Primary schools not notifying of cases anymore?

[SkinPaperThin]

I've only just found out off another parent that over the last few weeks there's been at least 4 cases of covid in my daughters class, 2 of which are teachers. Why are schools not notifying us any more when there are cases? Is this the same everywhere? Seem so stupid not to say anything!

Contact your school. There's often quite a bit of leeway between the 'official' position in letters and what they will do if you have a vulnerable family member like your DF. They can't tell you names obviously but they might inform you if there are cases in your DCs' classes.

And I find it actually quite offensive and I feel gaslighted that covid is no longer mentioned. We had a letter from the public health primary team and it had literally no mention of covid at all. And yet, amongst the families of school aged kids that's the biggest illness making parents the sickest right now. I have two fit middle aged friends, both double jabbed, both currently sicker than they've ever been with declining oxygen saturation. Let's hope they're ok because hope is all we've got.

The primary health newsletter had quite a big section on nits. Though why I should bother taking their advice on anything since they're ignoring a global pandemic, I don't know.

My parents are vulnerable and sometimes they need help - my choices are give them no help but don't expose them (potentially) to covid, or help them knowing my child could well have been in contact with someone positive and the school will have denied me that knowledge. So much for personal responsibility.

My DF is vulnerable. I called the DC's school and said exactly what you've put in your post ie I was having to choose between educating my DC or seeing my DF because they wouldn't give us the necessary information. They agreed to let me know if numbers were high. I know other schools that are letting parents use online learning and keep their DCs home if the numbers in their class are high. Tbh we're also getting PCRs on medical advice if we think there's a risk DCs have been in contact with someone so we don't take it back to DF.

@ShinyHappyPoster

My DF is vulnerable. I called the DC's school and said exactly what you've put in your post ie I was having to choose between educating my DC or seeing my DF because they wouldn't give us the necessary information. They agreed to let me know if numbers were high. I know other schools that are letting parents use online learning and keep their DCs home if the numbers in their class are high. Tbh we're also getting PCRs on medical advice if we think there's a risk DCs have been in contact with someone so we don't take it back to DF.

I'm really glad your DCs' school is being so good. Unfortunately mine aren't so much, I've emailed them several times and not got a response although I didn't disclose my parents' medical vulnerabilities because I wasn't sure they'd want me to. My DD1 is also in secondary and moves classroom for every lesson and is with different kids in each lesson too, so I don't know whether it would even be that easy for them to tell me if she'd been in contact with a positive case.

I am friends with some other parents and the school has also advised that children who have positive cases in their household are sent in - so they're sticking rigidly it seems to the government line.

I'm frankly astonished DD1 hasn't caught it yet, unless she's had it asymptomatically and got false negs on her lat flows.

You shouldn't have to disclose their information just that someone in the family is vulnerable. You could try emailing again and asking to see their risk assessment for DCs with vulnerable family members since they should have created a new risk assessment when the government decided schools didn't have to inform pupils. . . they probably won't have done a risk assessment but it might prompt them to call you back.

We’re still told in primary but not secondary. Not really sure why as I still have to send dc and basically assume they’re all at risk at the moment.

We were notified of a case today. There have only been two cases in the primary school since September. The school have put special safety measures in place again.

Hang on. At the beginning of all this we were told that children don’t get it and there is no reason to do anything in schools and that teachers are just workshy moaners.

Then when the schools did close, and later when bubbles closed everyone complained.

Now that schools are carrying on like everything is ok then that’s wrong too.

What do people want?

We still get told of every positive case reported to school, with information about which year its in.

I can't see our head changing from that unless explicitly told by the DfE she is not allowed to do this anymore.

We still get notified of every single case but only at year group level (primary).

My children's primary school only inform if there is a case in their class. So far there's been 2 since September in my youngests class. My DD is at secondary and not heard anything about any cases although I'm presuming there will have been some.

It’s all so messy now, it’s harder to report to parents - eg do you keep quiet if a parent says their child had a positive lft, then report if confirmed with pcr? But what if you have one of those parents who doesn’t bother with the pcr, so their child probably brought covid into school, but it is never officially confirmed? What if you reported covid to parents on the back of the lft result and then the pcr comes back negative, so the child comes straight back to school? What about the fact parents don’t have to show you test results, so you never know if the children who were sent home with a temperature and/or cough were ever pcr tested, or if their parents decided unilaterally it was just a cold and sent them back to school asap, dosed up on calpol/paracetamol, etc, etc? Any reporting that does take place is really going to be a very inaccurate tip of the iceberg.

And yes, parents do lie about whether or not they have done pcr tests on their children, as there is no comeback - schools no longer have any role in test and trace and have to take parents’ word on test results as they are not entitled to insist on being shown test results, they just have to rely on honesty and integrity, which takes a running leap off a short plank when parents don’t think they can afford to take time off work.