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..

@cansu

1. You can't get info on cases. You have been informed she is a close contact. That is all you are entitled to.

1. You can't expect to keep her at home and have online learning supplied.
2. You can do regular LFTs.
3. You can't expect other children to wear a mask around your dd.

Thank you for you charming and incredibly helpful reply.

I can and will expect my daughter to receive an education.

I can and will expect a safe environment for her to learn in.

I can and will expect other children, and adults, to think about the risk their choices expose others to.

One persons' right to act as they wish does not supersede another's right to be SAFE.

"I can and will expect my daughter to receive an education.

I can and will expect a safe environment for her to learn in."

This is the issue though isn't it. Policy has made those two things incompatible and they shouldn't be. We have taken such an extreme stance.

But masks are not mandatory and so, actually, you don’t have a right to insist that’s what others do

@DGFB I didn't say I could insist on another child wearing a mask, I'm simply saying it's frustrating for me that it's ''optional'' hence some don't despite the fact doing so does mitigate transmission.

I despair at the fact that people won't do something that is proven to mitigate transmission just because they don't have to.

@beentoldcomputersaysno

"I can and will expect my daughter to receive an education.

I can and will expect a safe environment for her to learn in."

This is the issue though isn't it. Policy has made those two things incompatible and they shouldn't be. We have taken such an extreme stance.

Sadly, yes. Thankfully my daughter's school has agreed to support online learning. The leadership team are as frustrated as I am it seems, they can't mandate masks and it seems some parents are positively obsessed with ensuring no measures are implemented that they'd have a riot on their hands if they tried. Apparently, when PHE insisted on masks they had some parents make a huge fuss. While it doesn't impact my child, their bigger concern is for those in exam years who are going to have a very rough ride if things continue as they are... the cases keep coming relentlessly and when they can't curtail them it's proving never ending. Interestingly, they tell me more school days have been lost this year than last by a pretty large margin.. Staff are on their knees as so many have Covid (having caught it from children...) thus trying to cover others etc. It's really not sustainable..

I am sorry if you think me uncharming but the guidelines are fair clear. I don't know why you think you can remove your dd from school because you are frightened of catching covid. I don't know why you think you can demand online learning when your dd doesn't have covid and hasn't been told she must isolate.

Just because the guidelines are there doesn’t mean they are sensible for everyone. Everyone’s got a different situation - maybe the child is CEV or living with a close relative who is CEV.

Govt have made plenty of rubbish guidelines and u-turns over the past couple of years.

That's good the school have done that OP, especially given your daughter's previous experience and your family's situation. You might want to have a look at Good Law Project.

@cansu You are entitled to be comfortable with exposing yourself or family to risk that will kill you but I'm afraid I'm not comfortable doing that. I expect to be able to protect my child, myself and my household from what would prove a fatal illness for several members. If you feel that's unreasonable of me then you're entitled to you opinion.

What I find offensive about your post is that you appear to be suggesting I'm over-reacting, that I'm ''frightened'' of catching Covid.. and that I have unreasonable expectations.

Perhaps you're not a parent, but I am and I don't want to leave my child without a Mother when she is so young particularly when she doesn't have a Father. I love my family and I don't want them to die because of people who seem to prefer to ignore reality. This disease is killing certain sub-groups of people routinely - 3 of our household fall into several of these groups. It would be grossly irresponsible of me to invite infection into our home.

[quote Pinkyxx]@DGFB I didn't say I could insist on another child wearing a mask, I'm simply saying it's frustrating for me that it's ''optional'' hence some don't despite the fact doing so does mitigate transmission.

I despair at the fact that people won't do something that is proven to mitigate transmission just because they don't have to.[/quote]
I don’t think it’s fair to say that some children aren’t wearing masks ‘just because they don’t have to.’

Having faces covered really isn’t conducive to the best learning possible in a classroom environment. There are many good reasons why those children might not want to wear a mask in the classroom, they are valid, and shouldn’t be dismissed as kids just being difficult for the sake of it. We’re talking about school children, not adults that have a choice about where they work.

I have huge sympathy for your situation as it does sound very difficult and incredibly stressful, but it’s not fair to put responsibility for your family’s covid safety on to children that have no choice but to be in school.

@beentoldcomputersaysno Thank you, yes it's good of them and I appreciate it. I will take a look at the Good Law Project - thank you for the suggestion.

@LethargicActress again, I'm not saying there aren't children who have valid reasons for not wanting to wear a mask. I'm not talking about little children, I am talking about secondary school children who managed this without issue last year and a few weeks ago when imposed by PHE. Those children with reasons to not wear a mask wear laynards, and they are equally entitled to be supported. Simply not wearing one because they don't have to doesn't feel like a good reason (I'm prepared to accept I am biased). Many countries continue to require masks in schools, and many other places, they are not facing the levels of Covid and death we are. In speaking to friends who live abroad they are struggling to comprehend the strong resistance to wearing a mask.. their children do in school and have done ongoing.. no one has suffered.. in fact their schools did not close for anywhere near as long as those in the UK..

I don't think it's ok to put others at risk, sorry. Nothing is going to convince me that as a society we don't have a collective responsibility to minimize transmission and protect the vulnerable.

You don’t know that they all managed it without issue last year, and you don’t know that no one has suffered because of it. Some of them may have been very uncomfortable or (like me) have suffered skin issues if they’re wearing a close enough fitting mask for it to make any difference. Children should not have to publicly identify themselves as having an issue by wearing a lanyard, no on else has to have their issues on show for others to judge.

I agree with you that we have a responsibility to minimise transmission, but I think that applies to adults who have choices, not school children who don’t.

FWIW, I don't find a mask comfortable and I've also had skin issues from wearing them so you have my sympathies. I find it interesting that even very young children in other countries wear masks in lessons, yet it's not proven half as controversial as in the UK.

We don't have the luxury of only requiring adults to participation in transmission mitigation, as evidence and the chronic level of Covid in the UK has proven. Children have rights too, and every child should have the right to be educated in a safe environment - no child is right now and as a parent I consider that outrageous. My daughter has no health issues (thankfully) yet Covid floored her and she missed large amount of school as a result. Long Covid impacts 1 in 7 children and it's not pretty - it took months for her to recover. I cannot comprehend why anyone would not want to do all in their power to avoid their child suffering in that way. Masks are a simple way of doing that. Is it ideal? No of course not, but pretending Covid isn't circulating at very high levels in schools and will continue to do so without mitigation isn't really solving the problem either. Pretending there isn't a problem, doesn't make it go away.

2 kids had it in dd class and they are back and now 3 more are off with it. School haven’t said a word. Found out though dd.
She is friends with 2 of them also. No symptoms as of yet.