Anyone else worried about school staff?

[Sibsmum]

I am sorting uniforms and other school things for September start and I am just thinking that I have heard a lot about children's safety but very little if anything about the safety of school staff.
It looks like they have no ppe and in secondary will be teaching lots of kids from lots of bubbles. Then there are the catering staff, exposed to everyone, TA's and other admin and support staff, cleaners and site staff. How are they being kept safe? Or are they just expendable because were desperate to get our Dc back ?
I feel a bit guilty that I hadn't considered that at all.

Not only are teachers concerned about their health and the health of everyone else in the school, they are also concerned about the disruption that the lack of these safety measures will cause. 2 positive test results in 14 days can cause a bubble (whole year group in Secondary) or indeed a school to be closed for 2 weeks for self isolation. And this won’t just happen once, this will happen many times. What about Y11 pupils? Already lost one term, very little proposed changes to GCSEs next year, they cannot afford any more disruption to their education.

What happens if many teachers go off sick? Yes supply teachers are allowed to come in, pity many schools don’t have sufficient budget for supply, so if there are insufficient teachers the school will have to close. Some schools had to do this before schools officially ‘closed’ in March.

Schools need better plans from the Government and they need better funding from the Government, and not just promises from them but schools need to see the cold hard cash.

I would rather teach children than bleat about my own safety

You might think this makes you look like a hero but actually it makes you look like a nob. Particularly the use of the word ‘bleat’.

Some of us are concerned about our own safety because we have other people who rely on us who matter more to us than other people’s children. And some of us are concerned about our own safety because we’re not martyr-types.

But I’m guessing you think the pandemic is a hoax anyway.

Commentutappelles

You are either really young or

So what does everyone think should happen if school doesn't re open.... Many people will lose their jobs as they won't be able to leave the kids home alone to go to work. And there aren't enough child minders for everyone! And they have their own guidelines to adhere too...

I am concerned as a mother (this is MumsNet after all) that my child and the school becomes the next Covid care home incubator hotspot contaminating the whole school community and their families/households.

I am worried about all people in and connected with the school. It only takes one carrier who is (normally) asymptomatic (as now evidently documented globally) to be a super spreader. This can be any adult or child or anyone from their household. It may even be a visitor.

I understand it appears more likely than not that the schools reopening is as much a political as well as livelihoods necessity. I do not believe all scientists with expertise and experience in relevant science will fully support or appreciate the Covid risks of reopening schools (without a thought out through back up plan) and risk the potential fatal consequences. However without alternative remote schooling or additional infrastructure and teachers there is little option but to take the risk but close as soon as symptoms are detected. Not helpful when half the suffers are apparently asymptomatic and will pass any school gate airport style prescreening.
I am expecting the Scottish schools will provide more knowledge on this as it's evidently a trial and error exercise but one with potentially fatal consequences. Hopefully schools will not be another care home Covid statistic. The UK government Covid mismanagement thus far instils little confidence.

Ps, it's knob with a k. Yours sincerely, a Teacher.

Nope.

And are we putting children first if we aren’t making schools COVID safe?

I know who I would rather be my DC’s teacher and it wouldn’t be you @Commentutappelles

There’s a group of people who are particularly invested in schools going back as normal with no mitigation because they think the pandemic is a hoax and they are wanting to use schools to prove this.

They want schools to return and then to be able to point to the lack of rise in cases as proof of their conspiracy theory.

And they’re posting on MN.

Comment...how rude to assume noble doesn't, you have no idea about his/her working life and work ethic.

Also, if we are going to be pedantic...a Teacher is incorrect. Teacher is not a proper noun and therefore does not need a capital letter. Unless of course you are using it as a name with the initial of your forename being a, in which case it should be A Teacher.

My Y3s could tell you this.

Mates, the troll is on the wind-up. I’d advise not responding because they’re so bad at it it’s not even fun.

How do you know the other teachers on here haven’t worked all the way through, none of them are saying they don’t want the schools to open.

Bern here since 2006, taught since 1998.

So? You’re still trolling. Badly.

@marinintheuk

Did you worry about supermarket workers ?

Did you worry about warehouse workers ?

Did you worry about delivery people ?

Did you worry about I.T. people ?

Did you worry about gas, electric and water workers ?

All of the above worked every day since March - what makes teachers so special ?

On the occasions I've been in a supermarket, they've been wearing masks and behind perspex screens.

When I've worked in places with a warehouse attached, the staff have been well spaced out, rather than within 6ft of one another and there's been pretty good ventilation with the huge doors and high ceilings.

Drivers spend their days alone in vehicles and take photos of deliveries rather than getting up close and personal with customers for half an hour at a time. For two person deliveries, they wear masks.

IT staff are mostly working from home, in work/empty offices whilst the majority of staff are working from home, with aircon in the server rooms.

The ones I've seen are either wearing masks, are working outside well separated or, in the case of my supplier's customer services, are working from home.

None of them are working 0-5 foot away from 2000 other people for hours on end without access to ventilation, no PPE and moreover, no notion that they are magically protected because the government says so.

DP's working, administering various professional tests for adults - they have to wear PPE, have aircon and distance 2m apart, clean down all surfaces between candidates, have screens and every candidate washes their hands, uses hand gel and are provided with masks on entry if they don't have one of their own, and the organisation has reduced numbers in order that they are kept 2m apart at all times.

I think the more important question is what makes school staff so immune that they don't get the same protections that others do?

Mind you, seeing as there will be hundreds of children trying to get to school on buses that are down to 40, 17 or 14 capacity when they can't guarantee getting on the things at the best of times, chances are anything up to 60% might not even make it into school.

I suppose the DoE didn't just forget that children have siblings and other relatives, they forgot that not every kid has a place at their nearest school/within walking distance and not all parents own cars.

@noblegiraffe

The rest of the population has to crack on and do their job

.....according to COVID secure guidelines that it has been decided that don’t apply to teachers.

If you’re happy to be treated as expendable and worthless by the government then you crack on.

This ^

It's got absolutely nothing to do with teachers not wanting to teach.

EVERYTHING to do with teachers wanting to teach safely in schools that are Covid secure so that in 2/3/4 weeks or months schools aren't shutting again due to outbreaks.

Every teacher I know wants a safe and secure environment that will become long term sustainable decent education for all.

They just promised money to sort out the transport thing (they seem to want to kill off public transport, maybe because it looks like they are tackling obesity). Someone obviously eventually pointed out that not all children can walk or cycle and that not all have mummy or daddy n tap to drive them.

How any LA is supposed to magic up extra buses and drivers in 3 weeks is beyond me.

Btw , nothing noble has posted on MN over many many years suggests she is a lazy, work shy or ineffective teacher. She is extremely passionate about maths and maths education. What's your passion for teaching comment? Other than criticising your fellow professionals and diminishing their concerns or anxieties.? God, I hope you wouldn't do that to a child.

So what does everyone think should happen if school doesn't re open.... Many people will lose their jobs as they won't be able to leave the kids home alone to go to work. And there aren't enough child minders for everyone! And they have their own guidelines to adhere too...
See if they'd planned properly they could have organised for people who were willing to home school to be guided remotely and those who couldn't to go in to small class sizes with actual social distancing but they didn't. In Ireland we've the same divide that is on MN-the eff you I need to get to work vs the eff you you're putting our kids at risk. There's proper anger and bitterness everywhere. They could have actually worked it out and let us know how they were doing it with constant communication. 2 weeks to go and we haven't even gotten the communication we'd have gotten without the pandemic. We got book lists in may and after school finished that was it!

Yesterday - for the first time - Johnson used Covid secure in relation to schools. He has previously always said safe. He repeated it, so he has obviously been advised to. Firstly, they aren't but, secondly, do they realise 'safe' is a word that can/will be thrown back at them by angry parents/teachers/newspapers at some point. I can picture the scene (back to the Jaws analogy again!)

'You told us it was safe to go in the water.' (slaps Boris round the chops)

doesn't quite sound right as :

'You told us that is was Covid secure'

It's a very potentially emotive word so I think they will try to avoid it.
He had better watch out that it doesn't have a legal workplace definition.

Comment I'm assuming by your comment that putting students first means you aren't a parent yourself? Because I can h defy and someone in their 20's or maybe 30's and childless thinking if they die or have long term health issues it's. it really an issue.

But I do not believe for 1 second a teacher who is a latent would think their students education is more imprudent than their own children having a parent?

I realise the risks are very low for death etc for certain age groups.

But this emus then even about that.

This is about if the virus runs rampant through schools then bubbles will shut down, schools may even shut down - then what happens to these students who's education was so important whatever?
Because if they lose it again - which is the real fear of teachers - then is the open with no Covid security really worth it just to say we opened all schools in September?