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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder how schools can realistically reopen when there is still a killer virus about with no vaccine?

706 replies

JustCantShakeIt · 14/04/2020 12:11

I’m not talking about them reopening now, in May or June or even September.

Who is prepared to send their DC into a school with hundreds of other DC, where social distancing and keeping a germ free environment is literally impossible, even with the best wills in the world, when there is a life threatening disease floating about which is highly transmittable and you have no guarantee it won’t make your DC severely ill or die.

Social distancing just between parents will be impossible at my DC’s school of over 500 where we all have to wait outside the main gates at pick up time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m desperate for schools to reopen before my DC turn completely feral, but I don’t see how that can happen until we have a vaccine. We’re being told to stay home and keep our distance now due to the risk, the risk will be the same next month or in 5 months won’t it?

OP posts:
Iamtooknackeredtorun · 14/04/2020 21:03

A genuine question to teachers then please because schools will open at some point. Probably in September, maybe before, but certainly before a vaccine is found. What will you do?

I know schools are open now and have been since lockdown but teacher friends are on a rota and have done a few days each so they're not exposed the entire time.

I'm not being goady. I'm just trying to work out what you will do.

SmileEachDay · 14/04/2020 21:04

Tasty

Which bits of the many, many posts by teachers saying they are not only willing to work but that are in fact, actually working right now are you not understanding?

Why are you so attached to the nonsense you’re spouting? Why do you want to divide, at a time when we’re all working really hard?

Piggywaspushed · 14/04/2020 21:05

Who gets the flu vaccine in schools every year??

CleanUpWoman · 14/04/2020 21:05

We'll have to work. Or we won't get paid.

spanieleyes · 14/04/2020 21:05

What will we do? What we're doing now, going into work and working.

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 21:06

We're fucking willing.
We're working.
We're not happy about how our safety is being considered.
We are entitled to voice that.
But we're still working.

Exactly!

spanieleyes · 14/04/2020 21:06

( except I can't go in yet because I've got corona!) Hopefully I will be recovered by the time we go back!

Onceateacher · 14/04/2020 21:07

My children do piggy
It's up to a certain age I think.
I have heard of schools were it is paid for for staff from the school budget.
I pay for it myself to avoid needing time off work, though I think I had it (or something similar) this year anyway.

TastyFingers · 14/04/2020 21:07

TEACHERS ARE GOING INTO WORK. RIGHT NOW.
THROUGH THEIR UNPAID HOLIDAYS.

Fair play.

Then they should also be willing to go back into the workplaces. Like the bus drivers and the nurses.
If they're vulnerable, they should be willing to stay away for the benefit of the NHS. At reduced pay from the government. For a limited period. Like the rest of the self-employed in the same circumstances.
To make some money available for the training of the teaching volunteer army.
I'm sure there would be as many applicants as for the NHS.

lulufufu · 14/04/2020 21:09

Sorry op but I think you've got this way out of proportion.

spanieleyes · 14/04/2020 21:09

But teachers aren't self employed!

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 21:09

Who gets the flu vaccine in schools every year??

I believe (and someone may correct me) that this year it was up to current year 5. It's rolling forward each year so next year it will be up to year 6. There have been other year groups done randomly too because my eldest got it done in secondary one year. My youngest had had it every year. My middle has never had it.

SmileEachDay · 14/04/2020 21:10

Then they should also be willing to go back into the workplaces. Like the bus drivers and the nurses

We are.
If they're vulnerable, they should be willing to stay away for the benefit of the NHS
Yes

At reduced pay from the government. For a limited period. Like the rest of the self-employed in the same circumstances
Teachers aren’t self employed.

To make some money available for the training of the teaching volunteer army.
I'm sure there would be as many applicants as for the NHS
How would that be organised between now and when schools reopen?

Onceateacher · 14/04/2020 21:10

We're not self employed?
And you know it wasn't us who decided to close the schools, right?
Did the volunteer nhs people take on nursing and roles akin to doctors? As this is what you are expecting for schools I take it, rather than additional admin and cleaners (though we could certainly use that too).

CleanUpWoman · 14/04/2020 21:12

What part of "we are willing" do you not understand? Do you have a different definition of willing?

I am willing to work in my place of work and I have been doing.

I'm not happy about it because of the enhanced risks that working with lots of (inherently unhygienic) human bodies in a very small place with ZERO protection presents.
Being unhappy about it is not the same as being unwilling.

So we're heroes, just like you!!!

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 21:12

What will we do? What we're doing now, going into work and working.

And also, as we always do, we will worry about the safety of the school community that we work with. This will just be an additional worry on top of the myriad of other things that worry us on a daily basis.

TastyFingers · 14/04/2020 21:12

BTW I've also applied for a job in Tescos. They also had too many applicants.
Teachers who are working from home now? = great
Teachers willing to return back to school as soon as needed = great!
Teachers who are vulnerable/have vulnerable families who are willing to tak epay cuts to support the training of volunteers to take their place = great
Teachers who lap the bravery of the NHS workers but who are not vulnerable and who refuse to go to work without PPE when volunteers are willing to? = nope. So much nope.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 14/04/2020 21:14

If they're vulnerable, they should be willing to stay away for the benefit of the NHS

As an NHS worker, I’d like to stay the fuck at home and try not to spread this thing around any more than you need to. A point which tasty seems to be missing.

SmileEachDay · 14/04/2020 21:16

Tasty

Teachers who lap the bravery of the NHS workers but who are not vulnerable and who refuse to go to work without PPE when volunteers are willing to? = nope. So much nope
You have imagined this person.

CleanUpWoman · 14/04/2020 21:16

Who's refusing???
I work in a school of upward of 50 teaching staff and not one has refused to come into work. Including over the Easter break.

You're trying so hard to paint teachers as work shy cowards.

Trying and failing.

Onceateacher · 14/04/2020 21:19

I'm beginning to think Tasty won't be happy until schools are full of happy unqualified volunteers, probably dropping like flies as PPE is for pansies, it seems. Why such an investment in getting random people into schools rather than listening to concerns from teachers (the ones who actually know what being in school is like) and ensuring the safest environment we can manage, within our current difficulties, for adults and children alike. There seems an element of wanting to put teachers in their place. (Possibly rejected from teacher training? Or had a nasty teacher in y11?)
But I do look forward to the teacher bashing threads turning into complaints about unqualified ones, and a harking back to the golden days Smile

cantkeepawayforever · 14/04/2020 21:19

We're fucking willing.
We're working.
We're not happy about how our safety is being considered.
We are entitled to voice that.
But we're still working.

That.

Actually, a volunteer army of cleaners would be excellent, also responsible for supervising children's handwashing 6x a day as per guidelines just before we left school.

It would be really helpful, because we were doing the additional washing down of tables multiple times per day, wiping of all equipment, and supervising children's handwashing, as well as teaching, before we closed to all but keyworkers' children.

If you could replenish all handwash, and all other cleaning materials during the day, rather than us having to source them, that would be great too.

For younger years, washing of all toys, playground equipment etc at least daily would be fab.

Genuinely, a well thought out strategy for how to manage additional hygiene and cleaning processes WOULD be a good example of risk mitigation, and something for which additional adult help would be useful.

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 21:19

Then they should also be willing to go back into the workplaces. Like the bus drivers and the nurses.

They are. They have never stopped. Schools are not closed.

If they're vulnerable, they should be willing to stay away for the benefit of the NHS. At reduced pay from the government. For a limited period. Like the rest of the self-employed in the same circumstances.

But they are not self-employed and they have not stopped working (from home) so???

I'm sure there would be as many applicants as for the NHS.

You are completely deluded.

TastyFingers · 14/04/2020 21:23

We're not self employed?

FFS. Do you think I don't know this? Half my family are teachers!
Do you think I don't know that the pay is shite for the role? I do!
Do you know what other role where the pay is shite for? NURSING.
They're fecking CRACKING ON though, most for much less pay. And almost none from home!

I get that many teachers are also still cracking on at risk to themselves.
I get that many are also gagging to crack on for their students at risk to themselves.
I get tat many are vulnerable and frightened for them and theirs. Join the club - on reduced pay for a limited period - after that, who knows? But you're in the same boat as literally millions of others. It's fair.

For the remainder, unwilling to go to work - you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Government? I call on you to recruit volunteer teachers. Just like the NHS. Will we be comprable? Hell no. But will we try our damndest to fill the gaps? Hell yes!

TastyFingers · 14/04/2020 21:25

Actually, a volunteer army of cleaners would be excellent, also responsible for supervising children's handwashing 6x a day as per guidelines just before we left school.

It would be really helpful, because we were doing the additional washing down of tables multiple times per day, wiping of all equipment, and supervising children's handwashing, as well as teaching, before we closed to all but keyworkers' children

I would be so up for this. I could do this without training.

It should be put forward.