Researchers have found that children with Coronavirus Infection may display a very wide range of symptoms. People can request a test if they have a new continuous cough, fever or loss of taste or smell, but research by Queens University belfast found that diarrhoea and vomiting were more common symptoms in children with covid 19. Our medical editor fergus walsh has the latest. Education unlocked, as more and more schools open their gates. Whilst coronavirus poses very little risk to childrens health, it is important to avoid outbreaks spreading in schools. So this raises the question, how to spot the infection in the young. At present, you can get a coronavirus test if you display any of the following symptoms. A high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss of taste or smell. Researchers, though, have found that in children, a huge variety of other symptoms may indicate a covid 19 infection. These include headache, fatigue, sore throat, loss of appetite, skin rashes, diarrhoea and vomiting. The trouble is, these can also apply to a whole range of other ailments. Researchers in belfast believe the testing criteria for children need to be widened. Based on the data that we found, i think that gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea and vomiting, in particular, should be added to the testing strategy for children. I think we can reassure families that symptoms such as a sniffly nose, so sneezing or a blocked nose, are not associated with covid 19, and those children should not need a test. Hand hygiene, face masks and Year Group Bubbles will help minimise the risk of coronavirus spreading. But if children are under the weather, what will parents do . If my child didnt seem right at all, then i would just keep them in and seek medical advice. Take their temperature and then probably phone 111. In these current circumstances, i would certainly phone 111. Around 4 Million People are using the covid symptoms tracker app from Kings College london. The team say the signs of Coronavirus Infection are so varied in children, parents should err on the side of caution. Its important for parents, if their child is unwell, off their food, nonspecific, keep them away from school until they start feeling better. That way, we are likely to cut down any potential infections, even if the risk is small. Good morning. The department of health says scientists advising them keep covid symptoms under review. One thing experts agree on is thatjust a runny nose is not a reason to keep a child off school. Fergus walsh, bbc news. Now on bbc News Coronavirus your stories. Philippa thomas hears from people about how covid 19 has affected their lives. Welcome to coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid 19 is changing lives around the world. Im Philippa Thomas and this week we are looking at education, where there has been enormous upheaval over the last six months, as country after country went into lockdown, millions of schools closed their doors. Those that were able to, took their teaching online. Now, in many places, we are in back to School Season and this week we will hear stories about how the pandemic has already transformed teaching and what it feels like when going back to the classroom is not an easy option. Later we will speak to an american interning here in the uk who is campaigning for students like herself who are immunocompromised and so most at risk from returning to campus. First, two teachers with very different stories about how they have adapted during the pandemic. Peter tabichi is a Science Teacher in remote rural kenya who took home the Varkey Foundation global teacher prize last year. Jamie frost is a london maths teacher who is a finalist for that award this year. Jamie, if i can come to you first. Here in the uk, covid has meant remote teaching. How has that been for you . We have been able to continue lessons to a degree of normalcy, obviously without that face to face interaction but we have done our best to maintain the usual routine of a school day so the lessons are still at the normal time. We have been encouraged to have as many live meetings as possible and i do many things i would normally do in a lesson, such as teaching from powerpoints, i can still use those, i just annotate it with a virtual pen and they can see that. I can still speak to students and target them for questioning. It has been very different but its been interesting how it has in some ways become a new norm, we have been doing it for so long that itjust now seems relatively normal. Peter, i think your story is different. How has the coronavirus changed the way you teach . I can say that it has had a very negative impact. As a teacher we are used to going to class and teaching face to face but that is not happening now and i consider that many educators agree with me that teaching is very important. I can say that teaching science is not very easy at the moment because you need the practical aspect, you need to have students around with you, putting them into groups and right now that is not possible. That is one of the challenges i experience. There are a number of things i do to make sure some things are done but it is not possible to achieve that. Not having the routine of school, has impacted my students in many ways. For example, they greatly miss their friends, because every day they were interacting with them but right now they are not interacting with them and then the other thing is that they are unable to have access to things such as counselling and even free meals which they used to enjoy at school. Jamie, there is clearly a different story between the two schools but the fact that pupils, that all of us are social beings, that must make a difference for the students that you teach as well. Indeed. I have some of the same problems as peter at my school. So the fact that we do not have face to face interaction in terms of pastoral support for students, it makes it much more difficult without being able to see them face to face. For example i have been trying to organise a weekly form time to check on student welfare and such and catch up with them and what they have been doing for the week. But it has been more difficult and when these students cannot see each other because they have to isolate in their own houses and i know they communicate via social media apps and such in a similar way they would when they actually come to school anyway but it is just not the same. And i think they would be incredibly glad when they can come back to school and have normal interaction with each other. I want to ask you more about how you teach. Jamie, even before the pandemic you were something of a wiz with virtual teaching. Tell us about that. I run a platform called drfrostmaths, and its used by several thousand schools. Note that all these will eventually have a worked example video. And it has come into play quite a lot during the pandemic because the Certain Software that ive developed that helps in terms of remote teaching. There are things like Teaching Resources and a number of teachers have used my slides and such for their lessons. Another way you can think about it is area. Some have been making youtube videos where they have been teaching my slides which has been great and there is also for example, like, a virtual white board that i have used an awful lot during my teaching. That allows me to connect with students whiteboards so i can see what they are writing on their boards and i can put exam questions and stuff and i have been trying to adapt my Technology Since the lockdown so i can support students better. For example, one thing i was doing before lockdown which worked effectively was setting a gcse paper during the lesson via the platform and i can sit at my computer and i can see live their answers coming in so i can identify what questions students have misconceptions with and you can imagine how helpful that has been during the lockdown. I have adapted that further so you can see live as it comes in without me having to refresh. In that way i can still get an assessment for learning without actually seeing the students visually. Peter, you are in a very rural area of kenya and getting online is not that easy for students. Tell me about the way you are trying to use technology. The students dont have access to computers, even in my own school we do not have those facilities. So what i do right now is i support the idea that learning is a continuous process. Even if the students are not in school, learning should still take place and it is not limited to the four walls of the classroom. I give them affordable mobile phones because that is what they can afford right now and at the same time i give them weekly internet bundles because they have to be connected. Without that you cannot connect with them. And at the same time, a part from just leaving them phones and internet bundles, i collaborate with other teachers to give them continuous online mentorship, because that is very important for them to know how to use the mobile phones, which are the websites to use, what my colleague from the uk has said, he has a very nice website which they can use off line because most of the time we dont have internet around here. And the other thing that i do as part of this programme is we also help parents and guardians with teaching tips because, you know, even my own father. Most of the things i learned i learned from my parents. My father was a teacher. Learning can take place at home, not just at school. So we help parents and guardians with teaching tips so they can also help their children learn about practical aspects and life skills while they are at home. Jamie, do you have any reflection on what we heard from peter . Its a very holistic approach to education. My school is in a lucky situation compared to peters in terms of the provision we have and availability of internet and such. And i think it is how we can best use the resources we have to support students in that completely holistic way, pastorally academically and spiritually. Jamie, one report in the uk this week that came out says that what the pandemic has done is shown that those who are better off have done better from education. More resources at school and at home et cetera. Those who are socially and economically worse off have really struggled and may have lost as much as three months of education. I suppose that is a worry for the entire teaching community. Absolutely. And i think that is why it is so imperative that we make sure and i think it is the governments responsibility here, to ensure that all students have some sort of device with reliable internet so they can access education. Technology has power to transform education but we must make sure every student has appropriate access. Peter, i would like to know more about what has been happening to your students. How would you say the pandemic has affected your community . The community has been affected and everyone has been affected. We used to go to school and we had that routine. You are going to wake up, you teach, you interact with students and then with other teachers in the staffroom. But right now that is not happening. I consider it has had a psychosocial effect on us, on the students and the community. Currently many students are staying at home with their parents and i consider the majority are doing nothing to keep busy and active. Young people like being active and interacting with others. And this has led to boredom and i am sorry to say we have seen cases whereby this has resulted in things like drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, area marriage and as teachers we have some fears that some students may not be able to report back to schools when the schools reopen and we hope that will happen soon. Students also used to enjoy free meals being offered but that is not happening right now because most of our students come from very poor homes and there is a serious food shortage. So i think some parents are trying to teach, trying to teach their children and this is the time when they appreciate the importance of a teacher. They now see the great work that the teachers are doing. But i consider this, you know, later at the end of the term and that is why i am so happy with the initiative being taken by the government and the minister of education and other education stakeholders to ensure that they come up with a solution for ensuring that even when the schools reopen that the students are safe and teachers are safe and learning continues. One silver lining, i say this as a parent, is that parents really appreciate teachers, having seen much more of what they do. Jamie, a final thought for you. Do you think education really has changed forever . I think certain practices will change, as we come back into teaching obviously schools have to be incredibly reliant on technology in the uk and already a staff meeting this morning, because this is my first day of school, and we are discussing how we are going to use that technology more, even though we are in school now. Certain things like, parents evenings, we are going to do online now and certain as pects of our lesson. We are still using the same technology we were using a few months ago and there will be certain things that will be back to normal. My teaching is not going to change drastically but certainly think i will have a greater reliance on technology as we come back to normal teaching. Peter tabichi in kenyas rift valley and jamie frost her in london. Two of the many ingenious and inspiring teachers around the world, determined not to let the virus stop them. You are watching coronavirus your stories. A programme about how covid 19 is changing so many lives around the world. Im Philippa Thomas and this week we are looking at education. It is back to School Season for so many students, but what if you want to keep studying online because you are clinically vulnerable, you fear that going back to school could actually damage your health . 19 year old Cameron Lynch is just finishing an internship here in london with disability rights uk. She is due to continue her education back home in virginia in the United States but worries that after month of online learning, physically going back to school could pose a serious risk to her health. When she spoke up about this, she realised she is not alone. Cameron has been telling me her story. I have type 1 diabetes, a form of muscular dystrophy, and coeliacs disease, so returning to campus for the fall semester is dangerous for my health, and id believe that im not necessarily given the same opportunities as my able bodied peers in order to take the same classes and have the same graduation track as i am supposed to, so i have been trying to make sure that i still get the same education and opportunities as my other peers and to make sure that i am not falling behind in my work and trying to do the same for other students with disabilities as well. Tell us about the letter that you wrote, and you put it on social media, and what happened . Injune i wrote a letter talking to my college age peers about how their use of social Media Broadcasting that they didnt care about the isolation or the pandemic and were continuing living their lives was impacting my Mental Health because i was still in complete isolation, still hadnt seen anyone for couple of months, so it was very hurtful to me to watch my friends go about their lives. And i didnt expect this to happen but i had maybe a0 other College Students with disabilities or with autoimmune conditions reach out to me, telling me how much my letter meant to them and how they felt less alone. So i then turned this into a support group for immunocompromised College Students to have people to talk to and to have someone who understands their frustrations. Can you give us an idea of the range of disabilities or vulnerabilities that the students you are talking to are dealing with . Theres 50 of us in the group, we have a very wide range of conditions. We have some students who are in wheelchairs, theres a lot of students with diabetes, similar to myself, but we kind of have a lot of autoimmune conditions. And right now, this week, in many countries theres a lot of talk about going back to school and its seen as a physical thing. Moving back onto schools, campuses, but for you, do you feel that the conversation simply overlooks you . Yes. I would say so. I think there are very few schools that have even acknowledged their immunocompromised students or even acknowledged the presence of us and acknowledging that this is a very difficult time for us. We have been in complete isolation for five months now, it is not an option for us to go back to school. I think there is a lot of narrative about choosing to go back or not choosing. If i could choose, i would be back on campus at my school in a heartbeat, but i dont have that decision, that was already made for me by my health and by my doctors, so i am staying at home, and my biggest concern moving forward is, im worried that students who are still at home are getting left out of the conversation and out of communities, so i am trying to increase awareness for the Mental Health of students with disabilities, because i know that a lot of them are feeling completely isolated and completely alone so how can we make sure they still feel cared for and still feel like universities or colleges still know who they are . And what, cameron, would make enough of a difference . What specifically are you asking for . Is that for all classes to be also Available Online . Yes. I think there has been confusion of what i am asking for. I am not saying that they want all classes to only be Available Online, im just asking that we have the same opportunities to take classes that able bodied students have. So if the class is only offered in person, we obviously cant take that class, so i am just asking for them to consider us, and consider us in their decision about classes and having them available to us, even if we are not able on campus, because we know they can do it. Its not beyond their jurisdiction, they did it in the spring when they shut down campus, and they have continued to show that if a student were to get covid 19 they can continue their Classes Online from quarantine, so why cant we do that from the beginning . Student years are often meant to be the best years of your life, arent they . Oh yes. Yes, and i think there is a rhetoric around college as, these are the best four years of your lives, these are the best years, you will never have the same life again, and i think its very damaging for Mental Health of students who arent able to live that life, and to begin with, disabled students dont get the same kind of College Experience that normal College Students get, so this rhetoric of, this is the best time youll ever have, these are the best days of your lives, thats not necessarily true for everyone. We have to fight to even go to college in the first place, so it is hard to hear that i will never be as happy as i am in these four years when im still sitting at home, trying to maintain a sense of healthiness and trying to just take my classes and do my internship. Does it expose that, and provide that opportunity you are great example of a student with disabilities, clinically vulnerable, speaking up and getting others to hear you. Yes. I think it definitely, as much as this pandemic has been stressful and has been kind of a very terrible time to have disabilities, it has given me a community. I have met so many students who also have disabilities who kind of felt alone before and having to fight for my rights at school and having to do all of this, and i have been able to help other students realise that they are not alone and that they have a sense of community still, even if it is a virtual sense, and theyve already talked about, one day after all of this is over, meeting up and finding a way to connect in person, so i think it has definitely given me a community. It is also given me a voice and a passion. Through this project, i started an internship at disability rights uk, which has also given me a great platform to continue to work for change here in the uk, and im able to kind of be a voice for young people with disabilities because we are often forgotten about in the media and i think it is really important to bring awareness that people like me still exist. Not all young adults are out partying with their friends, there are still people like me who are still scared and still needing to take it very seriously. What do you say to young adults in that situation . Because there will be a lot of people who are watching who are alone and may be struggling on the way that you describe. I would say that, you are not alone. There are a lot of people out there who are still having to take it seriously and still in your position, and know that eventually this will be over and you will be strongerfor it, and people, young people with disabilities, we are fighters. We know the meaning of life and we know, from a younger age, kind of, what it takes to survive. Which sounds dramatic but, so we have a greater sense of empathy, i would say. So use that to your advantage, how can you speak up for what you believe in and speak up for what you need, because a lot of times, we have to fight for everything. So how can we make it so that the people who are younger than us wont have to fight as much or as hard. Cameron lynch on the dilemma for clinically vulnerable students like her who want to pursue their learning without damaging their health. Im Philippa Thomas. Thank you for watching this weeks coronavirus your stories. Hello there. Looks like we are all in for a dose of cooler, fresher weather over the coming few days. Could be perfect weather for seeing some rainbows, just as we saw on thursday here by a weather watcher in scotland. Further south, its been milder and quite muggy for a while. Temperatures ahead of the cloud and drizzle were as high as 23 celsius in the southeast of england. Its a cooler start to friday, temperatures in the clearer skies, typically 9 11 celsius. Some more blustery showers in northern scotland, then towards the southwest, this cloud never really clears away. It comes back into the southwest of england and south wales pushing eastwards towards the midlands and south east england. That will bring a bit of light rain and drizzle. Further north, some brighter skies, some sunshine and some showers. Those showers turning more widespread in scotland and northern ireland, pushing into the far north of england. Disappointing temperatures, 17 18 celsius, fairly typically, could make 20 in the southeast ahead of any rain that arrives during the evening. As we head into the weekend, High Pressure is close by, but its towards the southwest of the uk. It leaves us with a run of northwesterly winds. Thats going to drive in cooler air, and temperatures on saturday could be even lower during the day as well it will be a chilly start to the day too. So, a cool weekend ahead. There will be this mixture of sunshine and showers continuing. As we look ahead to saturday, most of the showers will be in the north and west of the uk. Quite a few showers, actually, across northern scotland, quite a few showers for northern ireland. Those will stream over the irish sea into northwestern parts of england and wales. So, for the south and the east, it should be largely dry, some sunshine at times, those temperatures could be even lower, making 14 celsius at best through the central belt of scotland 18 in the south of england. Some more showers continuing overnight and into sunday. Should be a drier day though for northern ireland, a drier day for scotland. Most of the showers across england and wales, some of those could be heavy as well. Temperatures will be pegged back in those showers, but probably a degree or two higher than saturday across scotland and northern ireland, but still only making 16 celsius. Those showers do move away during the evening as we head into the early part of next week. Weve got lower pressure to the north of the uk, some weather fronts on the scene, higher pressure into more southern areas. So, that means for the first few days of next week, its going to remain unsettled for northern areas. There will be some stronger winds, some rain from time to time. Further south, it should be largely dry and warmer temperatures into the mid 20s. 00 29 22,089 2147483051 51 25,759 and teachers are safe 2147483051 51 25,759 4294966103 13 29,430 and learning continues
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