I’m not a teacher but......

[Comefromaway]

I think it’s time you went on strike.

The government clearly don’t give a toss about you, our kids & subsequently our families.

My daughter is so stressed about the school/college environment. Everywhere she’s being told that she can’t do this that and the other because people are dying. But she’s expected to go into college and have her normal classes with overcrowding and no effective mitigation.

Medical officer woman has clearly not been into a school. The teachers & students are dropping like flies.

@SansaSnark I so agree. Planned rotas would work. Year 11 & 13 in full time with key worker pods too. Then 10 & 12 in 3 days and rest in 2/3 days. We could do that so well. I just don't get why we can't.
Was talking to a friend in LA at weekend and they have not been back in classrooms since March. The kids seem fine.

@BethlehemIsInTier1

All children, whether CV or CEV are now expected to be in school.

@Hearwego

I’m a prison officer and my DP works in a supermarket. Both key workers. Who do you want to look after my children if teachers went on strike?

But surely the question should be 'Who do you want to teach my child if teachers went on strike? First and foremost, the job of teachers is to educate and the day to day caring responsibilities are those if the parents.

For what it's worth, I don't think we are at the point where we should be striking, but I suspect the reality will be very different in the cold light of day at the beginning of January when my KS4 students are questioning why they are shoulder to shoulder in the classroom, but have to wait 20 mins to enter the local supermarket.

Hopefully, the government propaganda will begin to be tested as more people and the media begin to question the veracity of the claims being made magic covid walls in schools.

Until schools close due to outbreaks. Unplanned and last minute notice for parents. If it's not happened to you yet then you are lucky. But next term it might. Repeatedly. And it's avoidable. That's what I don't get. We can stop it happening if we just put in the same safety measures everywhere else. Face, space ??? Not in schools, oh no.

@Piggyinblankets. Currently in Wales there are 3000 staff and pupils that have had a positive test result in the past 21 days.

Bevan board staff and pupil cases rolling 3 day average:
Sep 7th: 3 cases
Sep 14th: 6.3 cases
Sep 21st: 3 cases
Sep 28th: 4 cases
October 5th: 2.67 cases
October 12th: 3.67 cases
October 19th: 12.33 cases
October 26th: 14 cases
November 2nd: 10 cases
November 9th: 7.33 cases
November 16th: 11.67
November 23rd:18.67
November 30th: 23.67
December 7th: 44 cases
December 14th: 36.33
December 21st: 9.33

Highest was December 12th with 60.33 cases

**Hearwego
I’m a prison officer and my DP works in a supermarket. Both key workers.
Who do you want to look after my children if teachers went on strike?
Do you not have a plan for them being told to self isolate? Because you really, really should...

Er yes...I get paid if I have to isolate. But my point is, if teachers strike, key workers including the Police, NHS workers and doctors wouldn’t be able to go to work. Including me and my prison service colleagues.
So how would that help anyone exactly?

@Piggyinblankets

Exactly retiremental so we are back to nobody knows. I am not sure of your point. So may people dismiss teacher's lived experiences as exaggerated or anecdata.

There was one of those how many people do you know who have had covid threads the other week. Loads of posters said none , some said one. Every teacher I know knows way more than that. In fact most of the posters who listed higher numbers worked in education/healthcare.

The point is that teachers repeatedly claim that they are at higher risk of dying from COVID than most other professions. When there just isn’t the evidence to support those claims.

@Piggyinblankets

OK, things I am horrified by;

you attitude towards the point of education
Your trust in fellow professionals' judgement
Your use of the phrase 'white working class boys' which, if you don't know is coming under scrutiny. I recommend you just say 'working class' if you must
your 'fuck everyone else' attitude
your remaining smugness towards a headteacher from - what- 35 years ago
Your use of the phrase kung flu
your misapprehension about the transmission of Ebola which means Covid most certainly is not Ebola : it is far more transmissible.

Stop paying your union subs. Hope you never need them.

The point of education is to give students an education according to their needs and abilities. My level 2 students have to pass 9 online exams in one year or they fail the course. The course textbook is 600 pages long and they can be tested on any part of it. To be effective in their chosen career they need to know it all and how to apply it in real world situations. Why does this horrify you? My union is not made up of doctors. My judgement is as valid as theirs. White working-class boys? Read this, as commissioned by Kings College London. cfey.org/2016/07/white-working-class-boys-higher-education-widening-participation/ I questioned some of my students on why they got such low grades in their GCSE maths, English and science and they told me the teachers didn’t like them. I completely empathise with them. It would have been a disaster for me and it would have ruined my life, if my teachers had graded me. Many diseases are named after their location, Ebola, Lyme, MERS, etc. but we are supposed to ignore the fact, that for the 3rd time in 17 years, the Chinese have unleased a virus on the rest of the world and then covered it up with the help of the Wuhan Health Organisation. It wasn’t about the transmission it was about the mortality rate which is about 50% for Ebola.

Your previous post was deleted mrFish

We had three teachers in my dept alone leave at Xmas, due to COVID. We've not managed to replace them all so there will be many classes being taught be supply til at least Easter. This is an outstanding school. The lack of mitigations is driving people out, and that's before we get to my colleague seriously ill in hospital and the ones that have been off for months with long COVID. Striking shouldn't be necessary, we should have protections in place.

@Hearwego

**Hearwego I’m a prison officer and my DP works in a supermarket. Both key workers. Who do you want to look after my children if teachers went on strike? Do you not have a plan for them being told to self isolate? Because you really, really should...

Er yes...I get paid if I have to isolate. But my point is, if teachers strike, key workers including the Police, NHS workers and doctors wouldn’t be able to go to work. Including me and my prison service colleagues.
So how would that help anyone exactly?

But if your child's bubble goes off, you don't have to isolate? Do you still get paid?

If schools are closed, or on a rota, someone else can look after your child. If they have to isolate, no-one outside of your household can. So surely, the later is better than the former?

Er yes...I get paid if I have to isolate

But it would be your children who need to isolate, not you. Would you really be paid for 2 weeks when you don't need to isolate?

Thanks house

Hearwego "Er yes...I get paid if I have to isolate. "

Yes but what are you going to do when your DC has to self isolate, was the question. As in due to being a contact. That does not count as you self isolating and siblings still have to attend school.

@hedgehogger1

We had three teachers in my dept alone leave at Xmas, due to COVID. We've not managed to replace them all so there will be many classes being taught be supply til at least Easter. This is an outstanding school. The lack of mitigations is driving people out, and that's before we get to my colleague seriously ill in hospital and the ones that have been off for months with long COVID. Striking shouldn't be necessary, we should have protections in place.

I have never in my life seen such a long list of vacancies as are listed on our county teachers' recruitment site.

A really worrying number are teachers in already shortage subjects - Maths, Science.

I really don't think they do retiremental. My point is there is no evidence. A FOI request got the reply from the ONS that they didn't gather occupation level data any more.

@Hearwego

I’m a prison officer and my DP works in a supermarket. Both key workers. Who do you want to look after my children if teachers went on strike?

I think teachers should strike. This whole pandemic has been about cutting corners.

A strike obviously wouldn’t be that long. Teachers are frustrated and I don’t think it will form miracles. I think feathers would be ruffled and people higher up would have to be listened to because the facts is a lot us can’t manage to work and teach our children. Teachers have more power than they realise. I would join them tbh! It’s dragged on long enough.

I questioned some of my students on why they got such low grades in their GCSE maths, English and science and they told me the teachers didn’t like them. I completely empathise with them.

Did I really just read this? From an adult? One claiming to be a teacher? All very bizarre!

Obviously teachers are not just one big homogeneous group and all have different experiences (it’s crazy it’s all so different in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England) and viewpoints which is fair enough. Just not sure that a lot of what you have written MrFish is factually correct.

I am a teacher and I think the general public despise us enough without this. So I say no and will vote to not strike of balloted.

Also, if anyone is thinking their school can't close, or their kid won't be asked to isolate, here's a story from a primary close to me (some details changed for obvious reasons).

The primary is in a tier one area, in a village that hasn't seen many cases at all. It hadn't had a single case until the last week of term.

About three days before the end of term, a student injured themselves and multiple first aiders had to attend. The student went to hospital, where they had a covid test. They were asymptomatic but positive- so all of the first aiders had to isolate. This left the school unable to open for the last couple of days of term.

Obviously some parents then got worried and got their children tested and a few more asymptomatic cases turned up. Now a lot of bubbles are having to isolate over the Christmas holidays, and staff are worried about reopening the school in January.

Every school is fine, until it's not.

Keyworker provision is far more likely to stay reliably in place if schools aren't fully open. I don't make that decision though. If DS is allowed to attend then he will be there. If there is part time provision then we will take whatever we can get.

Mrsmomoa* , I know how you feel about online learning. But public health does rather trump our lack of desire to alter our practice. I have actually got so much better with IT since March.

@hedgehogger1
We have had quite a few leave as well - two early retirements (I can't blame them!) and two change of careers. We also have a few currently signed off for stress or shielding. This all means that the rest of us are having to do more cover, ie spend more time packed into classrooms with lots of kids. Some of our classrooms are also internal which means no windows and very little ventilation.

The public don't despise us tiny. it can feel like that when we come across some venom but even the most recent survey had us as the 3rd most trusted profession behind only doctors and nurses.

Your choice to vote as you please of course. I don't want to be hated either but that sort of put up with it attitude has allowed our profession to be trampled on for years.

I questioned some of my students on why they got such low grades in their GCSE maths, English and science and they told me the teachers didn’t like them. I completely empathise with them. It would have been a disaster for me and it would have ruined my life, if my teachers had graded me.

You admitted yourself that you failed your mocks.

How could your teachers justify giving you a higher grade?

We were very concerned when giving grades about being asked for evidence, so only gave higher grades to students where we had mocks and end of topic tests that justified this. Our progress scores were still too high, so we were asked to downgrade some kids.

We tried to act with integrity at my school, and unfortunately some children will have suffered for this. And I bet some of them would say they got a low science grade because I didn't like them.

But that's not true- I had literally no evidence to give them a higher grade, and I gave them the highest grade my HoD would let me get away with.

(Obviously, had we known how things would work out in the summer, we would have just given everyone nines).