Rates rising > Kids off school > WTF is the plan??

[HoppingHamster]

I want things to open up. I want vaccines to work. I’ve had my vaccines.

But.

There will soon be thousands of kids off school isolating because they’ve come into contact with someone who tested positive. 10 days off school. I already know of about 50 in our local area through various schools.

If June 21 goes ahead. And we can’t slow the spread among unvaccinated people. And the spread is already increasing statistically among children and younger ages (which it is), where is the plan for keeping kids in school?? For preventing more disruption to their education.

How is it possible to let things open up (and let numbers fly over next few months before more people vaccinated) AND keep kids equally in school? Either you open up and lift all quarantine restrictions. Or you have to do something to plot the spread amongst youngsters.

I’m worried this has been forgotten and it’s going to go wrong again.

@severalsnapes

Delay further unlocking until schools close and then try to surge-vaccinate kids over the summer holidays?

Maybe it needs to be further than that and go back a few steps too. So much mixing going in, large gatherings, the removal of masks in schools etc.

@C152 yes there is an effect, but most adults won’t be vaccinated until towards the late autumn at least and more than 20% of the population is under 18… not enough for full protective effect.

Summer holidays will help but how do we manage the disruption between now and then?

Depends where you live, no cases here so will be annoyed if I have to cancel the poor couples weddings again

The government can’t admit there is a problem as their narrative that SCHOOLS ARE SAFE would be broken

This.

My DS1 is in year 10. He's currently having to isolate for the first time since this began!

I'm in a low case area btw.

@Funfortheroad

They need to stop isolating kids. If things are ok enough to open up society and allow travel, festivals and offices, then there's no need to keep isolating children, who aren't even affected by it.

But the alternative is to keep them in school, alongside staff who aren't yet fully vaccinated.

By September when all eligible adults have had the chance for at least one jab, and all slightly older ones have had time to have their second - different story. But right now we have teaching staff who haven't yet had their first vaccine, none of the 2os ones are 3 weeks past a first jab and many of the 30s/40s staff have only had one vaccine.

Children need to be subject to the same rules as anyone else IMO. If adults have to self isolate then I'm afraid so do children.

There's only 5 weeks of term left in England, less in Scotland. Come the autumn term I'm sure things will change and schools will be operating much more normally without the lengthy self isolation periods.

[quote HoppingHamster]@CutieBear I think you’re conflating a few issues to suit an ideology. What we’ve seen this year is that no one ideology trumps another, it’s a battle no one is going to win. Getting through this is about the art of compromise, not about belligerently insisting on complete ideological submission from one side or the other.

Lonely people unable to socialise Why can’t lonely people socialise the way things are now, why are they dependent on June 21?

People losing jobs.

Kids missing school. The point of the thread is the effect of quarantine, do you suggest that we just allow people to circulate Covid if they have it, no isolation at all?

People trapped in abusive households unable to escape. What needs to happen for this to change that we don’t have at the moment?

People unable to see a therapist/psychiatrist in person I am seeing a therapist and I find the online sessions excellent, I was also offered face to face but declined.[/quote]
Face to face therapy is so much better than online. My point is that if we have another lockdown, people will not be able to socialise, kids aren’t in school (attainment is already shocking), people aren’t able to escape abusive households because they can’t talk to friends, colleagues, teachers, pastoral staff etc. This country is in a economic mess, which ruins people mentally.

@CutieBear no one is suggesting another lockdown, I think there is broad consensus that the best thing we can do is AVOID another lock down.

I just don’t understand how we can keep continually making the same mistakes over and over (namely with the borders ). We did SO well, then screwed it all up because we didn’t do enough to protect our hard earned gains until the vaccines were done.

My plan
Have a fabulous summer with my children, family and friends.
In the Uk.
Pandemic... don’t give a damn anymore. Will break any restrictions

@Sometimesfraught82 have you been double jabbed?

There will at worst be a postponement of the end of the restrictions that are currently in place. Which are primarily about large gatherings, table service and wearing face coverings.

I don't think children and young people have been forgotten as those who can spread the virus.

I will feel sorry if wedding numbers and those who can attend funerals remain with restricted numbers though.

The government could have helped this totally predictable situation by ensuring all school staff received vaccinations before easter.

Lots are still unvaccinated and many that are vaccinated were luckily given leftovers by local hubs. The continued stress put on school staff by the government continues to be horrific.

@kowari

How are they going to do their exams if the government shut the schools again?

They won't shut schools again. It would have to be something fairly catastrophic happening that was affecting the fully vaccinated, or something that was really badly affecting school aged children for schools to close again on mass.

Some schools may have classes/groups of students/pupils isolating due to cases though, and that will happen whenever self isolation is expected for everyone - school children shouldn't be exempt from this.

Fwiw we haven't had a case close our school this time round - young children. But I suspect that's because over 80% of our staff caught in in autumn term, along with several parents and children. So most of us have some immunity through that and through either one or two vaccines. We do have two members of staff who haven't yet had their vaccine and didn't catch it, but that's it.

@sherrystrull

The government could have helped this totally predictable situation by ensuring all school staff received vaccinations before easter.

Lots are still unvaccinated and many that are vaccinated were luckily given leftovers by local hubs. The continued stress put on school staff by the government continues to be horrific.

Yes a handful of staff in my school still haven't even had their first vaccination, including me. Others have only just recieved their second. Those who have had both are in the minority.

Honestly - daily testing before school if a close contact and no isolation would be my preferred option. Or a total shut down of school if believed necessary (personally I don't believe necessary). But I actually believe that kids would get a better quality of home education if all kids are home. Rather than odd kids off here and there. And those children accessing a second class of curriculum.

Their first (not second)

Oh and people aren’t dropping like flies in Bolton. An article from a couple of days ago reported that 1 person out of a population of 111,159 people had died with Covid. There were 5 deaths the week before and 2 the week before that.

It’s good news that the vaccine seems to be helping those who are vulnerable to contracting the worst symptoms!

We had no COVID in our school until suddenly we did

Exactly.
By 6 weeks after the first case over 75% of staff, alongside parents and children had caught covid and every class had closed at least once. By the end of the term, more than 80% staff had caught it and even more staff/pupils.

@HoppingHamster I just don’t understand how we can keep continually making the same mistakes over and over (namely with the borders angry).

I agree with the borders. I don’t understand why they didn’t stop planes and boats coming into the country, especially from high risk areas!

What exactly are the alternatives here? A few weeks here or there isn’t going to make a lot of difference and we run the risk of pushing the next wave into the autumn or winter which will be worse. If we had opened fully on May 17th we might have avoided the Delta variant becoming dominant because more younger people would have acquired natural immunity. Delay now and another variant could develop that is even more transmissible.
We can’t vaccinate healthy kids because there is a good chance that the vaccine causes more harm in them than covid and I don’t think it is ethical to give children a vaccine that won’t benefit them but is for the good of others.
No good answers, only tradeoffs here. Personally I would let kids go to school unless they personally had a positive test and try and keep as many in as possible. Prioritise any staff that haven’t had two doses for vaccination and let any ecv staff work from home.

@CutieBear exactly, what’s the point in having a traffic light system if you aren’t going to use it

@SarahMused " and I don’t think it is ethical to give children a vaccine that won’t benefit them but is for the good of others. "

Remind me again why my son has had the HPV vaccine?

@notonthestairs because it protects him from specific types of cancer (penile, anis, throat, neck), genital warts, hpv.... Its not just about protecting women.

@severalsnapes

Delay further unlocking until schools close and then try to surge-vaccinate kids over the summer holidays?

This would be my suggestion.

Keep things closed for the school pupils to have a chance.

I find it amazing when schools were shut to all but V and K physically and learning was online - how many said they'd be willing to keep things shut for schools to open.

Yet when they are physically open - but isolations and closures are high and increasing. Everyone wants stuff to keep opening up.

It feels like as long as schools haven't been out on physical lockdown people are happy. Even if some are entirely empty 🤦‍♀️