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.

What on earth are steeds ??.

Ah.

So, you don't believe in stress. Or covid, presumably. Or masks? Or vaccination?

Do you pass these unpleasant views about teachers, and about mental health on to the pupils you teach? What would you say to a young person who told you they were stressed? That they were just malingering?

My DD has hayfever that makes her cough and her primary school have been very clear that they will be erring on the side of caution when it comes to sending kids home with anything that could possibly be a potential Corona symptom

My DD will be off school from the first asthma flare up (usually mid September) until about February if she is sent home each time she coughs. She has cough variant asthma which presents with a dry, non-productive cough.

The other issue we will have is what will happen with the flu vaccine this year. She has had it each year for as long as I can remember but our surgery are not doing any face to face appointments except urgent ones.

Not really, they are adults and can worry about themselves.

Only the same way I worry about all other people who have worked throughout this crisis.

There are plans to get the flu vaccine to as many people as possible so I think that will see surgeries opening up (perhaps in mobile tents?) to do this.

@torpidcrystals

My DD has hayfever that makes her cough and her primary school have been very clear that they will be erring on the side of caution when it comes to sending kids home with anything that could possibly be a potential Corona symptom

My DD will be off school from the first asthma flare up (usually mid September) until about February if she is sent home each time she coughs. She has cough variant asthma which presents with a dry, non-productive cough.

The other issue we will have is what will happen with the flu vaccine this year. She has had it each year for as long as I can remember but our surgery are not doing any face to face appointments except urgent ones.

Afaik flu cumins will still run.

The government has a programme to increase the amount of flu vacinnes So id be surprised if surgeries can continue to refuse F2F.

I'm actually sunrises just how many essential services like GP etc are still running such a limited service.

I know some still aren't doing B12 jabs, IUDs, smear test etc.

And I cannot for the life of me work out why not when apparently schools full of kids are safe.

This would be 2 adults in face masks in a room together for 5 minutes!

Times front page today: older children transmit C-19 like adults.

So secondary staff in a poorly ventilated classroom, with 30 kids facing them without masks are likely to be more vulnerable.

Hi teacher haters. I thought I'd share an excerpt from the NASUWT's letter to heads. If there's anything you find unreasonable in it, that would say rather more about you than teachers who are concerned - not about going back, but about going back with no protections in place.

@wizzbangfizz

Only the same way I worry about all other people who have worked throughout this crisis.

The ones whose employers are required by law to protect them with social distancing and screens, PPE? (None of which teachers are allowed.)

@wizzbangfizz

Only the same way I worry about all other people who have worked throughout this crisis.

The ones working with masks, social distancing, plastic screens and reduced numbers?

I just assumed that meant she was kindly spreading her concern and left it at that.

I'm a teacher.
I'm desperate to get back to normal.
But I'm dreading September. I am well up for teaching full classes, but I'd like them to be distanced 2m away from me and wearing masks.

I'd like any dissenters excluded from the classroom, for the safety of everyone else in the building.

I'd like my boss, who's just finished chemo, to not have to be facing 180 maskless teens every day.

More than £40 million is being handed to local transport authorities next term to ease pressure on public transport as children return to school in September.

Picking up from earlier...great, except we just don't have the coaches.

Due to previous government cuts in homeschool transport funding, many companies went into administration or closed because the funding provided didn't make school transport contracts viable.

There are no buses.

Our school has done bubbles - not sure how effective it will be. Some days I’ll be facing 120 pupils, I also don’t understand how I’m supposed to stay 2m away from pupils.

Regardless, I’ll get on with it. I’m excited to be back and looking forward to teaching in a classroom again.

Do I feel particularly safe? No. I don’t think teacher safety has been made a priority at all, but at the same time, teaching with masks and kids wearing masks - I’m not sure how effective that would be either. Life has to go on as they say.

@SaltyAndFresh

Hi teacher haters. I thought I'd share an excerpt from the NASUWT's letter to heads. If there's anything you find unreasonable in it, that would say rather more about you than teachers who are concerned - not about going back, but about going back with no protections in place.

THE UNIONS ARE SO UNREASONABLE AND CLEARLY TRYING TO BLOCK THE REOPENING OF SCHOOLS BY ASKING POLITE AND REASONABLE QUESTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE WORKFORCE THAT THEY ARE PAID TO REPRESENT.

BOO! BOO! BOO!

Due to previous government cuts in homeschool transport funding, many companies went into administration or closed because the funding provided didn't make school transport contracts viable

I am totally sure that local authorities will be able to sort this in the 3 weeks that the government has given them to do so and that it won’t be a total shitshow.

One rather wonders what the DfE has been up to for the last 6 months and what other homework we can expect to see handed in at the last minute.

Who would like to place a bet on new guidance being released the Friday before we go back?

Pinkflipflop85

I'm a teacher. I'm not worried about going back. Looking forward to it in fact.

I will be thoroughly pissed off if I have to wear a mask though.

Thanks for what you do, Pink flip flop. With respect, though, I’ll be thoroughly pissed off if you don’t. I’d rather you weren’t breathing uncovered at my asthmatic son (who, incidentally, will be wearing a mask) who will return home to his hitherto shielding dad.

Hope it all goes well for you.

I’m a teacher (secondary) and it’s very interesting to read everyone’s opinions on this. For what it’s worth, here’s mine.

Firstly, I agree that schools provide so much more than education for many pupils and need to be open. Teaching from home has been difficult for a whole variety of reasons for the staff and pupils! Additionally, it’s impossible to provide the same level of pastoral care for those that need it when working remotely and I know that myself and many of the staff in my school have been worried about these pupils for the past few months. I am keen to get back into the classroom and do what I do best in the environment that beat supports this.

However, I have two reservations/worries. Firstly, the longevity of these plans. Despite the government saying the risks have been mitigated in schools, they haven’t at all and I worry about how long this full steam ahead plan will feasible for. How long will it be before too many staff or pupils are in quarantine before this model becomes unsustainable?

Secondly, whilst I agree with Boris (never thought I’d say that) that we have a moral duty to get pupils back into school, isn’t there also a moral duty to protect the vulnerable? I’ll be well into my third trimester in September and have been repeatedly told by my midwife that I should not be working in the conditions I am being asked to as I’m putting my baby at risk. However, as far as I can see, I have no option and the government says it’s safe for all staff, including the clinically vulnerable to be back in school. I just question why such staff are not being afforded the same health and safety considerations that they would be in the majority of other sectors. Of course many measures that other industries use wouldn’t work in a school but I can’t see how any of the risks in my classroom have been mitigated, other than a hand sanitiser pump being installed near the door.

I am totally sure that local authorities will be able to sort this in the 3 weeks that the government has given them to do so and that it won’t be a total shitshow.

I'm not sure if that was tongue in cheek. I know as an LA we have tried, long back during COVID in preparation. In my area there are just no buses to contract, there is no spare capacity. Even staggered starts can't be managed, so no bubbles when being transported, children even mixed across schools.
The vehicles do not exist.

@Sibsmum I'm waiting to hear what our music teachers plan. Most teach at multiple schools across several counties, and all have private pupils too. A few i know have obtained a mobile perspex screen for use in lessons but 2m tall by 1m across I couldnt say how safe they are.

As for pupil to teacher transfer. My SIL is a TA in a neighbouring county. When schools closed, she was put in a bank of staff to cover schools with essential worker students. She then caught COVID. Yes she may have caught it from another staff but also could have come from a student. If it wasnt transferable between child and adult it would be one of the few illnesses to do so? Does it magically go, hey you are 17 you cant catch me? but your mate at 18 can?

The morality-vacuum that is Boris Johnson lecturing teachers who, unlike him, actually serve other people and not just themselves, about moral duty in order to try to guilt-trip us into accepting his less-than-adequate leadership on this is pretty despicable.

I'm not sure if that was tongue in cheek.

Yes! It’ll be a shitshow but now the government can sadly shake their heads and say ‘we gave them £40 million but LAs just really aren’t up to the job’.

Despite the government saying the risks have been mitigated in schools, they haven’t at all

This x 1000.

The government saying ‘schools are safe‘ doesn’t mean they are safe. Nothing has been done to make them safe, escape making teachers run from room to room so that parents can feel marginally reassured that kids will be moving around the school slightly less. This in itself will be leaving classes of teenagers unsupervised at the start/end of every single lesson. I was a sensible child at a strict school in the 80/90s and even I can remember how much some kids would have seen that as an opportunity! A personal challenge to see exactly how far they could push it!

The risks are not being mitigated and the guidance actually bans schools from doing the things that most people seem to think are allowed-eg masks if you want them, temperature checks, asking to see negative Covid tests before children return, no fining on attendance for vulnerable pupils, additional measures for vulnerable staff, money for additional cleaning etc etc

Most people who I talk to, assume schools will be doing those things as they seem common sense. But, they aren’t allowed!

Why?! This should be shouted from the rooftops. Why are no journalists commenting on it? I can see why the DM isn’t, as it doesn’t suit their narrative of ‘lazy teachers who are work-avoidant’ but why is nobody else?

Schools are SO important, they are apparently everyone’s number 1 priority-yet they don’t warrant a single penny of government money to keep them open? Why is nobody in the press talking about that?

I'm a Primary School Teaching Partner & I've been incredibly anxious this entire time! I'm almost 50 & a bit overweight & have an asthmatic teen at home.
I very much feel like an 'expendable' resource being used in order to get our economy going again.
I've got no choice but to be in school - otherwise I lose my job.
Stressed doesn't even begin to describe it.