Are 'bubbles' still in place in your dc Secondary School?

[WinstonWolf]

Our Academy Trust decided that on return from half-term they would be eliminating bubbles and going back to general mixing of the school population for lessons etc.

Their reasoning is that they want to be able to use all of the specialist classrooms (which they were already doing for some subjects), and they hadn't anticipated 'bubbles' having to be in place for more than a term

I would really just like to see how common this is?

FWIW we're in a Midlands town that was in (pre-lockdown) Tier 2, bordering two Tier three cities, one of which is home to most of the teaching staff.

Ooh that’s brave/stupid of them!!

What happens when a kid tests positive for covid ? Who isolates?

Our school is still in year bubbles which also isn’t ideal as it’s 250 a year group.!!

Yep, still in bubbles. 2 bubbles per year, so around 65 students in each.

Yes we are still zones and reducing contacts as much as possible. We have a steady stream of cases so the less close contacts per case the better. It would be madness to go back to normal by at the moment, as with the isolation rules we'd rapidly have hardly any children in school (we are getting multiple cases per week across year groups).

I have just had to close my (SEND) bubble of 12. The distress it has caused families is, of course, great. If I hadn’t kept my bubble so small, we would have had to close to 150 of the most vulnerable young people in the city. Bubbles are not magic, and not ideal, but at least they are something!

My school is still in year group bubbles, however the only contacts that get sent home are the pupils who are in seating plans around a positive case, so they may as well be back to moving around on corridors between lessons.

My school keeps year groups apart, but I’m not really sure why.

When we have cases, we only send home the kids who sat next to them in lessons, or the friends who they spent lunchtime with.

Snap, Medra!

We've had moving round the school from the start.

Year 7 and Year 8 are taught in classes (so move with their class). Year 9,10 and 11 are taught in tutor groups with the tutor groups organised so that they are taught maths, English and science together. Then they have to sit next to members of their tutor group for option subjects.

for positive cases they identify direct and close contacts based on room seating plans and who an individual socialised with in break times.

They have probably decided to identify close contacts rather than sending home bubbles. A lots of schools are doing this.
I think sending 250 kids home because of one positive case is ridiculous.

Surely it makes sense to reduce close contacts by not moving students around school though? We had a case today, think about 10 students were sent home due to our fixed classes and seating plans. If the positive student had been moving for every lesson they could have easily sent home 100 students from 2 days in school as they'd have been near more people on the seating plans. We are making students stay put so that we don't need to send whole bubbles home...

I'm a teacher, in a city that was Tier 1 and still has one of the lowest rates in the country. We still have year group bubbles in separate zones. Where possible, we only tell close contacts to isolate, even within bubbles.

However when we had several positive cases on the same day, we sent home two whole bubbles for a few days to give time to properly trace the close contacts. Better to send home two year groups than all seven.

We never stopped using all classrooms for all bubbles (thankfully). Desks and chairs cleaned at the end of every lesson. Some cases but no in school transmission as yet (touches wood). Kids need to have full access to the curriculum. Only close contacts get sent home anyway.

@Medra

My school is still in year group bubbles, however the only contacts that get sent home are the pupils who are in seating plans around a positive case, so they may as well be back to moving around on corridors between lessons.

you can only identify all the close contacts if you are controlling mixing of bubbles.

It’s going to be much easier for children to identify all the children they were in close enough contact with outside the classroom if they’ve only got to pick from their year group.

Yes, still in zones and bubbles.
If anything, segregation is tighter since half term.

"It’s going to be much easier for children to identify all the children they were in close enough contact with outside the classroom if they’ve only got to pick from their year group."

You are assuming that school staff having to do contact trace have been trained/ provided guidance / have the time to do so properly.

In my experience, school contract tracing is a bit of a joke and probably worse that the national one. My school has people in an office who identify anyone based only on who sits directly next to a case and don't concern themselves with piddling details like whether other desks / pupils are within 2m. Each pupil has to do a list of who their social bubble are at school and they get sent home too

Let's be honest the government / public health effectively abandoned bubbles after a few weeks of term and told schools to switch to in house contact tracing instead. Funnily enough this led to an explosion of cases in my school and probably increased transmission in schools nationally ( not that this is being publicised / monitored properly!)

If the positive student had been moving for every lesson they could have easily sent home 100 students from 2 days in school as they'd have been near more people on the seating plans.

Nope. Lots of thought has gone into sitting them near the same other children in every subject. English, maths and science they take with their tutor group (same seating plan for every subject). Option subjects they sit nearest those from their tutor group. DD has one subject which no one else in her tutor group takes and she has to sit on her own. The school have been picking maximum 30-40 children up as contacts for positive cases (disclaimer - based on what my DC say; I have no official knowledge). The DC have to keep a log of who they sit with at lunch time. Corridors are socially distanced.

We have never had bubbles. It is only close contacts that get sent home. We have had three cases. The contact tracers asked the school to isolate close contacts in lessons. They didn't show any interest in break or lunch, believe it or not...or the walk to school, or walking to lessons (long distances in my school)

I would imagine the school is responding to that kind of experience.

Ours has been just close contacts sent home, but still keeping year groups separate at break and lunch.
One way system round the school and we've had mask wearing in corridors since Sept.

Goodness knows how things will work out when they get a case in 6th form as their only space outside the classroom is the common room, in which there is not a chance they can distance. I'd not thought about them only using seating plans to work out contacts. Eek.

Being small classes at this age they are actually fairly distanced in lessons and the school are doing well at keeping things ventilated (judging by the fact my teen has asked for vests!)

Since half term they are using the changing rooms rather than students wearing PE kit all day. I'm not sure what's happening with practical subjects now, 6tth form seems to be doing their science practicals.