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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think the only way forward now for school staff is to strike in Jan

595 replies

OverTheRainbow88 · 17/12/2020 07:19

Sadly, I believe, the only way forward now for school staff in to strike in Jan.

Schools are unsafe, understaffed and not ‘covid secure’. This will get much worse in Jan when people are allowed to meet inside in a 3 household bubble and travel freely around ( in England at least).

OP posts:
AlexaShutUp · 17/12/2020 08:11

I reckon we'll be back in national lockdown by the end of January anyway, and that all schools will have to close again. I think it's an inevitable consequence of the Christmas relaxation.

GrammarTeacher · 17/12/2020 08:11

Even in non-Covid times the government are able to frame teacher strikes as all about the lazy teachers. Our unions are dreadful at PR and that's something that the government can do! Striking is pointless. We need to be courting the media to get the real story of what it's like in schools out there.
How many parents would actually like their children swabbed regularly by a member of school staff or a random volunteer who has received training via a video session!

Fieldofyellowflowers · 17/12/2020 08:11

If you had seen first hand how damaging education disruptions have been to pupil's mental health you wouldn't be pushing for a strike. Because with a strike, there would be no online learning. A strike is not the way to go.

GrammarTeacher · 17/12/2020 08:12

Also it would be pointless as they've now leaked plans for a delayed start to next term anyway.

middleager · 17/12/2020 08:14

We need the support of parents in demanding that schools are kept safe.

This is key. Schools I work with and the two different secondaries mine attend (Gcse years) in the West Midlands, are on their knees. Have been for months.
One of my children has had six self isolations and caughg Covid from school., the other has had three SIs. 10%.of both forms currently have Covid, so one is closed, the other child SI again.

It's been harsh for us, ten weeks of one child confined to the house, both DCs KS4, a mixed bag of online learning during the very early, almost immediate isolations.

However, I still don't see many parents as up in arms about this as I am. I've written to my MP three times since Sept, deeply concerned that schools are not Covid 'secure' that transmission is happening and that Govt has gaslit parents.

However, there are other parents, whose children haven't been impacted, who have young children, who cannot Wfh, who are key workers, Lone parents etc who will, of course, think differently to me.

But if everybody was in the same boat, all children were impacted heavily, out of school more than in, very last minute announcements and disruption, getting called to school to collect children, constant uncertainty, then I think there'd be that swell of support. As it stands, there seems to be such different experiences.

iVampire · 17/12/2020 08:15

I don’t think strike action is right, and would feed the anti-union narrative

But I would support a system which kept DC who would be asked to SI this term in the classroom, unless/until the test proposed to substitute that has false negative rate considerably lower than the lateral flow test.

AlexaShutUp · 17/12/2020 08:15

Also it would be pointless as they've now leaked plans for a delayed start to next term anyway.

Well, that's actually a sensible idea.

DailyPotion · 17/12/2020 08:16

@AlexaShutUp

I reckon we'll be back in national lockdown by the end of January anyway, and that all schools will have to close again. I think it's an inevitable consequence of the Christmas relaxation.
This seems counterintuitive to me.

If schools are the problem, they're closing for 2 weeks plus. Seeing 2 other households must surely be an improvement to being in school...if schools are the problem.

tiredteacher100 · 17/12/2020 08:17

I don't think teachers should strike, because it would be playing into the hands of the media.
Schools need to be made much much safer though. I'm still getting children coming to school dosed up on calpol because they have a cold/sore throat - but it's definitely not Covid etc. Well, for us this week was a frightening lesson in how fast Covid can spread through staff and children, and it's pretty scary. Lots of children will be incubating Covid now, or be asymptomatic, all ready to pass on at home.
I'm dreading January.

iVampire · 17/12/2020 08:17

Missed a bit, sorry

*I would support action against of a system which ...

(very wordy and unclear sentence!!)

AaronPurr · 17/12/2020 08:18

Seeing 2 other households must surely be an improvement to being in school...if schools are the problem.

It won't just be 2 other households though, many will squeeze in 1 or 2 others, and a few will see it as an excuse to mix with whoever they like.

Zilla1 · 17/12/2020 08:19

And what would be the goal or change that you'd want achieved? Presumably tens of thousands more teachers can't be magic in to existence, nor larger premises. Mass online tuition might make teachers' workplace safer at the cost of arguably net-adverse impacts on parents and healthcare and pupils'. In the magnified chaos of COVID, are you certain the educational approach of muddle through isn't the least worst?

inquietant · 17/12/2020 08:19

@AlexaShutUp

Also it would be pointless as they've now leaked plans for a delayed start to next term anyway.

Well, that's actually a sensible idea.

I so hope they do this. I am dreading the start of term. I would really welcome extra holidays.
GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly · 17/12/2020 08:23

@TonberryDreams

Unsafe, unstaffed and not covid secure applies to SO many industries right now, including some food production, some food retail, and some healthcare environments

Wouldn’t the best idea be to try and make all these industries and educational settings have better systems to avoid concentrations of people. Just ploughing on when schools in some cases are having to shut due to outbreaks in staff doesn’t seem best practice to me when there are rota or online teaching that could be implemented in places where the rate is high?

I’m not in favour of a strike but would like the Government to recognise the extremely difficult situation schools find themselves in & work with them rather than sanction them. Surely the Government have got to drop the lie that schools are Covid secure & children don’t spread Covid now.

inquietant · 17/12/2020 08:23

If schools are the problem, they're closing for 2 weeks plus. Seeing 2 other households must surely be an improvement to being in school...if schools are the problem.

It is possible for more than one problem to exist Confused

Schools have been a problem up to now -> widespread travelling/mixing will make it worse -> return to unsafe schools will make it even worse.

Deaths in late Jan could be horrific.

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland · 17/12/2020 08:24

Oh my god you have let your anxiety absolutely eat you up.

wizzbangfizz · 17/12/2020 08:24

More school hysteria, absolutely ridiculous. And no schools shouldn't shut/strike.

AlexaShutUp · 17/12/2020 08:26

If schools are the problem, they're closing for 2 weeks plus. Seeing 2 other households must surely be an improvement to being in school...if schools are the problem.

Schools are a problem, but they aren't the only problem.

Also, it isn't just two households - it's three if you are outside of Wales. And by the time you have factored in all of the exceptions about support bubbles, children of separated parents being part of two Christmas bubbles, people being allowed to form bubbles that are different from the bubbles of other members of their household, and you have a recipe for mixing way more than 3 households quite legally. Then add to that the fact that loads of people will misinterpret the rules, others will willfully break them. There will be loads of people traveling around the country from areas with high transmission areas to low ones. Meeting inside poorly ventilated houses, almost certainly without masks etc. Of course cases will rise, and then that will be exacerbated when the kids go back to school in January.

Just look at what happened in the US after thanksgiving.

Unless people show a serious amount of restraint in the coming weeks, we're going to have to lock down again as there will be no way of getting things back under control.

ilhahih · 17/12/2020 08:27

I hate the term "Covid-secure". No where is covid secure. Absolutely nowhere. The risk can be minimized but it can never be removed completely.

I think school staff should strike if forced to test children for Covid. This should be done by proper medical personnel or it should be a non-invasive test which children can do themselves ie. a saliva test or the gurgle tests which we have in the EU country I live in.

Nanny0gg · 17/12/2020 08:29

@OverTheRainbow88

Should supermarket staff strike? Perhaps prison nurses? Hospital staff?

Yes, maybe the should. It might make the Government wake up to the horrors of what is occurring and how much worse Jan will be . It has gone from Save the NHS to save bloody Christmas with the in-laws.

Because they know everyone is going to do it anyway! This way, passing responsibility back to the individual might make them behave sensibly.

And to be fair, alot of people I know are staying home and not mixing at all.

They really can't win this time.

inquietant · 17/12/2020 08:33

@Nanny0gg

Research published says 16% would have mixed if against the rules, jumping to 35% once the rules were relaxed.

The government has encouraged the amount of mixing to more than double.

The government has therefore ensured the number of deaths related directly to Christmas mixing will in all likelihood more than double.

I hate this government.

m0therofdragons · 17/12/2020 08:34

Dd is at secondary and there are no cases in her school at all. Dd2&3 are at primary and there are 2 cases. These haven’t spread into other years. They’re doing a great job. I don’t think the government believes schools being open is ideal but schools being closed is far more dangerous. I say this as someone working in a hospital. I do think Greenwich schools should be able to decide what’s safe for themselves though.

Re Christmas, I don’t know anyone maxing the rules. Some will but they would even if there were more rules in place.

Jellycatspyjamas · 17/12/2020 08:38

There have been no cases in my kids primary school, no bubbles bursting, and few teachers self isolating and we’re in a Tier 3 area in Scotland. I can’t see my kids teachers supporting strike action.

megletthesecond · 17/12/2020 08:40

Nowhere inside is "covid secure". If you're enclosed the virus will spread. But schools are worst of all IMO.
I really feel for teachers.

houseinthesnow · 17/12/2020 08:41

The only way to guarantee making the situation in January even worse, will be to organise a strike. There will be zero support for the action, and to be honest given the huge surge in demand for teacher training - you could end up being forced out of the profession altogether.

The teachers would become the most hated and reviled group, as many many professions have a much higher risk, and have worked throughout without complaint. I also work without protection, any protection at all - as we can't wear masks. I would not dream of striking.

It is a ridiculous idea that will take away any residue of goodwill and support from the general public, and I very much doubt it will get much support even among teachers themselves, whom I am assuming will have the intelligence to know a bad idea when they see one.