Should schools shut for Good Friday/ Easter Monday?

[ringletsandtwiglets]

Curious what the general public think about this. Schools are being asked for staff volunteers to provide childcare over the bank holidays.

YABU- no, schools should stay open for keyworkers and/or vulnerable children

YANBU- yes, schools should be closed entirely on those days

I’m going to go have a glass of wine, and hope tomorrow is a better day.

That's not good bulb- no-one at all should be doing seven days straight with no break. Have you got lots of children in school? Are there really no others the HT can call upon?
All teachers I know we're exhausted at the start of this week, due to preparing huge volumes of home learning materials for their pupils, let alone by the end of it.

Can I just point out that on Rota means being in school and doesn't include working from home.

HTH

Given this unprecedented situation I do feel opening on the bank holidays would be helpful. I get teachers are exhausted but you are all providing a vital service at the moment.

Weekends and holidays are cancelled. They no longer exist. The sooner you catch up the better.

I couldn't disagree with this more. Me and DP worth in the nhs. Our trust has been very firm with staff keeping their annual leave where possible and staff not taking on too much overtime. We need people to be rested at this time, not so overworked they're dead on their feet, that's stands for everyone classed as a key worker.

I thought teachers were working on a rota? Some teachers I know of (primary) are not working now but then will work a week at Easter instead so they are still getting some holiday now instead of when they would have got it.
Staff are ON SITE on a rota for most schools.
They are working from home the rest of the time, planning and monitoring and marking work as appropriate, teaching online classes if their schools have done that route, being contactable to respond to students queries, working on the tasks required for the gained time in order to be ready for the following academic year.

Teachera are contracted to work 195 days a year because they have a term time contract. Most are more than happy to be doing their bit in a national crisis, but unsurprisingly they get a little fed up with people having a dig, talking nonsense about their holidays, talking nonsense saying that staff are only working a couple of days a week, saying school staff should suck up providing unlimited childcare for anyone who wants to send their child in even if there's parents at home, starting threads asking why they've still got jobs and so on.

As ever when it comes to teacher threads, people are either clueless or goady, teachers challenge or correct, people claim teachers are workshy and do nothing but complain.

@FormerlyFrikadela01 I couldn't disagree with this more. Me and DP worth in the nhs. Our trust has been very firm with staff keeping their annual leave where possible and staff not taking on too much overtime. We need people to be rested at this time, not so overworked they're dead on their feet, that's stands for everyone classed as a key worker.

Fair, I should have been clearer. What I meant was that expecting to stick rigidly to Saturday/Sunday weekends and bank holidays isn't feasible. People should be getting a rest but they're going to need to be flexible with when that is. If all teachers refuse to work a Saturday this isn't going to work. Also everything's cancelled anyway so what does it matter if you're off a Monday or a Saturday?

ashmts

But teachers won't be "Off" during the week they will be working at home.

Your definition of flexible is deeply flawed.

My local special school teachers are all working in the school, with full classes exactly as usual. No rota, all are expected to be in for the full school week.

Some children are being kept off by their parents but just over a third of staff are ill or in isolation of various kinds- some for their own safety, some because of symptoms in the home.
After the children go home those in school are expected to set learning tasks for those at home.

They will be opening, and all teachers are expected to work throughout the Easter “break” . They’ve also been told to expect to work for most of the summer “break“ too. Hopefully there will be enough staff and things settled enough to allow for a rota by then.

Some schools are on a rota, some are in as usual ( small schools , special schools etc) , many teachers are also juggling childcare commitments. The majority are happy to do all of this but there has to be a limit on what we expect of anyone. Being on a rota I would be happy to be flexible with the hours I work/ work holidays and weekends, but if I was already in full time I would have to put my own family first sometimes

Teachers are in on those days, but it isn't voluntary. Or paid.

But teachers won't be "Off" during the week they will be working at home.

Teachers would be given a day off in lieu if they were working on a Saturday or Sunday.

Teachers would be given a day off in lieu if they were working on a Saturday or Sunday.

And you know this how?

Plus teachers are only paid for five weeks of the thirteen non-term time weeks of school holidays. Teachers will be working through the Easter holidays but technically that is unpaid leave they're working in. (Assuming leave year is sept-aug).

It's not as if they can magically catch-up on that leave once schools go back, is it?

Agree no one should be working 7 days a week. Two days off in 7 is good. I off is essential. I hope a Rota can be designed that allows it. Non key workers/non vulnerable kids in school should be reportable to the police imo.

We are all exhausted and tired. I’ve had the virus, done my seven days in isolation and then straight back to work for the out of hours GP service. I really wanted another day to rest but as soon as my 7 days was up I dragged myself in. My holiday is cancelled. My next job is on hold as all junior rotations are paused. I have no idea when working as I’m not in the job I expected to be in. I fully expect to be called to any hospital in my area at no notice when things get really bad and I can only do that if I know my child is being looked after. The simplest way to safely look after a load of kids is to use the teachers and nursery workers that are already checked and vetted and know the kids in premises that are already known to be safe rather than reinvent the wheel.

Doctors have always worked 7 days straight until the new contract last year it was 14 in a row, now it’s 12on 2 off. This is standard in A and E but at least it’s then you only work 8 hr shifts. Intensive care doctors are all expecting to work 12hrs on 12 off for the foreseeable, i think they are getting one day off a week. Medics are dropping like flies with this and the ppe is running out. We’re risking our lives and working flat out, it’s war. If you want to have healthcare then the rest of the country needs to step up and keep us in work. I Say it again, due to my nursery not. Being willing to take my daughter today I am at home rather than at work. I should be answering the 111 calls that need a Doctor. The wait time is over 2hrs to get through, see all the desperate threads on here about people that need help; but I am at home on Mumsnet because of lack of childcare. So people are currently being harmed because I can’t be in work. I am angry and frustrated because I have the skills to help these people and I can’t do it. Maybe that makes me an entitled lazy parent but I’m trying to save lives here, the rest can and must be sorted out later.

And you know this how?

Because I am a teacher and this is what is happening at my school.

Really
There are plenty of supply teachers with DBS it doesn’t have to be teachers. We are busy planning and helping all the kids that aren’t in school.

Unfortunately it’s not our fault your nursery is shut, and it’s a shame you don’t have family and friends to help you but we can only do what is physically possible whilst protecting our health too so we aren’t a burden on the nhs.

Even the shops are shut on Easter Sunday.

Schools are not asking for volunteers, staff are being told to work it unpaid.

Why is it only teachers and support staff in schools being put under this pressure to effectively "babysit" key workers dc.

The play scheme workers are not being made to open in Easter

Presumably to limit the accessibility of different venues but still puts schools and their staff under a lot of pressure

So do schools also have to look after below school age dc or do they go to nursery attached to the school

School staff are being deployed where necessary - in their school, in the nursery attached, in other schools, in care homes. They are being told to be flexible and work as and when they are told to work and wherever they are told to work.

Because I am a teacher and this is what is happening at my school.

But all schools seem to be different.
Some are expecting all staff in every day, some have shut altogether, some are operating a rota.

Plus teachers are only paid for five weeks of the thirteen non-term time weeks of school holidays.

School teachers in England are paid an annual salary accruing at a daily rate.Teachers in Scotland receive 40 days’ holiday at full pay.

My nursery isn’t shut, they won’t take dd as it’s not her normal day as I’m normally part time, despite the government pleas for part time drs to increase their hours I can’t.

Its a nursery attached to a school not a day nursery so they are teachers. Bulb I haven’t asked family to care for her as you might of missed the direct instruction not to send children to grandparents by the government, and I can’t take her to friends can I as that’s not permitted under the lockdown conditions - you are allowed to take your kids to school if a key worker, to their other parent and on a walk a day, not to friends. Maybe that’s wrong maybe they should be allowed to go to friends but I thought the plan was to not allow them to mingle with others.

I agree that teachers shouldn’t be over worked and I hope that there are enough of them to ensure no one has too many hours but a national effort needs to be made to provide the support to keep food and medications and health and social care going. All else must come second so if you have to compromise on setting work for kids at home to look after healthcare workers kids then I think that should come first. Maybe there are other people that can help, I know our school has mainly TAs doing the care not the teachers

Unfortunately there is no compromise. We have to treat all of our students the same, it’s an impossible task but that’s what is expected of us.