Outbreaks in schools

[Trustisamust]

Since schools have returned there have already been major outbreaks in both my child's secondary and the primary I work at.
The majority of school staff remain unvaccinated.
For how many other schools is this already the case?
I just don't know what to think any more.

*How do people know there’s no cases in their schools.

I have no idea if kids have tested positive in either of ours ... the schools don’t tell us.

We always get an email, even if it’s zero like last week*

Same here - they've sent an email out at the end of each week now confirming zero positive cases found with their Lateral flow testing or reported to them otherwise

Have they told you how many students take the lateral flow tests? My DC school tells us if there’s cases, but it wasn’t until I spoke with the head I found out they had under 100 consent forms back in the first week.

@Dustyboots

How do people know there’s no cases in their schools.

I have no idea if kids have tested positive in either of ours ... the schools don’t tell us.

If you read all the replies you'll see that schools that do circulate the postive details seem to be the majority of this totally unscientific sample and on every other thread on this it's the same

@2boysand1princess

My sister works in a large secondary school. She tested positive with zero symptoms. She still is shocked she has it as she’s totally well. Anyway, 3 other colleagues in her department have also tested positive now. This was 2 days ago. Today she looked at the schools notice board, 10 further staff throughout school have tested positive with mild or no symptoms. And many students sent home throughout this week. Tbh, we are in a highish rate area though. I reckon by next week will be many more cases. Concerning when you think so many have no typical covid symptoms and the only way they know they have covid is the lateral flow tests. Pleased the government have launched this testing in schools, shame wasn’t sooner.

Are teachers wearing masks? The vast majority aren’t at our school. It may be coincidence that many teachers have got it at the same time but I really do think that there should be a number of cases which trigger an investigation/ possible closure early on instead of allowing escalation

@2boysand1princess

Have they told you how many students take the lateral flow tests? My DC school tells us if there’s cases, but it wasn’t until I spoke with the head I found out they had under 100 consent forms back in the first week.

My DCs school has something in the high 90% of pupils taking the first test last week, no numbers yet for this week but according to my DC everyone in the class went out for the second test so maybe a similar figure again

The school sent the consent forms out in the week before the 8th and obviously almost all families signed them

@2boysand1princess

Have they told you how many students take the lateral flow tests? My DC school tells us if there’s cases, but it wasn’t until I spoke with the head I found out they had under 100 consent forms back in the first week.

The email didn’t say proportion but it did say over 1000 LFT had been administered over course of week - with no positive results

@2boysand1princess

Have they told you how many students take the lateral flow tests? My DC school tells us if there’s cases, but it wasn’t until I spoke with the head I found out they had under 100 consent forms back in the first week.

They have said how many tests have been done. It’s a large number but obviously I don’t know exact pupil or staff numbers

According to my sister, yea hers in her secondary are wearing masks in the classroom, but very little keep it on for the whole lesson and very few will wear a mask when on the Staff rooms or talking with other colleagues.
Yes, I agree there should be an investigation when schools have so many cases amongst staff. Once again though, the staff are more likely to do the lateral flow tests, but students are not all doing them so realistically there’s probably a lot more cases in schools that are undetected.

I’m not surprised at our results as teens have effectively been isolating up to that point. With outside exercise of course.

Areas will differ though if cases are still higher. Ours is at 20 per 100k

What are your community case numbers like if you’ve had positives in school?

If the schools in our area could also aim for 90% lateral flow tests, twice a week then I believe we would be able to get our infection rates down too. It’s all about compliance and individual sense of responsibility and unfortunately not everyone cares about this and thinks it’s always someone else’s job!

2 bubbles have burst already at my secondary (south west) - 100 or so isolating.

Bumped into admin staff from our local primary yesterday.

Small school, already got 4/5 cases.

@2boysand1princess

According to my sister, yea hers in her secondary are wearing masks in the classroom, but very little keep it on for the whole lesson and very few will wear a mask when on the Staff rooms or talking with other colleagues. Yes, I agree there should be an investigation when schools have so many cases amongst staff. Once again though, the staff are more likely to do the lateral flow tests, but students are not all doing them so realistically there’s probably a lot more cases in schools that are undetected.

There should be an investigation whoever the cases affect. Cases were really low in secondary age before they went back, that wasn’t the same for primary though. I imagine there could be more outbreaks in primary

@MarshaBradyo

I’m not surprised at our results as teens have effectively been isolating up to that point. With outside exercise of course.

Areas will differ though if cases are still higher. Ours is at 20 per 100k

What are your community case numbers like if you’ve had positives in school?

91 in one school catchment, 76 in the other. Not the highest, but not the lowest.

What are your community case numbers like if you’ve had positives in school?
Community cases are really really low

We've got 40 kids and half a dozen teachers self isolating due to one positive test (1 whole class plus associates).

To be expected if we're hunting Covid with the LFT at the moment. I was involved in the testing with our school a couple of weeks ago and one 6th former told me she'd had it over Christmas. Her dad was very poorly, her mum not so much (bad flu symptoms) but she had no symptoms at all. Mum 'sneaked her through' for a full Covid test and she was positive. Never had so much as a sniffle for the full two week isolation period. Which shows how this can be hidden amongst children unfortunately.

The thing is, everywhere is going to have cases. Nowhere is immune. Whatever had opened first would have seen cases in that environment. Increased mixing leads to increased spread, its not rocket science.
However... the decision has been made that the risks of keeping millions of children out of school is greater than the risks of increased cases. It’s not a decision that was taken lightly.

The only people I know irl who aren't getting kids tested say they don't want to isolate over a false positive. However, these are also the same people that are not worried about any issues to their health if caught (fair enough) OR passing it on eg kids have been mixing through lockdown, parents been mixing with their friends and family inside etc etc. I think pupils who opt out of testing should not be allowed in unless there is a clear medical/psychological reason for it.

@macaronirabbit

Ok so is it that the LFT are not as sensitive as the others? Btw to *@WaitingForNormality* Our primary school is encouraging pupils and parents to test twice a week with LF tests. I collected 2 packs of tests from a local testing centre last week although DD gets hers from (secondary) school.

We are testing as parents, and Dh is testing as teaching staff but school haven't said to test the kids at all in our primaries.

I don't think anyone is against vaccines for teachers. It's simply that they cant give it to everyone at the same time and they've started with those most likely to die from the virus and those that look after them. Numbers in hospitals are coming down as the people who were most likely to get very sick have gotten this vaccine.
Surely you don't think teachers should have been prioritised before the elderly?

I’m not against vaccines for teachers. I’m pro people getting the vaccine in order of clinical need.

I'm not against vaccines for teachers either, but teachers are not the only people working in risky jobs and vaccines need to go to those at highest risk of needing hospital treatment if they catch Covid.

I fail to see how school staff getting vaccinated makes me safer either, DS could still catch it from classmates and bring it home, and I could still catch it from my colleagues in the factory I work at.

If the teachers get it then there are not enough staff to man the schools. It's in everyones interest really.

I guess it depends on how fast these new strains spread.

If the teachers get it then there are not enough staff to man the schools. It's in everyones interest really.

This. Kids, parents, staff, households, employers, society would all be impacted if schools close.

Having the vaccine doesn’t stop you getting the disease although it probably makes it less likely. It also doesn’t alter isolation rules so as far as keeping schools open it’s not that effective. It is of course of benefit to individuals, particularly those in vulnerable groups.