I'm a teacher, need advice!

[mstumble]

A child in my class who I have been in contact all today and yesterday- parent has tested positive for covid. The child has had quite a runny nose and slight cough so I am quite alarmed. Parent has had no symptoms and was tested as part of their job and only got the result after child collected. Apart from to let me know this news, I've not been told to isolate. Does anyone know if this is right? My gut feeling is to stay in and prevent potentially spreading it about but as the child wasn't the one that tested positive, I think it will be assumed that I will be in work tomorrow as normal. Any help would be much appreciated! My husband says I should stay at home!

Are they going to get their child tested?
Until the child gets a positive result then you wouldn't need to isolate

And this is the why the virus is spreading...

I’d want to stay at home but unless you would have the support of your head, you’ll probably have to go in. If you are going to get it, you’ll have it by now.

Try to isolate from your family

Fingers crossed, you won’t get it.

Officially, since the child doesnt have symptoms you dont need to do anything.
If you are in secondary, take up the lateral flow offer.
If you are in primary, do you live in an area offering asymptomatic testing?

I would be careful with where you go and what you do, but not isolate.

@TierFourTears

Officially, since the child doesnt have symptoms you dont need to do anything. If you are in secondary, take up the lateral flow offer. If you are in primary, do you live in an area offering asymptomatic testing?

I would be careful with where you go and what you do, but not isolate.

The child has a cough so does have symptoms, school should be asking for the child to be tested.

I agree this is why virus is spreading..my ds was in contact with a positive case so had to isolate for 10days..even though my ds is only 3 and cant be evicted to his bedroom with room service for 10 days, no one else in the house had to isolate

Can you call your head and voice your concerns? My head has been very understanding recently.

And, yes, the child, needs a test if they have had a cough.

I know my school would expect me in like normal, but I agree it's probably not the right thing to do as there is definitely a good chance you could have it.

Is you school doing the lateral flow tests? If it isn't can you get it via community critical worker testing? I know they aren't too reliable but I guess it would be better than nothing.

We are linked to a secondary that are offering testing, I will see tomorrow if I can get a test. The parent seems quite conscientious so hopefully they will get child tested and then the class would legitimately be able to isolate.

The pupil, a household contact of a confirmed case, has a new cough, and therefore should be tested. Someone shouid talk to the family, and see if they will get it done. If DC's test is negative, you can relax.

It that doesn't happen, then getting daily lateral flow tests might be worthwhile (though their high false negative rate means it's a poor second)

For the next 10 days, even if you are not required to SI (because you don't know resuits, or testing has not been carried out at all, so you are not a direct contact of confirmed case) it would be prudent to pare back even further all activities outside the home, to reduce as far as possible the chances of you passing it on if you are incubating

Common sense says isolate in this circumstance. Goodness knows what the rulez say but the virus is still managing to spread isn't it?

The lateral flow testing is very quick, definitely worth it if you can get one.

Before Xmas we had issues with parents testing positive and not testing their kids as they didn't see the point. That meant we couldn't get other people to isolate when they should probably have been.

No, I think it's perfectly correct. The child should isolate, but unless the child develops symptoms and tests positive, you don't need to. I get that it's worrying though!

Why wasn't the symptomatic child sent home?

This is the difficulty- in my heart of hearts I know I should stay at home but school will still expect me in. My hubby thinks I should lie and say I have symptoms tomorrow and get tested. The school would probably have to close though and I would worry about the critical workers that would be affected by this.

The pupil is young and always quite sniffly. No temperature. The cough was so slight it was more like clearing the throat and the result of a runny nose.

No solution but I feel for you. I guess though, you need to think in terms of what would happen or the KWV children of the school had to close due to you and/or the child spreading infection.

Push for child being made to test, slight cough + positive parent + new variant = worrying!

Unless your Head is willing able to let you isolate, unfortunately you have to go in. You could get tested (claiming symptoms) but it might well be too early to test for you.

Yes I think that's what needs to happen and hopefully the parent will cooperate. Until then I will keep a low profile, apart from going into work (where chances are my whole class could have it!) I will avoid shops, etc. Ugh!! So sick of all these dilemmas!

Yes the information is correct. The child has to isolate as they are a close contact of a positive case. You don't currently have to isolate as the child has not received a positive test.

What should happen now is the parent gets their child tested and you await the outcome. If it is positive, the bubble pops and everyone in close contact over infectious period has to self isolate. It the result is negative, you keep going.