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Original poster

Schools update

111 replies

enterparentone · 30/03/2022 17:32

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/30/living-with-covid-the-end-of-routine-testing-in-schools-colleges-and-childcare-settings/

Don't test for Covid, and do go to school, but if you do test for Covid and you do indeed have Covid, don't go to school. Except if you feel well then you can go to school, but don't go to school if you have a high temperature. If you tested your temperature. Classic! Confused

OP posts:
Waxonwaxoff0 · 30/03/2022 17:48

Or just send the kids in if they feel well enough, keep them home if they don't.

BogRollBOGOF · 30/03/2022 17:48

Just like any other illness then.
By the time a bit of a sniffle turned positive on a LFT the spreading was done anyway so it won't make that much difference.

demotedreally · 30/03/2022 17:50

I have this problem too. DH has tested positive today. I haven't been testing kids. I don't want to test them. I think on Friday I def would send them in. I am very reluctant to test them for one day.

Frosty1000 · 30/03/2022 18:33

I think it's making most children a bit poorly for 48 hours, classic virus symptoms and then they're back to normal. So I think it's a use your judgement again. I'm all for it!

When my 6 year old had it, he's was right as rain 3 days later but couldn't go to school for a week as he was still testing positive 😳😳😳

user1471509171 · 30/03/2022 19:59

Problem is some parents will send poorly children in. It's very difficult. I'm a TA I've had Covid twice but am not overly worried about it but my husband cannot work if he tests positive and is self employed and is the main earner (TA wage with 4 kids doesn't go far). He has to pcr for work so its still very stressful. If sick children give me covid and hubby tests positive we can't pay our bills or mortgage. I know there's no answer but it's soo stressful

Piggy42 · 30/03/2022 20:02

But prior to Covid, the main focus from schools seemed to be attendance. If they could possibly be in school they should be, metrics showing missing school and lower attainment at gcse. So I’m sure parents will send their kids to school With Covid if they’re not feeling too dreadful.

Bizzarely · 30/03/2022 22:04

@Piggy42, you are right. Have a kid in our child's class. Whole family is slowly testing positive (over couple of days), the kid is still going to school coughing and visibly ill because lft is still negative. And this is early primary school, so no gcse pressure as well.

neveradullmoment99 · 30/03/2022 22:22

@Piggy42

But prior to Covid, the main focus from schools seemed to be attendance. If they could possibly be in school they should be, metrics showing missing school and lower attainment at gcse. So I’m sure parents will send their kids to school With Covid if they’re not feeling too dreadful.
Not much good if their teacher is ill though.
Theunamedcat · 30/03/2022 22:26

What choice will we have no free tests no sickday support people will go to work kids will go back to school with calpol and try it because (especially now) no-one can afford time off

Lilaclavenders · 30/03/2022 22:59

Just use common sense: if they feel fine, send them to school, if they feel ill keep them in bed at home.

It's really not that complicated Confused

Theimpossiblegirl · 30/03/2022 23:03

It's not as simple as if the kids are ill or not. There is a huge staffing crisis that is being ignored.

raspberryjamchicken · 30/03/2022 23:10

The trouble is that, at my school at least, although only a minority of the kids have felt quite unwell with COVID, the vast majority of the adults have felt very unwell with it and needed several days to recover. Historically we have had very low teacher absence through illness so it's not a case of skiving teachers, especially as all staff have to set work while they are unwell which is far more hassle than just turning up and teaching if you are able to. Many of our staff have now had Covid two or even three times and still been unwell so it doesn't seem to be a case of becoming immune to it. I'm pretty much the only one on our staff that hasn't had Covid (famous last words).

I just wish there would be some acknowledgment of the difficulties created by staff sickness absence and maybe better funding for supply cover, especially given that with more children with Covid in school, the higher the likelihood that adults will catch it. It's the kids' education that is being affected. Continuing episodes of remote learning remain a distinct possibility.

toomuchlaundry · 30/03/2022 23:15

I think a number of posters are sticking their heads in the sand about the amount of teacher sickness. DS is currently at home doing remote provision as his sixth form has had to close due to lack of staff. One of his A-level subject teachers is very poorly with COVID so he is having to do self study at the moment

PriamFarrl · 30/03/2022 23:35

@Theimpossiblegirl

It's not as simple as if the kids are ill or not. There is a huge staffing crisis that is being ignored.
In my school two thirds of staff have had covid this calendar year.
Iamsodonewith2020 · 31/03/2022 07:36

Nearly a third of staff off currently with covid at our medium sized primary school

Dammitthisisshit · 31/03/2022 08:01

Our primary school is managing to stay open but after school clubs are almost all cancelled due to lack of staff.
Parents are moaning about the cancelling of clubs whilst not testing children because ‘they’re sure it’s just a cold’. People can’t have it both ways!

I’m CEV and kept my children off for 2 months to shield so I could get the bulk of this round of chemotherapy done. Within 3 weeks of them being back at school I had Covid as they brought it home. I’m lucky - looks like I’m OK. But I have just cost the nhs thousands in intravenous Covid treatment that had to be done at home, because the centre I should have gone to was already full of cancer patients with Covid. Extremely grateful for the treatment, but letting Covid go through has not been without societal cost. Feels very disjointed.

Some with my condition have been sent a pack of tests. I haven’t as that part of the system isn’t working for me - no idea why. Yet I go to hospital every week (usually twice) and need to test before I go. Plus I’ve been told to test at least twice a week in case I get it again and need to be whisked off for preventative treatment again. I will pay for tests if I have to but I’m lucky - I can afford it. Many can’t. And what I need is for others who I see to be doing the tests so they can tell me if they have Covid. Or, in my case, to test the DC regularly. Yet there seems to be no plan for this.

DaisyTheUnicorn · 31/03/2022 08:06

How long can this go on for?

If 1/3 of people are off sick then will they be immune for a bit. As in everyone can't always be ill can they?

I have never known so many people to have it at once as now.

DaisyTheUnicorn · 31/03/2022 08:08

And after testìng stops it can only spread more. Are they hoping for herd immunity!? Or that we'll all have it and it will go?

Lilaclavenders · 31/03/2022 08:36

Children should go to school if they feel fine, and they should be at home in bed if they feel ill.

Vaccines, past infections should provide some immunity for pupils and teachers, so that reinfections become less likely and/or much milder.

Let's hope that this current wave is falling soon!

WTAFFF · 31/03/2022 08:46

Well on the basis that I know people who had delta in Oct/Nov, Omicron v1 in Jan and now omicron v2 in March, it seems like it could go on and on and on.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is and would have thought this would have gone by now or at least have settled a bit more.

toomuchlaundry · 31/03/2022 08:48

One of DS’s teachers is off with COVID for the third time. Not sure life in school is going to get easier anytime soon

DaisyTheUnicorn · 31/03/2022 08:58

Yup its all very well saying keep kids off if poorly/send in if well but if covid keeps spreading to adults who are ill and then need time off how is this not going cripple schools/nhs etc.

Will we get to a state where absences are expected and we need more funding for staffing?

TheFallenMadonna · 31/03/2022 09:02

As others have said, disruption will continue because there is an infectious disease circulating at v high levels, which makes a significant proportion of the people who get it too ill to work. Staff absence will hopefully be mitigated by a quicker return for some, but it will still be high as long as infectuons are high, and there's really no way of avoiding that.

BustopherPonsonbyJones · 31/03/2022 09:06

@WTAFFF

Well on the basis that I know people who had delta in Oct/Nov, Omicron v1 in Jan and now omicron v2 in March, it seems like it could go on and on and on.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is and would have thought this would have gone by now or at least have settled a bit more.

Exactly this. There is no herd immunity. Covid reinfections (particularly of different variants) affect different people in different ways. ‘Living with it’ without accepting this is going to have consequences for your children’s education. 2019 is another country.
partystress · 31/03/2022 09:08

Not got an answer, but teachers are really suffering. Some have it for the third time, those with CEV family members are still having to steer clear of them pretty well all the time apart from when they’ve just had it. Third time of catching seems to be making people more ill, and much more flattened for a while afterwards.

I’m sure supermarket workers and bus drivers are in a similar boat, although they’re in less prolonged contact with individual carriers. People WFH just don’t get that this is still really making some people’s lives very unpleasant.