Should teachers be extra vigilant to infection in their every day lives to reduce school transmission?

[WhyNotMe40]

As the latest PHE report states that in June there were more staff than students affected by the covid19 coronavirus, there are suggestions that teachers should take measures to reduce bringing the virus into schools.

Voting: do you think teachers should change how they behave out of schools to protect the school?
YABU yes
YANBU no

Also - what activities or behaviours do you think teachers should avoid or do to further this aim?

@Lostinagoodbook I thoroughly agree that what really needs to happen is that working parents need legal and financial support to keep and be paid for their jobs despite uncertainty over school opening. IMO this would be money better spent than the furlough scheme.

"Hopefully most teachers are being responsible like everybody else is but at least two that I know have been abroad until a couple of days ago and won't be quarantined for two weeks

So tell their school or report them if need be.

It seems unusual as most people I know are compliant with the quarantine. As it's so important you'd be within your rights to inform someone official of them not doing so.

I don't know anyone choosing not to quarantine if they have to. Complaint had been high here amongst the people I know.

I have no idea where the families of my pupils have been on holiday - within a day or two of being at school I guess I will know as children like to share their news we find.

I have been abroad this summer. However I was not required to quarantine. I went t France and the quarantine wasn't introduced until a week or so later.

I have friends with children who were in France when it came in. They stayed but returned from their holiday two days early to ensure that their quarantine will finish the day before their child is due to be in school.

The vote is skewed as it doesn't make sense
YABU should be NO they shouldn't change their lifestyle
YANBU should be YES they should change their lifestyle.

I voted incorrectly because I wanted to vote YABU but then noticed it said YES next to it!

Great interview on ITV this morning where lady (can't remember who) said government need to stop following this and start taking the lead in the planning and debate.

@Birdsong20

The vote is skewed as it doesn't make sense YABU should be NO they shouldn't change their lifestyle YANBU should be YES they should change their lifestyle.

I voted incorrectly because I wanted to vote YABU but then noticed it said YES next to it!

Sorry - I realised afterwards but you can't amend posts! I was a bit nervous about AIBU...

If teachers are expected to adhere to stricter restrictions when not working than the ones the law imposes on the general population, they need to be paid extra for this. No extra pay, no extra expectations.

The PHE report seems to be based on the time when schools were closed to most students. I cannot understand how they can draw conclusions about the spread of coronavirus in schools when schools have not been open fully. If we look at what is happening in Scotland where schools have been back a few weeks, there are schools where there are high numbers of cases. It is also fairly obvious that as children are said to be more likely to be asymptomatic they are less likely to think they have the virus and to be tested. It would be really, really good for the government and PHE to stop this bullshit and start being more honest with us. This latest bullshit about teachers taking more care than other groups is just another example of this spin.

It will be in schools that staff to staff transmission will occur.

Schools are not offices and staff meetings tend to take place in enclosed rooms with little distancing. Clearly, they may limit staff meetings but that still leaves the need for staff to have departmental meetings etc. Of course, you can try to stop staff mixing but that will make it an awfully unpleasant environment, with teachers stuck in classrooms/labs leading a solitary existence except for teaching.

Teachers do need a break from solely being with children and adult to adult interacting is really important when discussing how best to teach or pastoral issues (and just for a break and mental boost), and doing this by Zoom or Teams, sitting in a classroom, which may well be overlooked or overheard by pupils, is neither pleasant nor practical.

I think what teachers do outside schools (unless they totally isolated themselves, which is not possible or reasonable) will have little effect on transmission. It just takes one spreader in a staff/departmental meeting to start a chain of transmission throughout a school.

Teachers, like NHS workers, do need to take the risk for the greater good of society, but it is not a trivial one and the populace should be grateful for what they do, not carping at them.

If our teachers are expected to adhere to stricter restrictions than the general guidelines laid out for the population then this means that the precautions within our schools must not be robust or secure enough.

If our schools are Covid secure then addition restrictions should not be needed.

The government have nicely laid the seed now that if Covid goes around a school its most likely because the teachers/staff got too close to one another. So they can then blame the adults in the school and people will nod along.

Let's face it, you only have to read MN for a few days to see that teachers are always criticised, regardless of what, where, who, why ... throughout the pandemic this has been even more evident than normal. So it doesn't take much imagination to see that parents will be only too willing to let their child's teacher take the blame if there is an outbreak in their school. I can already see the threads:

There's been an outbreak at my child's school. I spotted his teacher in Wetherspoons this weekend, and I saw her in the supermarket shopping at the weekend too. AIBU to think she should be only going an online shop, and not going out at the moment?

AIBU that my kids TA shouldn't be going to the gym before school? There's been a positive Covid test in school and I'm sure it was him.

Teachers, like NHS workers, do need to take the risk for the greater good of society, but it is not a trivial one and the populace should be grateful for what they do, not carping at them.

This is a good point. The elephant in the room is, why can't the risk be mitigated with extra teachers and spaces? It is solely money.

@larrygrylls in my school the staffroom and workroom have been as if the year 10 return last term.
We also no longer have our own classrooms, and there are no school staff laptops. Which will make working at school interesting....

Also - their conclusion that it was staff spreading it was based on a report where more staff test positive. You have to be symptomatic to get a test. Kids are largely asymptomatic.....

I know many teachers, from my previous teaching career, and from speaking to them there is a repeated theme amongst them all: that they are worried that they will pick Covid up in their workplaces and take it home to their families. They will follow the rules and do everything they can to protect themselves and their families whilst at work. Equally, they are doing what they can to protect themselves and their families out of work as well. There is no need for them to do anything extra unless they feel it is necessary. People expecting them to do more than what they would do themselves is unreasonable. If schools are Covid safe then there is no reason for anybody to have to do anything more than what is being asked of them in the guidelines, either in or out of school.

Clav, you’re not a teacher and your kids go to a private school.

Ds1 is off to university next month. DH has contact with schools in both sectors...

My most consistent point (for weeks, if not months) has been that measures should be taken to avoid staff to staff transmission in schools as a priority - and yet there are still teachers on other threads denying that this should be a priority. Last post on another thread this morning;

"their conclusion that it was staff spreading it was based on a report where more staff test positive.You have to be symptomatic to get a test. Kids are largely asymptomatic....."

Sorry - wrong thread.

Can you explain what is wrong with that statement?

Also: school has closed the staffroom as from the yr 10 return last term and the workroom. There are no staff laptops (funding). There will be no way to work in school and we don't have full access to everything remotely (nor should we - eg SIMS).
Schools HAVE implemented rules to stop staff to staff transmission - except the one that is everywhere else because it is not allowed. Masks

Ds1 is off to university next month. DH has contact with schools in both sectors...

That’s a flat no then.

You keep banging on about staff to staff transmission where a lot of teachers are worried that they won’t actually get to see their colleagues at all let alone at 2m distance. It’s going to be incredibly lonely.

Clav within schools staff rooms are shut, staff are eating lunch with kids and cleaning up afterwards, staff have no PPA room, no laptops.
One way systems. Bubbles so they are only missing with kids. Zoom meetings.

I'd like to know what else you suggest can be done within schools to stop staff being blamed for spread?

The working conditions have already got harder, pressure already greater, PPE already refused.

Staff aren't mixing in any of the schools I have contact with. In fact I'm concerned about the impact this will have on teachers MH.

But if only symptomatic people are tested and it's agreed kids are mainly asymptomatic how can you prove its staff to staff contact?

And what else can be done to prevent any staff to staff contact that may occur?

Everyone should.
Teachers, pupils, parents of pupils...

I'm concerned enough about not bringing covid to me, my son, my mum, my bf, my colleagues, etc... but I'm not locking myself at home either.

My most consistent point (for weeks, if not months) has been that measures should be taken to avoid staff to staff transmission in schools as a priority - and yet there are still teachers on other threads denying that this should be a priority. Last post on another thread this morning;

Steps are bring taken for this. Staff have to SD from each other, canteen facilities and break rooms are closed or limited to 2 only. I'd have far more confidence than staff can keep away from each other than children will from staff.

The quote you reference is pointing out that it is being assumed that only staff are passing on the virus. But if a child gets it they will likely have no symptoms and it won't be picked up until a staff member gets it or someone at home. By the time it spreads lots of adults have symptoms so the whole staff is tested because it is assumed based in that teachers have spread it amongst themselves. Meanwhile you might have lots of kids infected but feel fine. It shouldn't be assumed it is always the adults everyone at school is tested. The kids in bubbles are not SD at all so it is possible they are spreading it to each other then people at home.

And again

Can I just add that staff rooms being closed and measures in place in schools so staff don’t interact is pointless as we can all go to the pub together after school. We won’t, but still.

"pointless as we can all go to the pub together after school. We won’t but still"

Except the pub should be enforcing social distancing!

Most schools I've been at people have been too busy marking etc to go down the pub except for the last day of term/ half term!

Cue headlines about outbreaks in xy school caused by 9 to 3 teachers getting hammered down their local....

Yes and no but more no, if it's safe for everything to be open with the measures, providing they and others stuck to the measures then there shouldn't be a problem should there

You are assuming that the measures are safe because the government say so

They also said there was a protective ring around care homes that the a level algorithm would be fair, and that people indoors not sticking to SD was causing spikes in infection but if you are stuck in a box room with 30 16 year old kids that is "safe"

I will follow the EXACT SAME GUIDELINES that THE REST OF THE COUNTRY have been told to follow OP...if that's ok with you 👍