DFE tells schools prepare for the worst.

[3asAbird]

www.tes.com/news/covid-schools-told-plan-more-remote-learning

Feeling so cross why allow schools to stop masks on may 17th.
When Hancock knew the delta varient was present in April 2021.

School outbreaks my councils 46 this week and a fair few in neighbouring county with some schools fully shut.
Lots senior transition days and inter sports tournament cancelled.

We know from Kent alpha varient took a few months get really bad.
Some say 6 week break act as firebreak.
I am bot so sure as people will travel and mingle and in some cases School maybe mirror community transmission which is on the rise.

I wish having would go for starters.
They said they making education a priority back in march.
This term has been rubbish for many.
I have no faith that autumn term be any different.

No mitigation measures on ventilation
No masks or compulsory testing.
No smaller class sizes.
No vaccines for under 18s.

[quote noblegiraffe]First wave no - the infection was seeded primarily by returning travellers, who passed it on to their households, work colleagues etc. Schools were closed too early to make a difference

Who knows what the impact of all those half term school ski trips to Italy was?

^Second wave - schools definitely played a part, but I wouldn't describe it as major - the virus didn't spread easily though younger children (

I think this is becoming ridiculous as some kids have had 0 days out as KW kids

The KW kids I know were not provided with an education in most cases - it was childcare only, so yes, they did also miss out on an education (plus they must have been absolutely freaking terrified and hardly in a fit state to learn for those who did get minimal educating). For very many KW children they also didn't see one or both parents for the duration of the first wave if they were working in NHS Red Zone.

We have a few class bubbles home isolating now.
We had nothing for months, then in the last couple of weeks have had emails telling us of positive cases.
Both my dds are still in school at the minute.
We have also just been told our la is requesting everyone aged 12-30 need to get a pcr test

As we get more freedoms and cases in community go up we need to adjust school situation. It’s been overlooked imo as focus has been on football and G7.

Laster a 1/3 chance then of a kid having caught it (11/30)
Does suggest that- our policy in uk

• of not isolating a contact child within the home.
• of previously not testing pcr contacts
• of allowing the rest of the family to carry on as normal

Is a huge mistake.

Pcr testing them all might make a big difference to spreading it round the school.
But not sending siblings of isolating contacts would make a difference too

@Mummyratbag

Out of interest - those who have had whole year groups close - how many people in that year group have tested positive before they close? I know there are many factors involved to do with contact etc, but just wondered...

Depends on the situation.

1 positive before Christmas was approximately the 4/6 students sat around them in a lesson, most of their lessons. Rarely staff. Now it would be pretty much all students in a class for the 48 hours before symptoms or positive lateral flow.

Recently we had 6 positive lateral flows then PCRs in one year group, 2 from mask exempt students. That shut down the whole year group, all teachers/TAs in previous 48 hours for the 2 (thankfully most of the same classes) and students who were on the same public bus as them. PHE have been much more keen to isolate contacts with the delta variant thankfully. More positives appeared in the students isolating.

We haven't been full since April due to cases and bubbles bursting; even after half term due to an indoor party that resulted in 3 positives from a positive host parent and resulted in some year 11s missing even more time in school (some lost 6 weeks in total before we did the TAGs).

Re. First wave - I think we agree - the half term ski holidays were the driving force - I just wouldn't call those "school" driven.

No, but my point to the person saying that everyone they knew in the first couple of waves caught it in hospitals was that that depended on their circle. Everyone I knew caught it in schools. I didn't mean that meant that it was "school"-driven, just that you couldn't extrapolate from your individual experience. And I think that allowing ski trips to Italy that half term was mad.

The second wave, on the other hand, there was a distinct cover-up going on about the situation in schools. I don't know if you were on MN then under a different name? There was a lot of discussion back then of the spread in schools and what was being covered up (search for threads started by me between Sept and Dec if you weren't around then and want a flavour!).

in 2020 the leading health authorities had good evidence to show that schools were not a massive driver of infections as they are with other viruses.

This was obviously false, and they were eventually forced to admit it and close schools in January. Evidence from other countries was useless as other countries actually introduced mitigation measures in schools.

I'm in France. All our kids have been sent home to isolate for 10 days before exams. So far so good. All exams are happening

My dcs were off constantly from October to christmas last year. As soon as they went back to school, they were off again due to contact and testing positive themselves (and our family eventually) But this year, no one has been off. I’m interested to know if this has occurred in other schools and whether it points to current antibodies or immunity.

We live in the middle of quite a large 'suppressed' area so not too worried here at the mo. Hanging in there for the last 4 weeks ...

Hopefully the 6 week break will help around the country.

This thread posted just before Christmas reminds us of the situation in schools in December.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4114000-The-infection-rate-for-pupils-last-week-was-2-509-out-of-100-000

They need to make sure all teachers are fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

They need to vaccinate all over-12s as soon as possible (so fully vaccinated before September).

(both these groups voluntarily of course).

In the meantime, back to masks in schools and only isolating close contacts (whole year groups out is the main problem with the current disruption and arguably not needed with the vast majority of adults having had one vaccine and over 50% having had two vaccines)

Any strict quarantine on travellers taking holidays abroad almost everywhere this summer so that next term is not destroyed by new variants.

A couple of weeks ago I would have said the OP was overreacting.

My area had very little Covid of any type. Only 1-2 people in hospital in county.

Now there are quite a few in hospital (mostly voluntarily unvaccinated

And several schools closing to whole year groups each day last week.

This will just snowball in the next couple of weeks until the end of term.

@noblegiraffe

Re. First wave - I think we agree - the half term ski holidays were the driving force - I just wouldn't call those "school" driven.

No, but my point to the person saying that everyone they knew in the first couple of waves caught it in hospitals was that that depended on their circle. Everyone I knew caught it in schools. I didn't mean that meant that it was "school"-driven, just that you couldn't extrapolate from your individual experience. And I think that allowing ski trips to Italy that half term was mad.

The second wave, on the other hand, there was a distinct cover-up going on about the situation in schools. I don't know if you were on MN then under a different name? There was a lot of discussion back then of the spread in schools and what was being covered up (search for threads started by me between Sept and Dec if you weren't around then and want a flavour!).

in 2020 the leading health authorities had good evidence to show that schools were not a massive driver of infections as they are with other viruses.

This was obviously false, and they were eventually forced to admit it and close schools in January. Evidence from other countries was useless as other countries actually introduced mitigation measures in schools.

And I think that allowing ski trips to Italy that half term was mad.

Totally agree

The second wave, on the other hand, there was a distinct cover-up going on about the situation in schools

I remember a little of it - I didn't think it was that important, but clearly it was. Always difficult to tell when you have a lack of info because anecdotes, even lots of them, can be misleading.

Evidence from other countries was useless

I think that's perhaps the main point here - the WHO and CDC both stated that schools were safe provided sufficient social distancing measures were taken. *The UK didn't implement sufficient measures, choosing instead to rely on LF tests despite being urged not to by their scientists. But I suspect that even with these "measures", Delta would not be containable.

All our kids have been sent home to isolate for 10 days before exams

Such a good idea. My DC had one week in between half term and their end of year exams.

One week of study leave/isolation would have made all the difference, both to their mental health (as trying to revise while doing full school days with travel time added on is totally ridiculous, not possible) and to stop outbreaks ruining the exams they have prepared for all year.

Why is our country so short on common sense?

I'm bloody relieved we managed to get my ds through his exam process and out of school now as we've had reports of cases there this week.

It's grit your teeth time now til the end of term for the ones still at school including my youngest who's in her final year at primary and have activities booked and paid for for the next cpl of weeks as they could t have a residential.

They've all missed out on so much but incompetent politicians has just created what I can see as another shit storm coming our way

I literally can't afford for my business to be closed again anytime soon as we've lost 8 months of trading out of 12 but I can feel it's going that way again.

Just wish this crap was over now

@DeltaBlues

All our kids have been sent home to isolate for 10 days before exams

Such a good idea. My DC had one week in between half term and their end of year exams.

One week of study leave/isolation would have made all the difference, both to their mental health (as trying to revise while doing full school days with travel time added on is totally ridiculous, not possible) and to stop outbreaks ruining the exams they have prepared for all year.

Why is our country so short on common sense?

Why is our country so short on common sense?

The entire Tory parliamentary party was selected on the basis that they unquestioningly signed up to Brexit.

If we had monkeys running things, we'd probably be in a better place re covid.

I think people are mistaken with their timescales regarding Italy and half term holidays. The cases didn’t shoot up in Italy until just after half term. There was no indicator of a problem when people jetted off or whilst they were there but they had unwittingly been in contact. That’s the problem with allowing any travel abroad really. Our government just don’t have the strength to take a tough line, and part of that is that we are in such a weak position post brexit that they’re scared to antagonise any other countries.
It was always known that opening up would cause a surge of infection in the unvaccinated, what isn’t clear yet is whether that is significant in terms of hospitalisation and deaths. And as much as I dislike the handling of the entire thing some blame rests with selfish individuals who have travelled for non essential purposes and ignored quarantine

@cantkeepawayforever

Those saying 'there are no Covid cases in my school' will be completely unaware of the children absent due to Covid in the household or contacts outside school, who do not affect anyone within the school BUT who need full time remote education nevertheless.

Well, unless you work at the school and deal with the DoE returns.

Not one positive in students for the last six weeks, only two SI for contacts, only one in the household, one member of staff positive and the contacts were fine even if another SI period was absolutely bloody miserable in the heat.

Mind you, it was a different story last year. I reckon the numbers were low because so many had it before widescale testing was available. Like me.

@noblegiraffe

Other countries managed to improve ventilation in their schools, it just took government initiative and a bit of funding.

It didn’t happen here because our government don’t want to give schools any money.

In Lombardy they knocked walls down in schools to create bigger classrooms. Friend teaches out there. All children 1m apart at single desks.

@MarshaBradyo

Ridiculous. As cases become unlinked with hospitalisation school isolation needs to be addressed.

And I’m sure it would be a reasonable idea ...if it weren’t for the fact that teachers under 40 (2/3 of my school) won’t be fully vaccinated until August. I’d just like a few of those people who advocated that to step forward....

As far as the tes article goes, there are no transition days, events etc going on round here and a large percentage of schools are still wearing masks. Not in an area of concern. I hope limiting attendance again would only be done as a last resort, and only in conjunction with more widespread measures. Seems like it’s a free for all in some places when out and about, lots of crowded places, no wonder there is spread.

I wasent doing this post to cause panic just make parents aware

This is new updated guidance so clearly DFE feel they may have a issue but they passing the buck to local authorities and schools so some school wear masks and others don't.

Why did they scrap mask wearing in schools on may 17th?
My eldest us in senior school they no longer have masks.
She said not everyone doing lft tests.
No recent schools cases although they quite secretive and only isolate close contacts.
She knows of 2 at home as parents postive.

Prinary 1 has had no cases up until last week now has 2
Think 1 is teacher who's had both vaccines.
1 class is out so far they say they don't feel the 2 cases are linked so sons bubble burst one day then phe said they could go back next day.

Primary 2 no recent cases but teacher self isolating as close contact.

Local secondary that has siblings from primary 1 and primary 2 is now completely shut as 33plus cases staff and pupils o er different year groups and year 11 and 13 had already gone.
Up north advice was keep younger siblings home thats not been case here.
Although local council public health briefed all schools on 3 new symptoms to look out for with delta that are not official civid symptoms.

I want mine in school if its safe.
None if us has had covid
Me and my husband only had 1 vaccine

I don't want it get so bad all schools have close again
Eldest is gcses its so unfair on pupils who missed so much school that gcses results then become postcode lottery.
Year 11 in sept and really worried how will impact on gcses if gets really bad again.
That will be a 3rd academic year ruined.

By time they drag their feet deciding vaccinate kids and actually rolling out will be October half term or later when the shit hits the fan they may consider vaccinating least secondary kids.

Furlough ends soon how can families survive and work with constantly self isolating themselves or their kids?

Some parents say my schools fine.
That we have so much more freedom so schools must be safer.
That lft tests keep us safer not every pupil bothers testing.

Maybe some believe the media pictures that there's social distancing.
That all staff had 2 jabs they haven't.

Its just so depressing kids and schools not a priority at all.
No lovely events for kids this term so much cancelled including transition days for my year 6 secondary school.

A lot of schools have 4 weeks left and freedom day meant be July 19th just before they break up for summer holidays

@BlackeyedSusan

Isn't it traditional in these threads for someone to come on and say:

"Well it's alright in my school"

We have just heard about a second case since March, and for a change my kid's aren't effected. (They were in the first) so for a change my school isn't doing so badly. Maybe because it was horrendously effected in the Autumn term and ds lost 6 weeks of education to covid isolation and the school had to close for a week

So: it's ok in my school

but it doesn't mean it's fucking ok everywhere else

The point of saying «it’s all right in my school» is to balance out the posts saying DCs keep being sent home time after time. The average child, I imagine, might have had 1-2 weeks off because of isolation/school closure. Not zero, but also not as dramatic as some people make it sound like.

In my school we have ...

• windows on first and second floor that open 2 inches max only
• my classroom (computer rooms) has no air con so we rely on a portable fan unit which blows air around the room. Can’t not have it on as it’s about 30 degrees in there on a good day.

There’s nothing the school can do. There is no money for new windows or machines which filter the air.

We are provided with lateral flow tests for us and the pupils and told to test twice weekly. We have to hope they are doing it (I know lots of my year 11’s weren’t). A few months ago we were told the army was going to help with testing in schools. I haven’t heard of one school where that happened. We had parents / volunteers in mine who did an amazing job

I feel my school has followed the guidelines to the letter and at the same time done everything they can to ensure staff welfare and safely of the kids which ol has been an almost impossible task. Feels like we will limp in until the summer, have a few weeks respite and then come back to another mess in September.