Letter from school 😕

[RollyPollyPudding]

Received a letter from school about the new COVID arrangements. The school is being excellent and doing everything they can but a line in the letter really has made me anxious- it reads that they are fully expecting the cases among the students to increase and therefore expect a high lifelong of absentees.
That’s really worrying, I know and understand it’s inevitable but just reading it in black and white has really made me nervous.

For context- she is in primary, 20 students( all in separate bubbles) in class and private school.

Where have you been since last March OP?

I don’t think people are angry OP, I think they’re slightly baffled at how naive you seem to be, and also envious that you haven’t had to worry about this till now. Most of us who are working parents have been losing sleep over childcare issues for months, and worrying about the damage to our children’s education.

To be fair, I think if you've previously lived in an area with low cases (and your DC go to a small school) it's probably easy to not understand how bad it is in other parts of the country.

Just before Christmas I was having a conversation with a friend who lives in a low rate area. She was saying that she didn't think they would stay in Tier 2 as they'd had 4 cases in her DC's secondary school so things were clearly getting bad. "4 a day?" I queried. No, it was 4 since September. In a largish secondary school. And she genuinely thought this was bad.

I think my DC's secondary school nailed it back in September tbh when they said "if we haven't had many cases yet, that is largely a matter of luck". Sounds like OP has been lucky so far, and perhaps didn't realise it.

As others have said, the letter is saying we're doing everything we can to avoid covid coming into the school, but it's fairly inevitable that it will, so don't say we haven't warned you when you receive a call asking you to pick up your child and isolate them for 10 days, and don't even think about asking for a fee reduction even if it transpires that your child will have to isolate for several 10 day periods over the next few months.

Although yes I agree that the written acknowledgement that we can expect cases to rise however many mitigation measures we put in still has the power to shock.

Welcome to our world since March last year op!!
Sorry but no sympathy. Many have been living this with huge impact for months. We are NW for context.

March this year!

I have 3 DC, 2 in a large state primary (120 per year) and 1 in Y7 state secondary (300 in the year. I work 4 days a week (HCP in a hospital) and DH full-time. ‘Bubbles’ being burst, the kids self-isolating due to cases in their bubble (all 120 in the year sent home last time), my DH home schooling whilst also trying to work, me not able to help him, me worrying about catching Covid at the hospital and passing it on to vulnerable family members, this is just how life is, how it was for much of last year, and how it is for thousands of families in the UK. It’s grim, but you have to get your head down, take one day at a time and hope life starts to get better at some point in 2021. Your daughters bubble of 5, having had low numbers until recently and the school being ‘excellent throughout’ are all bonuses, I would try to focus on the positives if you can.

Fuck's sake. Copy fail.

@Sedona123 Bluewavescrashing I think the bubbles are pretty useless if they're in the same room breathing the same air tbh. I spend 6. 5 hours a day teaching 28 5 year olds, serving them lunch, helping them with toilet accidents etc. We have them seated in rows in fixed spaces and have separate resources for pairs to share etc but it seems futile when we're all in there together all day.' Totally wrong. I live in an area with the highest covid rates in England. Lots of primary schools here sent home whole year group bubbles due to one teacher or child having covid, and it was very rare for other children in the bubble to then come down with covid too. I also know lots of families where one child had covid, but none of the rest of the family got it, even though they didn't isolate the child in any way.The whole thought that bubbles don't work, so let's not even bother, still do play dates/sleep overs/parties etc is one of the reasons that covid rates are so high.

How bloody rude. Don't tell me I'm totally wrong. I'm the one living this reality in my classroom. I never mentioned playdates or sleepovers, certainly don't condone them. I don't believe that trying to limit the movement of children within my class nor restricting their use of resources between small groups or 'bubbles' as referenced by the OP does anything at all to reduce the spread of the virus which is airborne, considering we all breathe the same air all day. My class enjoy lucking their water bottles, sucking their fingers, trying to clamber onto my lap, yelling in each others' faces at playtime etc, because they are 5 and that's what they do.

Actual procedures to mitigate spread such as rotas, outdoor spaces made suitable for learning, using other spaces in the community for teaching etc might make a difference but the fact that Johnny and Dennis are allowed to touch the red lego brick but Molly isn't, because they are in different groups, doesn't make any difference to the rate of transmission within my classroom.

To answer a few questions:

Where were you since March- right here in this horrid rollercoaster we all are in. Was busy making sure NHS staff have PPE/accommodation sorted where necessary, funding arrangements in place and additional staffing requirements are met to ease pressure to be exact. I know exactly how bad it was/is on day to day basis.

Why worry now: the school was fantasise throughout, the cases in the school were very low, 2 to be exact but the only silver lining was the children were vastly unaffected with the pre mutated version. The school never used terminology like ‘we expect high levels of absence’’ With the new mutation it looks like kids are being affected which makes me worry/anxious

Coupled with the lack of support incase we both get ill.

I’ve had to deal with my share of bad news (death etc) over the past few months but I refuse to let that make me a bitter person and pass snap judgements on others. We all are struggling in different ways, and we all are scared and anxious for our loved ones...