Do people realise that if their child's bubble bursts.....

[IfYouCantSeeMyMirrors]

.....and that child is therefore sent home from school for 14 days, the child is supposed to stay solely within their own house or garden for that entire period? They might be completely well for the full 14 days, but during that time, they can't take any walks. No bike rides. No drives in the car. If they haven't got a garden, they cannot go outside at all.

Many, many children are going to be in this position very soon - quite possibly multiple times - and it goes some way beyond the initial lockdown situation.

Right or wrong, schools/government need to find a way to stop whole bubbles closing. As OP says, it's not workable to have who year groups isolating on a regular basis
I agree.
The starting point should have been funding the adaptations needed for schools to run safely and allowing rotas or blended learning.

Unfortunately the government was too busy demonising schools and the media was too busy telling parents that teachers raising valid questions about the government plans were just workshy skivers.

@bellie710

Life is tough but then you think of all the kids that were alive during world war 1 and 2 who spent years not seeing anyone or going to school and living on rations and you think 2 weeks at home in your house with ipads, netflix home deliveries and takeaways and you get a grip!!

Not everyone can afford these things you speak of, iPad, Netflix, Home delivery, takeaways, I bet you have a nice garden as well

We ask they get a check and can return to school if negative. They just need to liaise with school.

@bellie710

Life is tough but then you think of all the kids that were alive during world war 1 and 2 who spent years not seeing anyone or going to school and living on rations and you think 2 weeks at home in your house with ipads, netflix home deliveries and takeaways and you get a grip!!

Which history books did you read? They went to school, they saw their friends, they played out. Hardship yes, but not social isolation.

As if anyone is actually going to do this. I'm a single parent to 2 children, we live in a flat with no garden. I did my absolute fucking best during lockdown but I will absolutely not be keeping them as prisoners in their own home for 2 week stretches if they are symptomless. I'd keep them away from grandparents but we would be going for walks and if I needed to buy more food then we would be going to a supermarket. I'm sick of this hysterical bullshit.

I understand the panic, OP, I had it last week. I did not anticipate the school bubble thing (not sure why, seems obvious in hindsight). DD started a new primary and is in a bubble of 120, and if I could go back in time I'd choose a smaller primary with a smaller bubble.

I am all about bubble management these days. I won't go to the gym, because if someone there tests positive I have to self isolate. I won't use after school club for the little ones because....another bubble.

I am a bit afraid of Long Covid, but my life is not about trying to avoid Covid. I am trying to avoid isolation, and I suppose that achieves both aims.

Instead of bickering about children not isolating why are you not challenging the government?

Does nobody recognise that fatality’s are at an all time low? That the new data from Germany is saying that fatality’s across all age groups are declining. That we are also seeing this in the UK? Is nobody questioning that infection rates are going up yet death rates and fatalities are not? ( in fact they are still declining and we are at our lowest point)

You can go to a restaurant with 100 people in but your child has to go home from school for two weeks because some one in there year or class as tested positive?

Where are you picking at nonsense like this this when our government is so beyond shit that it can’t even collect any data that’s relevant?

Embarrassing. Wake up

@ElizabethG81 how long do you want this to continue, you should avoid shops and get a delivery. If you can't get an online shop, there are community projects that can help.

Lots of people saying they know that. But have you really thought about it? We’re sending our kids off to school, with the implication that it’s all ok because of one gets Covid, the others will just isolate for a fortnight and it’s all tickety boo. And we’re apparently doing so for the good of our kids’ mental health. As if them having to isolate again for a couple of weeks, maybe several times, is all fine for them. If DD was told she had to stay at home, and whilst she is at it, also try to keep away from the rest of her family too, for the next two weeks, that would not be great for her mental health.

Does the isolation only apply to that child, or does ot extend to that childs family too?

@Beautiful3

Does the isolation only apply to that child, or does ot extend to that childs family too?

Just the child otherwise in some schools is would close every year with siblings. I'm theory the isolating child status away from everyone else amap but... That's not how life works is it

@Beautiful3

The child... unless other family members then get symptoms

MintyMabel
I agree with you.
It's also going to be especially stressful for Year 11/13 students who could have months of disruption to their final year on top of last year.
Repeated time of school could cause some very real welfare concerns for vulnerable students. I'd also read somewhere that domestic violence increased over lockdown too.

I think children are more resilient than we give them credit for, but the idea some have that chilling at home for a fortnight is a barrel of laughs is a very privileged mentality to have. For many children school is their stability and safe place.

Our government does not care about the children though. None of this has ever been about the government caring about the children.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@ElizabethG81 how long do you want this to continue, you should avoid shops and get a delivery. If you can't get an online shop, there are community projects that can help.[/quote]
I suppose it will continue for as long as the virus takes to get through the population. We can't stop it now, all we're doing is trying to suppress it. All the lockdown did was delay the inevitable.

The naivety of "we all just need to be good and get rid of this virus" isn't helping anyone. Covid is here to stay, and the unpalatable truth is that most of us are going to have to get it at some point, and some people will die. It's horrible, but so are all the extra deaths from cancer and suicide, and the piss poor education that people are so willing to accept for their children, and the mass unemployment that's coming in the next few months.

I don’t know why the people suggesting that they’d break the rules for a deserted or very well-distanced walk are getting so much flack when the posters saying that single mothers with KS1 self isolating children absolutely have to take them to the shops are being left alone. The first is almost certainly zero risk, and serves a need which cannot be met by other means, whilst the second is a small but non-zero risk and can be met in a variety of other ways (supermarket delivery is much better now than it was in April, and the NHS still has provision for support).

School runs for single parents with with one SI KS1 child and one or more still attending school are somewhere in between, both in terms of risk and in terms of whether there are other ways of achieving the goal.

Inevitably X-posted with someone having a go at someone who’d take a self-isolating child to the shops!

I don't understand why children have to stay home and SI but the rest of the family dont. If there's enough chance they have it to make them SI for 2weeks then there's a strong chance they could pass it to the family.

For those of us who have already had covid its even more annoying. I'm likely to be completely immune.

@MadameBlobby

I’m in Scotland and as far as I know the whole class doesn’t get sent home. Only the close contacts. So kids who sit within 2 m of the positive case and presumably people they play with etc

Also in Scotland, DC's whole (primary) class was sent home, and yes it was harder than lockdown for DC - climbing the walls due to no outings

I suppose it will continue for as long as the virus takes to get through the population. We can't stop it now, all we're doing is trying to suppress it. All the lockdown did was delay the inevitable.

I agree with you. Without a vaccine what else can happen? By the time a vaccine rolls out we might already got to that point anyway.

My son school rang me he was coughing I explained he had a cold they agreed and they took his temperature which was normal. If he had a temperature I think he would have been sent home and have to await a negative test result before being allowed back to school.

@MillieEpple I understood theoretically what isolate meant and that it would happen, but the reality of possibly repeatedly keeping my child home for 14 days has only just sunk in, in terms of accepting thats what lifes going to be like.
My children and many others from shielding families spent four months or longer never leaving the house or garden at all.
Two weeks really isn’t that long. This isn’t directed at you at all but it makes me really angry that people say they won’t stick to the isolating rules.

I wonder how many people also know that false positives are an issue. House arrest for 14 days for 300 children due to a false positive has a different feel. We are giving positive test results at a lower level than many other countries, including I think Taiwan. And given you can't transmit an illness you don't have makes house arrest pretty pointless.

I suppose it is possible that some people don't realise this, since ignorance of the rules is very widespread. It is partly understandable as originally those self isolating were allowed to go out for exercise, but that was changed many months ago.

In Spain I think the original lockdown did not allow children to go outside at all, and many lived in flats with no gardens and did not go outside for far longer than two weeks.

The problem in part is that if you live in property without outside space, as I do, you are evn more likely to be in densely populated area where going outside while keeping a good distance from people is harder. Also that once allowed outside, how many will not really isolate while there? It's all very difficult.

I suppose it will continue for as long as the virus takes to get through the population. We can't stop it now, all we're doing is trying to suppress it. All the lockdown did was delay the inevitable.

Is that assuming some level of lasting immunity though?