Covid in Schools

At my DGS's school 90 six/seven year old children had to self-isolate for two weeks because one child had tested positive. Not good for working parents or a child stuck inside for two weeks with a parent trying to work from home.

GS1 has just finished his mocks and done well. Smallish school that remains open.

GS2’s (old second year) is the only year still going in. Very large school.

We are as sure as we can be that my 11 year old GS brought the virus home from school, infecting my daughter and his 13 year old sister. His friend's parents got the virus so it looks as though they both took it home at the same time. My GS just had minor symptoms but the others were quite poorly.

The same is happening in Oxfordshire where my GCs attend and DD and GS1 work in schools. That is why I am spending Christmas alone! (I am immunosuppressed).

Yes, we are spending Christmas alone as it does seem rife in schools. One GC is taking GCSEs next year and it seems to me that their education is suffering more and more as time goes by. Plus if course the general disruption and current uncertainty to contend with.

Same for our older grandchildren. It seems they are isolating more than attending school. I had hoped schools would close two weeks before Christmas, because they aren’t we are very uncertain about being part of a small family group (5 people in total) on Christmas Day.

I work in a college and it’s running rife through there, how I’ve not got it is anybody’s guess. For many weeks it was the Yr12 to age 24 age group where it was fastest growing, so the ages of our students really. But it seems to be accepted that educational establishments with their students and staff are fair game to face this virus.

In Hampshire school cases have halved in the last four weeks.

Schools and colleges in Wales are closing from Monday and moving to online learning. Excellent idea!

Mass testing in London schools has just been announced and adjoining boroughs. Looks like they are taking notice of the rise in secondary school children. Obviously has a knock on effect on the infection rate.

My DD teaches in London had an email at 12 pm today the last day of term in school is tomorrow and next week will be online learning, the. break up. This will be more work for her but at least it means she will be able to isolate 2 weeks before Christmas and we’ll be able to see her.

What a shame mass testing wasn't introduced weeks ago in the areas, mainly in the north, where infection rates have been highest. It's been know for ages that the infection rate was increasing most steeply in the secondary school age group and that they were important vectors, but Hancock has only now admitted it. Has Gavin Williamson been asleep?

Yes, I read some time ago about the 11 - 16 year age group. Slow, slow, slow in their response. My DD has so many texts from the school about infections that she just glances at the year group to see if its relevant.

My granddaughter was sent home yesterday, as a case found in her class. She has to self isolate until 23rd. My DIL has sent my grandson to school today, but is then stopping, as if anything develops in his class next week, they would have to say goodbye to Christmas! I was surprised he could still go in if his sister was isolating, but he can because my granddaughter isn’t actually showing symptoms. They are 8 and 5.

Yes, people don't have to stay in if someone in the same household is isolating. Only if they are showing symptoms. I think that they have just said on the radio that you only have to isolate for 10 days now.

I do wonder what this is doing to children, they are in and out of school like yoyos.

Welsh senior schools and colleges have now closed but they have to work online for another week.
Primary schools remain open but I wonder how many children will go in?

The problem with secondary school is the pupils have more freedom than primary school children. They hang around together after school and weekends, so Covid will spread. I think the worse decision made was for the undergraduates to go to Uni in September. It was a money grabbing exercise by the Unis and the virus has spread like wildfire through their campuses. They would have been better off having a couple of semesters studying from home.

The LA my daughter works for has more than 30 schools in its area. In total, they’ve had 44 cases of Covid spread across all their schools, during the entire pandemic. They’ve done really well at containing it.

The school bus was the problem for my GD,she has a round trip of 30 miles a day on the bus so its close contact for a good while.She's had to isolate 3 times since August when they went back.Thankfully no symptoms for which we are very grateful.GD worries about taking it home to her mum who has chronic health issues

We are in tier 3 and my 15 year old gs had to isolate for 2 weeks just after the schools went back in September because he was sitting near a boy who tested positive for Covid.

My dd is a Secondary school teacher. She sees up to 150 pupils a day. Her day and her pupils' day is very different to Primary school children's day. My niece, who teaches in primary has a bubble of 30 pupils who she stays with for most of the week. The secondary school kids are in different groups for different lessons with multiple teachers, so they are in year group bubbles of about 180 so it's no surprise that Covid is rife in secondary schools.

My gs is in year 11 so all of the missed work, with different pupils coming back at different times and teachers trying to recap different parts of the curriculum is also very worrying.

Same in my Grandsons’ primary school. They’ve both been off and won’t go back now until after Christmas.

My 5 GC have all been off school isolating at various times and now one of them, the school has closed totally. It was not rocket science that given the rate of infection, Schools were always going to be an ideal breeding ground for the virus to spread like wildfire.

my children are all home (6 of them) my 15 year old has had to isolate 4 times ,my 9 years old ,a teacher in there class got Covid, so off until 15th 3 days later there was 29 children with the virus and school shut until 5 th jan.
my 12 year old in a semh school 3 teachers in her class of 5 got Covid ,she has to isolate until 18th ,4 more teachers got it and a boy ,school now closed, honest opinion is all schools should not have opened ,it has spread round the schools like wild fire.