weekend. Or queuing for primark or The Nike Shop sale etc.

Why should my child miss out on school when it’s other families creating a risk. If people were being sensible Out of school, then the school situation would be reasonable.

The school near us closed for a week because a parent sent their child in after a sick bug. A quarter of the school ended up with norovirus. It’s selfish and the decisions people are making at the moment impact all of society, not just themselves.

I don’t have a problem with anxiety. Not in the slightest. I do work in the NHS though so have a good insight to what’s being planned for the next 6 months.

Parents sending children to school with a temperature or an untested cough should definitely be fined or sanctioned in some way. And employers need to be made to be flexible for parents.

Ffs the virus will easily arrive spontaneously in schools.

We have kids from all over the city, mainly on public transport. Lots of people giving no fucks, no distancing, no masks.

I’m in a city on the government watch list due to number of cases. Just takes one kid to walk through one of the areas where it’s prevelant, and the whole thing explodes..

With teenagers "allowing" them out doesn't come into it. They can just walk out. Most teens I've seen are outside where transmission risk is lower.

We have to let people live their lives. That includes seeing each other, shopping etc. We've had months of lockdown. The second waves that people keep predicting haven't arrived. Obviously one will come over winter but by then PH systems will be in place.

I feel the same OP. We've been so careful since March as DH is vulnerable but come September we will be at the mercy of other families' situations and choices.

We can both wfh long term so the only likely route of covid into the house will be from school. I'm already feeling anxious about how anxious I will be!

But she needs to go back. It's going to be hard.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

Ffs the virus will easily arrive spontaneously in schools.

We have kids from all over the city, mainly on public transport. Lots of people giving no fucks, no distancing, no masks.

I’m in a city on the government watch list due to number of cases. Just takes one kid to walk through one of the areas where it’s prevelant, and the whole thing explodes..

Of course that can happen but now we know that 80% of people dont transmit to anyone so that kid may not pass it on but if they do, procedures will be in place to shut bubbles/schools/areas if necessary. So if in your area there is a community prevalance then it wont affect children in the other towns and cities in the country and the other 40,000 educational establishments who can be getting on with schooling. And yes, a few weeks later it may hit another location and the same happens for them. But if our systems are working there could be whole swathes of the country who can get on with schooling with no cases and it will just be bad luck who gets affected. What is the alternative really?

And I feel we need to be more positive with statistics. Someone said there were 55 incidents in schools last week. We should be saying that means there were 42945 educational establishments in the UK last week which had a great week of schooling for children with no issues of Covid. Makes me feel much happier to take my chances!

So if someone in a bubble tests positive, the rest of the bubble doesn’t have to isolate, only if two test positive.

Seems like Russian Roulette to me.

Our school had a confirmed case in a parent within the 4w from half term. And probably in at least their child but obviously no testing.
Other schools that had cases already are not really going to have much faith it wont happen again.
Yes there is more distancing in the population

At least one staff member & one student are still suffering longer term Serious effects from what they have been told was most likely Covid back in early March.

Our school had a confirmed case in a parent within the 4w from half term

It was far more likely that there would be confirmed cases then, when up to 1/100 people were infected.
Now approx 1/4000 people are infected, and social distancing is still in place, and people are working from home, and testing is available to anyone who wants one, and people are isolating for symptoms, and people can’t freely meet indoors, and large scale gatherings are banned, it’s less likely.

Does anyone else wish all the small rural schools hadnt been closed? I wonder if there are any local families near me who would be interested in a mini school. 5 to 10 kids in a hall. Each parent runs sessions teaching something ie 1. Math 2. English 3. Science. 4 language etc
A couple of times a week with families also not mixing and set up with social distancing

@Mummabeary

And I feel we need to be more positive with statistics. Someone said there were 55 incidents in schools last week. We should be saying that means there were 42945 educational establishments in the UK last week which had a great week of schooling for children with no issues of Covid. Makes me feel much happier to take my chances!

Good for you - but really 55 is pretty concerning given how few pupils are in school.

@Hercwasonaroll

Part time school with social distancing would in my opinion be preferable to full time with high risk of transmissions and closures.

The problem with this is staff. You can't have a part time socially distant TT with decent online provision because your staff will be teaching.

I would be happy with minimal online provision tbh. Our school managed to do activities they used in class and we did them at home. I'm ok with that.

What's proposed for schools is not right imo.

I would be happy with minimal online provision tbh. Our school managed to do activities they used in class and we did them at home. I'm ok with that.

That's great for you. Lots of parents need online stuff to enable them to work or they don't have the expertise for secondary stuff.

We sent home stuff we use in class, it still takes time to do. Time that isn't there if you're in school teaching all day.

@Hercwasonaroll

I would be happy with minimal online provision tbh. Our school managed to do activities they used in class and we did them at home. I'm ok with that.

That's great for you. Lots of parents need online stuff to enable them to work or they don't have the expertise for secondary stuff.

We sent home stuff we use in class, it still takes time to do. Time that isn't there if you're in school teaching all day.

The Welsh approach of no fines is much more sensible than setting up battles with parents like me.