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Original poster

Track and Trace

35 replies

monkeyblonde · 11/10/2021 22:36

Forgive me if this has been asked before!

My Y5 son's teacher has tested positive. How does contact tracing work for teachers, as the school no longer manage this? She cannot give contact details to NHS T&T as she will not have them (also possible GDPR issue?). So are we reliant on students doing a LFT/PCR?

The school have not informed us of the +ve test, one of the parents found out. Therefore we would perhaps never have known?

Completely agree with getting on with life but this is a glaring hole in T&T !

OP posts:
Rainbowsandstorms · 11/10/2021 23:02

Completely glaring hole in schools. There is a significant outbreak in my child’s primary school year but no track and trace going on, so no one is an official close contact and I have no idea how many cases are in my child’s class or how many there are overall let alone the extent of contact. Feel totally in the dark!

NigelSlatersXmasTaters · 11/10/2021 23:05

It's test and trace.

Royal Mail track and trace, the NHS test and trace!

And yes, it's quite obviously a flawed system.

MissCruellaDeVil · 11/10/2021 23:06

The school will be managing it. However it is only if over a certain number (I think 15) is positive that the bubble will close. Until then LFT and PCR's are the choice of parents.

JanglyBeads · 11/10/2021 23:33

There is no such thing as bubbles closing currently (apart from in very extreme circumstances, I guess 50% of a class would be extreme!). The DfE guidance says that if there’s an outbreak - which is over 10 % of the school or a group - testing positive, they have to consider further measures such as opening more windows.

However many local health officials are rolling out stricter measures anyway eg masks in secondary.

AlexaShutUp · 11/10/2021 23:44

I was contacted by test and trace recently, in relation to my own positive test and dd's. I assumed that they would ask for contact details of the people we had met in order to notify them. For example, my dd met some friends the day before she tested positive on a lateral flow. They didn't ask who she met or how to contact them - only for the postcode of the place where they met. Confused

ChristmasCovid · 11/10/2021 23:45

Yep schools not doing it.
It’s now the positive person that supplies detail of close contacts to test & trace.
Teachers won’t have pupil details.

Parents can’t (or won’t according to some threads on here) give contact details for other children who are contacts.

Don’t know why PHE took the responsibility away from the schools tbh - they are really the only ones that have all the contact info - although identifying who and who isn’t a contact may be be tricky.

But ultimately it is PHE that have made this decision - there must be method in their madness.

AlexaShutUp · 11/10/2021 23:58

I'm not convinced that test and trace do much contacting in any case. They certainly didn't contact dd's workplace despite her having worked in a small space all day the day before she first showed signs of the virus. Her colleagues and her boss only knew because she contacted them. And as I said above, they didn't even ask for the names or contact details of the friends she met. Again, not an issue as dd notified them anyway, but I'm not really sure what the point was of asking us where she had been ever day for an entire week if they weren't actually going to do anything with the information. Confused

Original poster
monkeyblonde · 12/10/2021 05:52

Sorry - Test and Trace! Late night posting!

It seems as though many are experiencing the same as me, we need to now decide whether we treat Covid the same as any other illness or not - not this weird halfway house that we currently have.

OP posts:
DIYandEatCake · 12/10/2021 06:45

Blimey, I hadn’t realised some schools were no longer doing it. Our school is still sending a letter out to parents saying ‘there has been a case in your child’s year group’ and advising getting them tested.

Tigerwhocameforsupper · 12/10/2021 06:48

I’m a teacher and it’s rife in our school at the minute. No-one however gets notified of cases, they just appear on the register as ill so you have no idea how many there are.

One of my classes has 12/32 positive at the minute. No wonder I’m at home ill waiting on my own PCR result!

GoodnightGrandma · 12/10/2021 06:50

Three schools near me have had Public Health go in due to large cases, so they must be watching it somehow.

borntobequiet · 12/10/2021 06:51

there must be method in their madness

Not sure where you get that idea from.

Iggly · 12/10/2021 06:51

@DIYandEatCake

Blimey, I hadn’t realised some schools were no longer doing it. Our school is still sending a letter out to parents saying ‘there has been a case in your child’s year group’ and advising getting them tested.
Yes but they’re not telling parents if their kids are close contacts. Because they’ve been told not to.

I’m complaining to my MP and linking to the recent report which concluded just how shit our pandemic response has been.

MrsHamlet · 12/10/2021 06:52

It's not that some schools are no longer doing it. It's that all schools have been told not to.

Wtf86 · 12/10/2021 06:53

We got a letter when there were a few cases in the year below - not sure how many though. It was to say they would be sitting that year group away from others and bubbling them. The teachers would also wear masks in that year group. Think it’s back to ‘normal’ now.

In my other year group the mum’s have been telling each other etc so we can test via whatsapp! That’s helpful especially for those who want to test/keep an eye on their kids/keep them away from vulnerable family members.

GoodnightGrandma · 12/10/2021 06:53

A school near me has had the kids start wearing masks in corridors again, due to numbers.

toomanypillows · 12/10/2021 06:55

I'm a teacher and wasn't informed when 2 students in my tutor group contracted covid (found out because one of them was Snapchatting the others)

Two of my colleagues (who I work closely with, and was in a meeting on Friday with) also tested positive on Saturday and I found out yesterday evening when one of them happened to WhatsApp me.

And, conversationally, my own son tested positive last month and test and trace didn't get in touch with us at all, much less anyone he'd been in contact with.

We've all been ditched

Alicesays · 12/10/2021 06:56

I thought they had stopped all the test and trace because the whole point is that we all get it now, to try and get over the worst of it before the hospitals are at breaking point over winter again?

sofakingcool · 12/10/2021 06:59

@DIYandEatCake

Blimey, I hadn’t realised some schools were no longer doing it. Our school is still sending a letter out to parents saying ‘there has been a case in your child’s year group’ and advising getting them tested.
Ours too, although only DS2's secondary school.

DS1 discovered he'd been sat between two students at college who had tested positive the next day - by being told by one of them!

glitterelf · 12/10/2021 07:07

Some schools are informing parents of cases but they are not contact tracing. Parents only know of cases within DD's school from parents sharing the info with one another. I had my DD tested a week ago as I knew she'd been a close contact and DH is vulnerable. Parents have been challenging the school over assemblies and further mitigation's only to be told they are following gov guidance and PHE and DfE have told them to continue with current measures and open more doors and windows which are pretty much the only measures in place anyway.

Augusta1 · 12/10/2021 07:16

Our school sends a letter to parents if a case appears in school.

rose69 · 12/10/2021 07:24

It's not the fault of the system. It's the government that changed the rules to stop schools contact tracing. If someone in a school setting tests positive on a PCR they will be asked to contact trace. If they don't know (or give) contact details for pupils or staff members those people won't be notified.
Outside a school setting if you know people who have tested positive on PCR and you don't get notified it's because they have not contact traced or listed you as a close contact. As soon as the contact details go into the system it sends notification to contacts automatically.

oldymoudlygaribaldi · 12/10/2021 07:50

Same experience here, both of Test & Trace not following up contacts when my child tested positive, and of our experience of other pupils testing positive in school. There were a couple of cases following a school trip recently, and Test & Trace didn't even get the contact info of the other students on the trip, even though most would have been in close contact. T&T told me they don't get in touch with schools at all to trace contacts, it's only done on whatever contact info parents give them, which as others have said often isn't available to parents. It seems to be pot luck whether anyone who is a close contact finds out, and almost always because a conscientious parent of a positive child has let as many other parents know as possible.

My other child's school is being more proactive in trying to keep parents informed, though they seem to have their hands tied. They sent out info explaining clearly what a close contact is (from the govt. website, it's buried in there somewhere), and explaining that you might not necessarily be contacted by T&T but should get a PCR if you think you're a close contact.

I don't really know what the point of Test & Trace is these days.

oldymoudlygaribaldi · 12/10/2021 07:55

@glitterelf

Some schools are informing parents of cases but they are not contact tracing. Parents only know of cases within DD's school from parents sharing the info with one another. I had my DD tested a week ago as I knew she'd been a close contact and DH is vulnerable. Parents have been challenging the school over assemblies and further mitigation's only to be told they are following gov guidance and PHE and DfE have told them to continue with current measures and open more doors and windows which are pretty much the only measures in place anyway.
Same - our school is desperate to put more measures in place but are also being told only to open more doors and windows, and for the teachers to wear masks. Even though covid is in every class and more are testing positive every week.
AlexaShutUp · 12/10/2021 08:00

@Alicesays

I thought they had stopped all the test and trace because the whole point is that we all get it now, to try and get over the worst of it before the hospitals are at breaking point over winter again?
That does seem to be the strategy. Assuming that there actually is one.