What will schools do when kids get the inevitable temperatures over winter?

[toastmeahotcrossbun]

Won't they be having to close down every 5 minutes? So many will get temperatures over autumn/winter as they always do. Or will the schools just rely on people getting kids tested ASAP and then close for 2 weeks if someone tests positive? I'm struggling to see how it will work in practice

@Hippofrog

How does it work if siblings are in two separate bubbles? If one bubble gets sent home do siblings in other bubbles have to go home also? In some school parents could potentially have 3 or 4 children all in different bubbles.

yes, the siblings will also go home

Bubbles only exist in school although schools are also saying to students to keep contact within year groups only when travelling to and from school. Siblings can't do this so another reason that bubbles are not exactly the safe environment we are led to believe.

@ mosquitofeast

Is that the siblings of the infected child or siblings of anyone in the infected bubble? So they go home after they have potentially infected the rest of their bubble when then remain at school? It honestly makes no sense to be whatsoever.

They are abandoning bubbles at my work (university) and instead having smaller classes with social distancing but that means us as staff still have contact with hundreds of students per week because we need to teach the same content across all the smaller classes. So if the staff member gets covid then that's potentially hundreds of students they've spread it to. And all the lecturers DC go to the same few schools in the area. It'll be an 'interesting' year.

@mosquitofeast

hopefully schools will be testing temperatures as students arrive, and sending home any that are raised

I’m pretty sure it’s in the Government guidance that schools shouldn’t be taking pupil temperatures on arrival.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been running these thoughts around their head. I have 3dc. One at primary and 2 at secondary. Dd1 will be year 9 and there's 350+ in her bubble. She has asthma and gets a viral illness every 6 weeks or so. She also suffers with her periods and her temperature goes up each time. She frequently coughs in the winter and Randi my spikes fevers with no obvious cause. Dd2 has asthma and will get the virus after dd1. It then spreads to ds and me. My asthma is bad enough for me to be shielded and I always end up the most ill out of all of us. I honestly can't see my children being in school very much at all. If there is a known positive case in their bubbles then I won't be sending them in due to the risks to me.

I bet the guidance will be rapidly changed after a month when they realise that it's a nightmare with staff and children off frequently.

I had to do a test and it was not nice. Dc will not tolerate it well at all so will be isolating rather than testing. I'll try but I don't fancy my chances.

How is test and trace going so far? Wasn't that supposed to be up and running well by September??

@Hippofrog

How does it work if siblings are in two separate bubbles? If one bubble gets sent home do siblings in other bubbles have to go home also? In some school parents could potentially have 3 or 4 children all in different bubbles.

No, I don’t think so.

What about the mental health of the children that want to wear masks, that have been doing so since March or at least since lockdown has been eased. They are not stupid, they understand that a shop is too dangerous to wear a mask but school is fine?

We are letting staff and students wear masks at my secondary.

How many sick teachers would it take for a school to have to close?

Well, we have one cover teacher, she's allocated to various classes for PPA or management time cover every day except Thursday. So, one teacher off would be OK, because someone else could miss their time out of class, but two teachers off and that would be it without supply. Can't be certain that any supply teachers will be happy to cover a bubble where the teacher is off waiting for a test. We have 19 teachers.

@Regulus

What about the mental health of the children that want to wear masks, that have been doing so since March or at least since lockdown has been eased. They are not stupid, they understand that a shop is too dangerous to wear a mask but school is fine?

Children shouldn't be thinking that shops are 'dangerous'. They have more chance of getting themselves garrotted by the mask on the way down to breakfast.

Children over 11 are required by law to wear a mask in a shop. My 14 year old said exactly what Regulus was saying. Why is it law in a shop but not in a school. The stores are able to distance far more than his high school and he would spend less time in a store. It does not make sense.

regulus surely schools would let children wear masks if they wanted to? They'll have to wear them on public transport anyway. But it's a big ask to expect them to keep them on all day long so I can't see how they could make it mandatory or that would be fair on the ones who really didn't want to or had reasons not to.

I'm just hoping the school is going to provide some advice as and when they get a possible covid infection in a bubble because I honestly havent got a clue how it's all supposed to work.

Unfortunately not @toastmeahotcrossbun. Both my kids schools have said masks are not permitted in school. The government have said this is up to each school to decide.

Online lessons need to be there as a back up (live if at all possible)
Equipment for all those who don’t have it - should have been sorted over the summer (govt)
Follow normal school as far as possible in bubbles etc
Lots of hand washing etc
Masks/visors if people want them
Tests readily available (easily administered in schools with a nurse) but a challenge if parents at work or no medical Centre
Test, track and trace etc

toastme currently our senior school have forbidden! masks inside school. They will have to wear them on the bus tho.
mrshoho exactly and at 14 they are used to going off to shops on their own and capable of wearing a mask. Also when the govt talks about children not being affected by the virus they mean under 10's.

@Uhoh2020

Realistically though how often does your child have a high temperature? Coughs and sniffles maybe often but rarely have my dc had temperatures

Every year my ds since starting school has had bad cough & temperature lasting about 4 days, then okay again! Going to be a nightmare figuring it out versus covid!

Online lessons need to be there as a back up (live if at all possible) - online yes, live mostly not - the issues from this academic year haven't gone away, still no tech for lots of children
Equipment for all those who don’t have it - should have been sorted over the summer (govt) - see above, hasn't been done
Follow normal school as far as possible in bubbles etc yep
Lots of hand washing etc yep
Masks/visors if people want them not allowed
Tests readily available (easily administered in schools with a nurse) nope
Test, track and trace etc nope

So many government failings on this. They haven't made any significant changes that will actually help.

@Valenciaoranges

Online lessons need to be there as a back up (live if at all possible) Equipment for all those who don’t have it - should have been sorted over the summer (govt) Follow normal school as far as possible in bubbles etc Lots of hand washing etc Masks/visors if people want them Tests readily available (easily administered in schools with a nurse) but a challenge if parents at work or no medical Centre Test, track and trace etc

All sounds very sensible, but would need money which the government won’t provide.

Live lessons can’t happen in my school as the WiFi is so dreadful. Teachers have a laptop each which we use to teach with-it’s a screen we use as a whiteboard/PowerPoint/clips etc-If I’m teaching from that, what would I use to film myself on? We have no other IT equipment.

We have one school nurse for goodness knows how many schools. She’s been off sick for months and hasn’t been replaced.

Bubbles of 90 are meaningless. They aren’t bubbles.

We are not allowed masks or visors-teachers or pupils.

That probably sounds not very ‘can do’, but it’s difficult to see a way round following that guidance with no budget, sometimes.

In our school only the siblings of the ill child would be sent home not siblings of subsequent people in the group having to go home. Of course if one of the subsequent children then start with symptoms then their siblings would stay home too.

That was just my ideal scenario....wishful thinking 🤔

Both my kids schools have said masks are not permitted in school

That seems outrageous to me. The kids are old enough to decide for themselves. I'd just assumed they could if they wanted.

@letseatgrandma - absolutely agree. It’s a nightmare in most schools. I’m just fortunate that I work in a school that is well resourced and all pupils have iPads and easy access to technology.
My classroom is very small, even with small class sizes it’s impossible to social distance. I spend lots of my time sat next to students etc so I will really struggle to keep my distance...

@Valenciaoranges

That was just my ideal scenario....wishful thinking 🤔

You’re not wrong with any of it-it all sounds sensible and is really what most people would have expected to see on the guidance.

It just didn’t have to be so shit-you’d think some sort of additional budget could have been thrown in the direction of schools to reopen in a better way-and I don’t mean giving a few million to specific state-sanctioned tutoring agencies to ensure every child gets two hours of ‘catch up’ sessions!

Other countries seem to have found extra money for cleaning, additional staff etc.