Whole school bubbles being made to self-isolate?

Just, coincidentally heard from my grandson. His friend started at college, did ONE day. Now is home for 2 weeks!

The schools I’m familiar with are doing their best under difficult circumstances.
Yes, no one said it would all be fine aonk and schools needed to return being as careful as they can.

I really don't know what some people expected. Where do you stop? If a 14 year old in one school is in a class bubble and there is a case requiring the class to isolate, surely the class of his younger 9 year old sibling in a totally different school across town doesn't have to isolate too? Or even the sibling?

The only sane was to handle Coronavirus in school is to treat it like any cold or flu. If you are ill stay off school and keep away from grandparents, the risk to children is very low.

My DD Showed me a pic of her twin sons school having a fire drill and congregating in the playground. This is secondary school and the whole school we’re out there all at once. You couldn’t put a pin between them.

I'm wondering if some headteachers over-react or take the safest possible steps, in the absence of official rules or direct guidance?

I say this because last week my friend and I went to a local restaurant which had re-opened along with most others, then after a day or so closed for two weeks. We asked our waiter the cause and he said that a staff member has tested positive, so the place was closed. We didn't interrogate him further.

Then yesterday the owner of Wetherspoon's was on Radio 4 talking about the 66 members of staff that had tested positive (huge workforce and various pubs, so not a very high number I suppose).

He said that the pubs concerned didn't have to close, nor did staff have to self-isolate, unless they'd been with positive colleagues for 15 minutes, something like that.

Do children really have to go home and self-isolate because someone in their bubble has tested positive?

SueDonim

An entire year of my GS’s school was sent home for two weeks at the end of the very first week of school! A child had a test after developing symptoms but the parents didn’t inform the school and still sent him in until they got the test result, which was positive. ?

How can people be so idiotic?

Someone was telling me of the exact same scenario in our local school.....
Of course the rumour mill may have said the parents sent him in whilst awaiting result and it just may not be true. If it is then it’s unforgivable.

Arriva have put on their Facebook page that school buses services should run with the children socially distancing, but if they can't, then they can travel as they were pre-civil. What!! So multiple year groups on the same bus, no social distancing, then into school. One child on the bus with the virus has the ability to infect multiple bubbles.

Davidhs voice of sanity, agree.

Riverwalk

I'm wondering if some headteachers over-react or take the safest possible steps, in the absence of official rules or direct guidance?

I say this because last week my friend and I went to a local restaurant which had re-opened along with most others, then after a day or so closed for two weeks. We asked our waiter the cause and he said that a staff member has tested positive, so the place was closed. We didn't interrogate him further.

Then yesterday the owner of Wetherspoon's was on Radio 4 talking about the 66 members of staff that had tested positive (huge workforce and various pubs, so not a very high number I suppose).

He said that the pubs concerned didn't have to close, nor did staff have to self-isolate, unless they'd been with positive colleagues for 15 minutes, something like that.

Do children really have to go home and self-isolate because someone in their bubble has tested positive?

Yes, they do and should. I don't understand how you can think otherwise.

Pupils spend hours every day within less than a metre of others in poorly ventilated rooms, which are ideal conditions for the spread of the virus. Pupils are in closer contact with other pupils than they often are with their own families, so the same rules need to apply as they would if a family member were positive.

Davidhs

The only sane was to handle Coronavirus in school is to treat it like any cold or flu. If you are ill stay off school and keep away from grandparents, the risk to children is very low.

Vulnerable people are vaccinated against flu. The common cold doesn't usually kill or leave people with long-term health problems.

Ellianne

^The schools I’m familiar with are doing their best under difficult circumstances.^
Yes, no one said it would all be fine aonk and schools needed to return being as careful as they can.

I really don't know what some people expected. Where do you stop? If a 14 year old in one school is in a class bubble and there is a case requiring the class to isolate, surely the class of his younger 9 year old sibling in a totally different school across town doesn't have to isolate too? Or even the sibling?

14 year olds aren't in class bubbles. They're in year group bubbles. They will also probably have had five different teachers during the day.

What did people expect when they were cheerleading the back to school concept. Of course this was going to happen. This is the new normal in every school I know.

NotSpaghetti

The local secondary school to my daughter has a “bubble” of 300. The entire year group. This is the same as growstuff’s local school.
I would think larger schools will all have 300 in a bubble.

They do. The school building has been divided into different zones. Pupils have lessons in the same classrooms, which means they don't have specialist classrooms for subjects such as science, art, technology or drama and music. They don't share toilets with other bubbles. However, within the bubble of 300, they do a different combination of subjects and are in different sets, so in theory could come into contact with half the bubble during a day. Other pupils will come into contact with other members of the bubble, so if just one is infected, it could spread across the whole bubble within just one day. Teachers and teaching assistants work in all bubbles, so could spread infection to other bubbles.

It's lunacy to suggest that the school should operate as normal, if one pupil is infected or even quite clearly has symptoms. The headteacher has a responsibility to make sure that risks are minimised as far as possible.

Galaxy

What did people expect when they were cheerleading the back to school concept. Of course this was going to happen. This is the new normal in every school I know.

They cheerleaded with their hands firmly over their eyes and ears.

And there is no social distancing on the school buses in all school I know.

Yep whilst sitting comfortably at homes or in jobs where you can social distance.

Lucca in this case, it is true. They wouldn’t have quarantined the entire year otherwise.

Similar happened at the uni where my other son teaches. A student got himself tested for symptoms but carried on socialising, visited the gym and so on while he waited for the result. A positive result meant loads of others now had to quarantine, the gym closed, deep cleaning was required in socialising areas and where he lived. Mind you, this is in the USA, where the President thinks drinking bleach will make it go away.

My 7 year old Dgd’s class were sent home after 8 days back at school along with the teacher and classroom assistant as a child in the class tested positive for corona virus, though her sister in another class can still go to school. I’m glad as she has just started school, and where do you draw the contacts line?

DS and Dil have both had to have time off to look after her. This is just going to happen all the time, as most posters have said.

There is no easy answer, good mental health, good physical health, continuous education and a strong economy are completely linked together and one cannot exist without the other.
Governments provide guidelines. Health Care workers, educationalists, businesses, parents, In fact all of us have to assess risk, exercise good judgement and common sense and try to bravely carry on whilst hand washing, distancing and mask wearing wherever possible.
I am not defending government as mistakes have inevitably been made during this unprecedented crisis but no government can cover every eventually in every situation. We must do our best and take responsibility for our actions, including heads of hospitals, schools, businesses and homes.

Where I live, because a child has confirmed Covid the whole school has been sent home and told to isolate.

A very good post Laura.

Sensible post Laura.

Laura No, the government can't cover every eventuality and there can never be zero risk, but why wasn't the government taking any notice when teachers and people who have actually been inside a school classroom were saying that there cannot be social distancing in schools? Nearly all the photos I saw accompanying articles about getting pupils back to school had a handful of children in them, not a full class, which gave a misleading impression.

How can anybody in a school take responsibility when the classrooms aren't big enough for the number of children and they are often poorly ventilated? If anybody else was crammed into a confined space such as a classroom for hours at a time, there would be an outcry. The virus doesn't know it's entering a school premises.

Thank you growstuff, you are are an the money there.
This is going to make the care home scandal cover up look like a well oiled machine.
The general public are only just waking up to the lies regards schools.

Davidhs

The only sane was to handle Coronavirus in school is to treat it like any cold or flu. If you are ill stay off school and keep away from grandparents, the risk to children is very low.

This is rubbish.
And if it was true, how about the teachers?