Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

Vaccination helps mitagate illness if infected, there's some evidence it reduces transmission. As does restricting the movements of close contacts. Why would we not try prevent those who are vulnerable and/or unvaccinated from being infected? It is so selfish not to. As well as this the more it spreads the more chance of mutation/more troublesome strain which is bad for all of us.

Read up. I've already offered two solutions. Neither of which might actually be possible but I do think somesort of solution needs to be found. What's your plan? Declare "it's too much hassle" and stick your head in the sand?

I don't want further disruption to education either. To be fair I think we're both on the same side in that regard. I disagree strongly with allowing unmitigated spread though

What do you mean by sick vs well? Some kids can be positive and not be unwell at all, should they be sent in? Without testing close contacts there's no way of knowing if they are positive unless they become unwell.

8 students had to be sent home from our school last week with coughs. They hadn't been tested just sent in. 3 haven't come back in. The others had negative tests/cameback without symptoms. Not everyone is responsible.

I know this probably isn't helpful but in all of this it's assumed that when the kids are in school things are continuing as normal. In fact the basics have become very difficult and many teachers are struggling to get anything taught.

The job depends on being able to communicate. This is very difficult when you arrive to a class late and out of breath because you had to cross the school between classes and wrestle with some IT that has a different set of idiosyncrasies from the IT in the room you just left. Then you stand at the front of the room and shout at them so the ones at the back can hear you through the mask. Can't hear a bloody word they say in reply. It's probably not so bad for the ones we got to know before covid, at least we had some sort of functioning relationship, but for all 1st yrs and 2nd yrs, and an awful lot of TYs, 5th yrs and LCs the teacher is a stranger.

You can't correct work then and there in the class because you can't hear them if they read it out and you can't go down to their desks. You take work up, wait three days, correct it and give it back three days later. They barely glance at it because it's ancient history to them.

Staggered breaks mean I often teach a 40 min class with a 15 min break in the middle of it. Mask breaks, sanitising desks and dealing with the problems the kids have with Teams etc. all eat into class time.

Eating my lunch in my car is lonely and depressing but the staffroom is overcrowded. I know that doesn't directly affect the kids' experience of school but it's taking its toll on me.

I can sympathise withsomeofwhat you say, particularly the IT issues and racing around the school. We moved to 1hour classes which helped with some of the disruption. Also trying to utilise uploads to teams for homework where possible and getting kids to hand up longer pieces of work on sheets rather than in their copies so they aren't without their copies for so long between handing up and getting back. I too miss the staffroom.

Forcing Covid-19 close contact children out of school ‘probably unnecessary’ - Reid

HSE chief says health rule for close contacts of Covid-19 cases must be ‘proportionate’

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/forcing-covid-19-close-contact-children-out-of-school-probably-unnecessary-reid-1.4671796

Sorry meant to link this :

And link to Nolan's argument:

Paul Reid maybe the HSE chief but that just means he is a civil servant. He has no medical background whatsoever.

What Dr. Cliona Ni Cheallaigh said is 100% on the money.

My lad sat next to a child who subsequently tested positive and my son tested negative. We have nearly all come in contact with it at some point, however not everyone who is exposed to it will get it. Once cases in the community drop then there will be less virus circulating and therefore less school cases. Yes lots of kids will get covid, hopefully the younger vulnerable children are given access to vaccine in next few months.

My preschoolers class was shut from a case, two days in. Quite a number of staff and kids tested positive. Then the other class got taken down by a case. At the test centre it was all parents and small kids. Im not sure what the solution is here, but 10 days at home for perfectly well children is tough especially if it keeps happening over and over.

The virus has always been a lesser issue with younger kids, Delta or no and as you rightly point out there are many other things out there that kids will pick up. This current zeal for testing kids should pass soon enough.

Play school in neighbouring village closed. One case of COVID. Child tested positive but is perfectly well, not sure why he got a test in the first place but 30 kids restricting movements now for 10 days minimum when nobody sick and parents taking sick leave, etc scrambling to look after their kids.

Its absolute insanity. Sooner testing criteria changes the better. Time to cop on.

There was no NPHET meeting last week but there is one this week and they are expected to have something to say on this topic.

I'm not a parent but observing from the sidelines, I'm absolutely baffled at what is going on. I don't pretend to have any expertise but it seems quite a chaotic situation.

Obviously government determined to get children back to school and equally determined to keep them open and yet 1000's being sent home daily (even those figures not accurate with a bizzare HSE decision after bad PR to change how they report these numbers)

There's also the narrative schools are safe (what am I missing in this assessment), given I'd assume most parents vaccinated by now, what is causing all these suspected cases. It can't be the dreaded mingling at drop off, pick up times, I also presume most teachers vaccinated at this stage.

HSE now suggestions testing being scaled back dramatically, then it's not.

An INFECTIOUS DISEASE expert predicting most children will get Covid, only to be immediately contradicted by the HSE and NPHET members.

Crèches too sending 100's of children home and in both situations no one seems to fully understand how long kids to be kept at home.

Again, I'm not a parent, certainly no expert but this looks like a shambles and I can only imagine the stress on both parents and children alike, is this really the best Government, HSE and Education department can do after all the lessons that should have been learned. Mother of God, its only 3rd week of school term, winter hasn't even started .

Yeah, that's whatever their immune systems do. Apart from the at risk kids we've never been concerned by them because they are largely mild to no symptoms and not everyone gets tested so there could be a lot more of them out just as there could be lots of asymptomatic untested adults.