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

[OverTheRainbow88]

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).

You describe this as a "way forward".

It certainly isn't for the majority of people but I'm guessing teachers wanting to strike aren't thinking about them, merely considering their own personal circumstances.

Insisting on additional suitably trained staff to do the swabbing fair enough, but potentially damaging the pupils education even further, putting "at risk kids" at greater risk, causing staff shortages in other key workplaces such as healthcare and essential retail ? This needs thinking through before people start agitating for something that suits them but has am major impact on others.

@tiredteacher100

It makes me smile to see people saying their children's school have no cases so there isn't a problem- are you saying your school is doing something amazing that other schools aren't? We had no cases last week, now there are loads - and none had any of the official symptoms, many with no symptoms at all. Ok for them but not so ok for the people that get it badly

Same here tiredteacher, odd isolated cases all term - until this last week when we've had a dozen in quick succession across multiple year groups. School has been forced to close.

Nothing is covid safe ffs

Strictly speaking, this is true. There is risk everywhere. But normally we use “Covid safe” to designate settings where effective safety measures are in place, such as appropriate use of screens, PPE, social distancing, hygiene measures and so on.

My doctors’ surgery is Covid safe, as is my local Aldi, and my gym. My workplace (education setting) is not. There is no social distancing, I can’t require learners to wear face coverings or check their temperature as my hairdresser can. I can’t ask them to fill in a screening questionnaire before they attend. As someone over 65 with a heart condition, I am naturally not happy with these conditions.

A teacher strike would be a disaster. Don’t you think the UK has enough to deal with with Covid and Brexit?

To add to the above: I’m not happy. But I certainly don’t think striking is the answer. To all those fulminating about strike-happy teachers, I’ve seen very few on this thread - most wouldn’t think it sensible or necessary.

I think we are in danger of creating a "lost generation", education wise.

A few years of children at key development stages are being told they don't have to do much "because Covid".

This could set them back for life.

@noelgiraffe

OP so how do you want schools to be more secure if you don’t want to swab?

The swabbing plans will make schools less secure not more. It will put more covid infected children in classrooms for longer as they will no longer be sending home close contacts of positive cases.

Teachers can’t strike though, the public never support it. The Daily Mail and the government do a good job of whipping the public up against us.

I think a legal route might be better. The DfE were happy to leap to the courts to make schools less safe.

Actually, I think there are posters who say they're teachers on mn that do a pretty good job of this, without the Daily Mail or the government needing to do anything. My opinion of teachers has changed quite considerably after reading some of their views on here and I know I'm not alone.

@Fortherosesjoni70

Noone wants yo strike but what choice is there.

Well there are other things teachers can do - Action Short of Strike Action - which would have less of an impact (if any) on children or parents. I'm sure with all the extra work teachers, TAs and other school staff are having to do at the moment, nobody would miss some pointless paperwork or useless meetings.

I agree with PP that striking now would lose teachers the last bit of good will they have (they never seem to have much tbh), would play into the government's hands and would seriously affect children and parents, and nobody wants that.

I don't know if I'm living in some sort of fantasy land but I work in a busy secondary school. We've had some staff COVID, some student COVID but we've managed well (even without government PPE funding) and kept attendance up. School has been relatively normal. I could not find any good reason to support a strike.

I don't think there would be much, if any, public support for a strike.

Something needs to be done to get the teachers high up on the vaccination list.
Whenever my son has had an odd day off while waiting on a covid test, his work from home is pathetic. No online lessons as the teachers are in school teaching, or substitutes if teachers are off..... If he has to keep isolating next year that's going to be a year or more of shocking education.
If teachers need to keep isolating... That's more subsitiute teachers trying to fill in the class... More shocking eduction

@MistletoeandGin

Education doesn't have to suffer if there is good online teaching and a parent available to support as needed, and the technology available of course

So wealthy middle class families with a SAHP then.
What about everyone else?

In a previous post I suggested employers are supported to enable staff to have time off to look after their children for the short time that schools close after the Christmas mixing.

Don't be so stupid!

It's saddening that you think it's acceptable to use that word to someone. Such a rude, bullying comment. I dread to think what it's like inside your head.

I suggested employers are supported to enable staff to have time off to look after their children for the short time that schools close after the Christmas mixing.

That sounds so naive though.

How do you ‘support’ icu units and critical care to lose a big chunk of their staff with little notice. See also police, social care, food production, I could go on and on.

I work in the private sector and have two huge projects to deliver by mid Jan. We can’t do that with key members of staff off. It’s an international client, spending millions. Letting them down is revenue lost and people in my company being made redundant. We can’t be ‘supported’ through that in any actual meaningful sense.

I suggested employers are supported to enable staff to have time off to look after their children for the short time that schools close after the Christmas mixing

Sounds fab. How does it work in reality though? My best friend is a child protection social worker, with a high case load. She’s a single parent. How could her employer be ‘supported’ to find additional resource for those cases? Not to mention that the majority of her team are parents to school aged children.
And it’s not just key workers. If all the parents in my team took a few weeks off in January at the same time, we’d lose the multi million pound contract we’re working on, and probably the chance for any future business with them. How could the government ‘support’ that?
It’s a lovely but totally naive idea.

Teachers on strike!! What is wrong with them? Its all me, me, me. They disappeared off from March and in many many cases were very difficult to get hold of. Some schools just disappeared, vm and answerphones full. Teachers blaming the Head, Head blaming the gov and all the time on full salaries with no real chance of being made redundant when this is all over.

The private schools did at least try to keep lessons going, but I heard that the state teachers were nervous about doing Zoom calls and claimed they didnt want to use their own broadband for this.

Get over yourself. You do realise that if supermarket staff strike then you wouldnt be able to get food and essentials (also includes supermarket drivers!).

So, no - I dont think you should be striking.

I cannot see any justification for a strike at all. There would be huge disruption to working families if teaching unions go down this route. Lots of professions have varying degrees of Covid risks. Should my two nursing sisters strike as they do not like their exposure?

Teachers don't want to strike! They just want to get on with their job!

I work in a school. We haven't closed at all during lockdowns or otherwise. There is no way I would strike. Since the beginning of this term we have had almost 100% attendance which shows how much the students need and want to be here. Yes, it is hard but so is any job at the moment. Yes there is plenty of talk of the government giving support....but who will pay... eventually these kids that we are trying to provide an education for. If that means more testing at schools in January, then so be it. We all have challenges to face!

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@saraclara

They’ve had 8 months to make them safe... they haven’t!

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I went into the garden of a family I teach to swab them, wearing a mask and with their mums permission. They have kids across 3 year groups all with symptoms but their results came back inconclusive, so now we don’t know if 3 year groups have been affected... as I was doing it I was thinking how has it come to this. Then to top it off I got fined for collecting my son late from
Nursery.[/quote]
Does that suggest you didn't take the tests accurately? Do you need more training?

MistletoeandGin
Education doesn't have to suffer if there is good online teaching and a parent available to support as needed, and the technology available of course

So wealthy middle class families with a SAHP then.
What about everyone else?
In a previous post I suggested employers are supported to enable staff to have time off to look after their children for the short time that schools close after the Christmas mixing.

Really naive suggestions. How on earth are either of these going to work in the real world? Who will staff the NHS, the supermarkets, provide emergency services or staff business of all kinds?

No, teachers shouldn't strike. That would be the wrong decision in every sense. I can understand the anxiety and the unions should be pushing for safety measures and possibly blended learning for older children when rates are very high in individual areas but striking is a completely ridiculous suggestion for so many reasons.

herecomesthesun
I don't think anyone else has planned the Christmas relaxation of rules suggested by Boris (do correct me), about which he is now conducting a waffle-y U turn which is likely to be ineffective

Germany, Spain, France, Italy, et al are allowing a mixed number of people in homes for xmas. In France the government constitution doesn't even allow the government to mandate what goes on in private residences, so they couldn't mandate rules or guidance anyway. The others have all allowed two, three, groups or up to 10 individuals, and often exclude children in those numbers.

So for the purposes of this debate I am going to be harsh. when the first lockdown occurred, private schools moved very quickly to online learning on Teams and Zoom. Not ideal but it worked. Locally here state schools did not. My experience was mirrored by friends up and down the country. Schools did stay open for key workers, but this would be better described as child care, as limited teaching actually took place. I am aware that two of the teachers at my son's school disappeared to Cornwall (even though they should not have done so and posted frequently on Facebook about the best spring and summer ever with no intention of actually doing any work. There was also talk of doing some catch up work over the summer- teaching unions I believe said no. In continental Europe, teaching and exams continued as I understand it. Culturally I now see Covid being used as a reason to do nothing and underperform in state schools. I fear that over the next five years, the private school system will so outperform the state sector that we will see increasingly few state pupils at Oxford and Cambridge and fewer at Russell Group Universities. Sorry, but as a profession teaching needs to think about how it solves problems, not create more of them.

There are rumours in Twitter at the moment that the government are going to announce a delayed return to school in January for secondary pupils (key worker, vulnerable, and exam year child excepted), there will apparently be online learning made available.

Brain has sadly got it spot on. Both my SIL's couldnt get hold of their DD schools. When eventually they got hold of a teacher she pointed them towards the Head but that even then she had her own children to take care of.

The private schools seemed to manage. The vast majority of teachers have broadband at home but some just didnt want to use it or made reason/excuse after excuse as to why they couldnt run a Zoom call, use their own bb. I do actually understand that some teachers are not familar with the technology but that can be fixed.