Sixth form not distancing

[tenlittlecygnets]

Dd has just started sixth form. Girls all hugging and not distancing. Plenty of house parties going on with dozens of kids from several schools.

She sits by a girl who is partying and ignoring rules, and dd is worried she will catch Covid from this girl and bring it home to us.

Should sixth form be doing more to enforce distancing where possible?

Dd has obeyed rules all summer and is gutted that others haven't, and that we might be at risk because of this.

Would I be U to contact school on Monday with my reservations? What would you do?

Have just asked dd to do all she can and not worry too much about others, but she's sitting right by this girl 2 hours a day... no masks in classrooms.

If she’s in a sixth form bubble then there isn’t social distancing within the bubble.

If she wants to sit on her own then she could ask the teacher - if there’s space.

She could consider wearing a mask and she can try to distance in communal areas even if others are not.

I just hadn't realised there would be no SD.

I knew they'd be in year group bubbles, but...

It's just not fair that some people are not distancing at all and putting others at risk.

Dd is finding exactly the same thing. She has been very careful as I am in the clinically vulnerable group (or was when there was shielding). But none of her friends have followed any of the rules whatsoever. I think it has all been largely lost on this age group.

It’s tough on these poor kids who are worried about bringing it home.

Definitely let the sixth form know she is anxious and as I said ask if she can move seats if that would make her feel better.

Dd started at a new sixth form and wasn't happy with how crowded the common room was. She and some friends ate lunch outside instead. While I accept SD won't happen in year group bubbles, I don't think students should be put in the position of having to face a room crammed full of teenagers.

Why is a 16/17 year old being told who to sit next to? She should just sit somewhere else away from this girl. No need to ask permission, they're not 5 years old.

No, covid hasn't been lost on this age group (hardly, as they've missed six months of schooling so I think they might have noticed!!!!!!!) and most ARE following the rules to some degree and certainly no worse than most adults. I keep seeing photos of groups who definitely are not households and are very close together.

You've also got to wonder why parents are letting their children have/go to house parties. I suppose they're not complying themselves and may also belong to the MN "once a child is 16 they can do what they want" brigade.

I think a lot of parents aren’t following the guidelines themselves or think as children are mixing at education setting schools there’s no point not mixing outside of them.

I wonder how many parents thought there would be SD measures in place and have now realised there aren’t in reality.

There will probably be seating plans for contact tracing purposes

Schools and colleges are doing their best. They have the same size buildings and same number of staff so it is pretty impossible implement social distancing and provide a full education. Keeping teenagers apart, especially when they excited and have not been together for so long, is like herding cats. There have been a few threads saying the same and I am just surprised that people are surprised by this.

Oh right. I'm appalled but not surprised at all. I have been banging on about this for several weeks. We needed proper planning and funding of expanded space for teenagers to enable proper social distancing, It's not too late to make things better, We have rising case numbers before we are starting to see the effects of kids going back.

So no, not surprised, just want someone with some power to listen to what parents are saying and make some effective changes. Along the lines of Italy. Or Denmark. Get extra space from disused office buildings, say. Allow home working for families who want it and can do it,

And so on.

We've made our sixth form into one bubble. They physically will be sat next to each other in lessons. We have closed any common rooms/study rooms and banned all assemblies etc. They also are only allowed on site for lessons and have to leave site between lessons. It's not ideal but sadly I cannot see anyway around it.

I think teachers have been saying this for weeks.

The teachers won’t be in the year group bubble either-they’ll be teaching every year group.

It’s all good fun.

I am one of those parents who think social distancing in the sixth form is unnecessary. They have been through enough, let them be!
I realise this will make me unpopular with some people, dont really care tbh!

Odd that someone would be so keen to advertise how little empathy they have.

Less people in a class, bigger rooms, all not going to make a difference if the students themselves can't be bothered. And I am still remembering March when advised to SD, but the school let the children play contact sports in PE, had whole school assemblies...

@tenlittlecygnets

I just hadn't realised there would be no SD.

I knew they'd be in year group bubbles, but...

It's just not fair that some people are not distancing at all and putting others at risk.

Of course it's not fair.

It's not fair that the government has promised something - safe education with everyone in school full time - that they cannot deliver because they have not funded it. It's not fair that, as a result, the chances are your child - and mine, and everyone else's - will have another disrupted year of schooling, with supply teachers, any-breathing-body-in-front-of-the-class cover teachers, we-have-no-more-staff-so please go home moments and quite possibly a rapid formal move to part time in school (tier 2 in the government's arrangements, released 3 days before the start of term).

It's unfair that you were given the idea that there would be SD, through misleading press photographs.

It is unfair that guidelines were so unclear that many have given up even trying to follow them.

Haven’t we just had a thread on this exact subject ?!!!

Why is she so worried about catching COVID? The risk of COVID is very low, and the risk of dying from it is even lower.

They are in bubbles, no SD is needed in bubbles.

There is no social distancing in my s hook. We had inset days and there were six chairs put around a circular table so there were inches between people.
I'm so cross. The children aren't expected to distance but you would have thought the adults would be expected to but no. Mixed bubbles for lunch timest too. It's so disheartening because we are at a very strong risk of a lock lockdown

Do you know why ? Because mental health in teenagers have gone up double so what is better a teenager committing suicide or getting the virus and being fine

@BillywilliamV

I am one of those parents who think social distancing in the sixth form is unnecessary. They have been through enough, let them be! I realise this will make me unpopular with some people, dont really care tbh!

This !!! I think it is getting stupid now these poor kids

Why is she so worried about catching COVID? The risk of COVID is very low, and the risk of dying from it is even lower. They are in bubbles, no SD is needed in bubbles.

1 in 2,000 people is infected with CV at the moment - easily 1 in every large secondary school, at least 3 if you take the immediate households of those people into account.

A year group bubble is 1/7th of the school. So yes, a child has a 6/7 change of NOT being in the year group with the case in it ... but a 1/7th chance that they are in the year group where 1 child has it isn't THAT low, and with no SD, spread could be very rapid.

We opened on Thursday. By Friday, someone was self-isolating due to a suspected case in their family.

And we are in a VERY low risk area.

Did a klaxon go off on batshit Facebook again?

And before anyone says 'but the testing shows there are only a small number of cases per 100,000', I am using the weekly large randomised survey data, which gives an estimate of the total number of infections (symptomatic or otherwise) in the population outside hospitals and care homes.