Spreading like wildfire- schools

[DirtyDancing]

It's been pretty bad in London on and off.

But this is unprecedented on this scale- local schools which have had the odd cases here and there now seeing 8,10 children sometimes more getting it in a class. Multiple confirmed Ormicron case at local secondary and subsequently lateral flows coming back positive tonight. PCR results pending.

I know of full classes out, and two full year groups (Y3 & Y4) in two other schools .

Is it this bad anywhere else?

Ripping through schools?

OP , The children arent seriously ill with it

The Omicron has all the evidence of mild illness

Kids tend to only get it mildly anyway

The responses here are so irrational and sour that you all need locking up not locking down. Fucking hell

@Malteser71

It’s like a motorbike, with all this dramatic ripping and tearing.

Hope it’s taxed.

Perhaps stop reading threads, that are clear from the title are going to wind you up!! Repeatedly posting on them because you don't like posters choice of language to describe their situation helps no one.

This doesn’t seem to be happening in schools in Scotland. Or, I haven’t heard of it happening.

We've had two weeks of online learning to act as a circuit breaker at our school where cases rose sharply just after the half term holidays (London)

This time last year our senior school had outbreak alpha.
June / July was awful again delta.
Delta swept through year 6 last academic year
Senior school had another outbreak before October half term was awful with around 70 kids off with covid plus entire departments of staff.
Many had covid twice 1 even 3 times.

Lots at seniors no vaccine or single as school vaccinations dident happen until nov after half term.
The school is being vague with numbers.
At primary nothing been declared but I do worry as the outbreak last year were people who left so hardly anyone one in current year 6 has had covid.

Local senior school to me has 3 year groups at home as hardly any staff.

Some friends kids teachers are off with long covid..
Supply teachers are hard to find these days before half term we have cover teachers teaching 2 classes and running back and forth between each classroom.

My worry is with such woeful vaccination rates in teens 1 dose clearly not enough.
No bubbles, no masks in class and sending in kids where parents are postive means omicron may well cause the most disruption yet.
We don't know how long natural immunity lasts some scientist estimate 3months so its entirely possible these who had it before half term could get it again in January new varient.
Making gap after infection 12 weeks to get 1st jab not helped . Adults I think can access 2nd 28days after infection.
Also extending dose 2 to 12 weeks when adults only have wait 8 weeks.

I have 1 child doing gcses the way they ignoring schools when they account nearly half daily cases is scary.
How many times are adults happy to get sick and allow their child to be Infected.

They’re dropping like flies at our medium sized primary. I generally hate school closure but really think they should have shut schools this Friday in order to protect the people who are undoubtedly going to gather at Christmas. I think the R rate is about 3, so if we continue we are heading for lockdown again in January

@user1471505494 that's the whole point. During the previous lockdowns, some schools were badly affected but others had no cases at all. Why were they treated the same? LA should be the one to make the decision - based on the safety of the children in that school - not the government on the safety of the children in a school 500 miles away. Any wholesale closure has to be short term and based on what's best for children.

Covid hit our school badly in September. It was caught by the majority of the teaching staff, and two thirds of the pupils in KS1 & 2 - plus their parents.

We thought that would be it for us until next year and our antibodies would hold off another outbreak. Alas this is not the case, we’ve had 6 cases this week (so 12 weeks since our last outbreak). Hoping we make it to the end of term without too many casualties(!)

Seems calm in DS's school. His class looked pretty full when I picked him up yesterday. His teacher hasn't been off. DS had it in August anyway so probably has some immunity.

@Wowwellokthen

Bad here in Kent. Between 30-40% of KS2 kids positive last week.

Similar levels here (I'm in south Lincs/Cambridge/Peterborough border). In my school we currently have 40% of children off with a positive test...it's been creeping up since September though, so not all Omicron related though. Plus we have pretty even numbers in both KS1 and KS2. Staff too...this last 3 weeks we've had 9 staff testing positive.

@SweetPen

Not here.

Spreading like wildfire- schools Sounds rather hyperbolic, as usual on this forum.

Anyways, Covid symptoms are very mild in most people around us, with no symptoms or just a mild headache and sore throat.

The colds and gastro bugs that everyone is suffering from ATM on the other hand are horrendous and are making people ever so sick.

For goodness sake what a bloody ridiculous statement. I don't remember in my lifetime having multiple schools across the country regularly shutting down due to lack of staff because of illness. Whether that illness is Covid or something else ,() there is something different happening in the last two years compared to the past. Are you suggesting it is a different illness causing this, not Covid ?

If you are then I'd say you are the one scaremongering suggesting we have another virus causing the school closures

BBC report re Scottish schools:

More schools and businesses will close in the lead up to Christmas as health experts "hit Omicron hard", Scotland's national clinical director has said.
Primary schools in Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire have already been forced to close after suspected outbreaks of the coronavirus variant.
The decisions were taken because of the need for staff to isolate.
Prof Jason Leitch told the BBC he expected such closures to be repeated across the country

One of our schools has been identified by public health as a spike. That said out of the hundreds of cases only 3 very ill

Ds1 had childcare instead of education two weeks ago. To many teachers and students were off for a week. So they combined different year 3 classes and they spent a week playing and making Christmas decorations.

It only takes a couple of weeks and then the class / year group goes back to normal so it's no big deal really?

Better than closing down.

@Remmy123

It only takes a couple of weeks and then the class / year group goes back to normal so it's no big deal really?

Better than closing down.

True also if you close each time the problem just comes back, after hitting dc with more closure harming education etc

Hopefully the close contact thing being dropped is confirmed

36 staff out 2 weeks ago in SE London secondary school

4 year groups shut

Yes, a mild illness for most of the children but my Dh was off school for 6 weeks (2 was half term). He was incredibly unwell and he's only 40's and a very fit runner.

He's SLT and he's just gone back this week on restricted duties (no outside duties like bus stops as the cold makes him breathless and unable to use voice at all)

Laurie so sorry hear about your DH thats the thing seems be lottery how it affects people as heard of numerous healthy people getting very poorly.

Since March 2020 in the UK there has been 116 child deaths not all had underlying conditions

Since July the NHS has seen 1000plus covid related child hospital admissions per month.
The amount of students and teachers off with long covid is really sad as us the many teachers who died the ONS recently released figures for teachers.

The news says omicron has reinfected people who previously had delta so school will just keep having waves of high infections and disruption.

I wonder if there was no testing, how many of these kids would actually be sent home because they were too ill to be at school.

By the way, a bit of a cough ripped through my house. We all got it, and dropped like flies. But we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now...

The message that is coming out, which I consider unsettling, is young people are at risk of variants, and catching it more than once.

I know people now on second infections.
Kids are unvaccinated (if not if vaccine age) or may have only had one vaccine. So they remain largely unprotected & we may see more being reinfected.

The long term impact of having covid multiple times is unknown.

Thank you Echo40

We're really worried it's going to turn into long Covid (as is his GP who met him in person last week and gave him night time medication and a referral is waiting on his notes for the long Covid clinic if he's still suffering at 12 weeks)

He's at 8 weeks now.

I think there's a massive failure in messaging around Covid - messaging says double vaxxed mostly prevents serious illness and death

What they mean by serious illness is hospitalisation - Dh wasn't hospitalised but he's been very seriously unwell - sleeping 20 hours a day (me up all hours of the night to check his SATs for weeks on end)

I've been frightened for him. He's not had a day off school in 18 years and it's utterly floored him.

If only people realised how unpredictable this virus is - and that it can take down a healthy 43 year old slim runner who's double vaccinated with no underlying health conditions and not had a day off sick in 18 years

His Auntie (aged 60) now has Covid - she's a bit tired with a sniffle 🤷‍♀️ - barely unwell

People NEED to know it's unpredictable

It is bad at my school. Loads of KS2 out and Y7. More than we've ever had. In London

Yes it's rife , and would have been the same last year if they hadn't kept closing the schools . All last year did was delay it ....the virus has found a way to infect as many as possible because that's what they do. We also now have nits in the school, unheard of in December, but these things also never go away .
What is the alternative? Close schools and keep children home forever? They have huge gaps in their education.
I'm glad me and ds have had covid now as this will give us immunity on some level. I'm double jabbed too .
If we all caught it last year we wouldn't be in such a pickle this year , running away and hiding from a virus is the silliest thing I've ever heard

Don't jump on me regarding those that shield , my ex has no immune system so common sense has always prevailed ( he couldn't even be in the same house on the days ds had his routine immunisations). You wouldn't foist chicken pox or flu on the vulnerable ditto covid

The long term impact of having Covid multiple times means that the kids will have some immunity and things can go back to normal.
Various coronavirus circulate and cause the common cold anyway. This one just happens to be one we haven’t been exposed to before.
The aim is to get people vaccinated and get those who don’t need shielding to have some natural infection then we can get on with our lives.
The quicker this happens then the sooner this becomes banal like any other circulating cold virus.