Would you go to work on Monday if you were a teacher?

[HibiscusCotton]

I take calls for a school, been a few emails tonight saying people need to self-isolate. It’s a tight knit community and I wouldn’t say anything but I know they are scared in some cases and there are no symptoms in the house fairly reliably. I’m not going to challenge anyone on this! We already have allowed those with vulnerability or family vulnerability to be off, this is people with healthy families now calling.

I understand to be honest people are scared right now with the news about young fit people getting very ill.

I do praise NHS staff who will work crazy hours and be very frontline, but to some degree it’s some expected level of the job- but massively intensified. If you are a teacher, nursery work, retail worker etc you didn’t sign up with the idea of any risk. You’re probably not much of a hero. You have no protection at all, no more cleaning available at work and you’re exposed to exactly the same risk as NHS parents due to mixing with their children. You also have people being negative if they see you out and you still can’t access the supermarket if you have kids (friend is a single parent teacher, no online slots,small shops won’t let kids in here, supermarket empty post work and she brings her daughter back home with her from the same building. She’s actually said she’s scared of getting photographed out on the bus home with her dd and being put on the local fb group where people are shaming those who go out quite viciously.) In most cases you are also exposing your family to risk, maybe parents who live with you, partners or children. I have to admit personally I’m getting more and more worried with all the news that DH is on London transport daily and working with high contact with young kids. He will work while he can, but I am getting worried for our children and him.

So, with all the news around you right now, if you worked in retail/ teaching etc would you:
YABU- go to work as usual, out of duty or confidence you’ll be ok
YANBU- self isolate your family and yourself to protect. Either calling in saying your child had a cough or you couldn’t work due to family/ personal vulnerabilities

I’m just wondering what the general feeling is. I’m a bit on the fence personally. We are both working, but I don’t judge those who don’t feel able to for mental health or physical health reasons. I understand how staff with anxiety have felt overwhelmed in particular.

I'm a teacher and I'm going in tomorrow.
I have very mild asthma and anxiety.

I'm sure some people will put themselves above the common good. They're probably the same people that have 'flu and norovirus every single year.

I wouldnt have a clue what is on my local FB group, vicious or otherwise, because i dont belong to it!

Im a teacher, although not in a school, and unless i'm told otherwise before 7am tomorrow, i'll be in work in the morning as usual. Truth be told, i am starting to worry a bit.

I'm a teacher and I'm going in, as it's my job.

I'll be going as normal tomorrow, but hoping they put a rota in place after that.

@Frlrlrubert is your asthma medicated? In the kindest possible way you shouldn't be in. If you catch the virus you don't know if your body will shake it off. Also you are making it more difficult for those of us with asthma who want to stay home as it makes us look like we are being dramatic.

If you don’t go just pray you don’t need the paramedics or nurses who dc you didn’t want to look after....

The country is in crisis and some jobs unfortunately are required to step up here

As few teachers as are required to deal with the care of the key worker children should be in.
Any more than that makes the problem worse, not better

I'm a TA and we've been told to come in so I'm going in. I will be going in until lockdown happens or I have to self isolate.

Like Waiting I’m going I. Tomorrow as instructed but would hope it’s just to allow planning for a better system of rotas going forward. I’ll not be happy if it’s insisted that we are all in the building all the time with the children most likely to be exposed when most of us doing online learning could easily do that from home. It’s about mitigating risk while still covering children who need covering.
I am wondering how all the other countries who just closed schools made it work and wondering why we can’t, though, as the fewer contacts the better.

Going in to work is as much your job as looking after patients is a doctor's and nurse's job.

I don't think it is fair to say the staff providing direct care signed up for the risk - they didn't. I'm a mental health nurse, muddling through a global pandemic is not what I expected. I have OTs and psychologists trying to provide care alongside me - they certainly didn't expect this!

Also, you are not being exposed to the same level of risk, and it is insulting to suggest you are.

I think you should keep doing your job unless you actually need to self-isolate.

@Onceateacher almost every school is dealing with it with a rota system, so no one is actually off with zero contact.

Except the special school, it’s still up in the air. Children with EHCPs will be entitled to go to school still, so it’s 100% of their pupils. I don’t think a solution has been found yet.

@P1nkHeartLovesCake I am going in, but can I ask you how health staff in other countries have managed without schools offering this service? It is mixing together some high risk individuals and risking spread.

I am a teacher me and my Dcs have been SI since Wednesday as I was ill, however none of the staff except those who have volunteered on the rota will be expected in. I have volunteered to go in, on the rota, when my 14 days are done, if I am not showing any symptoms. We have to set work through a home work app.

I'm not a teacher but on social care. I will be going in and leaving my child at a local school hub. We all need to do our bit.

I think there's a really negative attitude towards teachers who have reservations about going in. At the end of the day many of us can teach remotely from home. The key workers children do not require the attention of every single staff member. Tomorrow we will have 20 odd children in and 30 staff...

I'm support staff and we're in on a rota basis for phones, emails, attendance etc. I'm taking myself off for a week as I have a cough and a tight chest. No temperature, but it's not worth it.
Once I've passed the recommended isolation and am well again, I'll be going back in.

I'd question how you know so much about their family situation and family health to be honest.

I’m a teacher and I’ll be in tomorrow. I’m hoping like others that they’ll sort out a rota to cut down on the numbers of staff who are in the building. If they do, I’ll volunteer, as I have no children, am healthy myself and my elderly parents are self-isolating in another part of the country. I am quite angry at the instructions some of my colleagues have had - in one case to bring her baby and toddler with her to school.

I've volunteered to go in whenever I'm needed: I'm not vulnerable myself, have no vulnerable adults at home, have no young DC to worry about.

I used to talk a lot to an old cousin who had done all sorts of dangerous stuff in WWII. This is not the same, but he gave me a serious sense of perspective: if it needs to be done, then somebody has to do it.

NhS staff are not super human. They are as scared as you are and I don't agree that they signed up to this risk, to some extent. Imagine if everyone thinks like you? Our country would come to a standstill

I am teaching remotely from home. As is most of our very large staff.

I'm a HLTA (former teacher). I will be in all this week as instructed though I'm hoping after that we'll be on some sort of rota. I'm a widow with DDs aged 15 and 13. They could go to school but have chosen to stay home with their stacks of home learning and I'm fine with that, they're both sensible. This time last year DH was a very frail terminal cancer patient weeks from death and there's no way I'd have been going to work. I suppose at least I don't have to worry for him any more. :( I am fit and healthy but do worry about being the only person the DDs have left now.

@Russell19

It hasn't been for the last two years and I've been fine (it is now as a precaution) I haven't qualified for the flu jab for the last two years.

They're doing a rota tomorrow so I imagine if possible they'll do without me going forward, but given how many of our staff have more serious health issues I feel like better for me to be in if required.

My special school is not up in the air, it's open, and we are in.

@Stompythedinosaur we could argue sideways about risk, nurses not involved in direct care vs teachers meeting all workers etc. All will be exposed. From those working in Tesco on a till scared to isolate over pay despite being asthmatic or cleaners on minimum wage. I think everyone in high contact roles is entitled to worry. Is your role as mental health nurse directly treating CV patients on a ward? It’s great you nurse, but I don’t think you should tell others how to feel about similarly being exposed in different ways to you.
So far the only person I know with it personally is a cook who was serving a lot of people, their risk was obviously high as they now have CV (fairly mildly luckily).
People are scared, this is just a thread about being scared.
DH and I will work (but worry) but I can empathise with how a staff memory with anxiety and depression and a huge MH history has copped out.