Covid cases in schools...

[Pinkyxx]

Last year DDs school disclosed all Covid cases.. this year silence unless your child is a close contact. I just got an email telling me DD is a close contact of a Covid case in her class, it's at least the 3rd in a week.. she's not been close contact before but is this time. We are a vulnerable household so I asked if they could let me know if there are further cases. They said no, not allowed for privacy reasons.

Is there any basis for this refusal? I mean I'm not asking for names..

This is normal. Schools are no longer required to inform parents of cases in school. The responsibility is passed to Test & Trace. We don’t even get told about close contacts.

If there are 6 or more cases in one class, we are informed of rising cases & we had some restrictions brought back in (no visitors to school etc).

🤷🏼‍♀️

Have you explained your vulnerabilities & why you are asking? I don’t care, I’m fine with what schools are doing but we have no vulnerability & are fully vaccinated (obvs not the kids).. but I’d like to think out school would be sympathetic if my DD was in regular contact with someone CEV.

Thank you @Bobholll yes they are aware, but consider it a privacy issue. I'm so upset. The child in question wasn't wearing a mask while sitting next to my child. Albeit DD was wearing a mask and is vaccinated but it's clear that's no guarantee.

I wanted to know only so I can make an objective decision about keeping her home with online learning. When I don't know, it's impossible to judge what is best.

Our school is hit and miss. We had cases before half term in a few cases, but one had 18 cases. School said nothing, but parents knew anyway due to group chats. Now we have a case in nearly every class, three classes with increasing numbers and they've told staff, parents, guardians.

Some schools tell you. Ours does.

Ours doesn’t and doesn’t have to.
I guess you need to think long-term. Unless all children are vaccinated in that class they are going to get Covid at some point.
And from socialising/sports clubs etc too, not just school

It is not schools responsibility tondo anything any more. It's a complete sea change from the summer. Put school had 100 cases at one point in September and Public Health England said to 'keep an eye on it'. The only kids contacted by Test & Trace were ones who had sleepovers together or shared long car journeys. Numbers have come right down and currently we have around 23 absent with covid and no close contacts will be any the wiser. If you feel this is too u safe for you you probably would need to make the decision to hone school.

Perhaps try speaking to your local public health office?

Hope she, and you stay well.

Schools aren't doing test and trace any more so they only know if there's a case because the parent of the positive person says so. Government policy of pretending Covid is gone extends to schools imo and while it's fine for the majority, it's unfair for people like your family.

Thanks all. Looks like I don't have much choice but to work on what I've got and make a decision.

DD had Covid last year, caught at school, symptomatic for 5 weeks over Christmas, really unwell for 3 of those weeks. Took about 2 months after symptoms subsided to get her energy back. She has no health conditions, strong as an ox... I had to look after her gloved / masked etc She point blank refused to leave her room through out as she worried she would give it to one of the CEV people in our home and they would die. No matter of reassurance would coax her out of her room.

As you can imagine this had a tremendous impact on her mental health and she's frankly been traumatized - every time she's a close contact it brings it all back up again and we also have to implement precautions as it's well known CEV even triple jabbed can still have bad outcomes.

Not always being told when close contact either. Dd has sen and support from a ta - not 1:1 but often ta will sit with her to help with her work so pretty close contact. Ta has tested positive. School has not told me or anyone else to get the kids tested! Admittedly Dd was tested at the weekend as has had bad cold symptoms - test was negative though.

I feel it's gone from one extreme to the other. Before august they'd have full classes off, now they won't even tell us. Wtaf.

We send out an awareness letter when it's a member of staff, not when it's a child. We've currently got a teacher, TA and 5 children out from one class, the TA wasn't within the 48 hours for symptoms so we didn't notify, the children didn't prompt notification letters, but once the teacher was out, a letter went out.

I had covid last week, they sent a letter out for me. Not named, but all the children knew it was me - they've been asking me about it since i've been back.

At work, precautions are all still in place, including distancing (every second desk 'closed'), mask wearing when walking around indoors etc.

Everyone I know who has caught covid has got it from children, from nursery to schoolchildren.

Why would schools want to keep silence. It's only a privacy issue if you identify someone. A case is not a specific person.

Why would schools want to keep silence.

It's a full time job to write notification letters in some schools!

I’m not sure you could rely on notifications of positive cases from school to prevent children ever getting covid. Even if school was notifying of every positive case, many children will be asymptomatic or pre- symptomatic or not have traditional symptoms. There was a study suggesting that 75% of children have already had covid and obviously only a fraction of those cases were identified by a positive test. I think the approach of threatening to pull children out of school if cases rise and putting so much responsibility on them for protecting everyone in their household from an illness which they will almost certainly get at some point could be very anxiety inducing and there is no logical end point to it now.

I'm not suggesting notification of positive cases would prevent my child getting Covid19 (she's already had it..). My point is that # of cases provides important context, context I need to make the decision on whether to pull my child out of school for our family's safety. This isn't a ''threat'' it is a reality which our, and many other, high risk households face. The lack of basic controls / precautions in schools is what has placed me in the position where I have no other choice.

It's incredible to me that no measures are required in schools - somewhere any parent knows is a veritable petri dish for disease. Living some bizarre charade in which people prefer to pretend Covid-19 is over and carry on like several hundred people aren't dying daily isn't a luxury we can afford. The pandemic is not over, rather the decision has simply been taken that those with significant health risks (like our household) should live constrained lives if they want to avoid dying. Our quality of life and our mental health apparently isn't as important as those blessed with good health.

Schools can tell you if they choose to I think. Some schools do. Given your family's circumstances, I think it is pretty poor not to let you know.

Schools may choose not to, under any circumstances, because some parents make it their life's work to work out exactly who those cases are and this is made more obvious if they have numbers to hand. I'm not joking. We've had some parents repeatedly ring, email, text other parents or teachers, set up WhatsApp groups to find out which children are off with it. I'm not sure of the reasoning, but it can feel extreme and bordering on threatening to some school staff who are already struggling trying to deal with the cases and the staff shortages, in addition to mildly bat-crap reactions from parents. I'm absolutely not suggesting that YOUR reaction is in any way bad, just that I can see why they won't tell you, no matter what your circumstances are, as they have no way of knowing whether you'll pass that information on. From previous experience where I work, everyone does.

We get an email to say there's been a case in the year group, but not which class and seeing as there's 5 classes, that's not massively helpful...

Neither of my dc's schools are telling us anything despite me requesting it as I'm immunosuppressed and CEV. I'm relying on parents and my dc letting me know.

1. You can't get info on cases. You have been informed she is a close contact. That is all you are entitled to.
2. You can't expect to keep her at home and have online learning supplied.
3. You can do regular LFTs.
4. You can't expect other children to wear a mask around your dd.

I didn't think children needed to wear masks anymore? You mention the child with Covid wasn't wearing a mask and so I'm not clear what the school could have done to stop this?
I really do feel for you though as it must be a constant worry. I'd like to see mitigations in schools.

We're in a high case area so masks are mandatory again at secondary in corridors, during exams etc.

My sympathies with you OP. I think it’s really irresponsible of the govt and pretty bad of the school (though probably more due to the govt guidance). It’s a difficult call for you to make and I wish you all the best with it. I wonder if you can contact your local public health body to get local stats (eg among all schools in the area) to help you make your decision. I know it’s not as specific as the case numbers in a class, but local incidence rates in school age children might be the next best thing.

@Bigfathairyones

Schools may choose not to, under any circumstances, because some parents make it their life's work to work out exactly who those cases are and this is made more obvious if they have numbers to hand. I'm not joking. We've had some parents repeatedly ring, email, text other parents or teachers, set up WhatsApp groups to find out which children are off with it. I'm not sure of the reasoning, but it can feel extreme and bordering on threatening to some school staff who are already struggling trying to deal with the cases and the staff shortages, in addition to mildly bat-crap reactions from parents. I'm absolutely not suggesting that YOUR reaction is in any way bad, just that I can see why they won't tell you, no matter what your circumstances are, as they have no way of knowing whether you'll pass that information on. From previous experience where I work, everyone does.

I have absolutely no interest in knowing WHO has it only HOW many in her year. I asked this question once, calmly and politely, when they called me to inform me she was a close contact.

I fail to see what possible 'damage' I could do or stress I would inflict on a teacher through knowing the total number of positive cases. It's unclear to me why they, or any school, hides this - what possible advantage is there to not disclosing this?

@Namenic

My sympathies with you OP. I think it’s really irresponsible of the govt and pretty bad of the school (though probably more due to the govt guidance). It’s a difficult call for you to make and I wish you all the best with it. I wonder if you can contact your local public health body to get local stats (eg among all schools in the area) to help you make your decision. I know it’s not as specific as the case numbers in a class, but local incidence rates in school age children might be the next best thing.

Thank you for your kind words. I hadn't thought of the local public health body so will give that a try.

I don't blame the school to be honest, they are following the ''rules''. I blame the govt who are grotesquely irresponsible.

@middleager

I didn't think children needed to wear masks anymore? You mention the child with Covid wasn't wearing a mask and so I'm not clear what the school could have done to stop this? I really do feel for you though as it must be a constant worry. I'd like to see mitigations in schools.

We're in a high case area so masks are mandatory again at secondary in corridors, during exams etc.

There is no legal requirement to wear a mask. That said PHE imposed masks again in her school few weeks back, so everyone had to wear them in class - ironically just lifted last week...make of that what you will... they still have to wear them in communal areas and assemblies still on zoom.

My daughter has worn one since the start of term because based on what she's read / seen on the TV she considers it responsible to do. Several others in her class do as well, the rest sadly do not - including the several girls who have now tested positive..