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?

@CertainGecko

When I was in hospital a few weeks ago, the pubs had just reopened recently. I chatted to a few of the midwives looking after me about what the pubs were like, as they were saying they'd been out. One said the streets were heaving, no chance of social distancing. These were midwives working on the labour ward in delivery suites. If they didn't have to avoid social situations, then why should teachers?

Absolutely.

Hey @Clavinova . Whats going on with TFL? The latest approach is to pack all the students in together with no SD. These kids could be at different schools etc.

@FrenchItalian

This is a difficult one- clearly we don’t want teachers to be scapegoats for spreading virus. However, I do think teachers and school staff taking personal responsibly for their behaviour will be important in keeping schools open.

So teachers should imo be doing things like maintaining social distancing work friends and family, avoiding non-essential public transport use, meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors, limiting bar and restaurant visits and avoiding overseas travel.

I’d also close staff rooms and other communal areas to prevent social gatherings between teachers

Everyone should be doing that.

That's the guidelines.

And if parents aren't or teens aren't it'll make no difference

[quote hedgehogger1]@itsgettingweird damn it we won't be allowed sweets on tables will we. My humbug is the only thing that gets me through a September training day and all the graphs....[/quote]
I know!

And the sheets always get me on the candidates good side before I open my mouth and half kill them via death by PowerPoint!

Luckily there is lots of practical elements to my course so I've mixed it up a bit to try and keep them alert - although I'm sure they'd still prefer the sugar rush

That's why you need big pockets to put your own sweets in

YABU Are you asking the families of children to do the same Works both ways

@MrsHamlet

That's why you need big pockets to put your own sweets in

Pockets?

Mine will be on the desk I'm running the lower point from.

I also have to get through the 2 days 🤣

I may just have to take that sage advice and have a bad in deck, a few in each pocket and maybe some spare in my bag?!

You have never have too many mint humbugs right?

And you'll be relieved to know that despite that auto corrected mess above the power point is actually grammatically accurate and I can spell

FrenchItalian
So teachers should imo be doing things like maintaining social distancing work friends and family, avoiding non-essential public transport use, meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors, limiting bar and restaurant visits and avoiding overseas travel.

When this is compulsory for all then I may consider it. Until then my time is my own.

*So teachers should imo be doing things like maintaining social distancing work friends and family, avoiding non-essential public transport use, meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors, limiting bar and restaurant visits and avoiding overseas travel.

I’d also close staff rooms and other communal areas to prevent social gatherings between teachers*

Why should they act differently if their job is no more risky? You can't have it both ways. Either the job carries additional risk, in which case there should be funding to mitigate the risk, or it doesn't and there are no additional restrictions on what teachers can do over and above the rest of society.

And as part of guidance under the original June return, school staff rooms and communal areas have already been zoned and given a max capacity as has had to happen in offices.

So teachers should imo be doing things like maintaining social distancing work friends and family, avoiding non-essential public transport use, meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors, limiting bar and restaurant visits and avoiding overseas travel.

• maintaining social distancing work friends and family: EVERYONE should be doing this anyway

However,

• avoiding non-essential public transport use: we are allowed
• meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors
• limiting bar and restaurant visits
• avoiding overseas travel

NO! This is allowed under the current guidelines and teachers should not have to have stricter guidelines than the rest of the population.

It is either safe for me to be in school or it isn't.
It should not be dependent on me not being able to live my life in the same way my DH and DD can.

Meanwhile...

Another possible U-turn?

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/25/covid-19-boris-johnson-school-face-mask-advice-change

@itsgettingweird

And you'll be relieved to know that despite that auto corrected mess above the power point is actually grammatically accurate and I can spell

That's a shame. Spotting grammatical errors in powerpoints is what keeps me awake during INSET!

I've just read an article in local media about care workers and their children being socially shunned. It doesn't surprise me I'm afraid. Our schools wouldn't let children into classrooms if their parents used keyworker childcare (which wasn't education and at that point, wasn't in school buildings or even staffed by education professionals). It was a dreadful message to send.

I'm of the view that the general public can stay at home if they want to avoid mixing with the likes of us oiks in high-risk jobs.

So teachers should imo be doing things like maintaining social distancing work friends and family, avoiding non-essential public transport use, meeting family and friends outdoors rather than indoors, limiting bar and restaurant visits and avoiding overseas travel.

I'm already going to be spending all day every day in the same room, that's about the size of my living room, including my one break, because we're not allowed to mix and the staffroom has been shut. I'm also not going to see my parents between Sept and Xmas, nor is my DH.

We hear on MN so much that TEACHERS AREN'T SPECIAL.

Yet here we are.

FFS.

So, Boris began putting it all into reverse gear to U-turn shortly, saying that "if the science tells us..." or words to that effect. That would be the science that's been telling every other country to use face masks for months, then?

@CallmeAngelina

So, Boris began putting it all into reverse gear to U-turn shortly, saying that "if the science tells us..." or words to that effect. That would be the science that's been telling every other country to use face masks for months, then?

Or even the same science that's had him saying everyone over 11 should wear masks for the last 6 weeks

So hold on. We all need to eat out at restaurants and go to pubs to save the economy.
Unless we are teachers.
Wow.
We are being set up so that if there is a wave through schools, we can then be blamed.
Staff rooms are shut, teachers are mostly down to one short break to wee and wash hands. Eating with kids, break duty every day, no contact with other adults. Then when you get home you can’t go to Pizza Express like everyone else.
Oh they can just fuck off now.
No one said this to nurses did they?
I know we aren’t the most hard done by, hard working, worst off profession. I love my job tbh. But we are being shat on from a great Tory height now.

IIRC correctly nurses etc were being encouraged to use local takeouts etc during full lockdown with discounts?

Don't get me wrong I'm after after what they were doing and seeing the last thing they wanted to do was cook. I'm sure many will be affected for a long time at the scenes in hospitals.

But my point is no one said because they for a pizza on the way home it it was their fault icu was full.

Well on the first weekend back my husband and I are going to London for the weekend and will (shock horror) eat in a restaurant and have drinks on a bar.

Or maybe just in a bar!

NHS staff had takeaway food donated to them, in fact. Which was brilliant, I’ve no argument with that at all. But school staff can’t even go out and buy food. It must be ‘brought from home’. I don’t know where whoever added that little gem thinks I live or source my food? A smallholding with my own vegetable beds, orchard, pig and cow for the milk?

That's true. They did get - admittedly - well deserved deliveries.
But that still resulted in people cooking, delivering and boxes etc.

How is walking into the co op for a meal deal any different?!

This is surely a wind up

A little off topic but on top of all this we now have that study out saying kids' anxiety levels dropped in lockdown... So "WHAT ARE TEACHERS GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" Fed up of being blamed for absolutely everything. I'm due back after mat leave next week and on top of the facr I'm miserable about leaving my 9m DD I'm absolutely dreading it for so many more reasons now.