Ds2 Y9 self isolating for the 3rd time. Is this unusual ?

[Schonerlebnis]

Ds finished 2nd episode of self isolation on tues, back at school wednesday.
Thurday evening we received a text telling him to self isolate again....after 2 days at school I'm tempted to contact school on monday to make sure they were aware he was previously self isolating...hoping that it's a mistake and he's been included because he was on the class register for that subject. Anyone else have a child who's in and out like this ?

In addition to luck and postcode though is the school's approach.

I have two year 10s, different schools, similar size, same area. Similar high number of cases in school.

One has had three lots of self isolation, the other has only just had his first.

The difference? One school sends everyone in the affected class home, the other sends just those within 2m home. This is the difference between one year 10 missing 24 days of in school lessons and the other missing 8 days.

@middleager
Sorry I am a bit thick, which is which?

Wondering that, too. I think sending home a whole class is better and more likely to stop spread within the year group.

Most of my friends’ kids have all had at least one period of self isolation, if not more. It seems to be increasing quite rapidly.

It looks like the DfE are cross with how many children being sent home though, and seems they may be trying reducing the numbers sent home, as they think it doesn’t look good. Maybe they’ll just send home the person who tests positive. Or just the person who sits next to them.

I’m sure that will help.

No not had that but school had so many year 9s either testing positive or having to isolate along with teachers that the whole of year 9 was out this week including DD who saw it as an extra half term so I'm keen for her not to be off again.
(One of her year group had a sodding party in half term and was attended by loads of them. Bloody twats).
Now year 7 are out next week as that year group seems to have been hit now.
Seems to be going in weekly waves, first 13, then 10, then 9 and now 7.
Yet PHE say they aren't concerned.

I wonder if there are any stats about how many kids in self isolation go on to get covid. I suppose even if they did you couldn’t make a definitive link.

My year 1 son is currently off (they sent the whole class despite it being techinically a 2 class bubble). Mums in constant contact on WhatsApp and now on day 11 no one else is ill.

Anyway we’re in GM and been lucky, one son on his first SI and other son has not had to yet. However have heard of many children round here on 2nd and 3rd stints. That could easily be 5th and 6th come february. Totally unfair.

I have some students currently on their second lot of isolation. I teach 6 classes and last week a 4th one was sent home to isolate. Some pupils had only just returned from isolating. It's a mess the government are choosing to ignore.

My son is in year nine and he's just coming to the end of his second period of self isolation ,fingers crossed we can make it to Xmas with no more periods ,but I'm not optimistic.

Seems about average for where I am in the NW. Don’t worry about GCSEs yet though. He’s year 9 so plenty of time to fill in gaps. I’m head of department and it’s been like this since September. Just be pleased he’s not in year 11. I had a member of my department off for about 6 weeks at the start of the school year (poorly with COVID) and they are now having to isolate again because they’ve had close contact with a child in school who’s tested positive. This is an excellent teacher who is really conscientious and she’s worried about the impact on her year 11 class. I taught them a bit last time and will do it again this time, but it means my year 10s will get the supply teacher which isn’t ideal, but needs must. There’s just so much disruption despite everyone’s best efforts. The whole thing is just a nightmare. Goodness knows how year 11s are going to be able to do their exams in the summer. The government don’t seem to care though and are determined to solider on and get them to sit their exams. I expect people who’ve experienced little disruption want them to go ahead, but it is certainly not a fair and level playing field.

My children have been extremely lucky so far. Every year in the secondary school has had to isolate twice except for year 10 which is the year my son is in. My older child is in college no cases so far in his bubble and my other children's primary school has only had one case in another class. I live in an area which has high rates but the majority of people are following the isolation rules. We've had kids out in the whole year groups who have isolated due to being a contact of a positive case outside of school but they haven't gone on to be ill themselves and no transmission has happened. I fully expect we will end up isolating at some point but am just grateful it hasn't happened so far!

I deregistered ds in September, but I’m still receiving emails and texts from school as their admin is notoriously bad! Out of 10 possible weeks of school, if he was there, he would’ve had at least 6 weeks off isolating so far. At one point, a third of the entire school were isolating (400 out of 1200 pupils).

Apparently, withdrawing my son in year 10 is “disruptive and damaging to his education”... at the minute, I’m fairly convinced school is more disruptive!

Greater Manchester here and DCs in year 6 and 7. Seems like we've been lucky as neither of them have had to isolate. There's been cases in both schools but their classes haven't been affected...yet.

What noble giraffe says sounds accurate.

The DfE are telling schools to only send home pupils within a two metre radius, going back two days from the positive test. This isn't enough to control spread hence constant infections and more isolations each time there's a new one.

I guess they think it looks bad to close an entire year bubble for two weeks but actually it would get it over in one go (so pupils would miss less school) and crucially would make for a safer workplace for staff.

There were a couple of cases in ds's year and only about 50 more were told to isolate each time but a lot of the rest of us kept our kids off too and it seems to have put a lid on it.

In contrast the year below has had a constant stream of cases for the last couple of weeks which suggests to me the bubble has burst which is a terrible situation for the teachers to be in.

[quote Frazzled2207]@middleager
Sorry I am a bit thick, which is which?[/quote]
Ah sorry, the one year 10 who is at a school that sends whole classes home (so all the options groups the positive case has been in) has had 24 days of homeschooling (6 weeks of SI).

The one y10 whose school sends back those within 2m is currently on his first period of SI, so 8 days of home learning (2 weeks of SI).

The school that is sending home around half a year at a time is just getting hit time and time again in Y10 especially.

My son has only been back 2 days but showed symptoms last night (high temp then and today over 38, dizzy, now he's lost his taste of smell) so he went for a test today. I genuiely believe the school is rife with it.

I have one in Y12 (and one in Y5 - so not comp) - neither of them so far have been sent home
In fact we've had one message to say there were 2 cases in y7 and thats the only cases in the school (and we aren't in a low area - second highest in Wales) - however a neighbouring school had over 30 during half term, I have no idea why some are so different

I remember reading that something like 70% of people don’t pass covid on, but the ones that do transmit a lot.

The suggestion was that where you find a positive case linked to a previous one you should find the patient zero and test heavily around them.

@middleager
Ah I see I thought you were going to say that the school sending whole classes home had a more sensible policy.
I find it odd that the approaches are so different, our school is adamant that it’s not the school’s decision how many kids are sent home. It does depend I think on individual schools’ set ups

My thoughts were that sending only those home within 2m was more sensible as it meant fewer SIs, based on my own experiences, but reading this thread now, I'm not so sure what the solution is.

We are in the nw too, actually one of the first hot spots. I suspect the school has changed its approach, first episode was the whole year group, now it seems to be just individual classes. Re the second episode the affected student had absolutely no contact with ds, apparently sits at the other end of the classroom.
@Mumtumwobble thanks for the reassurance ! Tbh I'm more worried for ds1who's in year 13 and a different kettle of fish in terms of work ethic and academic ability (bright but dyslexic and prone to coasting).

It’s not the school that has changed its approach, it’s the DfE taking over from PHE to advise schools on who to send home. They now run the schools helpline. Probably because PHE were sending bubbles home as that was the whole bloody point of bubbles and it was making the government look bad.

We're in the south, DC in yr8, the only year group impacted has been year 11 and that's only last week. School are only sending close contacts, not class/year bubbles.

The teaching staff have been hit harder though, several of one subject were sent home because whilst they distance from the kids they didn't distance from each other!

As an aside I'm a critical care nurse. I've had several experiences of lengthy exposure to patients subsequently diagnosed with covid and on high flow fio2, with all the attendant aerosol contamination that can cause. On both occasions I was wearing a surgical mask but not full ppe (trust protocol has since changed thank goodness). A substantial number of us had to self isolate but non of us caught it so I think that's probably colouring my feeling about the situation.

Check out the infection rate in secondary school kids. What pitiful measures they have in place now aren’t working.

@Schonerlebnis do your kids and all the teachers wear surgical masks during each hour long lesson then? And clean the classrooms on vacating them? Sounds like an unusual school if the cleaning and protective measures in place are comparable to a hospital ward.

@noblegiraffe

It’s not the school that has changed its approach, it’s the DfE taking over from PHE to advise schools on who to send home. They now run the schools helpline. Probably because PHE were sending bubbles home as that was the whole bloody point of bubbles and it was making the government look bad.

This /\/\

It's not the schools who are deciding these things. Unfortunatley Noble has hit the nail on the head about bubbles being sent home, and why the change has happened.