Has your child's bubble been isolated yet? Please log here and give thoughts.

[BilberryBaggins]

It has become very clear over the last few days that children are going to be repeatedly told to self-isolate (ie stay AT HOME for 14 days). If this happens over and over again for children, this will be far worse for their education and mental health than the previous term of home schooling was.

I thought it would be useful to have somewhere to log people's experiences. So, please give me your thoughts on this system, and if your child has had to self-isolate through their school bubble, log it here.

But surely KS3 can be organised to reduce contact? We are teaching KS3 in tutor groups, same room for all their subjects. No mixing with others in the year group except outside... Our hope is that they would not all have to go home in the event of a positive test. We even have the same seating plan for every lesson so we know who they have been next to!

I noticed on another thread that a teacher posted that if a teacher tests positive at her school, they will not be treated as a close contact of any pupils! This is based on the complete fiction that teachers are distancing from the pupils. Does anyone know how common an approach that is?

The theory with bubbles is that teachers should be distancing 2m from pupils but within bubbles, pupils will not distance at all. However at at least one of my schools, if the class teacher was off then the whole bubble was off (primary).

Secondary is a bit easier to distance if you are a teacher I think.

What is your alternative suggestion OP?

@LilyPond2 I think I maybe the teacher you’re referring too. I’m secondary so am not included in the bubble, must try and maintain a 2m distance. Primary teachers are included in the bubble so will isolate. Secondary teachers won’t, unless we have symptoms ourselves because of the magic 2m. Unless high schools have decided their own rules (like some teachers are teaching specific bubbles) then this in the norm. It was specified in the guidance.

Hang on.

I need to clarify; it's not schools' decision to send either a few or whole year groups home. So don't criticise the school.

It's done with PHE.

We were told that the "guidance" on how many cases would close a bubble was irrelevant as it would be a decision made with and by local PHE.

That's because they know what local rates are and can also judge the environment of the school in terms of risk etc.

There's a hell of a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't see.

And yes it's going to be disruptive. Unfortunately it is what it is at the moment. And the only way to maintain schools remaining open to all.

Alternatives are alternate weeks or fortnights in school to half classes; except that you'd still get bubble closures there.

We have humongous class sizes compared to the rest of Europe.

Btw, A friend in Germany has described children having to stay off even with what's clearly cold. So the U.K. is being very open with schools.

Not aimed at you mother, but there's an assumption among some parents that heads are sending kids home at the drop of a hat, when it's not as straight forward as that.

Agreed @NeurotrashWarrior. The first thing schools have been advised to do is consultant PHE and they make the decision. In my local news yesterday a high school had a positive case but no bubbles were sent home. Cue parents complaining and withdrawing their children but again the school wouldn’t have made that decision, PHE would have.

@SleeplessWB

But surely KS3 can be organised to reduce contact? We are teaching KS3 in tutor groups, same room for all their subjects. No mixing with others in the year group except outside... Our hope is that they would not all have to go home in the event of a positive test. We even have the same seating plan for every lesson so we know who they have been next to!

Our KS3 is set up like this and to a lesser extent y10 (they are mostly in 1 class but move for option subjects, so probably have 3 or 4 groups they are in rather than the usual 10). However they are still technically year group bubbles as they are sharing communal spaces - toilets, dining area, outside space and indoor space at break, sitting in year groups on the bus. I think the hope would be that it would just mean 1 class if we had a positive and I guess they'd be asked for their friendship group as they'd spent all break and lunch with them.

Teachers are trying to stay 2m away, we don't count in the bubble. Logistics of teaching and room size/layout don't always make this possible.

I dont understand the isolating bubbles, so kid A picks up virus on day1 .....doesn't start showing symptoms until day 3 maybe.....can't get tested until day 5 (no appointments available or waiting for post test) it's day 7 before the positive result comes.........and then they start to isolate the rest of the bubble for a further 14 days when they've already had 7 days or possibly longer when the virus is already circulating between them. You would have thought that from day 3 when kid A showed symptoms that it would be in the 7 days after that point that others in the bubble would also start with symptoms. Theres a massive gap from getting infected to positive result to then start a 14 day isolation, to me the horse has bolted by this point.

@Lumene

What is your alternative suggestion OP?

I would in the first instance;

i) Be much less strict about isolating entire year group bubbles; every school in our area that has had a +ve case has isolated the entire bubble, often hundreds of children at a time. Perhaps just identify the children who had been in a class with that child?

and if it became obvious that children were having repeated bouts of isolation inflicted on them (ie 2 days in, 2 weeks off, 3 days in, 2 weeks off)

ii) revert to home learning, but make sure that schools are delivering live lessons; a lot of the reasons they didn't last term were fears about safeguarding, and if they were directed to do this by government then safeguarding would be less of an issue.

I think it is better for children to be in school than not, but not if the cost of a few days in school is repeated 14 days of isolation at home when they can't leave the house.

The worry for me is that the government have put a lot of store in 'keeping schools open', which is a good aspiration, but if the impact on children is hugely negative then they need to consider that.

As an example, a year 7 class in my area has all been sent home to isolate for 14 days following a +ve test. These children have likely been out of school for 6 months, they've come to their new school, had maybe 3 days in school and now can't leave their house for 14 days. That's not good for anyone.

@NeurotrashWarrior

Hang on.

I need to clarify; it's not schools' decision to send either a few or whole year groups home. So don't criticise the school.

It's done with PHE.

We were told that the "guidance" on how many cases would close a bubble was irrelevant as it would be a decision made with and by local PHE.

That's because they know what local rates are and can also judge the environment of the school in terms of risk etc.

There's a hell of a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't see.

And yes it's going to be disruptive. Unfortunately it is what it is at the moment. And the only way to maintain schools remaining open to all.

Alternatives are alternate weeks or fortnights in school to half classes; except that you'd still get bubble closures there.

We have humongous class sizes compared to the rest of Europe.

Btw, A friend in Germany has described children having to stay off even with what's clearly cold. So the U.K. is being very open with schools.

yy I think this is entirely true about PHE which is why I was surprised that another poster said she had it 'in writing from the school' that they wouldn't close an entire bubble.