School - how worried are you 1-10?

[ChanceChanceChance]

I'm finding it impossible to settle on how worried I am about school, about whether my children will pick up covid there and how worried I am if that happens.

If you were to put your worry on a scale 1-10, with 1 being 'no more worried than a normal year' and 10 being 'terrified', where are you?

I think I'm going for an average of 6 right now.

8
The dc's should be ok if they get it.
I might struggle and it'll be hard to control my 12yr olds meltdowns. I don't want her hurting her brother.

Back to twice daily temperature checks, open windows and soapy washing surfaces for me 🤷‍♀️.

1

-10: DC catching virus & being harmed by it
1: me getting virus off DC & being hurt by it
+5: DC struggling to learn effectively because of all the restrictions

2 for Covid.
10 for potential disruption to learning and daily routine. Already had a day of disruption yesterday running around for a Covid test for him as he had temp and sore throat. I was pretty sure it was a seasonal bug but really didn’t want to be responsible for transmission, 2 weeks isolation and class excluded from school. Thankfully, test was negative but the responsibility towards his class and their families caused anxiety.

Thank goodness for the weekend, we were laughing at work today about being ready for half term already!

1. Genuinely not concerned. Fairly sure we all had it in February. If we get it again c’est la vie.

2, not 1 just because it is so far from a normal year, but so far so good. DC has adapted well to the new ways of working/behaving in school.
I know of just one school in my area with a case.

I don’t see why schools are any different.

Because the people involved are children. They don't make their own decisions, they don't understand full implications.

You would want to know about cases in prisons and cases in care homes. Same circumstances- people who can't make their own decisions/have little control.

Maybe a 5, I’m more concerned about the parents standing around at the school gates chatting and mixing, with no social distancing, acting like nothing has changed in the last 6 months.

1 for dc getting it, they are in a small one form entry primary, no mixing with any other classes, lots of hand washing and other measures so I am very confident the school are doing everything they can. No one in my immediate family is vulnerable, grandparents are too far away to see regularly anyway and I'm pretty sure I had it at the end of march, so if the DC caught it off me they were asymptomatic or so mild as to be unnoticeable.

10 for disruption to school and their mental health. My youngest is a real extrovert and struggled a lot during lockdown and is loving being back at school and my oldest is on the ASD pathway and loved lockdown/ has a lot of school anxiety but needs to be in school for the right support etc.

1

Some very blase responses about children getting sick here. I'm fairly certain DD (10) had it at the beginning of lockdown and it was very unpleasant. I've never seen her so ill, then she was breathless and wouldn't eat properly for weeks. She seems ok now but I still worry that there could be long-term damage that we don't know about.

totally agree Minnie

8 - but then I work with schools across a large LA, including links with PHE.

@Sophoa

Those of you who are 9 or 10 worried about your kids catching it, if they’re not vulnerable, why?

It’s almost always a mild illness in kids and teens, one of my children has had it. Confirmed via testing. He lost his smell, that’s it. Nothing else. Other friends had it, not one of the teens was more ill than a headache and feeling a bit off colour for a day. All 100% back to normal by the time their quarantine was up. This is the case for almost all healthy kids and teens

I know of 4 children (2-10 year olds) who have had it. 2 were tested and were positive. The other 2 had no symptoms but parent was tested and was positive. However, roughly 6 weeks after they had or were likely to have had it. 3 of the 4 developed serious health issues. 1 of the 4 boy had a mild cough and fever and then a full recovery with no further concerns. Another 1 of the 4 developed the Kawasaki like condition and now has gall bladder and heart trouble. 2 of the 4 were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I’m not sure how relevant it is to the Covid that they had but it seems awfully coincidental considering the timelines etc.

Yes, I am aware that it is purely anecdotal evidence but then, so was yours.

2

@lifeonhardmodept2 this is very interesting - see recent Imperial College study about potential link between Covid and diabetes in children.

1 for worries about dying from COVID, statistics are clear my immediate family are at very low risk of actually dying from it.

10 for worries around possible long term effects/damage from the virus we don't know much about what permanent damage can be done, although some research suggests long term damage can occur even with mild cases. This may be completely underestimated at the moment we just don't know.

10 for disruption. The current system is not sustainable.

[quote Usernamealreadyexists]@lifeonhardmodept2 this is very interesting - see recent Imperial College study about potential link between Covid and diabetes in children.[/quote]
Interesting article for sure. Apparently the nurses said there had been a lot of young children diagnosed with type 1 recently. More so than usual. Like it says on the article, it is hard to figure out whether Covid or just coincidental but it is strange nevertheless.

1 For schools.

More concerned about my son who’s leaving home for Uni in one of the cities that’s got a rapidly increasing number of cases. It seems he’ll be socially isolated and at risk of being unwell - but with no one to look after him.

10

At this point 10

I have 2 kids in secondary with large bubbles in addition I work in a school (catering) so mixed year groups and we were provided no screens by tills / serving area.

My DH suffered a large heart attack 2 weeks ago so my worried level has increased dramatically.

1

7, ds is going back to a class where two parents (of separate children) currently have a positive covid diagnosis and in an area where we have >450/100k. It's feeling awfully close for comfort given we have some health issues in our family.

7