What’s the point?! (School bubbling, after school not?!)

[Nosebogey]

I feel like people have lost the plot and I have no one to get advice from with this one.

Psyching myself up to send ds back after summer against a lot of my instincts for the sake of his mental health which he’s struggling with a lot. He went in during lockdown into classes of 8-10 kids, all very well separated.

The rules for September are scarier. We’ve been told the kids will be in class bubbles of around 28 kids when they go back and that each bubble will be kept distanced from the others. Which is scary but the best they can do I think. But then, the after school care (run by a private company but in the same building, the only after school care at the school), isn’t going to be bubbling the age groups. So class bubbles all day and they all mix after school. What’s the point of the class bubbles then?!

And that’s before I start thinking about how the kids will be mixing outside of school anyway like in parks or walking home etc.

It just all feels like lip service. And I’m rambling now but how is this not insane? To have bubbles and act like everything will be okay and safe, but then in the same building, have all the kids mixing after school?!

Do we just give up and accept we are going to be exposed to the virus? I feel like I’m losing the plot.

Our secondary has years are a bubble.
That's 300 children per year.
Of ds' friends and himself, they have siblings in years 7, 8, 11 and 12.
He's in year 9.
And over half the children come to school by bus, and no social distancing or bubbling possible.

But don't worry. There's a magical power that stops it spreading in school. It's called "pick-your-nose-and-don't-panic."

Using the word bubble doesn’t make it safe. Classes will be the same size as usual. It’s just so it’s easier to send a bubble home when they get positive cases.

Children will be mixing in after school care, hobbies, clubs, friends etc (many parents are not enforcing SD amongst children). There families may be visiting pubs, restaurants, gatherings etc.

Well there isn't really bubbles anymore is there
There will be wraparound care on different sites anyway
So you should forget the bubble thing

It just all feels like lip service.

Bubbles are just that. They give the illusion that something is being done to help prevent the spread, when in fact it's a pointless exercise. There are too many ways in which the bubbles are being popped. Teaching staff interacting with the different year groups, siblings in other bubbles / schools, outside activities with children from different schools etc

Mixing outside (ie in the fresh air) isn't an issue. The chances of catching it there are vanishingly small.

After-school clubs won't have the staff and funds to separate by age group. If it's primary school, the risks between children are small anyway, but it would be an additional group your DC would have to contact with, and they would therefore have to self-isolate for 14 days at home if one of the after-school children tested positive.

Any chance of not using it this term?

Do you have reason to be particularly worried OP? Vulnerable? Or looking after elderly parents etc? Or is this just health anxiety?

My daughters been back at nursery since June & in July they relaxed the EY rules so any number of children could mix. So, she’s been with about 20 each day. Different ones as well as she attends part time as do most of the kids. She also plays with her cousins & with our friends kids most weeks when we meet up in local parks etc. Children mixing doesn’t remotely concern me. It felt a bit weird for a week in June but then normal. I’m aware I’m exposing us as a family to the potential of catching it (we have a 5 month old & I have very mild asthma) but that’s just life. My kids mental health was not good. She’s totally back to normal now she’s socialising with her peers & friends & family.

I have a really bad fear of being sick. I’m terrified. I’ve passed out from panic attacks about it. Sending my kid to nursery was a real leap of faith in that regard a few years ago as I knew I was exposing myself to way more chance of catching a sick bug. Every week I still have a bit of worry in the back of my head. I’m more worried she’ll bring noro home than Covid 🙈 But I cannot let my worries/fears hamper her education & wellbeing. Opening the schools will be a huge test & it’ll be a disrupted year for sure. But if you & the family are all young & healthy, you’ll almost certainly be OK!

Nothing about the return to school plans are actually safe. Nothing! But schools need to reopen for so many reasons. I’m a teacher and a parent. My child needs school but I am under no illusion that the government have introduced any safety measures. Bubbles mean nothing.

It just all feels like lip service. And I’m rambling now but how is this not insane?

It is lip service. It is insane. If you're looking for a 'safe' way to return to education, this is not it. There isn't a safe way to return everyone to education.

For children and staff who were in during lockdown, it's going to be very different.

We are back, Scotland. Teachers and kids are doing extra desk wipes, extra hand washes and zoned playground and lunches in classrooms. Even the wear a mask if working less than 2m for 15 mins or more was scoffed and changed to sit side by side and you are fine 🙄🤔 but, it is amazing to see the kids back, happy, relaxed and so very ready. Yes it may all go pear shaped and yes so much more could have, (should have) been done but we are where we are and lets hope we can keep levels low in our communities.

Our school isn't opening its before and after school clubs due to this reason. I'm really stuck now though with work and don't no what to do as I can't work school hours, just all too stressful

Same. Kids in a year group bubble of 90 children. But the after school club has no bubbles. Anyway, since I have kids in 2 different years (2 and 6), the bubble "bursts" as soon as they get home anyway.

My feeling is that schools have to produce a plan to show they've thought about it. But no one is really expecting the bubble system to actually work or be properly enforced.

(personally I'm fine with it all, but I get why not everyone is)

It's for contact tracing and containment so not more than a few hundred cases at once.
Shit for anyone vulnerable or who doesnt want to get long term side effects

In theory, the bubble arrangement will still reduce the risk even with some mixing of bubbles. So say child A in year 1 tests positive, the year 1 class will have to isolate or get tested. If they have also been to after school club, all the children they had close contact with there will also have to isolate and be tested. In theory of they catch child A early enough, the others will be isolated before they have the chance to develop symptoms and spread it.

The problem with this is asymptomatic cases. If child A has no symptoms but is still able to pass it on, it could get quite far round the school before anyone is isolated.

I don't think we know much about how much asymptomatic cases can spread it. Logic suggests that if you aren't coughing, sneezing etc you are less likely to spread it but I don't know if there's any actual evidence on that?

They wait for 2 positives...
Which as you say could have lots of asymptomatics by then.

The finalised plans for school come out in last week of August.

But you need to forget about bubbles/small groups etc that's done, now it's the wider community mixing and hoping to nip the localised outbreaks in the bud quickly.

Bubbles are just so the whole school doesn't have to close. Bubbles will be mixed all the time anyway. We have children that wonder around school and will cross into other bubbles plus staff can work in more than one bubble. With siblings too in different classes. I worked out with me and my 4 children we are in a bubble of 800.

Thank you for explaining it all everyone! I weirdly feel a lot better now that I get that bubbles are less about not letting them contact each other and more about wider containment if the virus does get in and around the school. It’s strange to switch my thinking because I think we got the whole STAY AWAY FROM PEOPLE thing so much at the start and now it seems to be more ITS HERE AND ITS STAYING SO LETS KEEP OUTBREAKS SMALL so it’s hard to adjust 😂

Bubbles are just that. They give the illusion that something is being done to help prevent the spread, when in fact it's a pointless exercise. There are too many ways in which the bubbles are being popped.

I agree, the concept of bubbles is deeply flawed, and are a way to try and give the impression of safety when they do nothing of the sort. My daughter’s secondary school will be bubbling year
groups of 240, staggering start and end times to make facilitate this, but a significant proportion come to school by school bus given it’s a rural area, on which I believe there will be no requirement to socially distance or wear masks,
and many will have siblings.

In fact I’d argue bubbles are worse than useless as they give a completely false impression of safety.

The finalised plans for school come out in last week of August.

How ridiculous... So schools will have next to no time for implementation, when these plans could have been developed since March!

At the school where I work, 5 classes share one block of toilets. So bubbles are pointless.

Unfortunately we can't build more toilets. A cleaning company comes in at lunchtime as well as the usual cleaners at home time but there's still a huge number of children touching the same surfaces, taps, flushes, locks, handles etc.