New rule that 3-18 year olds can return to school after only 3 days isolation

[Mistieee]

I can’t see any other posts on this but please feel free to link to if there are.

Will anyone do this, as it seems like a very short period of time, especially when for over 18s it’s 5 days? My secondary aged DC tested positive and feels uncomfortable about the idea and because it only came in on the 1st April, with Easter holidays in between we can’t really judge what other people are doing. My other DC goes to a diffferent type of school where it’s 10 days, which makes 3 days seem even worse.

In practical terms I dunno how much difference it makes with no free test access. The number of DC who actually have a positive test is going to keep dropping.

Yep, if they’re not actually too I’ll for school they need to be in school.
so over COVID now!

That’s the government guidance to schools now. TBF, nobody is testing anyway.

To be fair... whose even testing now anyway? Mine will still be going to school unless to unwell to go. Covid is done and over with.

We won't be testing any more so we will never know. If DD had a very high temperature then she would stay off as per usual. And when she felt better she would go in.

The lack of free tests will mean most people won’t even know if their child has Covid.

If you child is ill enough for you to think that maybe they should be tested they are probably going to be off school for a few days anyway.

Thanks, we’re testing whilst we have tests, as we have CEV relatives, plus my DH needs to for work and he got it first. I was just trying to gauge opinion really, I guess. My DC and I both suffer from allergies including hay fever, so are quite “snotty” anyway and it can be difficult to judge what’s just down to that too.

You won't have seen much discussion because it's not a rule...there are no longer any legal requirements to isolate and various schools/settings have been asking parents to do different things. My kids schools have been "kids in unless too poorly to attend" for the last month of term. Seeing as we got a letter about attendance levels for my eldest (because we were playing it safe and keeping her off with symptoms) I don't think we have much option to keep her off if she is well in herself.

I should have said guidance rather than rule. The differences between settings are confusing and my other DC who has a 10 day school requirement is perfectly well in themselves. I seem to have it the worst but because I work from home and have lots of urgent deadlines, have had to work through it whilst the rest of my household are off!

DS is a secondary teacher and says the children pretty much go in as normal now. School is full of covid. He and all the other teachers have had it at least once often two or three times.

@boonducks - I think this is utterly crazy and so unfair on the teachers.

I thought gov advice to all schools now was to send kids in if well regardless of the "day."

The education of our children has had more than enough disruption

I’m not testing
if they are ill, they’re off
if they’re not, they’re in

covid is irrelevant

We don’t have any tests left and I can’t afford my fuel bill, let alone to keep buying more tests, so unless mine are too unwell to be at school, they will be there with covid whatever day they’re on.

Kids are still going to have disruption if teachers/other staff are going to continually be ill with COVID. Hopefully, things will improve as we go into Summer and the case levels go down (as they have in the last 2 summers)

It's not fair on school staff is it. Getting another dose of covid and more lost teaching time.

I have about six boxes of tests so we'll test every week for this term. If mine are ill I'll keep them off.

Up to you of course but not for me

The WHO advice is still to isolate when infectious to protect the vulnerable.

The fact that the tories don't care about the ever increasing death rate is no excuse for selfishness. Schools will close again because staff will be ill.

Why would you send a child to potentially infect a vulnerable person?

I follow the law,that’s enough for me
we have moved on ,as we had to
i worked with the public throughout
Our young people have had their education disrupted enough

The issue doesn't seem to be the isolation.

It seems to be that there's now no testing. Parents seem to think it's ok to send ill children into school if it's not covid - and of course can claim this with no tests.

Covid still causes much more side effects than a normal virus long term for a higher number of the population.

I know a couple of previously fit and healthy athlete children who have long covid and one has spores on their lungs and they don't how if and how to treat it and the prognosis long term.

2 children who've been hospitalised and one was ventilated. Only survived thanks to being offered a trial drug which worked.

I don't know what the solution is because we do have to start living with covid. I think we do need as a socially to look at how we respond to sickness. For example better sick pay for employees so they don't have to choose between sending an ill child into school or feeding them.
Better powers for schools to send ill children home and better social care when parents refuse to collect ill children - which happens more than people would think.

I think the biggest shame from this pandemic is it's taught us nothing as a society. The government haven't learned from it and improved basic societal norms.

That's before it's totally never even thought of that every time you send in 1 child with covid you risk passing it to the teacher. Each teacher has approx 30 children. If they get it it affects more than just 1 persons missed education due to illness.

Alongside this they need to stop having so much emphasis on attendance that parents feel they must send their child in or their future is doomed!

@user1487194234 do you think disruption in school will magically disappear now most people aren’t testing? Teaching staff won’t get sick?

It doesn’t surprise me. The attitude of some of the replies on here do make you go hmmm, completely self centred and no care for the teachers and vulnerable children who will be impacted by this.

Better powers for schools to send ill children home and better social care when parents refuse to collect ill children - which happens more than people would think

one of my children had covid just after the Christmas holidays… i kept her off until she had 2 negative tests, as per the rules at the time. Since September last year she has also had cold after cold after cold… our head was sending constant letters saying we should keep children at home with cold symptoms, so I did. Not for every sniffle, but when she was coughing/sneezing/bunged up etc (negative covid tests).
I have since had a letter from the school and from the LEA saying her attendance is unacceptable and ‘cause for concern’. My other child’s attendance (same school) is 100% as she hasn’t succumbed to the same illnesses.
So before automatically blaming parents, maybe we should consider how the schools and LEA’s react to us keeping ill children at home.

@itsgettingweird I should have read to the end of your post before writing mine, apologies.
I will no longer be keeping my children at home with bad cold symptoms as the school have made it clear that it’s not acceptable to do so.