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.

A more accurate headline based on the data would therefore be 'teachers at as much risk as healthcare workers'.

Yes, there is definitely a positive spin being put on things that really aren't very reassuring for teachers at all. For me, the most worrying thing is that the data is from before infection rates in secondary schools really shot up. What are the risks now?

@noblegiraffe I am so cross with the way this has been spun, and the unions and media don't seem to have picked up on it. It's all being taken at face value and used to tell teachers to get on with it. I haven't seen a single article where a journalist has actually looked at the data for themselves.
Any journalists hanging out on mumsnet...?

Hmm, the need of my child is to have me, as his mum, well. The need of my students is to have me, as their teacher, well. Not sure I am prepared to martyr myself for the adults who seem to be ignorant of the wider issues regarding coded and schools...

@Lurcherloves: "And most state teachers did a dire job of online learning during the previous lockdown"
Evidence for this assertion? What percentage of the half million or so teachers in this country do you know did a "dire job?"

@Anxioustoddler: "I respect teachers but I have no respect for those jumping for schools to be closed rather than made safer."
And I would have more respect for posters if they fully apprised themselves of what the teachers on here are actually saying. Which is exactly that: make schools safer.

Any journalists hanging out on mumsnet...?

Only the ones looking for threads about bridezillas etc to steal for articles.

The Guardian story about the teacher data had one of those inaccurate socially distanced classroom photos at the top. FFS.

@CallmeAngelina not many of the state school children around here had any online classes, there was a pathetic amount of work set for each day which took around 40 minutes to complete. Private schools on the other hand conducted full school days online. Why can states teachers not do the same? They are equally qualified. And I don’t buy the argument about kids not having enough tech at home as the majority do.

[quote Lurcherloves]@CallmeAngelina not many of the state school children around here had any online classes, there was a pathetic amount of work set for each day which took around 40 minutes to complete. Private schools on the other hand conducted full school days online. Why can states teachers not do the same? They are equally qualified. And I don’t buy the argument about kids not having enough tech at home as the majority do.[/quote]
And let's not forget that the government were meant to be sorting out the minority, but they couldn't be arsed...

Good diversion from the safety of teachers back into lockdown provision woes.

Maybe teachers deserve an unsafe workplace because they didn’t do zoom lessons.

Yep let's punish all teachers with an increased risk of being ill (short or long term, who cares?) because not all provided 5 hours of video online lessons everyday during lockdown, despite the lack of evidence of online lessons being a gold standard, or indeed lack of a requirement to do so. Personally, I was ill for much of lockdown.

Oh and let's forget that there was provision for those who wanted it, in the form of BBC Bitesize lessons and oak Academy lessons.

I provided a full timetable of online lessons and I'm very vulnerable due to an underlying condition.
Does that give me enough points to be allowed a safe classroom according to mumsnet? How do I apply for this benefit?

I feel for teachers and all staff in schools.

My year 10 is now on his third period of self isolation due to school cases.
It seems all 3 times the child caught it off their parents.
I'm angry this time as the year 10 came into school even though his dad had tested positive for Corona virus days earlier. That child has now taken out 100 year 10 pupils (again) and infected God knows who, including staff.

At 14/15 that child should know he should have been SI even if the parents are selfish pricks.

I feel sorry for the school because how can they stop this happening? And I feel sorry for my son.

Comments like this make me laugh, how do you know you don’t teach their child ?

My son who was sat on the next bloody table to the positive case for a double lesson.

It seems all 3 times the child caught it off their parents

I’d be wary of drawing this conclusion. Children are more likely to be asymptomatic and parents symptomatic so a parent may test positive and then the child is tested (as a precaution) and tests positive so it looks like the transmission was from parent to child, however the child gave it to the parent and was only discovered to be infected because the parent tested positive.

I know of at least one instance of this. It does raise the question of how many infected asymptomatic children there are in schools that are silently spreading it. We need more testing of children, particularly where there have been positive cases.

Some of the big boarding schools tested all pupils (Eton). Lots of asymptomatic cases found that they would otherwise never have known about.

It’s the teaching unions calling to close schools that teachers should also be angry at, rather than 150,000 of them agreeing.
It dilutes the point that people here are making saying they want to be in the classroom but in a safe way.
6 months ago, teachers on here were refusing to do zoom teaching because it was ‘unsafe’, it’s widely known provision in lockdown varied massively and parents will not support it again, because their kids were not educated to any acceptable standard, their MH suffered and parents still have to work, which is impossible with kids around.
I would like to see more press shaming heads who don’t allow covid-secure measures in schools (such as refusing masks or ventilation) than calls from teachers to close the schools, which frankly is going to be supported by very few except the teachers themselves at this point.
Afaik the government have not forbidden covid safe measures in schools, they have stated it not needed but I know individual staff at DCs schools wear masks and some children do too, the windows are open all day.
There are lots of ways to make schools more safe, the teachers here who feel HCP are ‘safe’ because they have PPE, can I ask what happened when you showed up to school wearing PPE? Were you suspended? Sent home without pay? Told to take it off or be fired? I’m trying to understand why teachers haven’t done this, especially considering they are in such a secure position compared to the majority of the workforce right now.

I totally agree with you anxioustoddler

Afaik the government have not forbidden covid safe measures in schools

They said masks ‘should be avoided’ in classrooms. They told heads that they shouldn’t implement any measures that required extra space (so use of village halls etc) or rotas. They haven’t given any extra funding to schools to implement covid measures which, in times of very tight school budgets is as effective as forbidding them.

And they have promoted lies and misleading propaganda suggesting that schools are safe. As far as I’m aware the DfE Facebook page still claims that smaller class sizes are in place to reduce risks. This is not true.

Oh and the head of Ofsted just did a piece in a paper claiming that schools are sending pupils home unnecessarily (schools send home pupils as advised by the DfE helpline) and that it’s a ‘myth’ that windows should be open (this is in the DfE guidance).

@noblegiraffe

Oh and the head of Ofsted just did a piece in a paper claiming that schools are sending pupils home unnecessarily (schools send home pupils as advised by the DfE helpline) and that it’s a ‘myth’ that windows should be open (this is in the DfE guidance).

This is appalling but not surprising. I’d like to see what the Ofsted teams doing COVID inspections have reported this term regarding safety measures in schools. I bet every schools risk assessment emphasises they importance of ventilation with windows open.

noblegiraffe ‘should be avoided’ does not mean it’s forbidden. You’re a teacher who feels schools are unsafe I’m guessing (sorry if you’re not and I’ve got that wrong), have you or your colleagues turned up to school to teach, in a mask? What happened?

’should be avoided’ does not mean it’s forbidden.

Indeed, but as we all know, being the only person in a room wearing a mask really isn’t that useful when it comes to making schools safe, is it?

It's not about what @noblegiraffe may or may not have tried at her own school. Many teachers on these threads have reported that they are not allowed. It's easier said than done to go against protocol in your place of employment, however much one is egged on to do so by anonymous posters on the internet.

It’s also unhelpful to make it about my personal safety when the conversation should be about making schools safer in general.