School with a medically clinically vulnerable child? Any suggestions welcome….

[NCforAIBU]

Next week my medically clinically vulnerable child is beginning Yr13 at school. They are going to have a series of appointments at a specialist hospital for potential surgery in the next year to hopefully see if they can fix brain damage from an unknown virus caught just before the pandemic started. My child was perfectly healthy before the virus so this is all new. It states on the letter not to come to the hospital if you have been near covid positive people.
As far as I am aware, pupils from covid-positive families will be sending their children in. It is a 1600 pupil school.
I know we have had an occasional ‘if your child has been in contact with measles or chickenpox please tell us as we have a pupil with cancer as they need to shield’ email in the past. But this won’t be the case with covid as far as I am aware.
I want my child in school obviously it’s an important year. But I am not sure how we are going to tackle this? One way is for the school to ask covid-positive parents to inform the school so my child does not attend those lessons with their more-at-risk children. But then does that make the ‘positive family’ child a pariah? Or does my child’s needs outway theirs? And will it be pointless anyway?
Noblegiraffe mentioned parents on MN will start wittering. Well, here I am!
Also, if we are all ill, I will need someone to look after my child in case of night seizures. Dh and I haven’t any family that could help. How would that work?
These questions must also be going round lots of medically clinically vulnerable families. If this is like yours, how are you dealing with it? Practical suggestions welcome.

I’m so sorry for all you’re going through and the worry. If you google and care line or telecare, you’ll find affordable options for epilepsy sensors. There’s a monthly monitoring cost but it is usually affordable.
It’s late and I’m tired, so please let me know if this makes zero sense or feel free to PM me. :)

One last comment - do you use First Defence? if not, then I would recommend - inactivates most viruses (IIRC by about 50% at least?)

user thankyou but vicks products have eucalyptus oil and camphor in which may trigger seizures. It’s a bit of a bugbear they don’t put caution warnings on their products when there is quite a bit of research indicating a link. Olbas oil can’t be used now either :(
Annoyingly the vitamins we used to use do have a warning but when I phoned up the company, they had no idea why!

@NCforAIBU
Use taffix instead of first defence. Works the same and it has been shown to provide good protection against covid. There is a quite a lot of research out there if you Google it. And shouldn't affect seizures .

flapjack

Im not sure I can help overmuch. CEV Ds has been homeschooled after school insisted he attend last September. DD followed in feb as worrying about bringing the virus home was causing untold stress.

If you can get a coerce a doctor to sign your DC off, (which in your case there seems some grounds for anyway)the LEA have a medical absence section that provide (a limited amount of) education at home. Unfortunately at the time our specialists were not prepared to go against government guidance that every child was better at school, for any child.

Of course its harder now they have removed the official CEV status to all children. Not that the whole experience has left me a bit bitter and cynical

I think it is best for DC to be at school but it is how we practically manage it. Technically they are CV not CEV though so less ‘consideration’ from others. They still have a good shot at higher education so I want them to have the best opportunity to achieve that.

It’s the risk assessment I think a lot of parents are doing in their heads - and the anxiety of your vulnerable child’s health being even more a matter of luck because now all the ‘government safety controls’ have gone. Whilst also not dumping more anxiety on your child because that in itself makes them more ill.

At the end of last year it felt like sending my child out to play chicken on the M1 - next week it will feel the same but in rush hour. Hopefully the festival lot will get covid very mildly, but enough to test positive at the right time on a lateral flow test and stay off school and create some winter herd immunity for children like DC. And that sounds so wrong but I think that is the ‘plan’ the government is going with!