Is anyone planning on refusing to allow their children to have the lateral flow tests.

[Witchcraftandhokum]

I'm really not looking to start a bunfight. Just tying to better understand the reasons if you are not planning on allowing your child to be tested.

We won't be doing lateral flow tests. All four of us tested positive in December. For us I think it'd just be creating extra landfill.

@HairyToity

We won't be doing lateral flow tests. All four of us tested positive in December. For us I think it'd just be creating extra landfill.

You can't have lateral flow test with 90 days of a positive test anyway.

[quote Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum]@Tibtom

Did you actually read and understand anything I posted 🤦‍♀️ Try again

And yes I am sure you are an expert in this field blah blah blah.

I feel an AZ situation coming on🤷‍♀️[/quote]
Yes I read it. And? 🤷‍♀️

I can see a lot of self employed / zero hours / SSP only working parents turning down a COVID test for their kids because

Positive test = whole family has to self isolate = can't go out to work = can't pay the rent and bills = huge financial knock on effects.

Before anyone starts on about the £500 payment, that's only guaranteed for parents who are on benefits. For the rest of us, there's a discretionary scheme, but 70-something% of applications are turned down

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages

I can see a lot of self employed / zero hours / SSP only working parents turning down a COVID test for their kids because

Positive test = whole family has to self isolate = can't go out to work = can't pay the rent and bills = huge financial knock on effects.

Before anyone starts on about the £500 payment, that's only guaranteed for parents who are on benefits. For the rest of us, there's a discretionary scheme, but 70-something% of applications are turned down

Yeah that 500 quid thing was a complete joke. I haven't met a single self employed person who hasn't been turned down for it.

Well, first tests done. Girls seem untraumatised by the event.*
Dd1 just said sarcastically....'well that was an adrenaline rush'

*I completely understand how it could be traumatic for a child with anxiety/complex needs (ds would be a nightmare)

Our local secondary has posted today about testing and getting ready for Monday. they stated that so far 86% of parents/children have consented to the tests being used.

Another school not too far away had a similar figure yesterday.

Would be interesting to see the variants across the city, and indeed across the country.

@HairyToity

We won't be doing lateral flow tests. All four of us tested positive in December. For us I think it'd just be creating extra landfill.

You shouldn't use them within 90 days of a positive test anyway. After that you can use them, as it is possible to catch covid again.

My DDs school has not sent out a consent form and testing starts tomorrow. Surely they can't carry out a medical test on a child without parental consent? There has been nothing communicated at all about testing being voluntary or parents giving or not giving consent by writing etc

@starlilly88

My DDs school has not sent out a consent form and testing starts tomorrow. Surely they can't carry out a medical test on a child without parental consent? There has been nothing communicated at all about testing being voluntary or parents giving or not giving consent by writing etc

Did you consent to the tests that were planned for the school return in January?

Bloody hell! Reading some of this as both parents cv, I'm getting jabbed next week. I'm pleased my school understands and is supporting my dc with home learning until Easter.

@Abraxan

Our local secondary has posted today about testing and getting ready for Monday. they stated that so far 86% of parents/children have consented to the tests being used.

Another school not too far away had a similar figure yesterday.

Would be interesting to see the variants across the city, and indeed across the country.

It would be very interesting. The schools seems to know how others are doing. So the information must be available somewhere. Mine have said they got the highest number of parents consenting so far in our areas.

It would be interesting to see the figures.

DS' school is in a area of high deprivation where uptake for the vaccine has been lower than many areas, so I would be interested to find out how many consent to the vaccine.

I mean, consent to the test.

I can quite understand the worry about false positives and not being able to work. There was a report on the BBC news last night of a boy that tested positive so the parents got him retested with a PCR test (which is more reliable and picks up lower levels of the virus). It came back negative but the whole family still need to quarantine for 10 days, no work or school. There will be thousands more in the same situation given the false positive rate of 0.32%. And not many people can afford that right now

@starlilly88
Exactly.
Parents going the tests at home will simply report as negative and not bother doing them.
Is sn utterly pointless waste of money to provide hime kits.
The gvt still doesn’t get that not everyone is in a public sector job where you e rake time off with no consequences.

Every secondary school will have approximately 3 false negatives with every round of testing. With current prevalence and the detection rate where non medical staff carry out testing this would mean a positive is 30 times more likely to be a false positive than a true positive.

My children have not been out of the house for weeks so the chances of them having Covid is thankfully slim. But I have still sent them in to be tested. There are some good reasons why some children especially those with extra needs won’t be getting tested. But I have explained to my kids that we live as part of a community and there are a lot of people justifiably worried about Covid and we need to do our bit. It’s like with immunisations. As many people as possible need to do these to create herd immunity - in my opinion it would be unfair of us to not have our children tested so we can all do what we can to reduce the virus and help us get ours Iives back.

By the way I just read what I think is the latest schools guidance (guidance not law) and last time I read it there was a sentence that teenagers could not be refused access to the classroom without a mask on (even those not exempt) but now that sentence seems to have gone. I might however have missed it.

The guidance states 'no pupil should be denied education on the grounds that they are not wearing a face covering'
Some schools are getting round this by segregating pupils not wearing them

Tests are voluntary at my kids sixth form, so I let my 17 and 18 year olds decide for themselves, and they both decided not to.

@starlilly88

The guidance states 'no pupil should be denied education on the grounds that they are not wearing a face covering' Some schools are getting round this by segregating pupils not wearing them

It's hard to see how they protect the CV pupils, or those with CEV in immediate household by other means.

Masks don't protect the individual, they protect everyone else. And schools cannot put their more vulnerable pupils at risk by exposing them to unmasked people (this really should have been the case all along). So it is an entirely reasonable adjustment in terms of safety for CV. I am of course assuming that the education provided is of same quality across both groups

The U.K. schools should have followed the approach of other countries - no mask = no school attendance (unless a very limited number of exceptions). U.K. schools could have then stayed open without the loss of f2f teaching. Thankfully many pupils are concerned about protecting their teachers, families and school friends and are wearing masks throughout the day.

*Star" - thanks. I think it was broader last time I read it so that you could not be forced out of the class room into another room or to a computer at home. It will be interesting if you have a class of 25 and every teenager refuses to wear a mask and has a right to refuse in the class as to where the teachers will then put the children - they cannot even then make them sit at the back of the class as there would be 100% refuseniks.

They shouldn’t be. Masks and tests are not compulsory for children in school.