When will we stop sending dc home from school if they’re a close contact?

[katieloves]

Basically, when will coronavirus be treated like any other illnesses where you only stay at home if you’re not well yourself? I understand the reasons why we have to do the close contact thing now, but once all adults are vaccinated do you think we’ll get to a stage where dc are not in and out of school all the time?

I'm sure our school have said they stay at school but have to be tested every day for 7 days.

I thought the process now (at secondary) is that if you are a close contact you test every day for a week - no need to self isolate.

I think yes when all adults are vaccinated.

I’m hoping summer at some point? I mean if nightclubs are opening in June and other restrictions are dropped then that should come under that you’d think!

I thought the process now (at secondary) is that if you are a close contact you test every day for a week - no need to self isolate

This was the original plan back in December but was disputed I think by the teachers’ union (apologies if it wasn’t - not teacher bashing). DC therefore still have to self isolate for 10 days as pre Christmas if a close contact.

This was the original plan back in December but was disputed I think by the teachers’ union (apologies if it wasn’t - not teacher bashing). DC therefore still have to self isolate for 10 days as pre Christmas if a close contact.

It was pointed out by many health professionals as a batshit crazy idea and quietly shelved. It’s now being trialled in 200 schools, so will probably be declared a rousing success in a couple of weeks and be imposed on us all. I wonder what will happen to infection numbers?

We won't, or rather shouldn't, stop sending children home as close contacts until that is the rule for the whole country.

When it is the general rule, then it will stop in schools too.

I think that will be when all those eligible have been offered their vaccinations - possibly even after they've all been offered (and had time to have) their first vaccination. I doubt it will mean waiting for both vaccinations tbh. Or unless the number of cases was much lower, that the r number was very low and hospital numbers were low. I think chances are it'll be the former of the two.

For schools this will probably mean from September in reality.

Mind, I wouldn't put it past our government to decide that schools don't need to follow the close contact rule. They tried it once already with their original LFT plan, remember?

@CarrieBlue it’s a tricky one. I know of quite a few older secondary school dc (years 9+) who are on the verge of the impact of being off school being life changing as they’ve become so disengaged with home learning and have missed so much. At some point we do need to take this into consideration.

But we can't really expect to have known contacts sat shoulder to shoulder with other pupils, surely?
We have CV pupils in schools, as well as Pupils show have vulnerable and/or older parents. Not all Cv have been offered the vaccine yet and we haven't finished all the age related priority groups either.

CV and CEV children aren't currently down to be vaccinated - we surely have a duty to enable them to stay in school too, which they can't do if they will be knowingly exposed to known close contacts of covid cases.

@katieloves

I thought the process now (at secondary) is that if you are a close contact you test every day for a week - no need to self isolate

This was the original plan back in December but was disputed I think by the teachers’ union (apologies if it wasn’t - not teacher bashing). DC therefore still have to self isolate for 10 days as pre Christmas if a close contact.

No. The MHRA. Mostly for being a totally batshit idea that only a total idiot would have come up with.

An unreliable test is not going to replace the identifying and isolating of contacts in order to break chains of transmission.

I’d guess the answer to the question is when allowing the virus to spread naturally won’t cause admissions to hospitals to dramatically increase. We’re still a way off yet.

I'm a group 11 teacher so not due to have my first vaccination until around June. So then roughly July for teachers aged 21-30 for their first, so hopefully close contacts will continue to isolate until the end of the school year when all the staff have been offered the vaccine.

There’s only one thing worse than ‘home learning’ in our house (but in fairness home learning has been pretty good!)

‘High School Hokey Cokey’

When my son was in school, off school, in school, off school...learning was erratic, lacked consistency; lacked continuity and was difficult to manage.

I think we are going to have to accept that’s what we’re going to get though, for the foreseeable at least. Lots of absence; lots of cover teachers; some school closures depending on staffing levels and a lower standard of school work due to lack of time to plan effectively or produce resources.

Fun times!

It has to happen at some point, this cant carry on indefinitely.

I'd guess once vaccines are finished in all adults (2 doses) and the figures become more akin to flu with hospitalizations etc it will have to return to business as usual.

The answer isn’t to change the rules, it’s to drive down infection numbers so that an isolation event is rare. Our school only had one instance of isolation last term and it affected only 30 children. We are lucky to be in a low rate area but surely all areas are expected to be low rate in a couple of months.

I don’t know what the answer is but it is getting to the point where for some children this impact will have life long effects. It’s been over a year now of disruption.

Also the inequality will just keep on growing. Those who have engaged with home learning versus those that didn’t/couldn’t, those who have had multiple isolation periods versus those that haven’t. It’s a bloody mess.

[quote katieloves]@CarrieBlue it’s a tricky one. I know of quite a few older secondary school dc (years 9+) who are on the verge of the impact of being off school being life changing as they’ve become so disengaged with home learning and have missed so much. At some point we do need to take this into consideration.[/quote]
It’s not tricky at all. Allowing students who have been in close contact with a positive case to remain mixing with others whilst they are potentially infected whilst pretending it’s ok because they are being tested with very unreliable tests each day is insane.

It is a bloody mess, but we chose this course when we decided that the pandemic couldn’t be controlled and to just keep the numbers low enough hospitals didn’t get overwhelmed. So for now we’ll just have to suck it up.

There are still vulnerable people in schools both adults and children who haven’t been vaccinated so I hope it will be a while yet

[quote katieloves]@CarrieBlue it’s a tricky one. I know of quite a few older secondary school dc (years 9+) who are on the verge of the impact of being off school being life changing as they’ve become so disengaged with home learning and have missed so much. At some point we do need to take this into consideration.[/quote]
It's no trickier than for the rest of the country though.

Not many people will be overly keen to be sat right next to a colleague who has been a close contact with someone with covid.

How many people genuinely fancy sitting should to shoulder, with or without a mask, in a crowded room with someone who has knowingly been in close and/or prolonged contact with covid? Especially if they are unvaccinated, or CV themselves, or will be going home to a family member who is CV?

How many fancy sitting in a room with 29 other people who have had close contact with covid? Which is what could happen in a class situation.

LFTs are a useless indication. My family has been caught up in the false positive saga. They are not fit for purpose.

[quote katieloves]@CarrieBlue it’s a tricky one. I know of quite a few older secondary school dc (years 9+) who are on the verge of the impact of being off school being life changing as they’ve become so disengaged with home learning and have missed so much. At some point we do need to take this into consideration.[/quote]
I think the health and lives of others takes precedence over some children not taking to home learning.

@Delatron I don’t know what the answer is but it is getting to the point where for some children this impact will have life long effects. It’s been over a year now of disruption

This is exactly what I’m concerned about and what I’m hearing more and more from frantic parents. Not so much younger dc, but there’s going to be a huge number of dc age 14 years plus impacted very negatively by this. I see both sides and obviously protecting CEV and vulnerable dc is massively important and that’s why it’s so difficult.

I suppose when all adults are vaccinated.

They are currently trialing the vaccine on 12-16 year olds with younger children later in the spring, once they are cleared for vaccination (aim is for summer holidays) I suspect the schools can stop the testing.

It would be absurd to be a pregnant teacher in a school, unvaccinated, teaching covid-positive children.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss
I don’t think it’s as simple as some dc not taking to home learning. I think there’s huge numbers of dc who haven’t engaged with home learning for whatever reason and it’s not their fault. These are dc who would be fine if they were going into a classroom every day but they absolutely need the consistency and accountability that going to school every day gives them.