Will nurseries close now?

[Bathsheba1]

I have seen a increase in news reports about unison calling for early years to close, petitions, SAGE advice that it’s not the right thing to do keeping them open for all.

Do we think they will shut soon to protect the staff?

@Heyahun totally agree with you!

Why are people obsessed with This - just don't send your child!!

The science is there and it's proven transmission rates are v low with early years so please, whoever wants them closed just give it a rest.

I hope not. Its been the best news of my year do far that my 3 year old can still go to nursery. It's hard enough working from home with a 7 year old, but 3 year old thrown into the mix is impossible.

In our household we've all had covid anyway.

I should add it means the world to me and our family that the 3 year old is socialising, and I can still work. DH works outside the home, so it's left to me to juggle. My mental health suffered with the juggling last time.

Also there will many like us who had covid over Christmas and are immune for at least the next three months.

@Backbee

I expect plenty of outbreaks in nursery schools this month, and next. It's one of the few places humans still mix closely in significant numbers

Why? This has not happened previously.

Lots of nurseries had to close, or not allow bubbles in. Lots of staff too. As lots of babies/toddlers weren't tested I guess most transmissions were assumed to be at wirk/pubs/supermarkets.

If you don't test babies/children you won't get positives. A lack of positives does not = negative!

@Anonanon12 I could’ve written this.

Thinking of sending him back towards the end of the month but as I’m at home anyway I feel so guilty for adding another ‘risk’ for the staff. Everyone else I know continues to send their child, regardless of their work situation. I’m torn between what’s the ‘right’ thing to do ...

[quote Remmy123]@Heyahun totally agree with you!

Why are people obsessed with This - just don't send your child!!

The science is there and it's proven transmission rates are v low with early years so please, whoever wants them closed just give it a rest.[/quote]
Remmy - you do realise that you continually denying Covid severity & transmission doesn't make it any less true?!
It's only low because they don't test them 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

They’d better bloody not! My DS goes to two nurseries (one a preschool, attached to a school) and one privately run nursery. How many cases of covid have we had in them? NONE. Not one. We are in a big city with high figures. Transmission problems are obviously not an issue. I can’t teach my 7 year older child (currently off school due to school being “closed” however over 50% are in due to being lucky enough to have “key worker” parents - heavy sarcasm with the speech marks) with my three year old running riot at home in B.C. addition to running my own business. It’s impossible. Keeping preschools/nurseries open has been the one decent decision made.

[quote Remmy123]@Heyahun totally agree with you!

Why are people obsessed with This - just don't send your child!!

The science is there and it's proven transmission rates are v low with early years so please, whoever wants them closed just give it a rest.[/quote]
We had four months of " science days children can't catch it or spread it so open the schools" on here.

And now we know children from 12-16 are 7 x more likely to bring the virus into the home than adults.

We don't know. We don't test very young children much.

Where are people getting the idea that very young children are tested less frequently? By the end of August more 0-9 year olds had been tested than 10-19 year olds (I know it's not ideal that it's from August, as far as I can see the ONS hasn't done the analysis again since) and positivity rates - which are up to date - are slightly lower for 0-5 than for 5-9 and lower than 10-19. If people were only testing under 5s in extremis you'd expect the positivity rate to be higher than other groups, not lower, as only those really likely to have it would be tested.

I think the issue is more that if nurseries are closed many will go out of business and won't be able to reopen. Not saying they shouldn't be closed but this has to be considered surely?

@Hardbackwriter

Where are people getting the idea that very young children are tested less frequently? By the end of August more 0-9 year olds had been tested than 10-19 year olds (I know it's not ideal that it's from August, as far as I can see the ONS hasn't done the analysis again since) and positivity rates - which are up to date - are slightly lower for 0-5 than for 5-9 and lower than 10-19. If people were only testing under 5s in extremis you'd expect the positivity rate to be higher than other groups, not lower, as only those really likely to have it would be tested.

I'm under the impression under-5s, and particularly under 2s are the least tested of all. Often because they don't show symptoms, and covid symptoms are often easily confused in babies and toddlers with things that babies and toddlers often get - like temperatures, fussiness and sniffles - do no one realises they have it. If the adults in the household are young and healthy as many parents of young children are then they may be asymptomatic and not know they have it so nobody gets a test.

@PrincessNutNuts I don't think that's true at all. It's certainly not my experience. Everyone I know with an under 2 has had at least one test for them. We've had two for my 18mo. The guidance says test in the event of a temperature and obviously toddlers get these all the time, and if it's test or all isolate, test is the lesser of two evils.

Although symptoms differ in the very young, a temperature is fairly universal

Everyone I know with an under 2 has had at least one test for them.

Agree. Because toddlers get temperatures all the time, they have been tested loads!

I don’t think they should. Nurseries are not linked to huge rises in community transmission like schools are.
Bloody hope the government don’t bend on this one although they seem to obey whomever shouts the loudest.

I'd say toddlers have been tested a massive amount. All the parents I know with toddlers in childcare have had them tested over the months...with the number of temperatures and coughsetc that age group get for any number of reasons it is inevitable.

Where on earth has this myth come from that people aren't testing them? It's really dangerous.

It's also - because of nursery sizes - not straightforward to say that nurseries should only take key worker children. For many nurseries that isn't financially viable. In the last lockdown in our area only about half of private nurseries stayed open to key workers. Other key workers had to choose between sending their kids to a different nursery for a while or giving up work temporarily. Using a different nursery when your kids are very young is pretty hard - an 18 month old isn't going to understand why their environment and key worker has suddenly changed.

I know doctor couples in the last lockdown who couldn't get a nursery place sorted quickly and had to take time off in the middle of the first peak. Not ideal.

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants are you sending your child in to nursery?

If you have dc in nursery and think they shouldn’t be just take them out.

If you don’t have dc in nursery and keep going on about closure spend your energy on disrupting your own life instead

@HazelWong

Everyone I know with an under 2 has had at least one test for them.

Agree. Because toddlers get temperatures all the time, they have been tested loads!

Yes, my toddler has had a couple of tests because she of a raised temperature.

Was a lot easier to swab a toddler strapped into a car seat than I thought it would be!

It can’t possibly be safe for them to stay open. Our twins were at nursery until October, their nursery closed during the first lockdown then reopened for keyworkers and vulnerable children. Our twins have EHCPs but we couldn’t send them as they didn’t have staff for 1:1 and keep them safe - when we did send them back it was for 6 hours a week only as that was all they could do.

This time they’re at a specialist school - they lasted two days before one of their class staff tested positive on a lateral flow nan’s now two days later the school is moving to a rota for all children, two days a week only unless key workers or highly vulnerable (all the children there are very vulnerable). Are nurseries being given LF tests to ensure their staff are not carrying the virus? I doubt it.

It’s not just about the staff though is it, but who it’s passed on to. If primary schools aren’t safe to be open, how are nurseries?

What is the breakdown of cases for lower ages?

@SinkGirl that's your decision to take your twins out.

Having not had a single case in our local nursery and surrounding I feel confident.

Not to mention my older children are out of school so it wouid likely have been my secondary child passing it on, so I feel risk is low.

[quote Remmy123]@SinkGirl that's your decision to take your twins out.

Having not had a single case in our local nursery and surrounding I feel confident.

Not to mention my older children are out of school so it wouid likely have been my secondary child passing it on, so I feel risk is low.[/quote]
Did you even read my post?

It wasn’t my decision to take them out - their nursery closed in the first lockdown and since they are both disabled they didn’t have the staff to provide the 1:1 support needed to keep them safe.

Now they are at specialist school and are home - again, not my decision, but on day one of testing multiple asymptomatic staff tested positive, just as they would in nurseries if testing was done and in every school too. The school had no known cases year.

They’ll only be going back two days a week - again not my choice, a measure the school have had to take because of reduction in staff numbers due to self isolating.

Nobody needs to tell me how hard it is - disabled twins, health issues myself, who was working and managing two SEN educational tribunals for them through most of 2020. They are deemed to need 1:1 support at nursery / school yet it’s just me with them in the week. It’s been absolutely bloody horrific. However, what I’ve just witnessed happen at their school which has very small class sizes and lots of space is quite shocking to be honest. I’m amazed nurseries are still able to stay open.