I'm a teacher and I honestly feel done. I am tired of the school opening debate. We haven't been closed. We want all children back but space and logistics prevent this as does government guidance. Teachers don't have any choice in this. It's down to the government, unions, school leadership teams and governors. I have no choice in this. I have never felt so low and last night I had seriously negative thoughts about not wanting to be around any more (I would not act on this but I've never felt worse).
People forget that if we had locked down 2-3 weeks sooner the numbers of cases and deaths would extremely low and then opening schools would be an entirely different situation and would be much more easily done. Same goes for if track and trace and PPE had been properly dealt with. This is a government issue not an issue for teachers. The majority of teachers are just normal people like me who love our kids and just want the best for them. We don't always get things right but we try.
I just want this to stop. I'm bone tired and mentally exhausted from this debate. There has been little to no vitriol of other professions in the same way as teaching.
I don't want respect, I don't want a bloody medal for doing a job I'm paid for. I just want to do my job with far less criticism, scrutiny and judgement than we continually get and which has got so much worse recently.
I feel awful the kids who are missing education time. I'm doing my best to support with home learning but it's not the same as children being in school (through nobody's fault).
I don't want people to reply to this as I honestly don't want the debate to continue. I just needed to get it off my chest.