Scottish schools opening

[chocciechocface]

I was ready for schools opening, but this new research has given me pause for thought. I think this came out after Sturgeon's decision. What do you all think?

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/31/georgia-children-covid-outbreak/#click=t.co/Y9gSG9zENz

Quote from the article:

"A new report suggests that children of all ages are susceptible to coronavirus infection and may also spread it to others — a finding likely to intensify an already fraught discussion about the risks of sending children back to school this fall.

The analysis, released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, details an outbreak at a sleep-away camp in Georgia last month in which 260 children and staffers — more than three-quarters of the 344 tested — contracted the virus less than a week after spending time together in close quarters. The children had a median age of 12. The camp had required all 597 campers and staff members to provide documentation that they had tested negative for the virus before coming. Staff were required to wear masks, but children were not."

Self-isolate for at least 10 days

You should self-isolate for at least 10 days if:

• you have symptoms of coronavirus and you tested positive, had an unclear result or did not have a test
• you tested positive but have not had symptoms

If you have symptoms, the 10 days starts from when they started.

If you have not had symptoms, the 10 days starts from when you had the test. But if you get symptoms after your test, self-isolate for a further 10 days from when your symptoms start.

Stop self-isolating after 10 days if you feel OK

You can stop self-isolating after 10 days if either:

• you do not have any symptoms
• you just have a cough or changes to your sense of smell or taste – these can last for weeks after the infection has gone

Keep self-isolating if you feel unwell

Keep self-isolating if you have any of these symptoms after 10 days:

• a high temperature or feeling hot and shivery
• a runny nose or sneezing
• feeling or being sick
• diarrhoea

Only stop self-isolating when these symptoms have gone.

If you have diarrhoea or you’re being sick, stay at home until 48 hours after they've stopped.

We have a lot of parents who send DCs back when they're ill. If they don't need to get a negative test, they'll be the same with Covid. As soon as they think the DCs look vaguely fine, they'll throw them back into school.

That's interesting @dementedpixie Thanks for posting.
So runny nose and sneezing means isolating if you've had a positive test but doesn't mean getting a test even though you could have missed the initial symptoms stage.

@BottomOfMyPencilCase

That's interesting *@dementedpixie* Thanks for posting. So runny nose and sneezing means isolating if you've had a positive test but doesn't mean getting a test even though you could have missed the initial symptoms stage.

This is the kind of thing that I'm thinking of when I say it's a bit of a shambles. It's quite confusing, and can seem inconsistent.

@BottomOfMyPencilCase

We have a lot of parents who send DCs back when they're ill. If they don't need to get a negative test, they'll be the same with Covid. As soon as they think the DCs look vaguely fine, they'll throw them back into school.

This is my concern.

WRT the symptoms - both mine had runny noses, sore throats and both said at the start that they felt shivery. But neither had a temperature when we tested them.

Coronavirus: Scottish high schools to introduce new face covering rules

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53888479

How is it confusing? If you have a fever over 37.8, a new persistent cough or loss of smell/taste you self isolate and test. All other stuff you do whatever you normally do. The government rules are not confusing. What's maybe confusing is the social side of it. Will Johnny's mum think I'm a terrible parent because my kid came to school with a sore throat. Will we be shunned when the DC have a runny nose? I struggle with that too!

I mean we will see with time if the system works. If people want to add lots of different layers of how to behave then they can, but it's probably simpler if we just follow the guidelines given for now until we see how it pans out.

Yeah I didn't really mean confusing, that wasn't the right word at all.

What I mean is it's not really clear what the correct action is in every instance. So my kids have a mild cold - stuffy nose, sore head and ears. One feels better today, and went to school, the other doesn't and hasn't.

People upthread are talking about parents 'throwing' their kids back into school. But kids with colds go to school all the time in the normal course of things. And like OP just said, her kids coughs came later. My kids still might develop a cough, and yet we've been told not to bother isolating.

So we haven't. We saw family yesterday. Might have been the wrong thing to do, but if it is just a cold, then fine. Hindsight might tell me differently.

But again; I can be at home and lots of parents can't be at home as easily. Key workers can't, those with precarious and poorly paying jobs can't, plenty of people have no family network.

Are we saying kids have to stay home against official advice just in case it later turns out to be CV? I think a lot of people will struggle with that.

Posted too soon. Like I've said upthread I'm not on one or other side of this and I'm really just wondering aloud. I just think it's an interesting and probably necessary conversation to have.

My youngest was complaining that a particular child had made him sick. He and this child are constantly competing and having a go are each other, so I just laughed at him. My eldest interjected 'It's true Mummy. 'A' is coughing all the time in the playground, I've seen him.'

Coughing. aaaargh.

I hate this!

I just think it's an interesting and probably necessary conversation to have
I agree but it's one that MPs, MSPs and schools are trying to avoid ... at least in public. I know in DSIS' school (she's teaching a lower primary class) they're already having discussions about whether children with coughs and runny noses should be sent home or not.

It's all just so ... urgh.

Who's ready for the fucking vaccine?

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

Posted too soon. Like I've said upthread I'm not on one or other side of this and I'm really just wondering aloud. I just think it's an interesting and probably necessary conversation to have.

I do recognise that there are valid points for children continuing to go to school if they don't have any of the main symptoms. I also get that the government has to draw a line somewhere.

But even outside of COVID, I've never understood why people think it's OK to send children in with streaming colds. At the very least, try wait until the worst of the symptoms are over. Last year we had an entire class sick, including teacher. That's in normal times. DH ends up on antibiotics with chest infections, really ill, every winter.

In these abnormal times it's really difficult to figure out why people think this is OK.

Until now, schools told parents to send children in with coughs and colds.

Because it generally is ok I guess? If they're not spreading Coronavirus it's no different to any other year. Obviously a heavy cold is one thing, but sniffles in a child who feels fine is definitely a 'Calpol and off you pop' situation mainly. Or it is for households with two works parents anyway.

If I feel my child is unwell enough to need Calpol, then it's a stay at home day. The school won't continue to dose them through the day.

This thread has given me a valuable insight into how teachers view their pupils and their parents and it’s pretty depressing.

*Some teachers

Calpol and off you pop often leads to a miserable child sitting in reception till their parents can pick them up when it wears off.

Calpol as pain relief for a sprained ankle or period pains etc is one thing but quite another to bring down a temperature .No I wouldn't have sent mine in those circumstances.

It's depressing that teachers want their pupils to be well when they are in school? That does not depress me.

It’s the picture of parents as irresponsible fools sending their sick children into the “petri dish” of school, without a care in the world, along with the comments about children basically deliberately infecting teachers.

@WouldBeGood

It’s the picture of parents as irresponsible fools sending their sick children into the “petri dish” of school, without a care in the world, along with the comments about children basically deliberately infecting teachers.

Some parents.

Which posts have teachers claiming pupils have/are deliberately infecting them?

Ah I see now. My mistake between what some parents and some teachers think.