Secondary schools minimising positive results

[gingerbread88]

I wondered whether this had happened in other schools/areas?
Our local senior school has an outbreak that hasn't been clearly communicated.

@Mumtumwobble

The school I work in have communicated well with parents. Anyone needing to isolate have been told very quickly and given details about why. They have all left the school site quickly. However, they haven’t announced each case publicly to the whole school community. There was no need to because the cases don’t impact on everyone so there’s no reason to tell them. It would only generate unnecessary panic.

The thing is, if someone in a class tests positive, the whole class really needs to isolate, as anyone in a room for hours with an infected person could become infected. This explains it.

Not just the person either side.

I would say this does impact on the entire school, as vulnerable families previously shielding would have a lower threshold for caution in the event of an outbreak in school.

The school has told you to self isolate as there are confirmed cases. We are in a pandemic. If parents aren’t taking it seriously that’s on the parents. What level is serious? 5? 30? It’s not down to the schools to get parents to behave responsibly. That’s their own responsibility.

I agree. It's really not the school's fault.

What a load of absolute bollocks about the school minimising. Why should the school state the bleeding obvious that since its original communication, it turns out more people have become infected? Wtf do people think they are asked to isolate? Wtf should the school spend half term holidays telling parents the obvious? The school has clearly not lied at any point - at the time of communication, 2 children were known to have the virus. If those children not only mixed at school, but had parties and went to sleepovers in the days before they were symptomatic, what do parents expect? It’s not the school’s fault if parents don’t believe children can get the virus and pass it on, as the school never told them that.

Schools are either not getting the same advice or are going rogue and doing what they see fit.

Definitely the former. The advice seems to depend on who you speak to on the day at the DfE.

Yes, schools are getting different advice. But also what people are talking about in this thread refers to strategy change. At the beginning of the term whole year groups were being sent home. That isn’t the case anymore.

I'd hope there's a bit of a'circuit breaker' due to the half term break

I'd imagine transmission will be worse than ever this half term, because people have travelled and mixed and some kids have definitely not been social distancing. I'm bracing myself.

At the beginning of the term whole year groups were being sent home. That isn’t the case anymore

It depends on the particular context - sometimes it will be a whole year group, sometimes not.

@Curioushorse - that’s not a school strategy change, that’s a change in the public health guidance given to the schools. Schools follow the advice they are given. It would help if parents did too.

And if even children in schools where the entire school was asked to isolate over half term have been having parties and sleepovers, the situation will be worse now than before half term, because transmission rates are going up, not down, in the community.

@Curioushorse

Yes, schools are getting different advice. But also what people are talking about in this thread refers to strategy change. At the beginning of the term whole year groups were being sent home. That isn’t the case anymore.

That's a change in government advice. Our school did tell us this. Apparently a large proportion of parents never read any communication from the school anyway

I am amazed they told everyone to isolate on the basis of the Headteacher having it - have all of those pupils really been in close contact with the head in the space of 48 hours? Seems very unlikely especially as presumably they don't teach many (if any) classes...

@eeeyoresmiles yes that's exactly my point and add into the mix the growing traction on SM in my area of people minimising the virus as a whole by constantly spouting the 'false positive' results claims, it feels rather scary for the community.

Absolutely agree. Our school outbreak was minimised to both parents and staff.

Schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're given wording they have to use by PHE/DfE, they're told what they can and can't say. Obviously medical details of students and staff also have to be protected.

The minimising is not the schools, it's the government.

@gingerbread88 - and the school telling people that more children have got the virus over the holidays will not be thanked by those people who minimise the virus. It’s more likely those people will attack the school for interfering with their lives when their kids aren’t even in school and trying to get schools closed down, because teachers are cowardly and workshy and pretending cases acquired in the community were acquired in school.

@Noideawottodo and @Walkaround that’s what I was trying to say- obviously, badly!

This has got very little to do with the schools. They’re just doing what they’re told. I’m pretty sure no headteacher wants to work or have their staff working in a coronavirus epicentre- but what do they do? They absolutely have to rely on advice. The decision to shut is not theirs.

They should have to declare on their websites the number of positive cases daily. It wouldn’t compromise GDPR a shame no names etc needed.

Parents then could see the risks and make informed decisions on whether it’s safe or not.

Too many just want the schools open so shout loudly that they must remain open no matter what as it suits them.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

They should have to declare on their websites the number of positive cases daily. It wouldn’t compromise GDPR a shame no names etc needed.

Parents then could see the risks and make informed decisions on whether it’s safe or not.

Too many just want the schools open so shout loudly that they must remain open no matter what as it suits them.

This isnt about parents deciding if its safe or not or shouting for schools to stay open, this about parents being told their children should isolate and not following that advice.

They should have to declare on their websites the number of positive cases daily

Government will never allow that. They don't want people to know.

It comes down to personal responsibility again though doesn't it. Your year has been told to isolate. It doesn't matter if it is one child or 50. The instruction is the same. The Covid app will tell people to isolate, without any supporting data, and it relies on personal altruism to adhere to the request. The only alternative to these requests are enforced isolation mandates as in some Asian countries, and that will not and cannot happen in this country.

The thing is, for some parents, the information they receive is never going to be enough - give them numbers and they want to know year groups, then classes. Actually, they really, really want precise details of seating positions in class, and if not given them, they go onto social media and ask everyone they know who is off sick at the moment, etc, etc. Do they need any of this information to enable them to comply with a request to self-isolate? No, they don’t.

@Walkaround yes I understand the point you make but we aren't talking about transmission which has happened during the course of half term which is of course nothing to do with the school, this is transmission which happened within the school just before the half term break. Lots of students fell ill the same day or the day after and after speaking to Test and Trace the conclusion was they all caught it at school, not during half term whilst out in the community. What parents were concerned about is students harbouring the virus and perhaps not showing symptoms when they too had also caught it just before the half term break whilst in school like many others and are out and about spreading it. The main concern is for the community as a whole.

@gingerbread88 - and you think the virus deniers will buy that one, when they don’t want to have to isolate?

I get the OP’s point. DD’s school informed us of one positive case in her year, the child had last been in school on the Monday, we were told on the Friday that whole year needed to SI for two weeks from that Friday. Everyone quickly found out who the case was and DD knew she’d not been in any classes with her so any contact would be momentary eg passed in corridor. So we chose to only make DD isolate for two weeks from last possible contact as that is the normal advice. If in the meantime we had heard of further cases then we’d have gone the full two weeks from when DD last in school. We would probably also have been stricter about our contact with DD in the house. I am sure there are parents / DC who have ignored it completely as like us they have thought “despite school saying to SI, DC not a close contact be anyway not legally enforceable without contact from T&T” but would have complied if situation was worse. We contemplated ignoring for those reasons, particularly as we had to cancel our holiday which would have involved no indoor contact with others but chose to do the right thing (though others will no doubt say we didn’t quite).

Government will never allow that. They don't want people to know.
You're right, and even if they did allow it we all know what would happen.
Schools with a high proportion of parents who ignore the rules, do what they like, refuse to wear a mask by saying 'you can't make me and you're not allowed to ask if I have a disability' (yes they exist, I know some who are disgustingly jumping on provisions and exemptions for those with genuine medical exemptions) and so on will be the ones complaining that school gave their child Covid.