Covid in Schools

My 13yr old granddaughter tested positive yesterday..only has mild symptoms..but it's the whole knock on effect..her class is now isolating, as is her older sister,her mum,d.i.l is a nurse practitioner and much needed at work ,my son has his own business and was due back from Glasgow last night but now has to stay up there until the 23rd as he needs to run the job which he couldn't if he came back home..as he wouldn't be able to go back up there...
All of my grandchildren had so much time at home due to this virus..one who should be doing her GCSE's this year is so worried..

The main reason schools are having to close is not because of a raft of positive cases in school but due to 1 which leads to a year group or bubble having to self isolate as well as any affected teachers. The main reason for whole school closures is lack of staff because they are self isolating. Most of the cases are coming from the community/family. The majority, if not all the schools are doing an amazing job at caring for our children and keeping them safe. I don’t think they are getting the recognition they deserve. They have been open all the way through, one way or another, providing food parcels to families in need and going above and beyond... and no, I am not a teacher.
I do feel for the children, they don’t know if they are coming or going and the parents who don’t know if their child will be in school from 1 day to the next. But these are difficult times for everyone, certainly not least for those who have lost loved ones.

Just heard yesterday that my 13. year old granddaughter has to isolate for the 3rd time since September-she’ll be out of isolation on Christmas Day. The rate in secondary schools has been high in my tier 3 area for quite a while and well publicised locally and so I’ve not seen her since the beginning of October. I’m not sure that this in/out of school yo yo is any better for her education and mental well being than remote learning at home

School years are in and out here. There's a storm brewing in N. Ireland because a lot are wanting schools to close early so they can isolate in time for Xmas. I'm sorry, kids will not stay in the house until Xmas away from friends. They will be in the shops and hanging around everywhere passing it on to the community. I was out walking my dog last weekend and two boys practically barged into me going past and spat every 5 steps they took, filthy habit. I'm not saying all kids are like that but it only takes a couple who don't care to pass this on and on. Keep them in school wearing masks I say.

It’s a wake up call than nobody is immune. Who is surprised that the virus is spreading when hundreds of people flock to places like Nottingham and London?
These are probably the people who have infected their children and who are now spreading the infection in schools.

So selfish.

We decided to not have our grandchildren here over Christmas because we don't know that they won't catch the virus right up to their last day of school, and bring the infection to us. They have had several periods of having to stay home because it's in their school. It's upsetting as we brought them up for a few years while their mum was very ill, so we are very close. However, we'd rather we were around for the rest of their childhood than maybe dead in the new year. How would they cope in the future if they thought they were the ones that unwittingly gave us the virus. All for the sake of a few days. We'll wait for the vaccination before we get together,

We're not having family over this Xmas as our 12 year old granddaughter has already been in isolation once as a child she sat next to was positive. It's too much of a risk for one day .it's hard but wise we feel

My Granddaughter - age 13- in Sussex has just finished her self isolation and school is closed until Thursday, when she is required to go in for 1 day before it closes for Christmas. If they go in and someone tests positive after that then another 2 weeks in over Christmas and the new year. They have very little social contact outside the family due to COVID but have an elderly grannie - not me- going there for Christmas as she’s had such an awful year. They’ve decided not to send the 13 year old to school and avoid that possibility of getting COVID. School seems to be a bit issue at the moment - maybe because of travelling on crowded buses to get there. Stay safe everyone.

im hoping all schools stay closed for a few weeks beginning of jan ,schools stay closed and do zoom classrooms ,
ss people who do not follow the rules ,and in jan will be an explosion of cases,

My youngest grandson is in Year 8 . He had to stay at home for two weeks before half term, then has been off for the last two weeks. He was due to go back yesterday but then a message came that said only Year 7 are to go in for the rest of term. There was also a huge hint to parents to keep them off if they want them to self isolate to be ok for seeing family at Christmas. The school seems overwhelmed with cases in all year groups and staff. Year 11 have managed to complete their Mocks though.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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?

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

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.

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, 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.

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?

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.