To say there are so many of us now that feel like this

[Enoughnowstop]

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-teacher-schools-i-love-my-job-i-cant-keep-going?fbclid=IwAR2PdWYSIoIHed0m_ljs-DvncLM1Pf0min7NaJxPvcj8klTgzPj_3Gftp_Q

I know there will be loads of teacher bashing as a result but it’s how so many of us feel. I don’t know what can be done as I want schools open and functioning but the fear that it will be at the expense of my health and/or that of my family. And at the same time, the persistent disconnect with colleagues, the just getting by, the making do...it’s all too much some days.

Thoughts are with my colleagues around the country today.

Yeah, other people feel like shit too. I get it. Apparently that means we have to think of all those others before ourselves and manage your children’s education and manage our own fears and situations and not ever make mention of it for fear that someone else, somewhere has it worse. Great. yes it’s awful when you have to do your job despite feeling awful and overwhelmed. It isn’t unique to teaching but I expect you don’t care about that and of course you don’t have to. You are asking for empathy but showing very little.

I sympathise with anyone who is working hard in this crazy time, especially those who are getting criticised for it. As a GP I’m more familiar with this situation than most people. I’ve worked so hard throughout , harder than ever before, and yet I read many threads on here about how GPs are doing nothing. Even NHS England thinks we’re doing nothing. I’m on annual leave this week but I’m having to work for a couple of hours every day because there’s just too much to do.

You see when you come back with snarky comments because people tell you that there are many others feeling the pressures and that you’re not the only ones feeling the effects - that’s when you lose the sympathy of others

Snarky? Or telling it like it is?

I understand it's hard for everyone right now and I always try to look at the positives. I enjoy my job, but at the moment I am scared every day. I'm in a room with 34 people all day and only 4 of us know how to social distance.

Everywhere else I go I feel safe due to safety measures.

But most people who work would be experiencing what that letter details.

I think most people working with the public feel like this. My husband is a store manager and has many people purposely getting in his face coughing, shouting ect with no mask on. He works in a deprived area where people would rather pretend it didn't exist because the fear of losing jobs is worse to them than covid. I work in healthcare and I still have to ask people to leave their masks on while speaking to me. Everyone is having a crap time. I am in no way saying you haven't got it tough but you are not alone in feeling this. I have found last week for everyone was very anxiety inducing.

but I expect you don’t care about that and of course you don’t have to

Please don’t presume you know me, or what I’m thinking. You don’t know the pressures I face personally, my age, medical conditions, or those of my family. You don’t know the jobs my family members do, or my friends and what concerns and worries I have for them that might be impacting my own situation right now. And I didn’t ask DP for empathy. I did ask that people look at the broader picture of what is happening to teaching as a whole profession which should be of concern to everyone.

It’s shit all round. for you OP and everyone else who needs them. I grateful to my children’s teachers and I do what I can to avoid exposing us to others to minimise risks. For those of you who haven’t had deep cleans, there is a dettol aerosol spray disinfectant - called dettol all in one. I know you shouldn’t have to but it’s great for a quick spritz to make you feel a bit more secure (can get it in Tesco). I’ve also seen some research on mouthwash helping and those travel nasal sprays helping too. I am not saying they will 100% stop you catching anything but they might help you feel you are taking back some control. I hope this helps.

I honestly do not know why teachers think they have it worse than anyone else. Moaning about having to wipe doors handles, haven’t all workplaces introduced new hygiene measures?

If the article was supposed to provoke sympathy it was rather counter productive.

I work in education & there's very little social distancing. I worked throughout lockdown & it was very tough with home education & a toddler. Same for my friend who works in the police & my friend who is a doctor at the hospital.

It’s hard for teachers, it’s hard for all of us and I can think of many, many jobs where people genuinely are at the crackIng point - I have a lot of friends in Higher ed, NHS and public service and they are really under the cosh at the moment.
I’m not sure what the point of your post is? You’re going to get limited sympathy, but your feelings are of course valid. And there are teachers who will walk away.
I’d make sure you e got something else lined up before you do though - the world of work isn’t what it was and even tutoring depends on parents having the funds to pay and with many, many of us out of work and unable to find equivalent work to what we had I’m not sure the teachers who can’t cut it in schools anymore will have the alternatives they think they can fall back on.

I'm in middle leadership in secondary and it is hard at the moment. I think (as will be the case for all workplaces) it's the extra routines we are following, the covering for colleagues self isolating, the setting of work for pupils self isolating and ensuring it's done and they are up to speed with everything that makes it feel harder. In addition to trying to do the normal things we need to like develop the curriculum, continue to develop teaching and learning etc.

I am in a supportive school but I was totally exhausted when we finished for half term on Fri. It took until yesterday for me to feel vaguely human again! I know my team were also exhausted.

For me, I am trying to focus on the positives of each day, however small. In the last week for instance, a Y11 boy rolled up a piece of paper at break and was using it as a trumpet - it made me laugh and that made my day! I sometimes write the positives in the back of my diary to look back on when I am struggling. I mentioned it to my NQT and he is now doing the same

I was also reminded in the last week how much some kids really value us as the constant in their lives -never underestimate the difference that makes!

I spoke to one of my kids teacher about this and she feels the restrictions are too tight and she wants to engage with the kids more. She doesn't wear PPE. Nor do any of the others but they can if they want. She bought a see through visor with glasses and a mask and decided not to use them. School can't provide due to cuts. But you can buy a box of cheap masks on Amazon and a visor for a fiver which the other teachers j know in other schools have done. The deep cleaning is fine in the primary schools and I wouldn't call it deep from what I have seen and heaed. It's tough on the reception class though with all the toys. Pre school doesn't seem to mind either.

Schools are doing what they can. She said she is just happy to have a job where 75% of people in our area have lost theirs!

It's swings and roundabouts really isn't it. But it won't be forever.

I don’t know if it’s the culture of reaching that feeds it, but there’s a tone deafness about the wider community that is often breathtaking.

*teaching

I did ask that people look at the broader picture of what is happening to teaching as a whole profession which should be of concern to everyone.

So @Enoughnowstop what should we do about that?

It is hard. I think the first half of the autumn term is the worst part of the year anyway. First part of the spring term is also awful but is shorter.

Do any other teachers think there’s no way that article was written by a teacher, though?

Which school do colleagues routinely hug one another in? And people always bitch when the photocopier breaks.

I feel for anybody working out of the home who is vulnerable or has vulnerable family members, or who is just anxious about catching it.

But this isn't exclusive to teachers and you are being snarky OP.

I was made redundant and am now lucky enough to have found work I can do from home. Would that be an option for you? I would imagine that tutoring would be a goldmine right now - so many kids who fell behind during lockdown or those who have been deregistered.

It’s not correct to say people in a supermarket (or any shop) have less risk of Covid. They do not have the same close contact, but you are working in a bubble of your kids and their contacts (before anyone jumps, that makes it far greater than 30 in number but your closest contacts are those 30). In a supermarket you see thousands of people across a week and will probably be close to someone incubating Covid every week. It’s a different risk and hard to compare.

Also a friend of mine teaches in a local secondary school and they have just stopped the bubbles because the teachers couldn't cope with changing classrooms every hour.... Which is safer than the kids all moving around and needing to be deep cleaned. The teachers now stay in one class as before and the kids move around freely but now they have to deep clean the room between each class which they aren't happy about that either. And apparently they are allowed to deligate the cleaning to a pupil.... Can't see this going well

Why are there so many threads from teachers about this, lots of us have been working hand to hand with the public with no ppe throughout, we didn't get the summer off, we've not been working from home and it's bloody hard work. Teachers don't have an easy job but I see more threads on here from teachers complaining than any other profession

Mumsnet really does hate teachers, doesn’t it?

There was a brief respite when everyone was homeschooling and suddenly realised how difficult it is, but the memory of that clearly wasn’t a prevailing one.

I suggest OP you look at the conditions for staff in prisons, police officers, probation staff, all of the vital work farmed out to third sector charities who pay peanuts, and don't have pay scales and decent pensions, social care is absolutely decimated and not just child protection and it's those functions under public scrutiny when a child dies, or someone murders their partner, not just when somebody didn't get the GCSEs they hoped for

You don’t know the pressures I face personally, my age, medical conditions, or those of my family. You don’t know the jobs my family members do, or my friends and what concerns and worries I have for them that might be impacting my own situation right now you’re right but you aren’t unique and you are navel gazing. People lost mothers fathers children, for ever this week. People went into hospital. People lost jobs, couldn’t visit sick or elderly family. People faced up to another long stretch alone.

Your situation sounds hard. It doesn’t sound “the hardest” or even unusually hard. It’s absolutely been a shit experience for so so many people.

We just don’t need another thread like this... and I’m a teacher.