Whole school bubbles being made to self-isolate?

Growstuff instead of constantly pointing out that there cannot be social distancing in a school but agreeing that young people need to be educated, please put forward some workable suggestions.

Rotas for one. All of this has been suggested a hundred times before. A track and trace system that functions.

I would be interested, if we have any scientists among us, in knowing how the testing works.
Does the sample have to grow in a Petri dish to show that it’s positive? If so surely we don’t have the laboratory capacity nor trained people to read the results. The whole idea of testing seems impossible. Would we have to test our children every day as they may show a negative result today but be infected tomorrow?
Sorry if I’m being naive but the sciences are not my area.

We have 2 sets of grandsons at different secondary schools in same area . One school sent whole year group home to isolate after a postive test from one pupil but the other only sent home people sitting in close proximity. Confused!

LauraNorder

I would be interested, if we have any scientists among us, in knowing how the testing works.
Does the sample have to grow in a Petri dish to show that it’s positive? If so surely we don’t have the laboratory capacity nor trained people to read the results. The whole idea of testing seems impossible. Would we have to test our children every day as they may show a negative result today but be infected tomorrow?
Sorry if I’m being naive but the sciences are not my area.

I don’t think you can grow anything regarding Covid because it isn’t alive unlike bacteria. It’s an interesting question, though and I hope someone can answer it.

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.

I totally agree with you.

What about teachers?
Many teachers are grandparents.
Many teachers are vulnerable, and even clinically extremely vulnerable.
Many teachers have spouses, parents and children who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
Is the risk to them 'extremely low'?
And I wouldn't bank on the 'extremely low' claim.
This is a novel virus. There are many unknowns.

I would be interested in those who make such pronouncements just giving us a brief description of their qualifications relating to their knowledge.

If there aren’t enough teachers to operate safely the school has to close. What about pregnant teachers?

vegansrock

If there aren’t enough teachers to operate safely the school has to close. What about pregnant teachers?

Even teachers who were on the shielding list are now back in school teaching as normal.
Same with shielding pupils.
I don't know what will happen when shielding is 'unpaused'.

Our next door next door neighbours’ daughter is in Y13 at the local secondary school and the whole of Y13 have been sent home for a fortnight to self isolate as a boy in her class has tested positive.

This is starting to happen all over the country.

The rush to get businesses like pubs and restaurants open again too soon is to blame. Had we held our nerve and waited until infection levels were way down then this need not have happened. False economy. Now a second lockdown is inevitable.

sharon103

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.

I totally agree with you.

This isn’t ‘any cold or flu’ - do you not get that?

The rush to get businesses like pubs and restaurants open again too soon is to blame. Had we held our nerve and waited until infection levels were way down then this need not have happened. False economy. Now a second lockdown is inevitable.
Let's be up front here, Furrret is right. Pubs are not known for being the sort of establishments where people naturally give each other a wide berth. Landlords are happy to pack in as many customers as they can to make as much money as they can. I think the government bent over backwards in this area and it was wrong.

Thank you Ellianne. You don’t need a degree in Logic to work it out.

The damage to the economy will be far worse when everything has to close for a second time. If predictions are correct then this second wave could be longer, higher and more deadly than the first. Fingers crossed ? those predictions are incorrect, but somehow ...

If we want total safety schools would be closed because virus IS going to spread. The warm sunny summer weather that has limited spread is over now we are seeing cases increase sharply without a vaccine we are all going to be exposed. Thankfully the death rate so far is low, medics are much better at treating patients than at the start of the epidemic.

Teachers are taking the same risk a parents, it’s no different, children take virus home infecting parents so teachers are not a special case. Sending the whole year group home if a couple of pupils are ill is a chaotic policy that is going to disrupt schooling all year.

Testing as it’s being done now is never going cope with every adult or child that coughs or sneezes, however much they spend

Again, I would be fascinated in the qualification you possess on this subject.

But Davidhs schools closing totally should be the last thing to happen after everything else has been shut down first.

A child at my school tested positive yesterday.
We got an email from the head late last night.
The school is open to all year groups today.
The school have contacted the parents of children that the child had close contact with.

teachers are not a special case David's comment.
you just dislike anyone saying this truth Galaxy.
No one needs a qualification to understand that teachers are at risk, but so are thousands and thousands of other workers.

Davidhs “Sending the whole year group home if a couple of pupils are ill is a chaotic policy that is going to disrupt schooling all year.”
Isnt this part of Government guidelines?
I still think some kind of rota teaching might have been better but to be honest I don’t actually think there is a perfect solution.

What is sure is that testing isn’t working well and in my opinion it should be !

Teachers may not be a special case, but they are a different case.
Social distancing, PPE, rule of six...
not for teachers.

No I think his understanding of risk management and infection control is poor. I have children in school strangely enough I take no notice with regard to their safety from random people on the internet who have no understanding of the issues facing schools.

The Covid virus is never going to be contained no matter how much money is spent. Maybe it’s time to follow the Swedish example, keep everything open and hopefully allow people to develop a natural immunity. After all, from what I have read the majority of people who develop the virus only show fairly mild symptoms.

Gwyneth, we are certainly going to find out if the herd immunity thing works whether that's the plan or not.
It's already happening.
Only without the Swedes' sense of restraint and social responsibility.

I find that quite fascinating fanny, I am not keen on ascribing characteristics to countries but I am not sure the British are rule followers as a nation, in many ways this is a positive attribute but ....