I'm so angry right now.

[User3billion]

I'm really angry and upset over the hugely disproportionate number of children being told to isolate.

It's completely ruining their mental health and for what?

I fully expect a whole bunch of catastrophises to come along and tell me how terrible it is and "long covid" but the actual data does not support that narrative and definitely does not show isolation to be in any way effective at preventing spread of the virus.

*affecting sorry.

@Pantene23 sorry about your child. I don't think anyone should be saying that it hasn't affected the Mental Health of some children but not all.
Equally COVID has affected the physical health of some children either Shor term ior longer term with Long COVID. Sadly some died.
My dd2 also self harms but this started as a reaction to an unsuitable school placement and unmet needs. I belong to a group on Facebook with 17,000 members. All kids mostly with SEN whostruggle hugely with school.
So I am from a place where I feel you cannot say that all kids Mental Health is shot from missing school as for many school is the actual problem.

Sorry that doesn't read well. I hope it makes sense

@Pantene23 sorry to hear about your 12yr old. I hope they've got the support they need.

I saw my dd get more and more down throughout the lockdown...I noticed she was comfort eating and complained of being tired a lot even though she slept enough. I think it was verging into depression. As soon as she could return to school, see her friends and resume her activities, she was fine again. She hadn't had to isolate yet thankfully but I'd be loathe to put her through anything which could harm her mental health.

@User3billion

I'm really angry and upset over the hugely disproportionate number of children being told to isolate.

It's completely ruining their mental health and for what?

I fully expect a whole bunch of catastrophises to come along and tell me how terrible it is and "long covid" but the actual data does not support that narrative and definitely does not show isolation to be in any way effective at preventing spread of the virus.

Can you link to the data are you reviewing and why do you think it's being misinterpreted by others?

Yeah some data would be good.

One child's had six 10 day isolations, the other five. 110 days collectively. Different secondary schools.

Exam years too.

My 7 year old's mental health has been affected massively by being off school. In lockdown 1 I watched my sunny happy little boy turning into a clingy stroppy toddler who couldn't focus on anything, followed me around constantly, was uncommunicative and often threw himself on the ground with violent temper tantrums, hitting out and on one occasion trying to bite me. On day 1 back at school in June 2020 my sunny happy little boy ran back out, talked non stop all the way home and when we got home curled himself up happily on the sofa and read on his own for a bit. We were extremely lucky to get him into school 3 days a week in the last lockdown and he was OK but each school closure/isolation brings some of the issues he had in lockdown 1 back and I dread it because he is so unhappy. From talking to friends and other school mums there are an awful lot of children with similar behaviour. This is a child who has never tested positive once for covid or shown any symptoms even when dh and I had it.

Am I really the only person remembering only this time last year when teachers were told not to be difficult, of course children would not catch and spread the virus.

I'm also amazed by how many people are complaining about the school, or the virus and not about the government who chose to do things this way.

not ruining their mental health at all for gods sake, stop being so dramatic

Having spent 2021 with a school refuser with MH problems and seeing the impact on his sibling I cannot deny the impact that this has had on children who are already anxious

There is a massive crisis right now and now support

It’s a fucking problem

So kindly STFU

But 250 children who may have been in contact with the one person who tested positive, but most of them probably weren't and even those who were were on the other side of the classroom... doesn't make a lot of sense for them ALL to isolate.

It's not been advise to second home full yea groups for a long time, since early in autumn term iirr.

In autumn every one of our classes isolated due to one or more cases per class - infants. For key stage 1 it was only ever the class, for another group it was just a small number from an intervention group,
The only fill year we sent home was reception - their classes are interlinked without full height walls, shared spaces and some shared staff. Plus 5 out of 6 full time staff plus the trainee teacher caught covid at the same time.

Even the local secondaries aren't sending full years home. The tears are split into 2 or more 'bubbles' so it's half years at most.

@Vanillaradio

My 7 year old's mental health has been affected massively by being off school. In lockdown 1 I watched my sunny happy little boy turning into a clingy stroppy toddler who couldn't focus on anything, followed me around constantly, was uncommunicative and often threw himself on the ground with violent temper tantrums, hitting out and on one occasion trying to bite me. On day 1 back at school in June 2020 my sunny happy little boy ran back out, talked non stop all the way home and when we got home curled himself up happily on the sofa and read on his own for a bit. We were extremely lucky to get him into school 3 days a week in the last lockdown and he was OK but each school closure/isolation brings some of the issues he had in lockdown 1 back and I dread it because he is so unhappy. From talking to friends and other school mums there are an awful lot of children with similar behaviour. This is a child who has never tested positive once for covid or shown any symptoms even when dh and I had it.

What makes you think the issue is lockdown or isolation? This is not normal behaviour. I’ve worked on areas of the world where children are far more restricted than in the uk, their ‘normal’ conditions are our ‘lockdown’ conditions. I didn’t see this behaviour

@Thisisworsethananticpated

not ruining their mental health at all for gods sake, stop being so dramatic

Having spent 2021 with a school refuser with MH problems and seeing the impact on his sibling I cannot deny the impact that this has had on children who are already anxious

There is a massive crisis right now and now support

It’s a fucking problem

So kindly STFU

And many children’s mental health has improved due to lockdown

@Thisisworsethananticpated

not ruining their mental health at all for gods sake, stop being so dramatic

Having spent 2021 with a school refuser with MH problems and seeing the impact on his sibling I cannot deny the impact that this has had on children who are already anxious

There is a massive crisis right now and now support

It’s a fucking problem

So kindly STFU

sorry to hear this. Don’t listen to people minimising not worth it.

Lead by example.

My children have no ‘mental health’ issues (this term is bandied around far too much to describe everything - sometimes being sad and disappointed is NOT having mental issues, but I digress) because we’ve never catastrophised Covid. Shit happens, you have to self isolate, you can’t go to school, can’t see your mates, but this ain’t forever.

I think parents having temper tantrums are the real problem.

@UneFoisAuChalet

Lead by example.

My children have no ‘mental health’ issues (this term is bandied around far too much to describe everything - sometimes being sad and disappointed is NOT having mental issues, but I digress) because we’ve never catastrophised Covid. Shit happens, you have to self isolate, you can’t go to school, can’t see your mates, but this ain’t forever.

I think parents having temper tantrums are the real problem.

Let's hope that comment doesn't come back to haunt you.

It’s a farce, my year 9 has had to isolate 3 times in a row with a couple days in between. He’s not a hamster so I’m not going to keep him locked up at home anymore. End of.

I’ve whipped my foster kids out of school for the rest of term.
They won’t cope well with self isolating. And I’ve booked their very first holiday, which they’re not missing over my cold dead body.

Bollocks to anyone who says they need to be more resilient. These kids have more resilience in their little fingers than half the muppets on here.

There are some really insensitive and cruel comments on this thread.

If someone posted that their partner frequently kept them locked in the house for ten day periods and that this was affecting their mental health would people be saying- well my partner does that to me too but I don’t catastrophise it so I’m fine, you just need more resilience etc.

Of course being frequently isolated without being able to go outside or go to school or see other children is going to have a serious affect on some children’s mental health particularly when compounded with the affects of lockdown (or even if it doesn’t cause a mental health problem in a medical sense it may make them very distressed etc).

There have been numerous studies and news articles showing that lockdown and associated policies have had a very detrimental impact on children’s mental health and many personal stories on here from parents who are very worried about their children.

The fact that not every child has mental health problems doesn’t mean that the children who do are weak or not resilient enough or that their parents have done something wrong. Different children are in very different circumstances and some will naturally find isolation easier than others. And if this was any other mental health issue- say anorexia - would posters really be turning round and saying- my child has a healthy relationship with food because I have always encouraged this and if you just did the same your child wouldn’t be ill (if your child is even ill anyway, maybe they’re just on a diet). There’s real hubris to thinking like this.

@UneFoisAuChalet

Lead by example.

My children have no ‘mental health’ issues (this term is bandied around far too much to describe everything - sometimes being sad and disappointed is NOT having mental issues, but I digress) because we’ve never catastrophised Covid. Shit happens, you have to self isolate, you can’t go to school, can’t see your mates, but this ain’t forever.

I think parents having temper tantrums are the real problem.

My mate has never catastrophised covid.

Her son is suicidal.

It’s sad to see adults dismiss impact on children’s mh

In fact write ‘mental health’ as that’s how much they put themselves ahead of everyone, including dc.

I've been fun mum throughout covid... constantly trying to put a positive spin on it and think of a million activities to keep them busy. They still massively struggled.

@Chessie678

There are some really insensitive and cruel comments on this thread.

If someone posted that their partner frequently kept them locked in the house for ten day periods and that this was affecting their mental health would people be saying- well my partner does that to me too but I don’t catastrophise it so I’m fine, you just need more resilience etc.

Of course being frequently isolated without being able to go outside or go to school or see other children is going to have a serious affect on some children’s mental health particularly when compounded with the affects of lockdown (or even if it doesn’t cause a mental health problem in a medical sense it may make them very distressed etc).

There have been numerous studies and news articles showing that lockdown and associated policies have had a very detrimental impact on children’s mental health and many personal stories on here from parents who are very worried about their children.

The fact that not every child has mental health problems doesn’t mean that the children who do are weak or not resilient enough or that their parents have done something wrong. Different children are in very different circumstances and some will naturally find isolation easier than others. And if this was any other mental health issue- say anorexia - would posters really be turning round and saying- my child has a healthy relationship with food because I have always encouraged this and if you just did the same your child wouldn’t be ill (if your child is even ill anyway, maybe they’re just on a diet). There’s real hubris to thinking like this.

Correct, on all points.

I never ‘got’ kids mental health
As my kids were OK and I didn’t come across it

Then came covid, divorce , school refusal , Cali g the police , social workers , asd , paying for a psychiatrist etc

Now I’m in the gang shall we say

All I can say is some people making ignorant comment might well also join this gang

I hope not

And then they will cringe a bit at their attitude

Now I