Schools open for half a term now with no serious cases...

[RubyandBen]

I know there's been lots of DC and teachers off either because they've had CV or been in close contact with someone who has. But it seems there hasn't been anyone very ill (hospital ill) because of this. So measures do appear to be working. As it's sounding like only the ecv are going to be getting vaccinated (if one ever appears), should just the DC with CV stay off school and parents be given the choice to keep their DC off if in the same bubble? Would be much less disruptive.

@RunBackwards

Of course there will be cases in schools, no one has ever tried to say there won't be or that the precautions can prevent any spread at all, but we're not seeing large clusters or super spreading in schools.

The thing is, the only school that I am aware of that has done full testing of whole year groups (Eton here) DID find large numbers of cases amongst its students (to its own surprise|).

IIRC, parents then started to call for them only to test those with symptoms, in line with other schools, because finding all those cases was DEEPLY inconvenient....

You may not be made aware if a teacher has got it, it is a gdpr issue. We are told if someone in the school community has it and it is worked out how close contact people have been with that person, for some, particularly students, it is obvious who has got it but school are not allowed to share that health information with anyone. So those in close contact are told to self isolate.

Eton college the boarding school? Ok

@RunBackwards

Eton college the boarding school? Ok

That cuts both ways, doesn't it?

Obviously there are additional contact for each child within their boarding house as well as in their classes BUT the number of contacts each child has outside school is cut to zero, so there will not be so many ways that the virus can be brought in from outside.

If a child at a day school catches Covid, it COULD be from home. If they catch it in a boarding school, it MUST be from a fellow pupil or teacher. Interestingly, the outbreak was across different houses so it appears as if transmission must have been within the classrooms rather than just because of the boarding aspect.

Two of my colleagues have been hospitalised. One of them is still in ICU. It's happening. It's not in the media. The last thing their families need is the publicity.

I think it was also interesting because they had almost zero students with symptoms, but very large numbers who tested positive.

It is that asymptomatic infection rate that makes me question 'no big clusters in schools'. If every positive case is in fact surrounded by 30-50 asymptomatic or untested ones (IME children are being kept off for a couple of days, or calpoled up, to avoid having to isolate or test), then we DO have large clusters, we just haven't detected them.

It's just not in the media. I know 3 teachers currently ill with covid.

@Delatron - that’s what our school are doing. 3 cases so far (All this week)but only a handful of people having to isolate. There are over 300 in each bubble so having the all isolate would be a nightmare.

I find it interesting that the OP has been deliberately starting so many goady threads about this topic it’s as if she thinks her opinion actually matters or will change anything. Maybe it’s some kind of coping mechanism to help her deal with the lack of control she feels over lockdown.
Absolutely no excuse for being so rude to others though who come on and share their own experiences just because they disagree with what she believes the situation to be. It’s also very disheartening that yet again parents who seem to see how important school is for their children, seem to have such little regard for the effort and risks that their teachers are having to take to provide that education. A little gratitude and empathy wouldn’t go amiss.

I know if several cases in our school and there are some teachers off either isolating or with covid. I checked ONS and there's a lot of information on risk of infection and risk of death from covid by occupation. The worst occupations are health care, home carers and care home staff, ambulance staff, sales and retail and I think prison staff were up there.
26 deaths of teachers I think, not including any teaching staff who are over 64.
So some people who have died have definitely been teachers, and the data seems to be being collected. I'm.sure infection rates in schools are pretty high by now but the virus doesn't seem to be ( just going by the stats) to be causing as much serious illness and death as back in April. All we can do is cautiously inch forward and move up the tiers if need be.
Theres no need for extreme reactions on either side, just monitor the numbers and go from there.

My sons school has a teacher in intensive care - I only know that because I know a friend of hers socially - no one at school has shared it.

Can'tkeep another interesting point not a single teacher or support staff tested positive at Eton. So it didn't spread to teachers from those clusters across houses and even with no social distancing possible in most classrooms, even with the "cruise ship effect" of a boarding house and staff actually living with students. It makes me wonder if the kind of Covid the teens are getting is just not as transmissible. Or it could be viral load as well.

Wtf! 😮

I think you’re right ruby - it would be all over the news.

It's not. The schools stuff is not being reported. In areas where community levels are high, the schools are in a right state, including staff. If you live in an area which is less affected (like me), it feels quite 'normal', but it's not far away from being very much not normal.

This term should have been 6 weeks to give a natural break, with a 2 week half term for all. I can't believe no one thought of it. Ha... of COURSE they thought of it, but us lazy teachers have had 6 months off, so best chuck us back into viral soup.

[quote RubyandBen]@WhyareWehardofthinking sorry but I don't believe you.[/quote]
How arrogant.

I'm sure that some schools have pupils and teachers with covid, no doubt at all. The lack of media coverage, not of individual stories, but of patterns is frustrating as it means that vulnerable people are unable to make informed decisions about personal risk.

If we knew that most school cases are in tier 3 area secondary schools then parents (and possibly staff) could decide if vulnerable family members are at risk.

It would also be useful to understand if children are spreading covid to their grandparents.

I am also not sure why covid rates in medical staff could be reported, but similar information about teachers isn't.

It is sadly a fallacy to take anything positive from the low number of covid teacher deaths previously. In the previous peak of the pandemic schools were mostly closed with teachers either working from home or teaching small, well spaced bubbles. You can't extrapolate that to the current situation where staff are squeezed into classrooms with 30+ children.

Infact they are never told WHO is positive.

My dc’s class were. The Head came in and announced to the class ‘Elizabeth has tested positive for COVID so you all need to isolate for 14 days, your parents are on their way’

I totally believe whyarewehardofthinking

"Choice" I'm getting sick of hearing that word. It's taken on a whole new meaning since people starting saying "we should be able to choose if we want to endanger other people to avoid the inconvenience of following rules"

You are not choosing to risk yourself. If that were true I'd say go for it.

@justajot - If we knew that most school cases are in tier 3 area secondary schools then parents (and possibly staff) could decide if vulnerable family members are at risk.

We're in tier 1, large secondary closed due to multiple cases plus bubbles/year groups isolating in several other schools in the area - it's definitely not just a tier 3 issue.

I checked ONS and there's a lot of information on risk of infection and risk of death from covid by occupation.

Yes, there is, but there's only been one set of data from earlier in the year. As pp have said it would be useful to have rolling updates as the situation now is very different. The anecdotal stories on this thread are very concerning - I'd certainly not come across any teachers personally who'd tested positive in April.

Thanks for sharing that @pinkpip100. It is exactly that kind of information that needs to be out there.

We are in tier 2 infant school, though likely to be in tier 3 soon, despite our numbers dropping a fair bit last week. 8 teaching staff positive within a fortnight.