What will trigger closure for school?

[TooManyOutbreaks]

DDs year 2, aged 6.

This week alone I’ve had 4 close contact emails from school, last week we had 8.

There’s 3 classes per year and it’s getting a bit much. I have to work, and the constant emails is just too much, its constant, 2 or 3 or more times a day at the moment.

I am not blaming school, but this is our class/year groups second outbreak this academic year, they closed in November for 10 school days due to an outbreak in the class. Some of the poor children have had it 2 times (from talking to their parents, school have told me nothing) in 4 or 5 months. One poor girl has had it 4 times since September 2020 (her mum says she was fine the last 2 times, it was more like a tummy bug).

But it feels like they’re hanging on by a thread and I'm just waiting for the email or text to say they're closing to Year 2 again.

I am not scared of Covid, I am scared that yet again my DDs education will be distrupted. She didn’t cope with home learning in November or in January 2021 – she has some SN which means she can’t access home learning (not diagnosed until after the last lockdown) but she’s not eligible for a place while there’s an outbreak in her class or year.

It keeps going round. The year group has several sets of twins spread across the classes, as well as siblings in other year groups, so even though we’re back in class bubbles it’s not stopping it spreading.

I’m a single parent, if I wasn’t and didn’t need to work to keep a roof over our head I’d homeschool DD for sure.

Other year groups have it just as bad from what I can tell, I know Year 4 closed in October right before half term.

@iggly, makes sense to me. There will always be minimisers though.

No symptoms for you may mean terrible symptoms for someone who catches it for you.

You're assuming that we can prevent omicron from spreading. We cannot - it's highly transmissible. The costs to society of trying to prevent it spreading are very large indeed.

@ILookAtTheFloor

I don't test my children. If they had symptoms I would, but no symptoms I don't. Even when covid was in the house.

I know, how awful of me. Oh well.

And then people wonder why covid spread so quickly.

And then people wonder why covid spread so quickly.

But spreading is not the problem!

The problem is that pupils and teachers have to isolate for at least 7 days!

There has 23 out of 30 out of my daughters class due to covid last week. The only thing which will trigger a closure is not enough staff to safely open.

People do remember that other illnesses have school quarantine periods too? Impetigo, chicken pox, measles, mumps, d&v, scarlet fever... Many of these children are also well in themselves but can't attend school for a few days due to infection risk.

It's endemic now. If you're ill, stay off work /school until better. I don't think we will be isolating and testing for much longer.

Year 11 child here who attends a special secondary and being asked to LFT every day. Child has been vaccinated. I just think his school is hysterical about Covid. I am not making him do LFT every day. Twice a week is enough. I don't want schools closing again and I definitely don't want exams cancelled. He has a tutor 3 times a week and learns more from tutors than from school anyway.

My DD's class has 11 left at the moment as the rest including DD are at home with Covid. There's norovirus doing the rounds as well

Just picked her up from school and the TA was in charge, apparently she's been in charge all day (I know her personally and DD and another child told me this as well) so I don't think it'll be long until they close the class and/or year group.

So another disruption.

@teaandtoastwithmarmite

My DD's class has 11 left at the moment as the rest including DD are at home with Covid. There's norovirus doing the rounds as well

@teaandtoastwithmarmite Yes Noro doing the rounds here and the Reception classes have Chicken Pox as well apparently.

Probably the same parents sending in their children who don't care about COVID, spreading the other viruses as well

At our school it’s the number of teachers off which is causing the problem and closure of Reception. One teacher caught Covid just before Christmas and isn’t back yet - not anticipated to be back until after half term.

Cases and transmission have been high at my son's secondary (testing vans, whole school being asked to do a pcr at the weekend) but no hint of closure. He had 11/30 in some classes in September but things went on.

An individual school might close if there's no staff but the government are clearly happy with kids catching it repeatedly because they're highly unlikely to need hospital treatment. With the age of vaccinations getting increasingly lower, they can say they've done all that they can even though we all know that they could do things like invest in air filters or change building regulations so that future building at school took ventilation into account.

Yes one of the kids little sibling has chickenpox too

I've decided to keep her home and risk a fine.

Several of the parents asked the headteacher via the schools facebook page what would happen if a child tells them they haven't been tested that morning on an LFT.

Reply "The child would be treated as if positive for covid and not allowed to return until they either have a negative PCR or have completed a 10 day isolation"

Someone pointed out it's now a 5 day isolation but apparently school guidence hasn't been updated yet and theres is still set as 10 days.

So I'm keeping her home, I'm not testing her daily for however long as they're now asking for a throat and nasal swap and checking with the child. It's not fair to put DD through that when she has no symptoms purely because her friends are testing positive.

School aren't setting work because they don't have to unless it's a confirmed positive in the household but DD can't access it anyway so its no different to if she or I were positive or awaiting results - DD has dyslexia, suspected dyspraxia/DCD, and is hypermobile in all joints. She can't read or write, and the constant disruption hasn't helped.

I had to pay for a diagnosis for her as school kept saying it was related to covid. Worth the debt but so frustrating.

Our local Public Health team say that circuit break type shutdowns are pointless with Omicron, and by the time we get to that point that horse has well and truly bolted.

We'll only shut if staffing levels get so low we can't manage and even then we'd open to key workers and vulnerables.

@Oblomov22

I too had to check this wasn't a zombie thread. No school problems, barely any cases I know in any of the 10 schools near us.

How on earth do you know that none of the children in 10 entire schools have covid?!?!

I was also wondering if this was a zombie thread

So many of the staff at DC small primary have already been off with covid before Christmas. I’ve read that being triple-vaxed AND having had a previous covid infection means you are extremely protected from another infection, so most teachers at the school shouldn’t be at a high risk of another bout of covid soon.

Add into the new isolation period of 5 days and spring approaching, I’d hope schools are over the worst bit!

The amount of people on this thread totally forgetting about VULNERABLE people?! You seem to be losing sight of why we were isolating in the beginning.....

@user1497207191

Teachers too ill to set work

I thought everyone was saying that Covid is now no worse than a cold and testing isn't needed?

If teachers are too ill to work, rather than being absent due to isolation, then that suggests Covid is more serious than is being said.

How does that tally with people wanting testing to be scrapped. Surely a teacher with covid too ill to teach would be too ill whether they tested or not??

Who is saying that Covid is no worse than a cold? They say Omicron is milder than previous variants but that just means fewer people are needing hospital treatment. I know lots of people who have had it recently and only one said it was like a cold. Everyone else had at least 2 days in bed ill.

You seem to be losing sight of why we were isolating in the beginning.....

We were isolating at the beginning of the pandemic to prevent all people becoming ill at once, to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.

Thankfully hospitals are coping.

I thought it was fewer adults needing hospital treatment (compared to other waves)?

"I'm pretty pissed as they have been silent on cases. It may have resulted in parents testing and isolating thus reducing the spread"

Based on this thread it would have resulted in no such thing. You wouldn't know about cases when testing stops or no one bothers when recommended to.

The school is no longer required or recommended to advise of cases etc as it is track and trace who are not doing any contact tracing in schools anymore anyway. It's the government you should be pissed at.

The majority of people didn't care about pupils and staff catching covid pre vaccine and they certainly don't now. Some pupils will suffer more then this than others so it is quite possible your yr13's will now be at a disadvantage. Personally I can't remember flu or colds ever closing a school I worked at even if people want to pretend they are the same.

Granny I don't we were ever isolating in order to protect the vulnerable. It was more to prevent hospitals from being over capacity.

COVID was rife where I am following Christmas, but life is very much back to normal. When I phoned to say my dc were off with COVID the secretary didn't ask any details or when they would be back, just a cheery "no problem!". One boy in ds' class has had it 4 times. Most people I know are thinking ahead to their summer holidays now. There isn't a chance that schools will close again, there would be an uproar.