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

@Barbie222

I think if there was mass testing in schools, as there have been at universities, we'd see it was endemic there now. Those children who present with classic symptoms and who also have parents inclined to test them are a small tip of a big iceberg, I think. We will see as regards the numbers of school staff affected or in ICU as no one seems to collect any data on case incidence by occupation any more.

Totally agree.

At the university they found 90% were asymptomatic and it seems to be more commonly asymptomatic the younger you go.

So very crudely in Class A of 30 who have it, 3 would have symptoms.
That's one who develops it, and tests positive, one whose parent ignores the temperature, doses them up with calpol and tells the teacher their "asthma is playing up", and one whose parents don't want to isolate so tells the school they have a negative test, without having done one.
School notes it as one isolated incident not caught in school.

When class B has a case, it's assumed it must be not connected despite having 5 siblings from the first class in that class...

Mighty,

Almost very person in an educational setting will have, in addition to their contacts in school, contacts elsewhere (family, childcare, clubs, playdates, relatives etc etc).

HPTs would surely want to track and contact those, even if the school tracks their in-school close contacts.

By saying 'the case arises in a school, the school does the contact tracing', you are assuming that the case has no close contacts anywhere else, which is obviously ridiculous.

Or you are putting the responsibility on schools to do the wider community tracing, which is also ridiculous.

[quote mightyducks]@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[/quote]
Well take the example of a teacher testing positive. A teacher is not confined to just the school building and their home. Should they not be treated in the same way as say an office worker who tests positive? Would a contact tracer not be the sensible approach to establish where the teacher had been prior to testing positive?

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.*

All cases have been reported in local media where I live.

HPT’s don’t do contact tracing, teachers will be contacted by contact tracers like everyone else.

This is just saying schools don’t use test and trace process. They go through them council public health team who advise. Stop being so bloody dramatic.

It is dramatic if

a) the contacts of any cases connected with a school aren't traced and told to isolate,

and /or

b) local health teams aren't made aware of potential school outbreaks, which could alter their decisions about advising that school at a later stage or other schools currently or the community in general

@m0therofdragons

This is just saying schools don’t use test and trace process. They go through them council public health team who advise. Stop being so bloody dramatic.

Schools have been instructed not to contact health teams in the event of a positive result. They are to speak with the Department for Education and that department only.

Sinister.

We need more transparency than ever and being plunged into the dark, not knowing what's going on is evil.

It's the care home debacle.

We have been v lucky with warmer weather recently, dc have, even in crowded schools a manged to get outside for extra pe, eat out side, have windows open.

They are pulling the rug away just as we head into bad weather.

There are flimsy intermittent testing centers that people have given up on.

As who said back in march... You can't fight blindfolded.
. We are blind folded, gagged and bound.

Children desperately need to be in school. Agreed that shielding staff should not be in given they’re vulnerable.

My children are happily in school. We accept the risk this brings and avoid indoor interaction with older or vulnerable relatives. We have warm clothes to socialise outdoors (long walks etc) with grandparents over winter. This helps said grandparents stay healthy and weight management too. So family ties maintained and crucial child education and socialisation with peers maintained. All teachers at my children’s school are desperate for schools to stay open.

Schools must stay open. I do think however vulnerable parents should have the option to temporary keep their children out of school whilst cases are high if they are concerned, without losing their school place.

@NotAKaren

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.*

All cases have been reported in local media where I live.

Not where I live. Not a jot. 🤷‍♀️

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

I wonder if it's because they're all worried that they will be amongst the worse affected, with students who've done the least learning - who'll then get the worse GCSE results this year, or next or the year after ...

And no one will ever take this into account - and so they're trying not to find too many Covid positive pupils. The Government won't ever support schools. Ofsted will come down heavily on them regardless of how much they've suffered. So schools are trying to keep on going and turn a blind eye to their infected.

They are still being traced, just not escalated to tier 3.

@m0therofdragons

This is just saying schools don’t use test and trace process. They go through them council public health team who advise. Stop being so bloody dramatic.

Dramatic about what?

Are you a teacher?

In what other profession are workers expected to carry on in their job, despite having been in close contact with Covid positive individuals, with no PPE?

And your post doesn't even make grammatical fucking sense.

[quote mightyducks]@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[/quote]
Do you not think headteachers are busy enough without contact tracing?

@saltyandfresh , yes headteachers are extremely busy , many have designated Covid responsibilities to a deputy or if they are part of a large Trust, the Trust have taken on that responsibility. Is that what you want the HPT team to do, the contact tracing?

Absolutely no media blackout in Greater Manchester. The MEN is reporting every confirmed case in a school every bloody day. I'm going to unfollow them soon as they aren't bothering to remove schools after the kids returns to school so it's very repetitive.

'In what other profession are workers expected to carry on in their job, despite having been in close contact with Covid positive individuals, with no PPE?'

I'm regularly in close contact with Covid positive patients with me in a surgical mask, them in no mask (district nurse) It provides little to no protection, yet here I am.

I've completely lost faith in this government. The measures they're putting in place aren't controlling the spread. Pubs to close at 10PM. It's ridiculous. I sent my children back to school in September and I had my concerns but I value their education and whilst I'm confident we were doing a decent enough job at home, I really worried about their socialisation during lockdown. They should have tried blended learning. My local area is almost 5 times worst than the average area in England and there's been cases is almost every school where we live. It's time to give parents the choice to keep them home in the worst hit areas without the consequences of fines or losing school places. Make clear what's on the time table at school each week and put it on those wanting to withdraw to keep up the learning at home

I'm not even a teacher, and I think the unions should get seriously involved in this.

@m0therofdragons

This is just saying schools don’t use test and trace process. They go through them council public health team who advise. Stop being so bloody dramatic.

Last week our local public health team was uncontactable Fri til Mon. We had 6 cases in every bubble. When finally contacted, they said not to speak to them but to speak to the local authority ed team. Who obviously also said not to speak to them.

@acatcalledcatto

I'm not even a teacher, and I think the unions should get seriously involved in this.

I agree. I would be supportive of any steps to.prevent spread in schools, the government and a lot of parents have been really reckless over spread in schools.

@PragmaticWench

DD had a positive test so school obviously closed her year group. Track and Trace called us 60 hours later to ask about it. Utterly pointless.

Does your child not know or see anyone outside of school? Surely that's the point.