Children.

[twinkletoesimnot]

Coronavirus: Young people warn of long Covid amid jab drive www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58301011

Article pushing younger people to get jabbed.
Sajid Javid even saying it's a risk for us all.....

We as a family have been lucky enough to avoid Covid so far. The new rules and school return make me feel very uneasy.

Is everyone REALLY ok with this headlong rush to infect our children that the government seem so hell bent on?

@stepupandbecounted thanks. I do not mean to scare anyone else. Having seen up close how unpredictable this virus can be I have lost all pragmatism. For much of last year I anticipated and accepted sooner or later we would get sick (DH worked throughout, NHS) and almost wanted to get it over with. Somehow we didn’t pick it up. Even though intellectually I know the kids will probably be fine; right now, it simply goes against every instinct to put them in cramped cramped classroom in the middle of a third wave.

Yes I may home ed (I did so for years) nonetheless it is a big decision to pull them out, I want to make the right call.

@cantkeepawayforever

Almost all kids will sail through with a runny nose, the CEV will have been offered a jab time to get back to normal folks.

As I teach in a primary, our CEV children will not be jabbed for years. We have a couple who have conditions that are very specifically identified as ones where they are less likely than others to 'sail through with a runny nose'.

My heart goes out to those parents - no jab, no safety measures in school, no shielding, no funding. A choice between sending their child into a setting that is unsafe for them (they have very specific safety measures at the best of times, which this is not) or quitting employment for enforced home-schooling on benefits.

Thanks @cantkeepawayforever - my dd is CEV, she's only 8 so no vaccine even on the horizon for her. Ds16 has had his first jab, in theory ds14 & dd12 should also be eligible as CEV household members but haven't been offered anything as yet. I honestly can't believe we are expected to send dc back to school in September with even less mitigations than there were last year, in the face of an more infectious variant. We absolutely can't afford to homeschool as it would mean one of us giving up our job. It's all very well for those not in this situation to say we just need to accept all dc are going to catch it.

@stepupandbecounted

many CEV kids not offered a jab yet

In this area they have been offered a jab, if they are worried they will no doubt have the option to home school. CEV children are rare.

CEV children under 12 have not been offered a jab and why is home school seen as the available option to my young child and siblings but it's not suitable for everyone else's kids? People can't afford to stay at home on mumsnet for 10 days isolation but yet parents of CEV children, they can just stay at home and school their kids? My child is as entitled to a safe education provided by a teacher and able to socialise with other children as any other child and in order for my child to be able to receive that human right it requires mitigation in schools to reduce their risk of contracting covid.

Nothing is totally risk free....heck I would say all of us parents with vulnerable children are well aware of that however there is a long way in between risk free and the current scenario which is pretending covid doesn't exist in schools when in reality they are full of it!

I wouldn't worry too much about reading levels in infants. Dd1 was behind at the end of year 1 and came away with a grade 9 GCSE English Language last year.
OP I am concerned about the school situation as high cases mean staff sickness (even vaccinated can get sick) which is bad for staff and staff sickness mean more cancelled lessons for year 12 and 13 especially. Plus of course the kids themselves have more chance of getting sick and missing more education.
Dd1 in year 13 has not sat any public exams before and has missed alot of face to face education due to lockdowns, self isolating students and staff plus staff being sick or covering for other staff sickness .
If year 13 goes tits up she may not get the grades needed for uni.
The solution is difficult. More ventilation and masks would help. Also self isolation if living with a positive case would have been good to retain.

You could home school if you are worried - most schools have been very understanding.
Not in my experience. We were told dd2 who was very anxious and had trouble attending school pre COVID had to be in school or we would be fined. No one gave a flying fuck about dh being immunosupressed. This was last year pre vaccine..
She ended up missing another terms education and school provided no support.

Sorry quote fail.

OP, you speak a lot of sense. As for the usforthem group - some of the stuff they have said chills me to the bone.

What science are the govt following that says the current situation is a good idea? There are a number of studies on long covid, studies on neurological impacts (for mild and severe cases). Parents were willing to isolate so that holiday plans wouldn't be ruined if they were tested positive (not judging), but go full on nuclear at the disruption caused from testing before school starts (even though that's likely to lead to less disruption, unless you're positive). We have been using vaccination as only tool - that's not living with covid - it's ignoring it. Homeschooling scarred many of us, financially impacted on many of us, some kids did better out of being at home, some didn't. Many parents mentioned vulnerable children at home as a reason for schools to open...now schools will be open, what about those kids/teachers that are physically vulnerable, have pregnant mum, have vulnerable family members? Minimising the risk of infection and accepting that some measures are necessary in the community and schools is the best way to keep things open for longer. Other countries have opened their schools with mitigations. We should too.

This next school year will be disrupted, if teachers are in and out with Covid, or have caring responsibilities for their own children then they won't be at school

Why will they be "in and out". They're only going to get covid once. And they have all had the opportunity to be double vaccinated so chances are they won't even get it once, or if they do it will only be a few days off sick. So no different to teachers being "in and out" with colds or noro or migraines.

@HungryHippo11

This next school year will be disrupted, if teachers are in and out with Covid, or have caring responsibilities for their own children then they won't be at school

Why will they be "in and out". They're only going to get covid once. And they have all had the opportunity to be double vaccinated so chances are they won't even get it once, or if they do it will only be a few days off sick. So no different to teachers being "in and out" with colds or noro or migraines.

Because of it’s infectivity, it’s likely to spread easily around staff once it gets in the school. This means multiple staff off for at least 10 days potentially simultaneously leading to crippling staff shortages and likely school closures. I guess you could say once that’s over with it’s unlikely to happen repeatedly (although staff could be off longer looking after children who may have it). It’s more than being off with a cold, and you can’t say catching a cold could give around one in ten longer term health issues (even in those vaccinated). The vaccines reduce the risk of death and serious illness, which is fantastic, but they don’t stop spread and only partially reduce the likelihood of catching covid. We’ve realised how this is mainly airborne and vaccines leading to herd immunity isn’t the easy way out we had hoped. They’re not going to do the job alone and it does seem pretty gung ho to approach the winter with almost zero mitigations. I’m not saying schools should close, but I think people should get out of the headspace that people with vaccines can’t get it and it’s only a cold.

Fair point I guess - they should only get it once.... should.
But I was thinking more of the collective staff. All in, then gradually it working it's way through them, and their families.
Or it could be like in Scotland where a primary school has been back for a week and had to close as 8 staff have it.

If children get it ( presuming they are tested, or poorly) parents will stay at home surely? Even the most selfish / idiotic won't ask grandparents to help will they??

I have 4 children so definitely don't want anymore disruption to their education. I think we need to try and get on with life as Covid is going nowhere. But that doesn't mean I agree with no mitigation measures in schools. We still have mitigation measures everywhere else. Shops and supermarkets are still limiting amounts of people, my doctors is still like it was mid first wave. I don't understand why people think the only option is to stop all mitigation measures in school and send them all in. You can't compare to flu yet because Covid is in a pandemic- flu isn't plus we vaccinate.

If children get it ( presuming they are tested, or poorly) parents will stay at home surely? Even the most selfish / idiotic won't ask grandparents to help will they??

You surely can't possibly be so naive as to imagine that every child has a parent who'll be in a position to stay at home and care for them whilst still keeping a roof over their heads and food in the fridge?

Teachers specifically @ButteringMyArse - although yes I did mean parents in the wider sense.
I know what you mean - my dh is self employed.
What's the choice though?

And I guess it's a whole other thread that the government will no doubt remove support ( if there is any?) as they want the kids in school.

Well the choice for some parents is going to be between staying at home with the child and getting into financial trouble, trouble at work, even keeping their job. Teachers are a bit better paid and unionised than the average, so hopefully it'll be relatively rare for them, but it's certainly going to be an issue parents face. With that in mind, leaving a covid positive child with a grandparent simply cannot be characterised as either selfish or idiotic. It might simply be desperate.

I can see that - and it's awful that they should be put in that position.
Especially if the child is isolating.
That should be no one coming in or out.
This whole situation is one big mess.
I guess that's why I started the thread..... I couldn't believe I could be the only one wondering wtf next term will be like.

Actually confused in my last post - isolating doesn't mean that anymore does it - oh goodness 😫

Well I couldn’t leave mine with their grandmother as she’s a nurse working in ICU with Covid patients 🤷🏻‍♀️, but I can see why people may have little choice.

I’m a teacher and I will be taking time off work to care for my children if and when they are ill. Previously I have never had to take more than a couple of days off as they rarely are ill to the point they need to stay home. At lot of the staff at my school have primary aged children so I foresee staff absence due to caring for dependents. I hope there won’t be posts on here in the future about ‘my child has had supply for the 4th week running’ etc.

I wish the government had kept isolation for positive family members. I’m sure that measure would help enormously.

@Neverrains
Interestingly my sil is also nhs and they are carrying on with the household contact isolation.
What about your mum / mil's hosp?

[quote twinkletoesimnot]@Neverrains
Interestingly my sil is also nhs and they are carrying on with the household contact isolation.
What about your mum / mil's hosp? [/quote]
I’m not sure actually, I’ll ask. She lives alone so household isolation not an issue for her.

Yes Primary Care workers in the household and last week NHS England issued guidelines for staff, it’s much as before.

www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-08-24/us-covid-19-outbreaks-force-early-reversals-on-in-person-learning

Which is understandable when they are working with people who are potentially ill already.

I just don't get why they are literally going to do nothing at all to try and prevent kids getting it.
Quite the opposite actually.