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Covid

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Original poster

Spreading like wildfire- schools

255 replies

DirtyDancing · 09/12/2021 21:09

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?

OP posts:
SweetPen · 10/12/2021 08:30

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

Absolutely!

Chickenpox are also doing the rounds. Rather than shielding dd, I ensured that when ds caught CP from nursery, he gave his big sister lots of cuddles so we got CP done and dusted within a few weeks. Of course we shielded them both completely from the pubic, it's astounding how many parents take their poxy kids to the playground.

We need to let Covid work its way through the schools and communities especially if its is mild. Hiding in fear is no way to live.

Fallagain · 10/12/2021 08:32

No but is was like this is our area about 6 weeks ago. Its fairly calm now.

PrivateHall · 10/12/2021 08:33

It is 'ripping through' our local secondary too, with most parents now catching it from the DC too. I havent heard of many staff with it, but there is still mandatory face coverings here in schools, distancing and an effort at bubbling, tho it is more relaxed than it was. My DC has it now, as do all their friends but we suspect it actually spread at youth club as they are in different classes in school. So school remains open as usual. It is what it is, we all knew we were going to catch it at some point. Thankfully I've not heard of anyone with more than cold like symptoms,whereas everyone I knew who got it last year were very unwell. It does look like the vaccine is working and we have to just get on with life now I'm afraid.

Fallagain · 10/12/2021 08:33

@SweetPen

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

Absolutely!

Chickenpox are also doing the rounds. Rather than shielding dd, I ensured that when ds caught CP from nursery, he gave his big sister lots of cuddles so we got CP done and dusted within a few weeks. Of course we shielded them both completely from the pubic, it's astounding how many parents take their poxy kids to the playground.

We need to let Covid work its way through the schools and communities especially if its is mild. Hiding in fear is no way to live.

This reminds me that I can now vaccinate DD2 against chicken pox.
DoubleShotEspresso · 10/12/2021 08:35

We are south east London. School seemed largely not too badly effected by cases until about a month ago, attendance is now very low due to the repeated need for close contacts to get a PCR and isolate along with the inevitable cold/flu/snuffles symptoms which school have been clear count as symptoms. Any child off sick with anything really not permitted back until negative PCR result. It's an insane time to be of school age and our school appear to be managing their own guidelines which I'm grateful for, there's much discussion amongst parent chat groups on the wisdom of keeping kids home from next week to avoid messing up Christmas. I don't know what to do for the best really at this point but am so exhausted with all this now.

Littlecaf · 10/12/2021 08:35

It seemed to take about 3 weeks to settle in my DS class, eventually 15 had it. We didn’t but in some way I’d hoped to get it then as it would have been done with before Xmas. A few parents have comments that their anxiety is better now it’s done (for this variant anyway).

I eventually rationalised it as “it’s 10 days, it’ll likely be mild, DCs will be fine, we can WFH, it’s not cancer/polio/meningitis etc.”

Tabbacus · 10/12/2021 08:40

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

Silliest thing ever, really? Last year we didn't know anything about covid- not sure on effective treatment, how it spread, who it affected the most or what the long term implications of it would be and we had no testing. Absolutely made sense to try and suppress this novel virus whilst scientists around the world worked incredibly hard to understand more about it. Also just because on the whole children aren't affected much (although many children are vulnerable, I'm personally not an advocate of locking them away for medical conditions that aren't their fault whilst their peers carry on as normal), but some have vulnerable parents and family members; what do you think the effect on a child would be of passing it on even though its not their fault if a parent was to die? Chicken pox has been around for ages, largely we know quite a bit about it and people can make informed decisions about whether to expose their child to something lots of us have immunity to.

Of course now re covid we have moved on from last year and things are different, but if you think it was silly then you're very naive, it would have been really really shit.

stuffnthings · 10/12/2021 08:44

Been fortunate to only have a few isolated cases since the start of it all, up until a few weeks ago. Since then, a good 40% of the school population have caught it, despite all the great efforts from the school. I feel so sorry for the staff in all this, trying to reduce the risk but also keep the school going.

surreygirl1987 · 10/12/2021 09:02

This reminds me that I can now vaccinate DD2 against chicken pox.

Yes - I've got my oldest vaccinated against it and my youngest has his second jab next week. No need for them to actually get chicken pox!

herecomesthsun · 10/12/2021 09:06

If we all caught it last year we wouldn't be in such a pickle this year

Well, some of us would have died, wouldn't we?

It depends what you mean by "a pickle" I guess.

Oblomov21 · 10/12/2021 09:08

Not that bad here in Surrey, we are all continuing relatively normally hopefully until term finishes next Friday.

ShepherdMoons · 10/12/2021 09:13

Yes seems to be very bad at dds school at the moment and lots of cases. The kids who have it though are not very unwell, it's just protocol for them to now self isolate. Dd was worse with a run of the mill cold.

soundsystem · 10/12/2021 09:24

Also in London and we've had wraparound closed and the nursery class but I think it's more to do with staff shortages rather than whole groups getting it.

I work in a university and (anecdotally) lots of students with it but all very mild cases. I think the vaccination uptake amongst our students is above that of the general London population though

Dontforgetyourbrolly · 10/12/2021 09:24

@HereComesTheSun12

people did die , and are still dying ??? We are just delaying it while the country runs to shite.
And someone else said last year would have been really shit if we had all caught covid - IT WAS ! and it still is !! Why are we still doing the same thing that isn't working ?
Maybe the government needs to do something about the state of the NHS instead of keep trying to close the door after the horse has bolted time and time again ?
Oh that's right , so that people start blaming each other instead of demanding help where it's needed.....

Tabbacus · 10/12/2021 09:43

[quote Dontforgetyourbrolly]@HereComesTheSun12

people did die , and are still dying ??? We are just delaying it while the country runs to shite.
And someone else said last year would have been really shit if we had all caught covid - IT WAS ! and it still is !! Why are we still doing the same thing that isn't working ?
Maybe the government needs to do something about the state of the NHS instead of keep trying to close the door after the horse has bolted time and time again ?
Oh that's right , so that people start blaming each other instead of demanding help where it's needed.....[/quote]
What do you propose they do regarding the deep running issues in the NHS immediately?

Covidwoes · 10/12/2021 09:44

We have had that. Recently 25 children out of 60 were in school in Y6. Rest were off with Covid.

Dutchesss · 10/12/2021 09:48

We had ours just before half term. 20% of children were off. I don't think there's anyone in their primary school with covid right now.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 10/12/2021 09:53

Rates are high in DS's primary school (Walthamstow). The children testing positive are not unwell, and the parents are homeschooling bored and bouncy kids while also working from home. Hope it doesn't mess up our Christmas plans...

vickyc90 · 10/12/2021 10:49

@herecomesthsun

If we all caught it last year we wouldn't be in such a pickle this year

Well, some of us would have died, wouldn't we?

It depends what you mean by "a pickle" I guess.

The odds of healthy people dying is absolutely tiny. His problem is he doesn't want to shield the vulnerable
GotToGoBye · 10/12/2021 10:52

Isn’t it better though that they get it? It’s difficult with classes closing but it is going to happen sometime.

We’re not that affected in schools. Had quite a bit in September but settled since.

RedToothBrush · 10/12/2021 10:55

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

Alexa, what is the purpose of a vaccine?

Alexa, where are my arse and elbow located and how can I tell the difference between the two?

Dontforgetyourbrolly · 10/12/2021 11:22

@RedToothBrush there is no need to be so rude , Mumsnet is a platform where a large section of society are invited to share their opinions . Because my opinion is not the same as yours , you resort to nastiness.

Dontforgetyourbrolly · 10/12/2021 11:24

@Tabbacus, no idea . Maybe the people that get paid to do this can come up with a better plan than close everything and hope it goes away

Legoninjago1 · 10/12/2021 11:31

2 kids and 2 different schools - nobody off in one. A handful off in the other.

Tabbacus · 10/12/2021 11:33

[quote Dontforgetyourbrolly]@Tabbacus, no idea . Maybe the people that get paid to do this can come up with a better plan than close everything and hope it goes away[/quote]
I mean if we had a magic wand we could just have got rid of covid rather than qualified healthcare professionals being magiced out of thin air. Basically the situation was going to be shit either way, it was the lesser of 2 evils. I wouldn't underestimate the mental and physical toll of just letting it carry on its merry way. The government hasn't been faultless of course, but interested what other realistic alternatives we had.