AIBU or are the lives of school staff worthless?

[Witchcraftandhokum]

I fully appreciate that the education and mental well-being of children is important but why does it trump the physical and mental health of school staff? The facts are simple, people are being told to stay at home because it is unsafe to do otherwise, unless you work in education or the NHS who are provided with effective PPE.

On a daily basis I am expected to supervise the diner where 150 students eat lunch (obviously mask free) if I wish to eat I am also mask free. I have to supervise the same 150 children in narrow corridors. For this pupils are supposed to wear masks but there are a number who refuse (not the students who are exempt) and we cannot enforce it. We hand out hundreds of masks per week to students whose parents don't ensure they have one with them.

We are not allowed to wear masks in classrooms but are given visors which aren't as effective. The children are not allowed to wear masks in classrooms. None of this are rules imposed by the school but are in-line with the government guidance.

We have students who say they have developed a cough knowing we have to send them home, we cannot make the decision as to whether they are lying or not, but I've been verbally abused by parents calling me "fucking stupid" for not knowing when a child is lying.

Before half-term we had 25% of staff off sick as they had tested positive (including myself). There are many experts stating schools should be shut but Boris has done a fantastic job of insinuating that school staff are lazy and don't want to work, and the early response to the unions concerns shows that this is working. I've never suffered with stress or anxiety but the thought of a return to school tomorrow is making me feel sick.

Talking to colleagues who work in other schools it appears my experience is not unusual. So AIBU to think that this government doesn't give a shiny shit about school staff.

Isn’t it sad that people complaining don’t have to come into contact with hundreds of people without any masks every day, in close proximity. Name another profession whereby you have to be surrounded by so many people in close proximity for 1 hour+ every day without the protection of masks.

I’ll wait.

WitchCraft theres so many good teachers leaving right now, selfishly I hope you change your mind but good luck!

@Witchcraftandhokum doing retail work before the pandemic won't prepare you for what it's like now. I've been in retail for many years and I've never experienced anything like the current situation and worse it will get with Christmas coming and lockdowns taking place. I think you have the view of it being easy when it's been anything but since March. Plus you'll only be employed until the first week of January then you need a plan B.

Stripesnomore I appreciate that, but as I've said I have experience and it wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't happen.

OP. Come & teach overseas instead!

Probably not a serious suggestion, I get it, but we are hiring.

You'd earn good money & teach small groups with SD-ing, masks, & sensible Covid policies.

It's certainly working for me, & we mostly recruit from the U.K.

"Name me one other workplace where employees are in the OP’s position: 30 people (who also happen to be more likely than the general population to have the virus asymptomatically) in a room, no masks, no social distancing, for hours on end?"

Childcare.

Personally, having 2 children at different schools - one child was taught fabulously throughout lockdown. The other child's teacher basically checked out for 5 months - no set work, no contact, no marking, nothing. Contacting the school made no difference. Yet both teachers were paid in full from March until September. Meanwhile DH was working in the NHS with limited PPE, 60 hour weeks, on less money without 6 weeks leave. So, yes, as a profession, I don't have much sympathy for them.

Jakobabear I've already said returning to retail is my plan B, I'll probably get some consultancy work.

I don't know why school staff can still bare mumsnet anymore. The abuse they get is vile.

I am not lazy, just recently retired.

My DGCs had the occasional worksheet during lockdown as, apparently, the teachers couldn't work because they had their own DCs to look after. They still got full pay though at the tax payers expense. There was no furlough for them.

I have many friends who are still teaching and in some schools the children have to wear masks in communal areas like corridors.

Teachers are just fed up because they have to go to work when many others are furloughed or wfh.
Many, many jobs give a lot more exposure to Covid.
Stop moaning.

I'm sorry but I think you've missed the point of my post aragog.

A pp was asking specifically to be told of one group of workers other than teachers who are forced into contact with others and not allowed to wear a mask while doing so. So I said people (and not just lawyers mind) who work in a courtroom. It's irrelevant to the point I was making to say that some lawyers work from home or possibly in covid-secure offices.

OP: I'll get a job in retail.

MN: No you won't, you need experience

OP: I have experience

MN: Not the right kind of experience.

@ssd you are so right. I had a break from mumsnet over the last lockdown because the constant teacher abuse really made me feel mentally unwell.

And the same keyboard warriors are back with the same snarky attitudes. It is vile.

Stygimoloch and ssd it's really odd, because even though the things said on here have been vile it's pushed me to do something about it.

@yellowspanner

I am not lazy, just recently retired.

My DGCs had the occasional worksheet during lockdown as, apparently, the teachers couldn't work because they had their own DCs to look after. They still got full pay though at the tax payers expense. There was no furlough for them.

I have many friends who are still teaching and in some schools the children have to wear masks in communal areas like corridors.

Teachers are just fed up because they have to go to work when many others are furloughed or wfh.
Many, many jobs give a lot more exposure to Covid.
Stop moaning.

As a former teacher your comments are appalling. I hope your friends realise what a horrible, unsupportive person you are.

Schools should stay open, it’s imperative for children’s education and mental health. If you teach young children, there is lots of evidence that they get it less often than older children and significantly less than adults. Less likely to pass it on too. I have no issue with older children having to wear masks in school, if teachers can teach effectively with masks (and i’d think this is possible), then teachers should be able to wear them. I do think more testing and better management is required. However, masks don’t really protect the wearer as much as they protect the mask others around them.

The only thing I would say is, statistically, is that in our area the data suggests that many teachers, especially in primary schools, are not being infected by their pupils. Nor are teachers in the group of professions at high risk for being infected with Covid. So whilst I do think things could be made better for teachers, I also think there is a lot of hyperbole and hysteria which is unwarranted.

Good luck to you OP whatever you end up doing. I admire anyone who resigns when they are being treated badly and is commanding no respect. Teaching prepares anyone for putting up with stupid edicts from on high and people behaving like children.

If half of my workplace actually stood up to management and refused to work in unnecessarily high risk ways rather just moaning about it we wouldn’t be in this predicament.

Thanks Stripes

Another job with hundreds of people not wearing masks..... Hmm... How about a nurse on a general medical ward?! With actual symptomatic patients? Patients who struggle to breathe and don't wear masks...

I don’t doubt you’d get a job, most likely service end. I just don’t believe you’ll feel safer in any capacity.

I can also confirm the worst sorts of parents also go shopping and behave even more badly in a supermarket than they do at a keyboard or at parents evening.

Just last week I was called a “jobsworth fucking cunt” by an otherwise completely normal looking woman for asking her to step back a little bit whilst talking to me. An otherwise normal looking man told me he was going to wait outside until I finished work and beat me up because we didn’t have the wine he wanted.

Truly - avoid retail.

Thanks everybody for contributing I'm off to bed now. Big day tomorrow!

@FuckedyFuck

Look at the stats OP and you’ll find retail workers are far more likely to die from Covid 19 than teachers. So I think you need to give your head a bit of a wobble if you think you’re safer there.

Schools were mostly closed or only open to a tiny fraction of pupils when those statistics were gathered in March - May. And supermarket customers weren't wearing masks.

If you want to compare the two at this point, you need to find current statistics now that schools are fully open and retail staff and customers wear masks.

I'm thinking all the Irish posters are thinking WTF.

Our schools are open, everyone wears masks, teachers and children, no parents at the gates or in the school, staggered movement around school, stay in a disinfected classroom with teacher changes not students, desks disinfected before new class, mask breaks in the yard at social distances, school cleaned every night with contact points disinfected, hand sanitiser on entry to school and classroom and wc, are just some of the controls my son has to go through.

There are more. Not a single case in the school or staff.

Teachers supplement time lost with procedures through online support, parents briefed by head on a Sunday how it's going. This is a state run tech with a catchment that triggers free school meals and boxes of food being sent home to support families in lockdown. Not some posh fee paying school.
Why can all schools not be run like this?

I teach in secondary and from my experience what you explain as what is happening in your school is not happening in mine.

We have plenty of classrooms with screens, where it is impossible to ensure a wide enough gap, others (mine included where there is enough space and I ensure the students shuffle it back when it gets to close.

I wear a mask when in corridors, on duty etc and I supervise a year group bubble of 240 students but keep away from them.

In lessons I teach without a mask but when I go to support I pop it on and help from behind so there is no face to face contact. In year groups where we had cases (4 in 8 weeks) I ask students to pop a mask on as well which they do.

There is one student I don't wear my mask for who lip reads.

I know members of staff who are vulnerable who wear a visor and mask, our students up to yr 10 are pretty good at wearing a mask yr 11 up need a bit more persuasion.

In my school I feel perfectly safe and get frustrated when my union states all its members want schools to close - they have not asked all members.

Here's the HSE guidance for social distancing and work places. I wonder how much applies to schools

www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/social-distancing/index.htm

I mean just this section here is fascinating