Getting siblings to school when one child has to self isolate

[ShakespearesSisters]

So, had the dreaded text this evening. My year 2 child has to self isolate as a positive case is in her bubble. My year 4 child can still go. How is everyone managing to do the school run when there is only 1 parent at home and one child can't leave the house?

Surely in general isolation we shouldn't be giving lifts to others

When my friend's child was ill she drove all her children and met me where I parked up which was a short walk from school as we like to walk. I then walked her 2 children in for her with mine. Same for reverse, I would collect her children and deliver them to her car.

We both lived in opposite directions so she felt this was the easier thing to do.

You need a parent to help you out.

At our school there was a teacher who would meet the sibling at the car and walk them in.

I was in this situation about a month ago. Luckily, my friends volunteered to do pick ups and drop offs. Otherwise my child would miss nearly 2 weeks of school. I don’t know what are parents supposed to do in a lockdown though? The one person from your childcare bubble? (But there is no guarantee this person can help). Sorry if I’m not of much help. Dreading a message every day

Its a hard one this one. When it happened at our school the head stood by the statutory guidelines and told all parents if siblings weren't in they would get unauthorised but she so had no solution at all to parents in this situation other than the siblings had to be in school.

I think the best thing to do would be to try and find a parent with a child in your eldest's year group who would meet you where you park your car and walk the eldest in. Unless the school will let you use the carpark slightly early/late.

I can’t believe one child is in isolation and siblings can still go to school. What’s the point of that, the whole family should be in isolation. This virus is extremely contagious and dangerous to all ages.

Everyone should be tested in the family, they stay home and the results shouldn’t take more than a day or too.

My yr 1 twins are isolating while yr 4 dd is going in. In the morning, I drive up to the gate and she runs in. Sometimes we see another parent walking in and I’ll pull over and ask them to take dd with them. We all chip in and help each other out. At pick up, I leave twins in the car while I run in and grab her. We have to park a few mins walk away because there’s no parking outside the school. What’s the problem with leaving them in the car? Could you ask another parent to bring her out for you?

@OffThePlanet please stop giving false advice, there's enough bloody confusion as it is!!

Individuals can calculate the risks of individual circumstances if they have read all of the relevant research; questioning guidelines is reasonable only if you have taken steps to ensure that you are suitably informed. If your year 2 has covid then you and your other child are much more likely to catch it on the car journey (very enclosed unventilated space), or sharing a room overnight. You clearly have no idea what research has been saying even since April, so it's very important to just follow the guidelines even when you don't understand them. Your child needs to stay at home, the car is not home. If you can't get your other child to school, then they can't go; spend time contacting friends and neighbours to see if anyone can walk the child in tomorrow. And of course an isolating child shouldn't share a bedroom, your year 4 needs to move into your room.

My ds has done two lots so far. We take the car when he is SI. I park as close as I can and then Y4 child either walks up to the lollipop lady and crosses with her then walks down to the gate (visible to me when I stand at the car) or I send her directly over the road to the gate if I can get close enough.

Home time we go a little early to get a closest spot, then I dash across to the gate the second they open it and a teacher passes dc1 out to me.

@OffThePlanet

I can’t believe one child is in isolation and siblings can still go to school. What’s the point of that, the whole family should be in isolation. This virus is extremely contagious and dangerous to all ages.

Everyone should be tested in the family, they stay home and the results shouldn’t take more than a day or too.

Only one child has been in contact with the virus. If they don't develop symptoms their is no need for tests or for the rest of the family to isolate.

Families can't afford for both parents to loose two weeks wages for a very slim chance that a child has brought the virus home.

I can’t believe one child is in isolation and siblings can still go to school. What’s the point of that, the whole family should be in isolation

Incorrect. The Y2 child in this situation is a contact. The rest of their family are not. Only contacts need to SI.

Everyone should be tested in the family, they stay home and the results shouldn’t take more than a day or too

Incorrect. no one in a household should be testing unless they develop a symptom. A test only tells you if you are positive on the day it is taken. The virus can take up to 14 days to present.

When ds had chicken pox I got another parent to grab dd after I awaited at the car with ds who was only 2. Could you make any arrangements like that.

@sandragreen

I would keep them both off in your situation.

This

It makes sense

@NewNameForAdvice
But non attending sibling will get lots of unauthorised absences and possibly a fine.
How are we supposed to deal with that? It wasn’t a choice at all in our school. Non isolating sibling must be in school, they said.

It's all well and good saying keep the other dc off, but what happens when there's multiple instances of bubbles bursting?

Y2 isolate for two weeks, go back for 5 days, have to isolate another 2 weeks. So that's 4 weeks off for the SI child (with work provided) plus 4 weeks off for the sibling (no work provided).

Then when back, the siblings bubble bursts, so that's now 6 weeks off school they've all been off. It's counter productive.

Exactly Bernadette Op doesn't know what will happen in the future or how many more times the bubbles will burst.

I'd try to get in touch with other parents and see if anyone can help out. SI for young kids is easier said than done.

You don't just keep the other child off, you contact the school to advise that you're working on a solution, then you ask friends and neighbours to help. If you can't work it out then ask the school. It's very unlikely there's no parent nearby who has a child in that school or walking past it, primary schools are set up near people.

I live in Victoria and we have finally got to the stage where we have had no deaths and no new infections for seventeen days. It took months to get rid of the second wave. The contact testing people would go to people‘s houses if they couldn’t go to one themselves. They was also an allowance for people who couldn’t work while isolating.

Melbourne had a ring of steel around it since July, people were not allowed to go more than 5ks away from their homes for grocery shopping and a one hour walk. The other states borders were closed to us. Police were everywhere and there were large fines for those not wearing masks or out of their area.

We were nearly clear of the second wave and one family who were infected were sending one of their children who they thought wasn’t infected to school and he spread it. It was annoying because that’s not allowed and it looked like we were going backwards, but these people didn’t speak English and misunderstood. It was contained quickly as the government in Victoria are right on to it.It’s all very well to tell me no

I will say we are all sick of wearing masks when we are out, especially now we have for now, got the virus eliminated. We don’t for a minute think we won’t get infected again but it’s easier to keep on top of it when it’s only in very small numbers.

After months of being Covid free it is now back in the adjoining state of South Australia, which hasn’t had any local infections for months, it was through an overseas traveller in hotel quarantine. They are now thinking hotel quarantine isn’t working as the workers (security, cleaners, etc) are not trained for a virus and that is how it spread. They also weren’t testing the workers there regularly, which was a bad oversight. A bit of common sense would have been a good thing.

COVID-19 testing in Australia

I had to self isolate earlier this year. I don’t live in the UK so the guidance may be different but I had to stay in a room on my own and not come out for over 10 days. I didn’t go near the rest of my family - they dropped a meal on a tray at the door and legged it before I opened up. We had the house aired windows and doors open as much as possible. We were lucky enough to have a bedroom with an en-suite which I had. Any towels and clothes I used I bagged up and the guys were washing these separately on a hot wash and line drying.

There was no way I was sharing a bedroom or getting into the family car. Longest week and a half of my life btw but we got there.

Amammi
Did you actually have Covid or has you been contact with someone with Covid?

It think it's hard for adults to SI, and almost impossible for young children to SI. Even the guidance that the child could SI with one parent, leaving the other to care for other children etc is like REALLY!

Given the rumblings about reducing SI period to 7 days a few weeks ago in a bid to boost compliance, and Mr J now having to SI, I imagine the SI period will drop very soon to 7 days.

I attended an event in an area which subsequently had several community clusters. I had several symptoms but then again was not very unwell and it could well have been the normal flu.
At that time testing capacity here was very limited. My GP spoke to me by telephone and I was then instructed by our health authority to isolate. I’ve no idea whether or not I had it tbh but the rest of my family were all fine thank goodness.

Is there a year 2 parent that isn't in your bubble that could take your year 4?

DD is currently in her second period of self isolation following a positive case in her bubble. First time we followed it super strictly and she didn't go out in the car (which is the rules)- DH rearranged work to drop DS at nursery. But this time it just hasn't been possible to do that. I've had to leave her in the car while dropping off and picking up- technically not allowed but she's not in contact with anyone