Test & Protect to take over positive school cases over Christmas period

[DumplingsAndStew]

Our council issued notice yesterday that over the Christmas period, any positive pupils will be contacted by T&P to figure out contact tracing arrangements, rather than the school.

I guess this solves the concern for school staff needing to be available to carry out tracing and contacting over the break. Makes total sense.

Is this a Scotland-wide policy now?

I bloody hope it's Scotland wide- my SLT are on their knees. My HT has pre school age dc, I wish folk would remember that they are people not robots.

So they’re expecting positive test children to give the information of who they’ve been in contact with at school? Or will schools still have to provide all that information upfront? Nightmare for secondary?

At least there’s the acknowledgement that it shouldn’t be falling on teachers who will on holiday!

I hope it’s Scotland wide. My local rag have printed this bit of scare mongering today though...
www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/perth-kinross/1805071/teachers-warned-they-may-be-forced-to-work-christmas-day-over-covid-19-track-and-trace/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

@Tierful

So they’re expecting positive test children to give the information of who they’ve been in contact with at school? Or will schools still have to provide all that information upfront? Nightmare for secondary?

At least there’s the acknowledgement that it shouldn’t be falling on teachers who will on holiday!

This is what the email says:

The process for contact tracing for staff/children who test positive for COVID-19 result
over the Christmas holiday period will be slightly different to term time. You will be
contacted directly by Test and Protect rather than by the school, and they will look to
identify all close contacts of your child from the time your child became infectious.
If they are able to do so, your child will be asked to provide details of any contacts
they may have had in school. You will be asked to provide this information on behalf
of your child, if they are unable to do so themselves. The information you may be
asked will include:
➢ Class name / year group
➢ Dates of attendance at school
➢ Names of contacts in class and at break / lunchtime for the final week of term
(older primary and secondary)
➢ Subjects attended (secondary only)
➢ Whether your child travels on school transport.
You will not be required to provide contact details for close contacts of your child,
unless these are easily obtained. As schools will be closed, your local authority ‘on-call’
teams will assist NHS Tayside’s Test and Protect Team and provide this information
separately.

I presume that the Test and Protect people will have class lists and parents contact details etc. I'm not imagining that all DC will be able to give full names and phone numbers of who they were playing with at playtime. Or how will they decipher which of the two Jamies they were playing with, the one with red hair or the one who makes fart noises etc?

I've heard a few folk saying the might finish them up early at school so that they aren't isolating for christmas day with granny etc. So with the reduction to 10 days, then next Tuesday might signal an exodus from classrooms.

Will be interesting to see what happens. We don't break up til noon on the 23rd.

This letter also confirmed those closing arrangements, so it doesn't look set to change in our area anyway.

DC secondary school are requiring all pupils to keep a close contact record sheet for the last 4 days of school which they'll bring home with them for the holidays.

Wax - The council teams who are going to take over from school leaders have access to the registration system where we all now store digital seating plans too. Will it be as thorough? I was pretty impressed at the PHS team when they came in; they looked at plans, relationship to windows , measured distances, spoke to teachers who can help out with Jamies etc.Will a few on call council staff be expected to do that? And it still could mean my gin/Prosecco/cocktail soaked reclining on the couch (or at a crucial stage of turkey magic) ass taking a call to confirm.

My DD4 (S6 pupil) was pissin herself last Saturday as out of her friendship group only her and one other girl had been left out of plans to go to a house party. Apparently as they are never allowed any way. House party was in Clacks! Covid hotspot of the moment. It got raided by the police and those present were fined. I chuckled away too then remembered- yep that's the demographic I spend all day indoors with. None of them were telling their folks where they had been and what had happened.

My point is how truthful will those records be?

My HT is announcing plans to minimise the amount of pupils we come into contact with and the amount of mixing of pupils for 21-23 Dec. He has received significant calls and emails saying that pupils won't be in. I hope it's one class, in one room for the 3 days. Watching films doing quizzes, chatting etc .

I had pupils say their Merry Xmasses yesterday as their WFH parents didn't think it was worth the risk of isolating. Quite right too.

Yes, we were just talking about how a lot of the tracing does rely on honesty but are people going to be honest, even if they have done much less that attend a house party? I really hope everyone is able to enjoy a break without calls.

My friend was considering taking her 1st year out of school Friday past as they are spending Christmas with her recently widowed mum. Her mum wouldn't cope well with that all being disrupted if the child needed to isolate. Obviously anyone actually catching covid would be a different matter. Her DD didn't want to not go to school as she was finishing an essay that she was enjoying writing so hopefully the reduction to 10 days might make her think about sending her in at least til Tuesday. She's already had one period of isolation.

It's good that despite all this pupils are still enjoying being at school.

I'm not sure you would get that kind of info from a 5/6yr old. Mine doesn't know the names of most of the kids he plays with.

Also they have an open plan 'play is the way' classroom space so no desks or seating plans etc, they all mix in with each other all day, everyday. A bubble of around 60 kids.

I'm glad the teachers are getting the break though, they should never have had to take this on in the first place.

The information we've been given doesn't allocate the process to a local council team, but to the NHS.

Does anyone know what information has been agreed to be passed on by schools to the NHS team? Will they have access to seating plans, contact information etc?

My eldest has SEN and doesn't recognise people unless she knows them very well. She wouldn't be able to identify those she sits next to in classes. She would be able to go as far as whether she thought they were male or female and that's about it. Unfortunately, if she were to test positive, we'd likely still need to call on the school to get involved

Where I am the school SLT work with Public Health Scotland (NHS) at present. Input from teachers is also required.

It is the function that SLT perform that is being passed over to council teams. They will have access to the system that registration takes place on and seating plans are saved here too. But without the input of school staff who know the pupils and have observed what Invisi describes?

Call me a jaded auld cynic (I am) I cannot see it being successful. It's complex enough when all the appropriate people are in situ.

Yeah I can't see it going very smoothly and think, unfortunately, there will be plenty of SLT getting calls anyway

And I laugh at the thought of our school relying on class registers for accuracy 🤣