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.

When I said none of them have another job to go to, I mean because they have just got so fed up and broken by it all they've handed in their notice regardless. They are highly educated, qualified professionals and I'm sure they will have something by the time they leave - they have interviews in other sectors lined up already. I just mean they were desperate enough to get out that they handed in their notice before getting another job.

I think if there was a sudden teacher shortage they would just recruit from abroad like they do with the NHS. Then there will be all these new graduates desperate for opportunities who could be trained up relatively quickly.

@stairway the retention rate of new teachers is already poor. I don’t think parents will be happy with an even higher turnover of staff. Many teachers in this country teach abroad as generally the working conditions are more favourable.

Heating on and snow blowing in the windows is not an option for a budget, or, far more to the point, not an option for our planet.
Work From Home.
An excellent private education is offered, in maximum tuition groups of 15, all online, for £6.000. State schooling costs, we are told, £5,000. But does that include opportunity cost of the capital invested in buildings, and does in include, even more importantly, the cost of teachers' pensions, with the increasing life expectancy edging towards centenarians?

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.

NHS staff are not being provided with appropriate PPE unless they work on a covid ward. Most of us just have surgical masks, not fitted. Scrubs are available but in limited sizes so not many wear them (and we have to take them home to wash anyway which sort of defies the point!) We only get visors and overalls if dealing with a suspected case or a restraint.

People are being encouraged to wfh of possible but many many people can’t do that. So it’s not as if teachers have been singled out.

I realise it’s risky for you, but it’s also risky for all the supermarket workers, public facing jobs and NHS staff too.

Without school and breakfast/after school clubs a huge no of parents would be unable to work.

Also the children would miss out on their education. Even if parents can wfh it’s almost impossible to home school if you’re in virtual meetings all day!

Cookiecrisps if many teachers can find better jobs with better working conditions I don’t blame them for leaving, it’s up to them. Someone has to teach during the pandemic though. I’m a nurse and when large numbers of UK nurses quit or leave or don’t qualify the government just recruits from abroad rather then improve our working conditions. I think teaching is heading the same way which is unfortunate. However we do need people who are prepared to teach despite the covid risk as it’s unlikely to go anywhere soon and home learning was a disaster.

There’s been a critical shortage of teachers for years and recruiting from abroad hasn’t fixed this.

I’m not sure it would be a quick fix during a pandemic either, nor with Brexit imminent.

Very very few teachers from abroad are willing to work here. We have some of the largest class sizes, least amount of non contact time, and there is absolutely no respect for the position from parents and pupils.
I know of 4 teachers from Italy who came here due to the mass unemployment over there, and quit to do anything else because the pay per hour was just not worth the stress and conditions.
Recruitment from abroad has been tried, and unfortunately the conditions in UK classrooms are well known. It's not been very successful.

The media at the moment are trumpeting that teaching is no more risky than careworkers or frontline NHS. Personally I don't think that's anything to boast about, as we all know the above workforce should be given access to better PPE, and everyone says what a wonderful job they are doing. Heroes .
While for teachers - it's "of course teenagers can't be expected to wear masks in the classroom! How shocking to even suggest it!" Despite that most of the world seems to manage. My school is not even allowing masks in corridors until Monday!
I agree that care and health workers should have better protection. But I also think teachers should be allowed to use the face coverings they already have. And students should be encouraged to wear face coverings in class. If it can be simply and easily made safer, why the fuck not?!

gosh what a post! OP I truly sympathise with you and thank you for the important job you play in teaching our next generation and the incredible risk you take by doing so.. it's a god damn disgrace that the guidance states you can't wear a mask in a classroom setting where inevitably you will come into contact with many students and staff over a prolonged period of time, but we HAVE to wear a mask to pop in the local garage/shop when most times we're not even in there for a minute, separated from others by one way systems/reduced numbers allowed in and staff are serving us behind screens AND wearing masks.. surely no one can stop you from using your own mask though? especially if the kids aren't/won't wear them.

What are the unions saying?

YANBU

AJ

@Witchcraftandhokum As you caught Covid, you have also clearly recovered from it so it is no longer a dreaded unknown. What was it like?

Abracadabra1234 The cough I had was the singually most irritating symptom. I had mild headaches, a slight temperature and interestingly horrible heartburn.

Even after the end of the first lockdown I didn't see any of my family, both parents are over 70, grandmother is 97, aunt has underlying illness, and I won't see them until 2 weeks after I've stopped working in a school. That's the kicker.

there is absolutely no respect for the position from parents and pupils. What can be done to improve this?

Hmmmnn, I work in the emergency services and have to go in to work, if we follow this argument through then should doctors, nurses, fireman and police officers also be allowed to stay home? Unfortunately certain job roles mean you have to go in to work. I worked all through lockdown, I had to. To me it’s part of the job. So is teaching.

Which is why teachers worked throughout lock down and will continue to do so! It doesn't mean that any precautions that could be taken should simply be ignored!

I don’t doubt it’s worrying, but it’s not just school workers that are in this position. Look at all the poor supermarkets workers who worked through, when marks weren’t compulsory and the screens weren’t even up at first. They were far more exposed than school staff, as there is medical evidence to back up children are less likely to carry it.
If you’ve had corona already I’ve heard doctors saying that if you did catch it again it would be less severe. So take some comfort knowing you’ve got over it, you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t suffer very badly with it. Your life isn’t at risk from Covid-19. Try focus on that.

Sadly some jobs need to be done, there isn’t any way around that. The World is still turning and we have to carry on.
A lot of parents feel the same too of course, worrying that we have to send our children. You could say the lives of children at unimportant in the same way, they’ve got no choice in this either.
Life could be like this for another year yet, we have to carry on.

@SecretSpAD

I'm neither a teacher nor an NHS worker but I'm currently working in public health consulting so have an idea of both sectors.

It's not safe in either. However, the attitudes of the public towards MHS staff and teaching staff is vastly different. The NHS gets sympathy, funds raised to help them, claps, praise and free food delivered.

Teachers get told to shut up, put up and if they don't like it find another job. Well, many many of them will do that and as teaching already has a recruitment crisis, what are you going to do then?

Teachers are highly qualified people with a lot of transferable skills. They aren't the ones who are going to be competing for NMW jobs in supermarkets. There are a lot of jobs out there in the private sector, in tutoring, even in the NHS that teachers leaving the profession are able to do. Their futures are bright. Your children....not so much.

Absofuckinlutely.

And where is covid-19 being spread the most? Schools.

@Jimineycricket

Hmmmnn, I work in the emergency services and have to go in to work, if we follow this argument through then should doctors, nurses, fireman and police officers also be allowed to stay home? Unfortunately certain job roles mean you have to go in to work. I worked all through lockdown, I had to. To me it’s part of the job. So is teaching.

I would absolutely support you and campaign for you to get the appropriate PPE to allow you to carry out your duties in the safest way possible. I would like like others to support teachers in merely getting the gov to permit us to wear the face coverings we already have, and to encourage teenagers to wear the face coverings they already have - in class. Reasonable adjustments to the current situation no? No costs involved.

I'm a care Assistant and all I get given is a disposable thin plastic pinny, safety glasses and latex gloves and masks u can buy in any supermarket. Hardly good when I am dealing with covid residents. No protection for us just like NHS workers. Teachers are not the only ones going through it in a bad way

Are teachers really at risk though? The death rate is low and most people experience a mild illness. You are unlikely to be exposed to as much of the virus as nhs staff. Unless you are in an at risk group I don’t see the issue.
Children’s education is important for them and the future of our country
And most state teachers did a dire job of online learning during the previous lockdown

Most children and teenagers are asymptomatic, yet infectious. The viral dose can be quite high in a poorly ventilated classroom if you have several mask free infectious students for an hour at a time breathing the same air and talking.
Would be very happy to be allowed to wear supermarket disposable masks, and for the students to do so likewise. But we are not.
And several hundred teachers have died, and many more are off long term with lingering affects.

Teachers are not asking for special treatment.
In fact it is the opposite
We want to be given the same treatment as all the other keyworkers.
Masks
Ventilation
Space. Ok space is not possible in a classroom, but the other two are very possible. So why not?

No exemption from mask wearing, except those in their own homes.
Exemption was a silly notion, and other countries don't have it.

The environment is under enough attack. Disposable plastic must be a rare exception, never the routine. Our bodies are already full of plastic microparticles. This stuff is poisoning every part of the planet, the sea, the land, and the air. The mums on mumsnet will rightly blame themselves when there is no hope of the children surviving a lifespan. Stop buying wipes and disposable nappies and any single use junk. Take the hint from the movement of schoolchildren who are refusing plastic toys. They are right. The parents and grandparents are wrong.

No plastic masks should be permitted on sale. It was a rushed temporary solution which ought even so never to have been allowed. Any bit of fabric will suffice. If people can wash their hands they can wash their biodegradable fabric masks.
Other than in an operating theatre, why should gloves be thrown away?
Hands can be washed and sanitised while gloves are worn. If someone is going from house to house as a carer, they can leave their personal couple of pairs of sanitised gloves and plastic pinny in a bag or box on top of a cupboard or wherever is agreed.

Teachers and children can perfectly easily put a few fabric masks in their bags or pockets. The "I forgots" can be sold a few fabric masks, not given a few plastic ones.

This matters. The plastic throwaway must stop. A couple of pounds for a supermarket bag will assist the memory, and fabric bags should in any case replace the bags on offer.

It is absolutely true that teachers aren’t the only ones with poor working conditions at the moment. That doesn’t take away from the fact that we have poor working conditions at the moment.
I’ve been at work throughout all this, like many other teachers. I’m happy to teach. But don’t pretend that my job is risk-free because it really isn’t.

Absolutely re plastic. Most people now have washable masks. If we were allowed to wear them in classrooms, that would be great