Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

How do teachers feel about schools being open in Sept?

291 replies

Meangallery · 01/08/2020 17:40

So kid's education is to get priority, schools are to open in Sept and if infections rise the Government will close down everything else.

Will the Unions tolerate this? It feels like teachers will be on the frontline next year...

OP posts:
Mistressiggi · 03/08/2020 23:01

Well you could say that if it's a slower pace of life for teachers that this is because of how intense and stressful their normal working week is Wink

FrippEnos · 03/08/2020 23:10

Mistressiggi

I agree if anything it shows have hectic a teachers day normally is.

I now await the bullshit response of
"teachers work harder/ have it harder than anyone else"

From the peanut gallery.

tempnamechange98765 · 04/08/2020 07:20

My SIL was bored because she didn't have enough to do. She hated that she was only in a hub one or two days every fortnight because she lives alone so in the beginning of lockdown it was horrible for her - she would much rather have been at work. Or at least had work to do at home. She would set a bit of work on Google classroom and that would be it for the day.

Is it not obvious that in parts of Wales (and some parts of Scotland, clearly) teachers haven't been working full time? I think that's pretty obvious from my posts. I've accepted that I don't know how the situation is in England at all, but having spoken to several teachers of different age groups and seniority, my experience is that they have definitely not been working full time.

Regardless, most I've spoken to are still really keen to get back into the classroom, full time.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
walksen · 04/08/2020 07:36

I think it's obvious from your posts that you think teachers haven't been working full time or at most the teachers you know haven't been.

The workload a teacher might have had depends on the school they worked at. obviously there was less book marking etc to do

but dept heads etc could utilise their staff in other ways, but it needed coordinating .Lots of schools used the time to record narrated PowerPoints, improve schemes of work, contact parents etc.

Some staff would have less to do as kids didn't do the work. Some parents couldn't make them do it and some didn't try. Some teachers in private schools were even furloughed.

Thousands if not millions of people have been at home on (topped up) full pay doing no work at all throughout the lockdown. I know people who have had to work much harder because colleagues were furloughed.

m0therofdragons · 04/08/2020 07:40

I don’t really understand the bubbles when siblings will be in different bubbles. I actually think it’ll be okay with occasional 2 weeks self isolating. I’d hate to be an employer right now.

tinytemper66 · 04/08/2020 07:43

We have to go back. I need a routine and I need to teach the pupils in my care.

tempnamechange98765 · 04/08/2020 08:27

Yes, exactly. The teachers I know have not been working full time.

Which is why in my original post I said I think it's time they were back at work full time, as many other keyworkers (HCP, shop workers, social workers, probation officers, police etc) have been the whole time. Teachers are key workers - they are important, and so need to be back at work.

monkeytennis97 · 04/08/2020 08:39

@tinytemper66

We have to go back. I need a routine and I need to teach the pupils in my care.
I need my husband and I (both secondary school teachers) to be afforded the same level of Covid security in the workplace as other sectors. I need my children not to have their parents ill (we are not bouncing eager 20 something teachers who want to 'do it for the kids' but approaching 50 somethings who do this as a job). Why do teachers deserve less I terms of safety than others?
labyrinthloafer · 04/08/2020 08:48

@tinytemper66

We have to go back. I need a routine and I need to teach the pupils in my care.
Oh, well, if you need a routine, I think increased transmission of covid and community spread as a result is a price worth paying Hmm
monkeytennis97 · 04/08/2020 08:58

@labyrinthloafer hear hear

AAT65 · 04/08/2020 09:16

@theluckiest

Actually, this has raised a very important point...to my colleagues in Scotland, how do you feel about going back in the next few weeks?? Not September at all!!! Shock
We go back for in service on Monday and Tuesday next week. Children are back full time next Wednesday with no social distancing (although adults are to SD and teachers SD if possible from children). The Scottish Gvt only published the back to school guidance last Thursday. We understand HTs were meeting with the LA yesterday and are meeting their SLT today. Meanwhile we have had no information and risk assessments have not been seen by staff (and have not been signed off by Union H&S reps). I am very keen to get back to school but I feel teachers and parents are getting no information so we are stressed to say the least.
Fedup21 · 04/08/2020 09:17

@tempnamechange98765

Yes, exactly. The teachers I know have not been working full time.

Which is why in my original post I said I think it's time they were back at work full time, as many other keyworkers (HCP, shop workers, social workers, probation officers, police etc) have been the whole time. Teachers are key workers - they are important, and so need to be back at work.

I still don’t get why you are on this thread.

Why don’t you go and start your own thread called, ‘What do people who aren’t teachers, but say they’ve talked to some, think that teachers should be doing?’

GuyFawkesDay · 04/08/2020 10:58

Haven't we be working full time?

Oh shit, those many 11pm evenings spent prepping online lessons were just for funsies?!

Right Hmm

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 04/08/2020 11:08

Anyone not pulling their weight at my school was disciplined. So not sure how anyone wasn’t doing much work.

Our department were on their inees

FrippEnos · 04/08/2020 11:28

@GuyFawkesDay

We haven't worked full time because other peoples' anecdotes say so.

BelleSausage · 04/08/2020 11:35

@tempnamechange98765

I’m actually really cross reading your post. Your experience has been shared by lots of teachers. Just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

Lots of my friends in other industries have been furloughed and having a great time. I do envy them but I don’t begrudge them. And I certainly wouldn’t anonymously go around the internet slagging them off.

If we’d had to go on over the Summer I would have gone to the doctors to get signed off with stress. It was relentless. The thought of having to do it again makes me feel sick.

Tabletime · 04/08/2020 11:38

Heads of Department monitored remote learning more immediately and regularly than normal, as all tasks set and resources provided were visible to all staff users on the system (which was nice for sharing without seeing each other) , and video conferencing meant additional briefings and meetings to check on what had been completed and to have discussions about new challenges or initiatives as they arose.

For safeguarding reasons, all emails to children and communication through online programmes (e.g. marking) were 'watched' by at least a colleague, and usually a line manager, meaning it was obvious to someone else if you'd even made a typo in an explanation that a child subsequently queried, let alone not been providijg high quality teaxhing! SLT and lead teachers conducted distance learning walks and work scrutinies, focussing on engagement and differentiation.

It'd have even harder to get away with sitting back and having an easy time of it than it would be in your own classroom in front of thirty kids. Not that that's what aim for anyway; there's always too little time to do everything we'd like.

BelleSausage · 04/08/2020 11:40

@tempnamechange98765

Also, lots of people who know me assume I haven’t been doing much. SIL is a keyworker in the NHS and joked about what a great holiday I’d been having and then got all sour faced when I told her what it had actually been like. She accused me of being melodramatic and that it can’t have been that bad. It was. My relationship with DD is in tatters because she watched TV and played on my iPad all day for months. Not my choice. I had no childcare and she had to be quiet while I did live lessons.

I’m spending the holidays trying to work on the effect this has had on her behaviour and the damage it has done to our relationship.

BelleSausage · 04/08/2020 11:42

Finally, my contract is 0.6 but I worked everyday during lockdown from 9-5 because that is what it took to do the lessons, the planning and the marking.

tempnamechange98765 · 04/08/2020 11:47

BelleSausage I've had no childcare either and have two DC under 5. I also am still working and won't be getting any time off in the summer except for unpaid leave. UNPAID.

You've clearly been working hard so there's really no reason to take offence.

Not all teachers share the same experience as you. Many have been on full pay and working much fewer hours than normal. Is that really so hard to believe? This is evident across the board in Wales as there have been plenty of complaints from parents about the lack of online learning provided. I've been glad that my children aren't of legal school age.

Crumpets111 · 04/08/2020 11:48

Just spoke with the home education lead who told me she has had lots and lots of worried parents thinking of withdrawing their children from school over the worry of Covid and being fined. Very surprised to hear a one cap fits all approach from the government who expect the teachers to enforce it whilst trying to protect the children in their bubble group. Seems no flexibility is flexi learning or extra help for those clinically vulnerable.

FrippEnos · 04/08/2020 11:49

tempnamechange98765

Your anecdotes are worth nothing.

Feel free to start another thread whinging about teachers.

Fedup21 · 04/08/2020 11:51

@tempnamechange98765

BelleSausage I've had no childcare either and have two DC under 5. I also am still working and won't be getting any time off in the summer except for unpaid leave. UNPAID.

You've clearly been working hard so there's really no reason to take offence.

Not all teachers share the same experience as you. Many have been on full pay and working much fewer hours than normal. Is that really so hard to believe? This is evident across the board in Wales as there have been plenty of complaints from parents about the lack of online learning provided. I've been glad that my children aren't of legal school age.

Again, why are you posting on a thread that is asking teachers how they feel about September?
Aragog · 04/08/2020 11:53

Teachers are key workers - they are important, and so need to be back at work.

And as many people have since told you - many many (most even) teachers, in England at least (can't speak for Wales myself), have been back at work and Full Time for some time, and many have never not been FT since March.

I haven't been in school personally as I'm clinically vulnerable but I have been working FT hours and longer since March 23rd. There hasn't;t been a time until the July holiday where I haven't been working at least my normal hours. This week I will also be working, albeit not FT hours, from home to get our systems ready for September - all unpaid too.

Aragog · 04/08/2020 11:55

Actually I tell a lie - I had 2.5 days off on full pay but not working in this time - 1/2 day when my FIL died in the afternoon, 1 day for his funeral and another day for my nan's funeral. My other nana's funeral is this week so its in the school holidays so don't need the day 'off.'