Are all schools a germ breeding ground?

[cookiemonstermum]

Hi all,

Don't know if I just need a moan

My daughter is in year 1 and just getting over the flu. Most her class and school have been off with it. She's now missed her flu vaccine again (missed last year's too due to covid outbreak at school)

Just before that it was a lovely sickness bug. Children were being sick in assembly.

We fast forward to tonight and inching she's coming down with Hand Foot and Mouth. She's only was in 3 days last week.

Are all schools just as bad as last year over 6 or 8 weeks there was a outbreak of chicken pox this followed buy most her year and her teachers being off with covid then few days after them all coming back had an out break of HFM.

Surely if things were being cleaned ect it shouldn't be this bad. I fear that I will yet again get a letter stating her attendance isn't up to par but she's off due to things she caught at school.

She never caught anything while at nursery! (She was there over 4 years to!)

So are all schools like this?

Yes because parents continually send in sick children for child care and it gets passed around.

Totally normal
I found it tailed off after year 3

Completely normal. Less normal not to get anything at nursery but was that during covid as most children get through HFM and CP at nursery.

Yes. Although DS seemed to have helped his immune system by being constantly ill in the first year of nursery so seemed to be immune to a number of bugs going round school. I’m impressed you avoided this in nursery.

However, this could also be partly down to lockdown/COVID affect as many child will have not been exposed to so many germs in previous years

Yes.

It's been a bad year this year I think. Since September it feels like pne out of the four of us has been ill every week. My most vivid memory of the Queen's funeral was cleaning vomit off the living room carpet. I had a sinus infection for about 3 weeks. My parents had Covid thay they managed to avoid for 2 years.

It's not schools, it's children.
HFM and CP commonly go round nurseries, but I imagine this hadn't happened so much for the last few years isolations and Covid precautions.

Not in my experience. When I was a primary governor attendence was very high at my children's school and large numbers of children had 100% attendance

This was pre covid if that makes a difference

We had it a lot in nursery and not as badly in reception but still there

The rooms are warm and lots of dc

Yup. Teach her to wash her hands before eating.

FYI....she doesn't have to stay home with HF&M unless she is also unwell. (Check the NHS guidelines for schools).

I'm surprised she didn't get anything in nursery, maybe that's why she's getting so much now. Mine got loads during nursery and the first half of reception but now doesn't seem to get much at all in year 1. If she didn't get much in nursery she won't have built up a good immune response yet.

Yes. Secondary schools are the same. The classrooms are overcrowded so germs spread fast.

Even if no one did this, the situation would be the same. Many illnesses become symptomatic very suddenly, eg vomiting. A child might be fine in the morning and vomiting by 12pm. Other illnesses are especially contagious right before the onset of the symptoms. So only a very small part of cases will actually be caused by a child being sent in ill.

All settings where many people come together are breeding grounds for illnesses. Hospitals are the worst despite all efforts to prevent transmission.

Small children are generally not that hygenic so yes a big group of them are going to spread things around.

Its not necessarily that the school is not being cleaned more that lots of kids under 7 don't wash their hands properly, don't sneeze into tissues or cover their mouths when they cough, they sit very close to their friends and put stuff like pencils in their mouths.
So over one day a very clean room with one sick child, will get their germs over quite a few other kids.
Nits spread like anything and thats just through them putting their heads together. Something actually airborne will rocket round a class of open mouthed sneezers.

Yes, I work in Reception and it’s a total bug fest.

And as above, no need to keep her off school unless she is actively unwell with HFM.

I was an Early Years teacher for over 30 years subject to all their sneezes and dribbles (fingers and objects in mouths etc.). I used to keep dettol wipes on hand at all times and supervised hand washing as much as I could but still caught the colds and stomach bugs myself. I have hardly been ill at all since I retired.

There is nearly always a chicken pox outbreak at the end of December- just in time to disrupt the Nativity play.

What cleaning are you suggesting?

Ah that explains the chicken pox outbreak through the whole school in December, foundation to yr 6 were all affected!!

She was around all these bugs at nursery and some how managed to avoid catching chicken pox especially. When she got it from school she had 3 spots. Doctors said could of got ammunity from me and dad as we both had a very very mild cases (our siblings were covered head to toe straight after us so was definitely the pox)

It just feels that the school don't do enough..children being sick in assembly and get sent home but in next day. Hey ho, I will stick to my guns and not send her when shes ill ,ill. Protecting her vulnerable class mates is more important then 100% attendance, what I know she will never get due to her health conditions and sheer amount of hospital appointments.

Yeah I do get that actually. I get fed up with very clearly sick children being sent into school. Chicken pox, vomiting before off the school bus, terrible coughs with thick green snot and then don’t answer their phones when the school calls for them to come collect 🤔 I wouldn’t want my child to be left sitting in a school crying because they feel unwell, not convenient but part of being a parent.

It's not just her getting everything, (yes when she gets a cold it goes straight to her chest and that means steroids and antibiotics so we do have to be careful) other week took me till lunch time to call ger in sick due to volumes of children off.
I still talk to all her nursery friends parents and their schools are no where near as bad for all the bugs.

You are right to keep her off when she is ill. You would hardly believe the parents that will shove a child in saying 'he's got a bit of diarrhoea can you keep an eye on him' and I have to practically chase them across the playground to get them to take him home. Or the child who I realised was covered in spots who happily told me he knew he had chicken pox - his mum was unavailable on the phone until home time. It's no wonder these bugs spread.

As an ex teacher and I'd say yes because the desks never get cleaned and children don't wash their hands using soap.

As a childminder my experience is this, the vast majority of parents know their child is unwell or is coming down with something and send their child to school or nursery or the childminder regardless. Dose them up on calpol and hope for the best. By the time the calpol wears off and its blatantly obvious a child is unwell they have spent hours spreading their germs and infecting the others around them. People are inherently selfish, in general.

Schools are filthy places!
Desks don't get cleaned, equipment and toys are filthy and never get cleaned.
Cleaners' hours are minimal - if you're lucky there's enough time for the toilets to get a semi-decent clean and the classrooms to have floors cleaned and maybe a quick wipe down of visible dirt.

Add to that warm, poorly ventilated rooms, children not washing their hands and parents sending sick kids in, it's miracle they're not ill more often

I'm sure some parents do send them in when I'll but my children have genuinely been fine in the morning then sent home ill in the afternoon. DS spread Covid to 4 of his classmates that way.
I did feel guilty about inadvertently sending DD in with chickenpox but she's a bit of a school avoider anyway so I didn't believe her when she said her tummy hurt and in the morning she had one spot which she'd scratched so it looked like an insect bite. Although not that guilty as she was the 6th in her class to succumb.

I find it hard to believe a nursery child would avoid most of the bugs going round. If anything they probably have better immune systems if they're avoiding a lot of it. Some children are just more 'sicky' than others.