Share your experience of Covid in schools?

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 aksys 21 Oct 2021

I’m opening this thread to see what other people’s experience in schools has been like this term.

We were upset to see this posted from my son’s old secondary which has a very decent and thoughtful Head:

“I write to you at the end of what is probably the most challenging half term in my 14 years as a Head Teacher. Whilst throughout the whole of last school year we had 26 students and 6 staff infected with COVID-19. In the 7 weeks since the summer holidays we have had 229 students and 19 staff infected. Whilst the vaccinations have certainly protected people, this is still a very dangerous illness with 2 staff hospitalised in the last week. Though the majority of students are only mildly affected, there are still those unfortunate young people who are very ill with COVID.”

This is about a quarter of the kids in this school. In the last few weeks the school have been teaching one year group a day on-line in a bid to reduce case numbers.

This is just one school, now replicate this across the whole UK. 

Our son (yr 9 in another school now) is a close contact for the second time in a fortnight. The school here is less forthcoming about case numbers but have said they have had more cases this half term than in the whole of last year. There’s a lot of Covid in year 9.

The new normal and a sickening interpretation of “freedom”.

10
 stubbed 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

I don't believe my children (in primary school) have had covid. In their school there was one 'outbreak' where half of one class caught it from a student teacher, in March 2021. They had to shut the school for a week as so many teachers had caught it. Apart from that - we have not had much disruption thankfully.

 GEd_83 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

In terms of case numbers, it's ripped through my son's high school since the start of September, all of his friends have had it, and he's had it himself mid-September. Not aware of anyone being hospitalised, and I've not heard of anyone who's had it that's had anything more than super mild cold symptoms at worst. Mixed in with this, there's a few of the normal seasonal bugs doing the rounds in the last week or so, which seem to be causing more illness than covid. His best friend was off school all last week ill, but this wasn't Covid (two negative PCR tests). 

 SFM 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

My BiL’s daughter has just tested +ve along with about half her school due the Newbury lab fiasco. 
We do regular lft’s but I know we are unusual with most just doing them if any symptoms. That said we’ve only had 2 confirmed cases in the past 18months.

 abr1966 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

My kids are grown up but I work in Children's services in the NHS....we have lots of staff testing positive or off work isolating or looking after their children....there is a massive impact on how we deliver our service.

Like you say.... 'freedom' day....well done to the people believing this spin!!

1
 whenry 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

We've got about 4.3% of pupils of with Covid at the moment - that's about 40 pupils - and a lot compared to last year, when we just had about 6-8 with it at most at any one time. Compared to other schools that's low - most of the other local schools are running at about 10-20%, and one that's been hid hard by the PCR problems has got close to a thousand pupils off with Covid at the moment.

Currently all staff and students are wearing masks throughout the day, but we've not gone back into bubbles yet. Part of the challenge is that schools are supposed to be teaching as normal and that limits our responses to the current infection levels - which we're told at our school aren't bad enough to justify putting more measures in place.

We've had more pupils than staff ill with Covid - it's much easier to keep staff safe than the pupils.

 robate 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

Two of my kids are in high school ( in central Scotland ) and it's just everywhere there. Both have had it a couple of weeks ago and brought it home to the parents, and we have been shockingly unwell. A friend with kids of the same age was hospitalized two days ago. From cases we know of the rate is about 20 percent, although the school quotes 12 percent. The only way to read it is that there's a policy of letting covid run unchecked through the secondary schools. Having had it myself I truly feel for those with long covid and despise anti vaxxers and the government for the sheer stupidity of the approach the country has taken.

2
 Hat Dude 21 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

My daughter is an assistant head at a large secondary school in the midlands, a couple of weeks ago for example, they had 8 teachers in the science department off with covid

Regarding pupils, she has said that previously pupils within a certain radius of a positive case would isolate for a possible contact; now pupils within the same radius are going off school actually with covid

 ablackett 22 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

I’m at a school with just y10-y13 students, we have around 450 students and only 3 off with covid at the moment. A couple of weeks ago we had around 15 but amazingly it hasn’t grown rapidly from there. Mask wearing is poorly complied with in corridors and not required in classrooms. Ventilation requirements are not well followed.

Quite a few of our 6th form have had a single dose of vaccination. Not sure if that has made the difference?

 summo 22 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

Admittedly almost a different world, but in sweden, school for under 16s running as normal, there are no class, year, school or home bubbles. If a child has symptoms, they are off tested and return when appropriate, the rest of the class continue as normal. There was a surge of sniffles after they started back but that's died out. All pupils over 12 were on mass vaccinated yesterday, according to the 14yr old anti vax rate was about 1 in 30. Our 12 and 14 yr old have missed maybe 7 or 8 in school days since this all started. 

Staff: the sentiment here is if you're a teacher, health worker of any type then you must be vaccinated, it's not law but there's not really any anti vax ranting either and the public just expect those front facing roles to have been jabbed. 

Are the two staff in hospital vaccinated?

Edit. There isn't and never has been any mask wearing in school.

Post edited at 07:26
1
 Si dH 22 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

My son started reception class this term. Attendance in the school generally seems pretty good as far as I understand (the only figures I'm aware of are the 'best' class each week, which are always over 95% against a target of 97%.) In my son's class though, there have as you would expect been lots of colds in classroom, and the area has a lot of covid, so the high likelihood is that some of it is covid. I'm very keen that he does not miss out just after starting school so I'll only keep him off if his symptoms undeniably hit one of the three 'classic' covid symptoms and make it unavoidable that he has a test. This hasn't happened yet (I have taken a couple of LFTs myself when I picked up a snotty nose from him, both were negative.) I've seen other kids going in while coughing so I suspect other parents are taking a similar or even more lax approach. Symptoms in this age group are almost always mild...so I think it's safw to say that the vast majority of kids who get covid in reception class will still attend school. It's also extremely difficult to get them tested at this age. The process of PCR testing my son (done 4 or 5 times during the pandemic) is pretty traumatic for everyone. I suspect this is the only reason that I haven't heard of lots of positive cases. The school are keen to emphasise the importance of good attendance. The first time he was ill this term I checked with his teacher before sending him in and she said it was fine, and that most of the class had something. His teacher has also talked about how good it is to be back to normal and doesn't seem concerned. I expect endless colds are probably fairly normal for a reception teacher.

TLDR; loads of kids are ill with colds etc and the majority still attend school, but then in reception they always are; very few if any get tested; it is probably partly covid; from my perspective it's still best they are in school; the school also seem fine with this as far as I can tell.

(Edit: In case it isn't obvious, despite taking a cautious stance throughout the pandemic, I am now of the view that his education is more important than minimising transmission potential. The de facto government policy is that kids are going to get covid, so I don't think we should be keeping them off school unnecessarily.)

Post edited at 07:42
1
 Si dH 22 Oct 2021
In reply to summo:

> , there are no class, year, school or home bubbles. If a child has symptoms, they are off tested and return when appropriate, the rest of the class continue as normal. There was a surge of sniffles after they started back but that's died out. 

> Edit. There isn't and never has been any mask wearing in school.

In primary schools this is all exactly the same in the UK. Obviously there is no vaccination in this age group but I'd also expect all of the teachers to be vaccinated. (It would seem a pretty silly personal risk for them not to be given the obvious level of exposure.)

OP aksys 22 Oct 2021
In reply to summo:

That’s interesting about the expectation for certain workers to be vaxxed, seems pragmatic and sensible. Why has the UK had 

I don’t know if the two teachers were vaxxed. When my son was at the school we were impressed by how sensible and thorough the Head. He had a science background and I am sure he would have encouraged all staff to be vaxxed. He has a lot of respect because he has been open about the numbers and sitiuation thought out the pandemic. At my son’s current school, it’s harder to know; emails are more generalised but do admit there is a lot of Covid in school ATM.

Clearly the majority of children have a mild illness. I’m interested in case numbers and particularly how many are hospitalised or ill on a longer term. I am concerned that with so many Covid cases there will be a not insubstantial number of youngsters and adults left with long term health issues. 

1
 wintertree 22 Oct 2021
In reply to Si dH:

Very similar experience to yours.  I fully expect to get covid via Jr and their school.  I would far rather that than more closures and home schooling as it’s astoundingly clear which is better for Jr and their friends (a wonderful age where everyone in the class is a friend.)  The teachers have been absolute rocks.  I don’t believe any teachers have been hospitalised despite a couple of periods of bonkers case levels in the cohorts.  They’re good at opening windows I notice.  I wish there had been in-room HEPA units installed in anticipation of the really bad/snowy/windy/cold days ahead when windows will inevitably be closed.

Secondary school busses should have had their ventilator windows fixed open a year ago.  Still worth doing now.

OP aksys 22 Oct 2021
In reply to Si dH:> (Edit: In case it isn't obvious, despite taking a cautious stance throughout the pandemic, I am now of the view that his education is more important than minimising transmission potential. The de facto government policy is that kids are going to get covid, so I don't think we should be keeping them off school unnecessarily.)

Yes, kids are going to get Covid.

As older parents (both of us have had serious health issues in the recent past) we are not so keen. Six months now since second jab, no sign of boosters, a lot of Covid in my son’s year, it’s stressful. Perhaps after the booster we will be more phlegmatic about having to get Covid.

Nevertheless, there are other parents and children who are much much more vulnerable than us and would like an education too. It seems too easy and convenient for many in society to forget about them and I feel very strongly that this isn’t right. It degrades us as a society when we don’t look out for the most vulnerable.

Is this unspoken intent to infect as many of us as possible really the only way forward? Japan, Korea and Taiwan don’t yet seem willing to wish mass infection on their populations, yet society seems to be functioning relatively normally and children are still getting educated.

2
OP aksys 22 Oct 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Secondary school busses should have had their ventilator windows fixed open a year ago.  Still worth doing now.

Yes and yes to this. Watching school bus after school bus roll up to school with windows shut. Common sense gone AWOL. 

 summo 22 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

> Clearly the majority of children have a mild illness. I’m interested in case numbers and particularly how many are hospitalised or ill on a longer term. I am concerned that with so many Covid cases there will be a not insubstantial number of youngsters and adults left with long term health issues. 

The uk 'appears' to be an anomaly within the relative highly vaccinated populations of Europe, cases and deaths seem high. I don't believe it's just down to testing. Generally poorer health of population, obesity or perhaps density? 

Where we are cases are 80 / 100,000 in our county over last two weeks in total, 0.5 deaths ie 1 in the last month and for much of the time zero in intensive care. Don't get me wrong, covid is out there, but folk are mixing now sports, concerts etc... they just aren't becoming very ill. Like the uk those dying are generally unvaccinated, the 15% who aren't doubled jabbed. 

Our kids school is small, between 3 sites a couple of hundred metres apart, with some shared facilities has ages from 1-16, 400ish kids in total, I don't know of any that have been hospitalised or off school longer than the mandatory time, that kind of news just wouldn't be a secret in small schools.

3
OP aksys 22 Oct 2021
In reply to summo:

“Where we are cases are 80 / 100,000 in our county over last two weeks in total, 0.5 deaths ie 1 in the last month and for much of the time zero in intensive care. Don't get me wrong, covid is out there, but folk are mixing now sports, concerts etc... they just aren't becoming very ill. Like the uk those dying are generally unvaccinated, the 15% who aren't doubled jabbed. “

Yes, vaccination has made a difference for sure. With second jabs waning though, there is the potential for this to change.

Difficult to know with our big secondary school what is really going on.

 wintertree 22 Oct 2021
In reply to summo:

(Using "rates" to mean daily numbers per 100k people)

> The uk 'appears' to be an anomaly within the relative highly vaccinated populations of Europe, cases and deaths seem high. I don't believe it's just down to testing. Generally poorer health of population, obesity or perhaps density? 

I think the UK has made much less effort to control the spread of the virus over the last two months compared to much of European, and so true infections and death rates are a factor of a 2-3 higher than many other European nations.

I thought there was broad agreement that this clearly a deliberate policy, all be it not completely communicated, and that the policy has a rational basis, all be it one over which there is not scientific consensus.  (Edit: lack of communication has hindered helping individuals at higher risk make rational assessments of their risk and take proportionate measures, and is a real failing IMO)

The current case and death rates tell  us about what has been done in the past to control the spread of the virus .  The UK has done less to control the virus than comparator EU nations (henceforth called "elsewhere").  So we have more of the virus around.

Case rates are much higher (another 5x over death rates) in the UK than elsewhere  as a result of both a younger demographic and more comprehensive testing I think. 

Right now, case rates are turning to rise elsewhere.  It's a bit early to get a good measure of this, but it looks like cases have the potential to rise faster in exponential terms in various European nations despite their more stringent control measures than the UK.  Concerning.

The exponential growth rate tells us how well the virus can spread regardless of the absolute number of cases, and that growth seems to have more potential in various European nations than the UK.  This lets us glimpse where things are going over the next few weeks if nothing much changes.

My best take is that the UK policy has been to allow high daily case numbers for some months where as much of western Europe has held them low.   Now, winter is coming, perhaps carrying AY.4.2 with it.  It's not surprising to me that we're seeing hints of faster exponential growth in countries that have held higher control measures and lower infection rates over recent months.  The big question is where this ends up.  Much has been said for and against the different path the UK has taken, and that difference is going to start to play out over the coming months.

Cases are doubling every ~52 days in the UK at the moment and are hopefully heading for decay - despite our almost total abandonment of control measures.   Cases in Germany are now rising with a doubling time of ~7 days.  If their situation carries on, Germany will have more cases than the UK in about 20 days.   With the case fatality rate about 2x as high in Germany as England, death rates "locked in" by then could be 2x worse than ours.

I'm sure things won't play out with rate constants frozen as they are now, but my point is that we're at a turning point in behaviour for many nations, which makes it a spectacularly bad time to compare rates. 

Considering the timing differences of this wave in the UK and Europe, if it pans out as I think, I very much hope Europe doesn't have a bad flu season.  The big factor in their favour for having held off so long are the MAB therapeutics and the MSD anti-viral now coming on line  I haven't been following to see if they're being submitted to the EMA or what contracts are being signed.

Many other nations have healthcare in a better state than the UK, both as a result of less systematic under-investment for a decade and of having controlled Covid more throughout the past 18 months causing less disruption.  Also Brexit.  Each nation has to ensure it keeps within the bounds of its healthcare and those bounds are worrying for the UK.

Post edited at 09:43
 Si dH 22 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

> Yes, kids are going to get Covid.

> As older parents (both of us have had serious health issues in the recent past) we are not so keen. Six months now since second jab, no sign of boosters, a lot of Covid in my son’s year, it’s stressful. Perhaps after the booster we will be more phlegmatic about having to get Covid.

> Nevertheless, there are other parents and children who are much much more vulnerable than us and would like an education too. It seems too easy and convenient for many in society to forget about them and I feel very strongly that this isn’t right. It degrades us as a society when we don’t look out for the most vulnerable.

I agree we should look after the most vulnerable, of course, but the vast majority of parents and teachers do not fall in that situation; in my opinion it's no longer fair to disrupt the education of kids using bubbles or closures in order to reduce the chances of adults becoming infected.  We need better measures in wider society to limit onward transmission by adults and obviously people need to be cautious about kids seeing their grandparents etc.

I have sympathy with your situation. If you are in an eligible group and more than 6 months + 1 week post your second dose, I saw it reported yesterday that you should now be able to book your booster online rather than waiting for an invite. After 6 months, your level of protection from the first two doses should still be pretty good, albeit likely waning.

OP aksys 22 Oct 2021
In reply to Si dH:

 “I agree we should look after the most vulnerable, of course, but the vast majority of parents and teachers”

......and some children. We seem to forget there will be some who are medically vulnerable. They are entitled to an education too.

“do not fall in that situation; in my opinion it's no longer fair to disrupt the education of kids using bubbles or closures in order to reduce the chances of adults becoming infected.”  

Off course not, unless cases are unreasonably high.

“We need better measures in wider society to limit onward transmission by adults and obviously people need to be cautious about kids seeing their grandparents etc.”

Education is obviously important to children, but these relationships with grandparents are invaluable too. There are no simple answers, society is a finely balanced, nuanced thing. 

As a generalisation, some of Asia seems to have currently achieved a better balance between managing case numbers/ education and a consideration for society in general. I will be interested to watch their approach over the coming six months.

“I have sympathy with your situation. If you are in an eligible group and more than 6 months + 1 week post your second dose, I saw it reported yesterday that you should now be able to book your booster online rather than waiting for an invite. After 6 months, your level of protection from the first two doses should still be pretty good, albeit likely waning.”

We are in Wales, my understanding is that we still wait to be invited. 

Anyway life goes on, I have a day of packing up a house move to get on with. Enough distractions!

1
OP aksys 23 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

This is from the Primary next door to the High School:

“What a half term! We so desperately wanted to get back to normal in September and, whilst we anticipated that it wouldn’t quite be completely normal, we did not expect the upheaval we have had and, to be quite honest, this half term has been far tougher than previous ones throughout the pandemic.
At one point we had over 55 children off with Covid. This has dropped but since the third week in up until today we have regularly had equivalent to a class full of children out with Covid and many others being tested or off with other illnesses. We have had many staff who have had Covid as well and several whose illness continued well after the isolation period – two having to go to hospital due to the ongoing effects of the illness. This has resulted in well over 100 days of staffing lost due to Covid.”

 RobAJones 23 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

Locally, your experience has been reflected in many local schools, but we were top of the infection table for a couple of weeks, so it is probably not typical. Over fifty pupils in one year group testing positive in five days is the worst case. I've been in a dozen or so schools this term, for most, initially, it seemed pretty much back to normal. The rapid rise in rates brought in additional local guidance, for example siblings of positive cases need a negative PCR before returning to school. Looking at some of the local primary seating plans is interesting and certainly supports the idea of 20% of cases causing 80% of infections. Another local factor is that many secondary schools have over 50% of their pupils busses in, some for over 40 minutes. I'm aware of about 40 teaching staff who have tested positive, 4 have been really unwell, but none have had to go to hospital. Teaching assistants seem more likely to have caught it, I'd guess a third. Things have improved over the last couple of weeks. One household in the village where all four (two teachers, two kids) attend different schools have all had it, but not caught it from each other. Three groups who seem to be really struggling are headteachers, new or newly qualified teachers and young carers. NQT's haven't really had a full training experience and the people who would normally support them in their first couple of years are now stretched themselves. It was quite a strange experience this week seeing three LFT's turn positive. I had some sympathy for the kid who was in tears about their half term holiday, but the fear I saw in the young carers face is what I will really remember. There are at least 200k secondary pupils in this position (and estimates put it really nearer 800k) not sure how many of their charges are vulnerable.  

 Offwidth 23 Oct 2021
 fmck 23 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

Schools in Scotland were back first and the initial outbreaks were very extensive. My ten year old daughter was left alone on her group table. All the rest off positive but she caught it off her mum previously in January. Seems to of died down now certainly in our area.

 jimtitt 23 Oct 2021
In reply to wintertree:

> (Using "rates" to mean daily numbers per 100k people)

> > The uk 'appears' to be an anomaly within the relative highly vaccinated populations of Europe, cases and deaths seem high. I don't believe it's just down to testing. Generally poorer health of population, obesity or perhaps density? 

> I think the UK has made much less effort to control the spread of the virus over the last two months compared to much of European, and so true infections and death rates are a factor of a 2-3 higher than many other European nations.

> I thought there was broad agreement that this clearly a deliberate policy, all be it not completely communicated, and that the policy has a rational basis, all be it one over which there is not scientific consensus.  (Edit: lack of communication has hindered helping individuals at higher risk make rational assessments of their risk and take proportionate measures, and is a real failing IMO)

> The current case and death rates tell  us about what has been done in the past to control the spread of the virus .  The UK has done less to control the virus than comparator EU nations (henceforth called "elsewhere").  So we have more of the virus around.

> Case rates are much higher (another 5x over death rates) in the UK than elsewhere  as a result of both a younger demographic and more comprehensive testing I think. 

> Right now, case rates are turning to rise elsewhere.  It's a bit early to get a good measure of this, but it looks like cases have the potential to rise faster in exponential terms in various European nations despite their more stringent control measures than the UK.  Concerning.

> The exponential growth rate tells us how well the virus can spread regardless of the absolute number of cases, and that growth seems to have more potential in various European nations than the UK.  This lets us glimpse where things are going over the next few weeks if nothing much changes.

> My best take is that the UK policy has been to allow high daily case numbers for some months where as much of western Europe has held them low.   Now, winter is coming, perhaps carrying AY.4.2 with it.  It's not surprising to me that we're seeing hints of faster exponential growth in countries that have held higher control measures and lower infection rates over recent months.  The big question is where this ends up.  Much has been said for and against the different path the UK has taken, and that difference is going to start to play out over the coming months.

> Cases are doubling every ~52 days in the UK at the moment and are hopefully heading for decay - despite our almost total abandonment of control measures.   Cases in Germany are now rising with a doubling time of ~7 days.  If their situation carries on, Germany will have more cases than the UK in about 20 days.   With the case fatality rate about 2x as high in Germany as England, death rates "locked in" by then could be 2x worse than ours.

> I'm sure things won't play out with rate constants frozen as they are now, but my point is that we're at a turning point in behaviour for many nations, which makes it a spectacularly bad time to compare rates. 

> Considering the timing differences of this wave in the UK and Europe, if it pans out as I think, I very much hope Europe doesn't have a bad flu season.  The big factor in their favour for having held off so long are the MAB therapeutics and the MSD anti-viral now coming on line  I haven't been following to see if they're being submitted to the EMA or what contracts are being signed.

> Many other nations have healthcare in a better state than the UK, both as a result of less systematic under-investment for a decade and of having controlled Covid more throughout the past 18 months causing less disruption.  Also Brexit.  Each nation has to ensure it keeps within the bounds of its healthcare and those bounds are worrying for the UK.

However it should be noted that Germany has changed it's priorities, the preventative measures no longer kick in on simple case numbers but primarily on hospitalisation and IC occupation. As the relevant legislation is still in force some local areas are already reverting to more stringent meaures, my area will probably go back to some extent end of next week particularly in the schools (and rely on the autumn break which starts on the 2nd Nov).

 TobyA 23 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

It's been pretty shitty where I work. Loads of kids getting it. Plenty of staff too - some of whom despite being young and young-ish and vaccinated have been really poorly. Double vaccination isn't a guarantee that you won't get ill - of course I rationally understood that, but the last weeks has made it apparent. We're trying to make sure kids at home with covid have work to do so they aren't missing out but it's really hard to keep tabs on who is off for what reason.

There are loads of other bugs going around also. I've been either a bit ill or proper ill for the last 4 weeks - my LFTs are all coming back negative, but I still feel like crap, particularly 4 weeks back and this last week. I've only taken one day off, but probably should have stayed home some of this last week. But I know the cover supervisors are working their arses off with so many people off sick and I believe that getting supply teachers in hasn't always been easy, so I would have felt bad dropping colleagues in it by staying home when I was still OK to drive. I'm also genuinely worried for particularly my Y13 groups, we have been told that exam boards will give us some information on the subject areas covered in the A level exams next June, but I can't find out what this really means. I honestly don't think anyone knows yet. This is supposedly in recognition of the hard year the kids had last year, but it doesn't seem to be that much better this academic year - not at the rate it is going through schools.

What isn't getting much media attention is a long with kids and teachers getting sick with covid is that it seems many schools are having a lot of problems with behaviour. We are getting some students coming into Y7, who haven't really been in mainstream education for the last 2 years. And the more socio-economic deprivation children suffer from, the greater the impact of the pandemic seems to have been on them for a myriad of reasons. This can play out in quite extreme behaviour that disrupts teaching more than it already is due to illness.

 ablackett 23 Oct 2021
In reply to TobyA:

>. I'm also genuinely worried for particularly my Y13 groups, we have been told that exam boards will give us some information on the subject areas covered in the A level exams next June, but I can't find out what this really means. I honestly don't think anyone knows yet. This is supposedly in recognition of the hard year the kids had last year, but it doesn't seem to be that much better this academic year - not at the rate it is going through schools.

I think it’s fair to assume at least for maths it will be a list of topics examined, which will be exactly the same as a brief version of the specification. It will shed very little light on the exam.

 freeflyer 23 Oct 2021

Would children, staff and parents normally test themselves if they have cold-like symptoms?

I'm wondering if one of the main causes of outbreaks is simply that the public aren't aware of the current symptoms which come with a COVID infection.

According to the ZOE team, these are, in order of prevalence:

1. Headache
2. Runny nose
3. Sneezing
4. Sore throat
5. Cough

In other words, absolutely not the ones touted by PHE, whose symptom list hasn't been updated for ages, if ever.

They are briefly discussed by Prof Spector in his latest report:

youtube.com/watch?v=sJlD3R8QDd4&

Go to 18:30 to see this list.

The PHE list is here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/main-symptoms/

In reply to aksys:

We're a small primary and we've had one case since the star of the autumn term. The big headache for us is dealing with the covid like symptoms that loads of children normally present with at this time of year. Our guidance advises us to send children home and ask parents to obtain a PCR test however mild the covid symptoms might be. This has led to a fair few disgruntled parents. Beyond all that though, we've been blooming lucky.

 RobAJones 23 Oct 2021
In reply to freeflyer:

> Would children, staff and parents normally test themselves if they have cold-like symptoms?

Most staff I know are doing LFT's 3/4 times a week even with no symptoms. They are also doing their best to get booster jabs ASAP.

Any child displaying/complaining of any of the symptoms you listed, at school, will take a supervised LFT. 

 RobAJones 23 Oct 2021
In reply to ablackett:

> I think it’s fair to assume at least for maths it will be a list of topics examined, which will be exactly the same as a brief version of the specification. It will shed very little light on the exam.

Yep, In addition there will probably be an additional formula sheet. Feb 7th looks like the date it will be released. 

 RobAJones 23 Oct 2021
In reply to TobyA:

> But I know the cover supervisors are working their arses off with so many people off sick and I believe that getting supply teachers.hasn't been easy. 

Certainly here, perhaps they should get a pay rise like HGV drivers? 

>We are getting some students coming into Y7, who haven't really been in mainstream education for the last 2 years. And the more socio-economic deprivation children suffer from, the greater the impact of the pandemic seems to have been on them for a myriad of reasons. This can play out in quite extreme behaviour that disrupts teaching more than it already is due to illness.

That is also a big concern here. It's not limited to year 7, although more of an issue in KS3 and exacerbated by exam classes being a priority. 

 Fozzy 23 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

I broke up for half term yesterday, and to my utter joy, Mrs Fozzy & I (both double-jabbed) tested positive for C19 this morning.


Both of us feel horrific, aching, shaking & napping, plus an emerging cough each. Lucky us, eh. 
 

 TobyA 23 Oct 2021
In reply to RobAJones:

> That is also a big concern here. It's not limited to year 7, although more of an issue in KS3 and exacerbated by exam classes being a priority. 

Oh sure, not just one year group. Indeed when it's a little 'un kicking furniture around it's a bit less worrying than when it's a strapping 15 year old who has 6 inches and a stone or two on you!

Even in VI th form it's really worrying how many kids are suffering from anxiety and so on. It's a tough time for a lot of folk.

 RobAJones 23 Oct 2021
In reply to TobyA:

> Oh sure, not just one year group. Indeed when it's a little 'un kicking furniture around it's a bit less worrying than when it's a strapping 15 year old who has 6 inches and a stone or two on you!

Compeletly agree, although I would add that some staff would have far more students fitting into the worrying category.

I remember trying to explain to a couple of Y8's and their parents that winding up a year 11 who made reasonable sums of money from his unauthorised "on line fights" wasn't a good idea. 

> Even in VI th form it's really worrying how many kids are suffering from anxiety and so on. It's a tough time for a lot of folk.

It's the differences that I find most striking. Some seem to be barely affected, at least in an academic sense, for others it has a massive impact. I am still struggling with, in general, not attending an inadequate school has more of an impact than not attending an outstanding one? 

 timjones 24 Oct 2021
In reply to aksys:

Covid has spread through our daughters peer and year group at school over the last 3 weeks and the reintroduction of control measures appears to have done little to slow that spread.

Our daughter tested positive about midway through the spread amongst her peers and as far as I know only one of them hasn't now tested positive. She has just completed her self isolation period with a loss of taste and smell but no other symptoms, her taste is returning but her sense of smell hasn't returned yet. 

Three adult family members had close contact with her at the time of her positive test, we are all fully vaccinated and continue to test negative with no symptoms.

As an aside we had to cancel the holiday that we was due to start on the final day of her isolation and it looks like we will get just about all the money back via a combination of refunds and an insurance claim.


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