To ask if you are happy with the protection levels at school?

[MissMissICantDoThis]

I am a teacher so feel that I have some insight into what is going on in schools and I am feeling increasingly worried about the 'second wave'.

We have guidelines at our school and they mainly protect us adults. In reality, I couldn't do my job without breaking the guidelines and putting myself at risk. I accept this and felt that I accepted the risk in general. In my circle it is generally 'brave face and no complaining' attitude so I do not hear anyone talking about it.

I have mixed feelings for my own children. My son seems genuinely scared for the adults in the family and I am doing my best to support this.

I do not think that they will close schools again. The damage that the last lockdown did is evident. However, I am increasingly in favour of closing them again for a circuit breaker at least. The scientific evidence is so mixed that I do not know what to believe and wonder if the government are purposely being vague to avoid lockdown. Death rates are inevitably down compared to the first wave now that they only count deaths within 28 days yet they announced that it can take several weeks for someone to become critically ill.

My friend has a worried child too and she has said that if necessary, she will take her child out and face the fine. Is anyone else's child really worried? How do you feel about this?

I am genuinely prepared to accept that I am on half term and have spent more time watching the news than I normally would. Am I allowing myself to be scaremongered?

I was ok until the wet weather forced me to spend 30 mins in a packed hall with 130 year nine pupils.

I worry that the lack of testing mean we're not catching onward transmission.

I worry that 'bubbles' are all well and good until you factor in siblings, pupil-staff-pupil transmission due to aforementioned wet break or incautious staff (or 1-1 TAs with no other option).

I'm not worried for me, I'm not high risk. It does mean I won't see my parents for a while.

I worry that the effect on my mums mental health of not going to the pub with her mates or being allowed to see her only grandchild will be very negative.

I feel like this half-way house is bullshit. Either we're trying to prevent community transmission, in which case we need better protections in schools. Or 'it's just the flu' and we need to shield the vulnerable and crack on.

At the moment education is being disrupted by isolations, bubbles popping, etc. But it's still spreading. It's the worst of both worlds. There's no forward planning possible. We're doing kids a massive disservice imo by not deciding which way we're going on this.

And vulnerable people are being told they're protected because we're closing pubs, while the germ factories are still going. Told to carry on going to work in those schools, but not allowed to see their own grandchildren.

I do think it's important for DC to be in school, but it's hard to square that with a second wave. I think if I was in charge I would want us to be making better use of big well ventilated spaces like sports halls, lecture theatres, village halls and libraries with spaced out individual tables and part time timetables to gain more space. I think secondary schools could try to social distance with these measures and lessons should be filmed or streamed for pupils isolating at home. I think rules for primary age children must be less stringent and I do not agree with young children being told they can't turn around in their chairs for example (and a friend told me such rules have caused an increase in anxiety driven handwashing by her 7year old son). I also think sports and social groups for children are essential for welfare at this point and I thank wholeheartedly those youth group leaders who are making this happen for my dc.

I think rules for primary age children must be less stringent

I don’t.

I'm loving being back in the classroom. But I'm angry at the total disregard the government have shown for staff and pupils. 10 cases in my school, 2 in classes i teach. Have been left with classes of 6 pupils on 3 occasions so education has been totally disrupted. School is in tier 1 but a lot of our pupils come from tier 2 ( possibly soon to be tier 3). Pupils are not wearing masks or using sanitizer as they enter schools. I move with them on the corridor. Protection seems to be open windows and doors plus my own bottle of sanitizer that I'm forever using before I hand things out. It is utterly shit. I'm sending in wipes and handwash to my daughter's primary school as no extra funding from the government. I utterly despise the tories. They do not give a shit .

Well by the time I would qualify the blooming crisis would be over! Plus I can’t afford to give up work.

It struck me all through lockdown that I could have been much more usefully engaged

At the moment education is being disrupted by isolations, bubbles popping, etc. But it's still spreading. It's the worst of both worlds. There's no forward planning possible. We're doing kids a massive disservice imo by not deciding which way we're going on this.

Completely agree with this. I can't possibly ensure equal access to my lessons when I've got anywhere between a quarter and a whole class off. I can plan a lesson for a SI year group, then be called to cover someone else on the day. I can try to teach in person and online simultaneously, but I can't monitor or target what's going on online while managing the behaviour of the kids in front of me. It's a farce.

If we could plan to see up to half of all students on a rota, we could have much more consistency. I'm sure that many of our Year 10s and 11s would have had more teacher contact that way. As it is, many have been at home for four weeks anyway, but with this mish mash of provision because we don't have time to plan for it, and try as we might, we're often taken for cover anyway.

@Sodamncold

*Do you go by another username at all? I fail to see how someone could be so utterly self centred as to claim they're 'indifferent' about the risks to all involved.*

Because for the massive massive majority - COVID 19 is like a mild case of the flu.

And in children, not even that.

So armed with that information, I look at my children - happy, settled, thriving at school and I think.... hallelujah!

Still.... utterly indifferent was the phrase you used. Quite nasty and as a previous poster said self centred in the extreme.

My youngest is ecv so sending the two primary age ones back to school was a really difficult decision.

I'm so, so, so grateful I moved DS school last year and started DD at that one as the HT and the staff have been brilliant. I am worried about the staff ending up burnt out though.

They bubble all day. Staggered starts and ends. Lunches are brought to the classroom door in boxes and eaten in the class. They have a sectioned playground and staggered breaks.

They're unapologetically behind on admin because one of the office ladies is working as a classroom assistant. That was the only way all classes could have two adults. The Deputy Head is also in a class.

The only way they've been able to do that is because it's a small school. They've been able to utilise some space they wouldn't normally have (for example I'm the chair of an out-of-school care and holiday club. We have long term let of two rooms which have been taken back for use by the school.

One of the teachers was very, very ill with Covid in March just before lockdown. He's still not back. I think it's made the HT and the staff very, very cautious.

I don't think it's sustainable long-term. Both the teacher and the TA eat lunch with the children and then have a short break separately later. I just don't think they get an actual proper break.

I have to admit I'm glad, with DD being vulnerable, that my older girls finished high school this year. I wouldn't want them back in there now. Their bubbles are huge, and broken daily on school buses.

If we could plan to see up to half of all students on a rota, we could have much more consistency. I'm sure that many of our Year 10s and 11s would have had more teacher contact that way. As it is, many have been at home for four weeks anyway, but with this mish mash of provision because we don't have time to plan for it, and try as we might, we're often taken for cover anyway.

Exactly, and knowing each class, we could plan ahead with 'I need to do THIS in person, but we can do THAT remotely and check in when we're back again.

I'm trying to plan a remote lesson on something that almost always runs to a second lesson because they don't get some part of it, it's almost impossible to second guess every difficulty and plan for it.

If I knew they'd be in one week and off the next I could make sure we do that together, and there's definitely some content coming up where videos and bitesize and some practice questions will be fine.

But at the moment it's like the Hokey Cokey.

Schools aren't safe. Social distancing is impossible and school staff are collateral damage As of last week we had over 15 positive students, and 25% of staff (including myself) either positive or Self-isolating

"As of last week we had over 15 positive students, and 25% of staff (including myself) either positive or Self-isolating"

Sorry to hear it; are you secondary? I'm guessing in a tier 3 area?

Also a teacher. Given in notice as cannot recover from my anger over SLT making a massive visible fuss over safety to keep parents happy, whilst completely ignoring teachers who are flagging up constant really dangerous covid situations. We have one yeargroup who are damned well old enough to know better who refuse to behave safely. I expect supply will be even less safe but I'm too angry to stay so they can find another core teacher for those kids. I'm really shocked by their complacency, when we have year 7's who are absolutely doing the right thing every day.

I’m very comfortable with our school (primary).
the alternative is to have the kids at home, have them live in fear and deprive them of socialisation and in many cases an education. For healthy kids, the effects of that far outweigh any effects of getting in contact with covid.

just to add, our school has been fully open since early june, and offered a full interactive online curriculum all through lockdown. Missing the social side alone was terrible for the kids, no way i’m intentionally inflicting this on my kids again.

Also a teacher. Schools are most definitely not safe, the precautions in place at Primary Schools are not going to protect adults or children.

@LadyPenelope68

Also a teacher. Schools are most definitely not safe, the precautions in place at Primary Schools are not going to protect adults or children.

Maybe your school but my daughters primary school hasn’t had a single adult or child off with covid in term 1.

@Noitjustwontdo
think the teachers are barmy in all honesty, they’re either braver or stupider than me- I’m not sure. They don’t wear a mask or visor (imo they should all have visors) but they still stand at the classroom door greeting everyone like normal, I’ve seen a couple of them leaving the classroom to talk to parents in close proximity too. One of the teachers is heavily pregnant and she does this too, I don’t know why they don’t see the risk in this.
They do see the risk, we’re being told we can’t wear masks🤬

@Halliehallie9828
I would say that’s luck rather than good management. There is no protection whatsoever for the adults in particular.

I work in a school and do feel relatively comfortable with the measures put in place. Large secondary with no cases so far. However, our school lost someone senior to Covid last April so that hit everyone very hard and we have significant measures in place.

Not so much at DS's school.

Having said that, I always have a niggling feeling everyday that of all the places I go, work is the place I'm most likely to be exposed to it. That it's only a matter of time before someone contracts it. I'm very conscious of this.

To all the people who want visors in schools: visors DO NOT protect against covid.
Conventional masks protect other people from the person wearing them, but not the wearer.

We have had no cases in our primary school, tier 1 area with very low community rates.

As a parent I roll my eyes a little, there is zero possibility of social distancing at collection for example but go through the bubble/staggering palava anyway.

As staff, I know we're doing our best. The bubbles are kept nicely separate really, we hand sanitise etc. We remind the kids where possible to give each other space. Distancing between staff and pupils is hard, I spend a lot of time with my 9 yr old charge on my knee or close to it, with a few others hanging over my shoulder for whatever reason.

I'm not overly anxious though tbh.

[quote LadyPenelope68]@Halliehallie9828
I would say that’s luck rather than good management. There is no protection whatsoever for the adults in particular.[/quote]
That’s your opinion but considering you have no idea at all how my daughters school is run then You have no idea.

No idea if it’s luck or not*

No I don’t think schools are Covid secure

I can understand the anxiety around this

I’m not worried myself I’ve worked around Covid and ds isn’t worried either. I support the wearing of masks in school at all times. I’m worried about school closing. There has been a few cases at ds school and one year self isolated (and other smaller groups)

But neither of us are vulnerable though I’m well aware how ill some non vulnerable people can become