To sod SD as when I return to teaching in Sept it isn’t possible?

[motherrunner]

I’m a secondary school teacher. Despite all the ‘guidance’ my desk will be less than 1m from the classes I teach (Yr 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13). I will not be wearing protection as the guidance tells me my workplace in ‘Covid secure’. Come Sept I will have one 20 minute break a day as I am required to do a pre-school duty, a morning break duty, a lunch duty and an after school duty it’s every day. I can wash my hands once a day in those times. 5 times a day a class of 30 will be breathing at me.

Up until now I have followed the ‘rules’ religiously. I haven’t seen my mum (who is in a nursing home) since early March. I have turned down play dates for my children.

AIBU to think sod the SD and enjoy myself for the rest of the summer break? I was hoping for a sliver of hope from the dfe today with the promised revised guidance that hasn’t materialised. Come Sept I’ll be faced with over 200+ over 11s in close, unventilated spaces in 3 week so shall I just sod it?

I’m also not threatening to strike and the unions have not mentioned anything about strike action - again false reporting.

I have contacted my union about how (with my 1 toilet breaks a day) I can practice safe hygiene and also how I can change myself frequently when menstruating. This isn’t a refusal to work, this is asking for help to ensure I can work as comfortably as I can and save the embarrassment of me bleeding/flooding in front of teenagers?

@Goingprivate2020
You misunderstand me: schools have Had incidence of Covid but there is no single case where transmission has been linked to a school. Feel free to post a link if my info from the bbc yesterday is now wrong

What do you mean by "linked to a school"?

If it's that's the outbreaks aren't categorised as taking place in the school as a setting then that's untrue. The data from Public Health England proves this.

If it's that there is no proof that the virus was transmitted inside the building from pupil to teacher then it's disingenious. There's no data for who transfers to who. There's no data on children to teacher transmission in the same way there is no data on shopper to staff transmission nor patient to medical professional transmission.

I think the tampon box suggests changing every 6 hours - try that? If you’re needing to change very frequently you might need to change your product or seek medical advice. And I don’t believe that teachers won’t have the opportunity to sneak a wee during the day - this doesn’t resonate with the many schools I have worked with. It feels a bit dramatic to be honest. Let’s just all get on with it. No one us going to stop you changing your tampon in real life. Nor in real life does anyone need to change their tampon every hour.

motherrunner

There does seem to be a need from some people to willfully misunderstand what is being said and twist it to there own ends.

Its very much back to those spouting the 'can do attitude' bollocks.
It doesn't matter what your attitude is when you have octagonal desks and the guidance wants me to magically put the pupils in straight rows. Its not gonna happen.

And this will be seen by some as 'teachers' being 'obstructive' when it is simply a fact that it cannot be done.

@Goingprivate2020
And I don’t believe that teachers won’t have the opportunity to sneak a wee during the day - this doesn’t resonate with the many schools I have worked with.

Teachers did - breaktimes and lunchtimes. However, we are now supervising the children during those times to maintain our bubbles (the only 'protective' measure we are allowed). Children, both primary and secondary, cannot be left unsupervised.

@Goingprivate2020 I’m not sure why I having to justify myself here but here goes:

I am peri menopausal, this is why I can ‘flood’. I wish I could go 6 hours without changing sanitary protection.

Toilets are in one section of the school, I will be teaching in another block. I won’t be able to ‘nip’ to the toilets between lessons as they’re in a different part of the school. It would take a 10 minute round trip.

So by me missing my mum who I haven’t seen or spoken to since the beginning of March and having the fear of what is happening in care homes, is me being dramatic?

Anyway I’ll check in later. I’m off to meet my HoD to discuss the disaster of the A-level news!

Also peri, also have care home parents. It’s dreadfully sad but we are all having to deal. Stop naval gazing. The situation is crappy fir everyone. A positive attitude would work wonders among teachers but is so sadly lacking. The rest of the working world looks on with increasing resentment.

Instead, think of a workable solution and present your employer with it instead of a continuation of the last feed months’ ‘can’t do’ approach. Be constructive, find solutions and, above all, find some positivity be cure you face those poor kids who by September will have been excluded from education for 6 months. After the utter shit show, you owe them at least that.

@NebularNerd

In my small town, two of the three primary schools closed due to Covid before the summer. One member of staff and one a child who tested positive. In my husband's special school, at least half a dozen staff members caught it. I know it's anecdotal, but it's ridiculous to say there's been no cases in schools. If children can't transmit, why do over 11s need to wear masks everywhere else? Genuine question.

And we've been seeking genuine answers to it too!

Hello again @Goingprivate2020. Incidences haven't been linked specifically to schools because it's impossible to do so (and they have been operating at reduced capacity). How about we just wait and see, and you keep your unpleasant comments to yourself until it can properly be evidenced that transmission doesn't take place in schools?

I'm a peri, and unless you have been a full-time classroom teacher, you have no idea what this workload is going to be like for the OP.
All teachers will be doing their best for the children - putting on smiles and delivering education - it doesn't mean they have to enjoy it.
I don't believe that the OP is in a position to present a "workable solution"; it has already been decided.

@Goingprivate2020

You have inferred it by comparing yourself to everyone who has a ‘Covid secure’ job. No ones job is Covid secure. It is fir all of us to take sensible precautions whilst getting on with life. Saying ‘fuck all SD’ because your job, like most, poses some risk, is frankly puerile.

No ones job is covid guaranteed safe.

But jobs are covid secure - in the sense that's the wording used to provide protection following scientific advice.

Schools don't have that same guidance in place. So they have no covid secure measures as described and are also not covid guaranteed safe.

@Goingprivate2020

Are you having an absolute laugh? The vast majority of teachers have worked themselves to the bone in order to provide remote learning.

My class were in lockdown for a total of seven weeks before returning to school - not six months. Even if they hadn't returned, it wouldn't be six months of missed time in schools so that's being deliberately misleading.

Whilst they were in lockdown, I was working 60-70+ hours a week in order to create bespoke digital content and deliver learning through Google Classroom. There was an array of videos, audio files, individualised feedback, phone calls and constant communication. Half of the time, I was also based in school caring for the key worker children and still having to teach my class as fully as was possible.

And I am not alone in the level of work that I put in.

As for September, teachers have come up with clear plans but the Government isn't listening as they are more interested in cultivating this myth that schools are perfectly safe as they are. They need that myth in order to get the working population back in and earning/spending money. If they actually adapted their plans to take account of the safety measures being suggested, teachers would be over the moon. But they won't because those measures wouldn't fit with their false narrative and would cause parents to doubt the safety of the Government's guidance.

Many workplaces particularly retail don't allow toilet breaks (for the posters saying that this is unheard of).

When I worked for M&S we weren't allowed to leave the floor without permission. And using the loo was for break times only. If you were desperate you had to ask the (male) supervisor who would grant you permission if you weren't a regular asker, then he'd time you and any longer than 5 mins you had your pay docked.

Plus no drinking on the floor. I often did 6 hours without a drink. Which helps with not peeing obviously.

Lots of places are like this - I was astonished snr. I joined the civil service to find I could wander off to the kitchen and make a tea any time I wanted!

@Goingprivate2020

Yada yada ‘we worked so hard’. Don’t know a single parent in state schools around the country, who agrees. I think working fingers to bone means something entirely different in the private sector.

Incidentally - what were you doing for the 7 weeks of actual lockdown? Because no one I know was being educated.

If you read back through my post, you'll find that I explained exactly what I was doing. I spent every day in constant communication with my class through Google Classroom. I delivered bespoke lessons through self-recorded videos and audio files with specifically designed tasks and individualised feedback. This was on top of spending half the time in school with key worker children.

Every parent in my state school was extremely happy with the provision made for their child's education. They made their clear in their communications to us and in the survey we carried out when we brought every year group back into school.

Your arguments are tired, demonstratively untrue and based more on media headlines and a false narrative from our Government than they are grounded in reality.

@Goingprivate2020

Yada yada ‘we worked so hard’. Don’t know a single parent in state schools around the country, who agrees. I think working fingers to bone means something entirely different in the private sector.

Incidentally - what were you doing for the 7 weeks of actual lockdown? Because no one I know was being educated.

Then you should be complaining because every child I know of education age had learning of some sort. Some had teams etc earlier than others but they all had something.

Even my year 11 ds had frequent contact from the school who then teamed up with local colleges who sent their post 16 students who are due to start in September mini projects and they had zoom meetings etc.

Goingprivate2020.....are you for real?????

@Goingprivate2020

Yada yada ‘we worked so hard’. Don’t know a single parent in state schools around the country, who agrees. I think working fingers to bone means something entirely different in the private sector.

Incidentally - what were you doing for the 7 weeks of actual lockdown? Because no one I know was being educated.

How rude.

It’s also quite sad that I am not even remotely surprised, though. Teacher bashing seems to have become a MN national hobby recently.

Some people seem to spend so long doing it, I’m surprised they have the time to work themselves.

How much and what sort of fun are you missing out on by being 2m away from people not in your household?

I mean, I think it's a bonus not having people breathe down your neck in supermarket queues, or bump into you in the street, squeeze past you at bus stops, not to mention not being too close to the postman when he delivers parcels.

I'm single so I am missing the fun of dating and sex, but I expect I'll live. I can't think of someone said "Sod the 2m" to me what exactly I would rush out and do!
Also bearing in mind that most other people are observing the 2m as you are a risk to them as much, or not, as they are to you.

(which the rest of us in the private sector never left).

Well, some of us left because our jobs ended and now we can't get another one. Rather than the long, paid holiday with a guaranteed job at the end that teachers have had.

KarlKennedysDurianFruit puts it best. I got backlash on a different thread about pointing out that teachers, unlike most other key workers, haven't been at their workplace full time since lockdown began.

OP I do sympathise with you though on the basis of your day as that seems ridiculous, hardly any chance to go to the toilet. Has it always been that way or is that post-lockdown specific?

And I don’t believe that teachers won’t have the opportunity to sneak a wee during the day - this doesn’t resonate with the many schools I have worked with.

It 'resonates' with every single school I've taught in (at least 12).

It's true that some teachers have been working their fingers to the bone and others have had a pretty easy time. It depends on what provision their schools have been providing. The individual teachers had no choice in that.

But I fail to see what that's got to do with going back in September and whether it's safe or not. The question of whether teachers have had it easy or hard during lockdown is totally irrelevant to whether schools opening will be safe.

It's not about having a 'can-do' attitude. There's no magic solution that people have failed to think up. There is no way of opening schools that will not risk a big increase in cases, except rotas and blended learning, plus masks/visors.

@gogogadgetarms with the exception of England, EY age children in the other UK nations don't have to social distance, from other children or adults.