Schools

[Tranquilitybasehotelandcasino]

Everything I’ve read suggests that children who have come in to contact with a child with Covid at school, will be contacted by Track and Trace and told to get a PCR test. However, my child’s school just keeps reporting on positive cases in a particular year group and reminding people to regularly take lateral flow tests. I can only presume that T&T would have contacted the school for details of who a child came into contact with and they haven’t passed it on.

My child has just tested positive and has just told me that he was sat next to someone on Tuesday that had a headache and didn’t come into school on Wednesday. Presumably they tested positive so why weren’t we told to get a PCR? It was only because my daughter had symptoms yesterday that we tested but otherwise we might have just done a lateral flow and risked it not being reliable. When people have vulnerable family members, surely they should be informing parents when children have come into contact with someone?

Another question is that my daughter is positive so needs to isolate, I’m not jabbed because I’m unable to have the jab so I’m isolating, but my son is under 18 and can go to school as normal. How do I take him to school on Monday and walk him into the playground when I’m supposed to be isolating? It seems ridiculous to not isolate the whole family at least until they all have a PCR test, yet our school said my son doesn’t need a PCR unless he has symptoms....despite him living with a positive case. Am I supposed to isolate at all times but be allowed to walk through the playground twice a day? He’s only small so cannot go into school alone and I’m not prepared to send him with my parents and put them at risk as they’re elderly.

@Tranquilitybasehotelandcasino

I don’t understand why they haven’t kept with bubbles and yes I’m having a grumble at the school if it is their responsibility to inform parents or to pass details to T&T to contact. If it’s not their responsibility then that’s fine but why aren’t they required to give this info when adults have to?

Our school won’t even confirm which class has had a positive result to narrow it down. My local testing centre only opens until 5pm so unless I keep missing work to take them for tests, I’m either relying on them having symptoms to get a PCR or on someone kindly informing me that they may have been in contact with someone.

Whilst I accept it’s time consuming, these are unusual times and we’re all having to do things that we didn’t previously. I barely see my parents to keep them safe but I feel it’s irresponsible to tell parents they must send kids to school but not give them any indication when they may have come into contact with the virus. As I said above, just letting us know if there’s a case in our class would be a start.

Schools don't do bubbles anymore because government policy changed, and they couldn't decide of their own volition to deprive kids of 10 days school every time someone tested positive. That's a good thing. It's also worth noting that compliance was breaking down by the time the policy was ended. Have a look at some of the threads on here from June and July.

So why does the online form ask where children go to school? All T&T would have to do is take that info, call the school and ask them. I’m not suggesting that schools or HT’s are neglecting their duties, just asking why the government want adults to trace contacts and don’t care about the kids when it’s rife in schools. This puts all the adults at risk.

That's What T&T used to do.

As of September they haven't.

Your blame lies with the government.

Yes, it does.

A fifth of the staff at my school have had Covid in the last two weeks, two in hospital.

Nobody cares!

No one needs to miss 10 days schooling though, they just need to be informed to get a more reliable PCR test if someone in their bubble tests positive and possibly miss seeing anyone vulnerable until they’re tested. It just helps to protect the vulnerable.

Our school does send a message out to the relevant year group when there has been a positive. We all got it when my DC had covid a few weeks back. I think it might even have been before we spoke to test and trace. I thought they all did that.

In our school we are only getting a letter to say there’s a case in the class and if appropriate we will be contacted by test and trace. We never have so I always assumed my children hadn’t been close contacts but they probably were.

@Hercisback in that case, yes it does.

As I said before, for people that already knew about all these changes, you can understand why adults aren’t following the rules. The government are completely taking the

@Tranquilitybasehotelandcasino

No one needs to miss 10 days schooling though, they just need to be informed to get a more reliable PCR test if someone in their bubble tests positive and possibly miss seeing anyone vulnerable until they’re tested. It just helps to protect the vulnerable.

Sure, but you said kept with bubbles, and that's not what the bubble system was. Bubbling was groups that weren't meant to mix. Our school does what you suggest by class, but that isn't a bubble system because they can interact with DC in other classes if they want.

Teachers did try to tell everyone on here about the changes in the summer holidays and September. We were shot down. Now it seems like finally the penny is dropping.

@VikingOnTheFridge @Hotelhelp See if your schools can let you know which class has a positive student, this surely can’t be against the law, so why can’t all schools do this. It would really help families that are planning to see elderly, vulnerable relatives. Especially at this time of year. Most of us have reduced contact to a bare minimum but this is going to go on forever and the thought of families having to remain fragmented forever is awful. Just a heads up would be so helpful.

School are just following the government guidelines

Its absolute madness. My son came home and told me the kid who sits next to him for 6 hours a day had been off with covid, so we took a test and he had it asymptomatically, nobody else, school, track and trace told us. I kept my younger son off too for the week despite testing negative, too many vulnerable children and parents, if they take me to court, I'll argue my reasoning no problem, better that than one of the parents or cev kids catching it and me knowing I could have done more to prevent it. Its spreading through the schools like wildfire here and I'm not surprised the way the rules are at the moment. The day my son caught it, so did his friend (i messaged his mum to get him tested), there had been 3 more i know of in previous weeks and it wasn't until I raised concern that they even notified the parents there were several cases, another decision I imagine, the school cannot make for themselves or I know they'd have raised the alarm sooner

[quote Tranquilitybasehotelandcasino]**@VikingOnTheFridge* @Hotelhelp* See if your schools can let you know which class has a positive student, this surely can’t be against the law, so why can’t all schools do this. It would really help families that are planning to see elderly, vulnerable relatives. Especially at this time of year. Most of us have reduced contact to a bare minimum but this is going to go on forever and the thought of families having to remain fragmented forever is awful. Just a heads up would be so helpful.[/quote]
Ours does! We don't get the close contact stuff you want, but we get a message saying a child in class 4 or whatever has tested positive. Goes to the whole class, no distinguishing. I thought they all did that.

OP you are bound to have contact from the school regarding this before now surely? A warn and inform letter for example, that explains how it all works? I would be stunned if you haven't had something!

At the end of the day, children cannot keep isolating forever and how often do you want to put your DC through testing? This is our lives now, it isn't going to get any better, covid isn't going anywhere.

Poor school staff, can do nothing right

They are giving severely allergic people the vaccine in hospital hubs lovally( not relevant currently but might be worth exploring) there are different excipients in each type so probably worth checking whether you may be able to have AZ even if you can’t have Pfizer for example.

It is a reasonable assumption, given current prevalence, that every class contains at least 1 infected child. Act accordingly.

@PrivateHall Yes I knew that our school chose to only inform about a positive case in a year group but I don’t understand why it can’t be narrowed down. As an example, I have been informed by a friendly lunchtime supervisor that out of 18 positive cases currently, 12 were in my daughters year and 8 in her class. Our head just got told there were 18 cases in years x, y and z. No narrowing down. I would have PCR tested my child as a precaution last weekend before visiting family if I had known this.

I thought cases were evenly split between year groups, not mostly in my child’s class. And when so many are positive, why are the school having them touching hands again? Maybe if you’re in a class with no cases but not when there’s 8! Equally, if you’ve 8 off and another child says they have a headache, surely that child should go straight home! Lots of things I’m unhappy with but not a great deal we can do about it so I’ll suck it up.

I am an slt member in a school and last year it was part of a school’s responsibility to inform test and trace and parents. We had to submit a form for each case, contact parents and consult seating plans. since August it has not been our responsibility and we are actually professionally bound not to comment on or confirm any teacher or student having covid. I have had parents ringing up and shouting at my as to why I didn’t tell them the child’s friend or someone they sit next to had covid, but simply I’m not allowed.
We also are not allowed to isolate or send a student home for anything but coughs, loss of taste and temperature - believe me this is not what schools want to do as most cases this term have involved colds and/or headaches rather than the original symptoms outlined, but we have to follow the guidelines given.
As someone who has been off work with covid this term, so has my husband (also a teacher in another school) and one of my children (in a third school) who is petrified of catching it again because my SIL is undergoing chemotherapy and clearly being at work is a risk as cases increase so I’m not going to get to see her or my brother for a second Christmas running, then believe me none of the above suits schools or is how we would want to run things.
Finally, to the best of my knowledge, nothing has replaced the 100s of hours we spent doing test and trace work last year so umm I assume it is just not happening anymore.

@Bunnylove83 I know it’s so worrying when you have vulnerable family members. My dad has just got over lung cancer and had part of both lungs removed. I’m so scared about him catching up but equally scared about him getting older and not seeing much of me or the grandchildren. It’s such a horrible time and I can’t see it getting better.

I wouldn’t want to PCR test my children regularly but if I knew my child’s class had become overrun with cases, instead of school being so vague about it then I would test to be safe. I don’t expect them to tell me which child has it but if some schools can confirm cases in a class, I don’t understand why others say they can’t narrow it down at all.

Anyway, thanks all for a bit of debate and some info that I didn’t know. I feel slightly better that I’ve had my rant and got it all of my chest 😂

Equally, if you’ve 8 off and another child says they have a headache, surely that child should go straight home!

We do. Parents are always really surprised that they've had a call. See my diagram. I sent most of those children home. One of those threw up across the room, but was negative. Another was sick, and was positive. The ones who have had it just look rough to be honest. Same as I looked when I had it.

I'm hoping my stricken class now gets a clear run to Easter.

The midday supervisor should be careful of what she is saying. Any sort of identifying information about which children have covid could get her in trouble.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot Yes I hope you get a break from it too! Stay safe 😊

Yep it’s very hard when people are already very poorly. My heart sank when I took a call from a parent of a student on Friday who has tested positive but been in school two days before and had seemingly been fine - the risk when any of us feel that we don’t have all the information we could have and fewer protective measures like bubbles feels like a real risk for any of us worried about vulnerable relatives - it is really hard.

@Hercisback She didn’t name anyone but she agreed with me that we could have been told that over 1/4 of our children’s class had it so we could all be extra vigilant. Some parents aren’t doing lateral flows as they don’t realise how prevalent it is in schools. If they gave the numbers, they might rethink this.