Track and trace told not to bother reporting cases amongst staff or pupils in schools

[NebularNerd]

This is a scandal. School staff are being thrown to the wolves. Remarkably short sighted given that students and staff will spread the virus in the community. The virus does not stop at the school gates.

twitter.com/parents_utd/status/1314972457888030721?s=21

As a pregnant teacher working without social distancing I am worried.

@NebularNerd

Look at the rise for 10-19 (secondary school aged) young people.

Age 10 is primary school here in Scotland.

@wondersun HPT’s don’t have the capacity to respond to every single case of Covid in education, there are literally thousands. Schools do their own contract tracing with support from local public health teams . HPT’s are focussing on large outbreaks, in all environments. If they responded to every case they wouldn’t be able to intervene in outbreaks, they have very limited capacity.

Our school wants everyone in with cold and cough symptoms....

I think there's lots more where people arent testing children.

I dont know why they havent tested in schools like in unis.

I am a TA, at our one form entry primary school we have had 4 bubbles off, 2/3rd of staff have had it (confirmed and tested) all just mildly ill and recovered. No confirmed cases in children - lots of tests though.
I'm chilled about it now, I've had it it's done and I didn't pass it to my family.

The DfE have said that remote learning needs to be high quality this time round. I know that schools have this prepared.
Hopefully if it gets too bad, schools will close and we'll do qualitly online teaching and assessment instead. Not ideal but better than lots of illness or death.

Zebra 2/3 of staff!?!?!? Wow. I do wonder if its a lot higher in schools where people arent testing for "just a cough" or "its a cold."

Interestingly, a school (boarding; private) that DID do full testing of entire year groups (though not, I understand, more than a couple of years at a time) found so many asymptomatic but infected individuals that they had to close a year group....and send them ghome, which is obviously an issue for a boarding school.

Apologies for the link; other news outlets have not picked it up as far as I can see - probably because it has such worrying implications fro all other educational settings:

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1343353/Eton-coronavirus-outbreak-year-12-self-isolate-coronavirus-test-result-Eton-college-news

Interestingly, there was a thread on MN about it, which almost seemed to bemoan the fact of testing (ie they would have preferred it to remain unknown) rather than focusing on the worryiong implications of such a spread of infection.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4042580-Am-I-right-in-thinking-that-most-boarding-schools-are-only-testing-symptomatic-pupils-not-doing-whole-population-testing?pg=1

It does seem like full on media blackout on schoolsm

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I think it is rife in schools too, and I can’t get my head round what kind of embargo or deal has been struck that it is getting no national news coverage at all. It can’t be a d-notice because it’s hardly a matter of national security, but it’s not being discussed at all. I wouldn’t advocate closing schools and I work in them, but the complete media silence is alarming.

@pineapple yeah, it sounds worse than it is, we are only a tiny village school with 22 staff and 14 of us have had it, not all at the same time though thankfully.

It’s because it will be rife in schools, like it is universities. It’s pretty much a guarantee if they carried out mass testing it would be proven. Head in the sand approach, like many on here. If the data isn’t there and they aren’t looking for it, it isn’t happening. It doesn’t matter if they are asymptomatic. Once it starts spreading, it starts spreading and as we are finding now, a solid 6 weeks after schools went back, cases are through the roof. It’s nothing to do with unis who have only just gone back, they are an easy scapegoat. Schools are the elephant in the room. They will end up closing if this continues, oh and I have heard of a teacher who had come down with Covid for a second time today. So that’s herd immunity out the window.

I can’t get my head round what kind of embargo or deal has been struck that it is getting no national news coverage at all

And yet the uni outbreaks were all over the news. 13,000 kids quarantining out of school in Birmingham and nothing.

[quote YellowishZebra]@pineapple yeah, it sounds worse than it is, we are only a tiny village school with 22 staff and 14 of us have had it, not all at the same time though thankfully.[/quote]
22 staff in a primary is hardly tiny. The actually tiny village school my daughter went to had 3 teachers, 3 LSAs, 2 kitchen staff and a caretaker.

For clarification, what's an HTP team? The one that deals with "complex" cases, which are, ironically, more simple as it's a care home or something?

I can understand (sort of) T&T not getting involved in in-school contacts, but what about a teacher or student's non school contacts??

@Didiusfalco

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I think it is rife in schools too, and I can’t get my head round what kind of embargo or deal has been struck that it is getting no national news coverage at all. It can’t be a d-notice because it’s hardly a matter of national security, but it’s not being discussed at all. I wouldn’t advocate closing schools and I work in them, but the complete media silence is alarming.

What's a 'D notice'?

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I can't believe the complete lack of ANY coverage about this. Tons about other settings, universities for example - but not a jot on schools anywhere. And yet it is rife.

Yes I think school outbreaks should be tested the same and traced the same as other outbreaks. Some parents have really serious health conditions, as do some teachers and actually some kids

@PineappleUpsideDownCake

It does seem like full on media blackout on schoolsm

It really does. They rocketed up at the start. I don’t think it’s the media not reporting though, I think schools are keeping it hushed up and I can’t work out why.

I think schools are keeping it hushed up and I can’t work out why.

Inappropriate guilt. They have tried to do the Covid guidelines 'right' [even though they are as useful as chocolate teapots] and feel that they must have done something 'wrong' to have got a case. Government has encouraged this view, as have the press with stories of teachers being together at parties etc. Parents are taking it out on schools that are shut or that send children home, and are blaming schools for their lost pay. other parents are saying e.g. 'Well, my school are doing it right and have no cases', which puts the blame again on schools rather than useless guidance, luck and community transmission.

Under the circumstances, who can blame schools for not blazoning it everywhere?

Also worth noting the weekly PHE surveillance report has been replaced with a weekly Covid and flu report. The PHE report had a graph and table showing a breakdown of which type of educational establishment had outbreaks and this is not included in the new report. Thus universities can be assumed to be the biggest contributor.

Also remember when the briefing the other week had a slide showing positivity rates for school children and conveniently left out how many actually tested positive. Seems to me that they made such a fuss over schools being safe and when it turned out they weren’t they are doing everything they can to brush this under the carpet.

The boarding schools I know of all tested pupils on entry to school after a 2 week isolation.

@mightyducks

This is already normal practise, why would contact tracers escalate every case of Covid in a school to a HPT team? What would they do about it .... HPT’s are there to focus on where there are large outbreaks, and they are focusing on where those outbreaks could cause a large loss of life, care homes, clinical settings, etc. HPT’s teams are tiny, do people really think they can and should act on every case on Covid in a school?

Yes, actually, for the safety of everyone who has no choice but to be there. FFS.

I don't think schools are being secretive. At least mine hasn't.

Letters to parents regarding positive cases have been openly shared on the school website and social media.

The blackout is in the media, both left and right wing.

Also both sides of the political spectrum in parliament aren't talking about it.

It is an inconvenient truth that everyone is pretending does not exist.

The absolute total lack of any kind of coverage is downright bizarre, and disturbing.

@flowerycurtain

The boarding schools I know of all tested pupils on entry to school after a 2 week isolation.

But have all students then been kept completely contact-free from anyone from outside (e.g. catering staff; teaching staff) once term has started?

The issue at Eton was that not only did multiple students test positive at the start of term (and thus were not admitted), but many more then tested positive several weeks in, when negative students had become positive through exposure while supposedly within the school environment.

The boarding schools only testing once would not know whether there were asymptomatic positives in the school at the moment.

@saltyandfresh what would you like the HPT to do , for every case in an educational setting ? The schools do the contact tracing, just genuinely interested what you think they should do for the safety of everyone