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

Hi folks

Can anyone tell me what they think the isolation period is for children who are negative, but household close contacts?

In simple terms, how many days and from when....

I cant work it out.

Thanks.

What a parent you are. Maybe you shouldn't have had kids if they're that much of a burden?

Your desks and chairs are not 1.1m apart in your school? They should be - why are your lead workers not enforcing this with your principal?

At break and lunch they eat, but in our school there is a strict policy of remaining in their seats to eat with mask off if they must remain indoors, but they are encouraged to go outdoors to eat. A huge amount of planning went into rezoning areas of the school to make sure every year group has access to outdoor space. Yes, we have the space to do it, we are lucky.

You guys need to go to your lead workers and tell them you need more supervisors. There is money to provide additional supervision, it can be used on the halls and corridors if that's where you need it. Your principal and deputy should be patrolling too to ensure compliance.

How long is your lunch time? Ours was 50mins but we reduced it to 30mins and shortened the school day by 20mins. 30mins is less time to supervise so you can have more teachers and it also doesn't allow students to get too wound up because, to be fair to them, they are only doing what comes natural to them at break and lunch.

Well, I dunno. Your principal is not very good in that case. It is hardly making demands either - the role of the lead worker is to liaise with the principal on your behalf, regarding all things Covid-related.

I don't know, maybe I am just really really lucky, but we have two lead workers and they are absolutely smashing! Cabinets, lockers, presses etc were removed from all the classrooms to make space to separate students out. They painted little dots on the floor to mark out the 1.1m distances so that when the tables and chairs got moved, they could easily be fixed back to where they were supposed to be.

Our principal is 100% open to everything that is suggested. Our principal assists with S&S if we are stuck or if we point out a black or blind spot.

The Department is beyond useless, but that's not a Covid thing. They've been like that since as far back as I can remember. At least Covid has outed them to the general public!

Well the kids mix anyway. Way to school and way home. Outside of school. In the yard.

Just let them at it now. Obviously masks should remain but anything apart from that is probably not helping a lot.

Couple of relatives who are teachers giving out stink on whatsapp at the moment. Saying parents treat school as a glorified babbysitting service. Well duh. Its part and parcel of schools. They arent happy at all. Apparently to do with safety. One of them on a foregin holiday with his kids over Christmas. LOL. Chancers.

Ah yeh.

I should have done a Tony Holohan on it and referred to the whatsapps as anecdotal instead. That would make it much more believable.

If your still around by then. What with the schools being such a scene of carnage.

Oh, my sincerest apologies. I read your post all wrong. I thought you were being really ignorant and doing the usual 'jealous 9-5er who takes their own unhappiness with their work/life balance out on teachers' routine.

I thought you were suggesting that teachers might have been visiting family or doing their shopping or maybe even going to the pub or getting a few Christmas presents and that you disapproved of this, in a way that would mean that you are of unsound or of no mind and all.

But I was wrong. You care. You're a good guy. I'm sure they teachers will be delighted to get those well wishing emails from you in the morning or you might even pop in a card to the school

Fair play to you

You've actually made me wonder and now I too am curious - what it is your sister in law and the whole family were getting up to to end up with it too?

Best wishes to all teachers , SNAs and kids . Lets hope they can stay in school and manage the disruption as best they can . Its not easy but life is not easy for us all at the minute so we muddle through as best we can . Most adults will be putting kids first throughout all this and know how vital it is to keep them as safe but as stable as we can . Thier well being is vital so we plod along and do out best for them

Thanks - that was 100% my reading of it too. The only issue I had was when does the 10/14 days start. E.g. you get a runny nose on a Tuesday, you do an antigen on the Wednesday - thats positive lets say, you then apply for a test - you dont do the test until Friday or Saturday, results come through on Sunday or Monday, nearly a week after symptoms begin. In the mean time there are close contacts in the house. When does their 10/14 days begin......

It's 5 days for anyone with a booster, 10 days without the booster. Very few (if any?) kids have a booster.

I think its because most kids are not vaccinated. I agree though it is frustrating - my kids have to isolate longer than my husband who was positive which does seem crazy. The kids are perfectly well showing no symptoms but we have to follow the rules.

Kids have had to put up with alot over this pandemic

So, my kids secondary school has handed back contact tracing to the HSE since the beginning of this academic year.

In practice, this means that contact tracing has to happen through the parents of a positive PCR testee.

The question is: even if they have some phone numbers, who in their right mind is going to give out these details to the HSE, knowing the consequence to be that someone's child is going to be asked to miss up to a week and a half of school just because they were in the same class?

If my child tested positive I would let them (the child) contact other kids in their class, and leave it to the other kids+parents to decide how to handle it. I don't even think I have any of the parent's phone numbers, and even if I did I wouldn't be giving them out without consent.