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.

@PoptartPoptart

I think teaching might be the only profession that are denied the protection of wearing PPE. Doctors, nurses, shop workers, bus drivers, office workers, and even the police can wear a mask. But teachers? Nope. Also, secondary school children are required to wear a mask when on public transport and in shops. Yet in the classroom they are not allowed. How is that right? A teacher or pupil are not allowed in a shop without a mask because it is too dangerous. Yet anything goes in schools. It’s disgraceful. And everyone, yes EVERYONE, should care about this because ultimately the virus is spreading in schools which poses a risk not only to teachers and pupils but to their families, friends, and the public as a whole.

Well said 👏👏👏

@ChloeDeckTheHalls

but it's not for me to consider, I don't write the guidance. My job is to provide for and make the best decisions for my child.

Thanks for your support. Always lovely to hear.

I will happily copy and paste a letter I agree with. There would be no point in me trying to write one, I'm absolutely hopeless at English.

The trouble is teachers do not get paid when they go on strike - I know, I've been on strike as a teacher. When I went on strike it was for one day - I could just about take that hit to the pay packet - how many days would this be, perhaps weeks.

Hedgehogger1. I can’t respond to that. That company should be named and shamed

kowari
I used noblegiraffe’s letter back in November. You could alter it regarding where you live etc. Thank you

___

Dear X

I am writing to you because I am increasingly alarmed about the worsening situation in secondary schools in England.

Last week's ONS random sampling data showed that the infection rate in secondary school children continues to increase at a worrying rate, after a short dip at half term which confirms that the transmission in this group of children is related to school attendance. They are the most infected subset of the population, with an estimated 1 in 50 students affected.
The latest attendance figures show that nearly 900,000 pupils were absent from school for covid reasons last Thursday. 73% of secondary schools had isolating pupils due to contact with cases within the school. Again, this represents a rapidly worsening picture, with only 64% of secondary schools affected the Thursday before. 1% of schools are completely closed, this was 0.4% the previous week.

It appears that any efforts to control the transmission of covid within secondary schools is not working. The change from sending home full bubbles when there area positive cases to only sending home close contacts is not breaking the chain of transmission and causing further cases, and more pupils to be sent home. Some children have spent many weeks in quarantine since September, unable to access face-to-face teaching and not even allowed to leave the house. This should be a national scandal, and it is inexplicable that it is not headline news as it was when it was university students that were affected.

The DfE response to these worrying figures, rather than recognising the need to improve measures to control the spread, is to suggest that the issue is that schools are sending home too many pupils. Given the increasing infection rates, sending home fewer pupils than currently would seem to be an extremely counter-productive and would contribute to increased spread.

There is nothing to suggest that the situation will improve, and everything to suggest that it will worsen over the next 3 weeks. More schools will have to close due to lack of staffing, and more pupils will be trapped at home quarantining, some for the Christmas period.

That secondary school pupils are becoming increasingly infected with covid should be a national concern given the latest news that Christmas will bring more household mingling. These children will be visiting elderly relatives, indoors, for extended periods, and there will be tragic consequences. The government will be held responsible for this, particularly given that they have overturned some schools' decisions to close early to provide a safety buffer for families before Christmas.

Please could you raise with your colleague Gavin Williamson, and the DfE as a matter of urgency the issue of inadequate mitigation measures in secondary schools which is leading to uncontrolled transmission of covid, and nearly a million students out of school?

The use of masks in classrooms is currently 'to be avoided' in the school guidance, due to potential effects on teaching and learning. This should now be balanced against the huge disruption to teaching and learning due to pupils and teachers being unable to attend school.

Mass testing in schools should be a priority. We know that children are more likely to be asymptomatic or have symptoms which do not currently trigger a test. As a result they are in school spreading covid, which will then affect teachers and be taken back to the community. Instead of isolating only close contacts the entire bubble should be tested when there is a positive case to identify all infected pupils.

Funding should be given to schools to improve ventilation in classrooms, as has been done in other countries.

The position of clinically extremely vulnerable teachers and children, and those who have vulnerable members of their household should be reconsidered. Forcing them to work or study in an environment which is obviously not safe after lockdown is completely unacceptable, and I note that you and your colleagues are not expected to put yourselves and your families at risk in this way.

Please note that I understand that keeping schools open is a priority for the government, but they are currently failing in this. Saying that schools will be kept open is not enough, swift action needs to be taken before the system collapses as is happening in Hull.

I look forward to your response,
Kind regards...

Use this website to email your MP www.writetothem.com/
If you email directly, you need to make sure you include your address to prove you're a constituent

Updated letter to MPs, suitable for parents or teachers worried about secondary.

Dear

I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned about the current situation in schools and the dangers of this new strain that caused so many problems in secondary schools in London and the South East before they broke up for Christmas.

The science seems to suggest that the new strain is more transmissible, and was severely disruptive to education, with attendance in Kent secondary schools on 10th December only at 55%, with other areas also badly affected. This is very worrying in terms of the ability of schools to provide quality education if large numbers of children are at home and also if staff are badly affected.

Cleary, it would be foolish to re-open secondary schools in January without major changes to account for this new strain. I welcome the move to a staggered start in secondary to reduce the number of pupils in school for the first week to reduce the risks caused by increased infection rates due to Christmas mixing.

I understand that the government has decided to test every secondary student in the first week of January. This would be a positive move, however the plan was announced very late in the term, giving Heads one working day's notice, inadequate resources, inadequate funding and no staffing. All the teaching and headteaching unions, including from the private sector say that this is impossible and will not be implemented in time. In addition, the testing is to use lateral flow tests whose usefulness is now heavily disputed due to only catching 50% of positive cases.

It's clear we cannot rely on mass testing as a solution to the schools problem and this should be discarded from any planning for schools at the start of January.

I am also horrified to hear that secondary schools are to be instructed to no longer send close contacts of positive cases home to isolate and instead test close contacts in school for 7 days using these ineffective lateral flow tests. This means that pupils at high risk of covid will be travelling to school on school buses and public transport, and then potentially released into classrooms if the test fails to detect their infection. This would appear to be less safe than the current scenario of sending those pupils home to isolate and should be abandoned on health and safety grounds.

The current mitigation measures in schools are wholly inadequate to deal with this new strain and need an urgent review. I am very concerned that the debate seems to focus on a binary between schools open or closed, with no discussion about making them safer.

I would suggest:

Mass testing of pupils using gold-standard tests before re-entry to school, properly administered and resourced, not given to schools to organise
Urgent funding to improve ventilation in classrooms
Masks to be worn in secondary classrooms.
Removal of the threat of fines for clinically vulnerable pupils
Testing of bubbles where there are positive cases and wider sending home of contacts where further cases are found.
In Tier 4, or in schools with significant numbers affected, rotas should be implemented to ensure that more pupils get some consistent face to face teaching.

Please can you pass my concerns to Gavin Williamson and the DfE and seek an urgent response to these issues?

Many thanks, and Merry Christmas

www.writetothem.com/

Thank you so much noelgiraffe!!!

Thing is, a lot of teachers are going to quit over this.

All for it.

We can't strike, we need to be there for vulnerable kids, for keyworker's kids, if we 'close' we need to set online learning and keep in touch with all the kids not deemed vulnerable but that we worry about.
The government and certain others might not think we are important, but we really are.
No idea how the rest of the school year is going to pan out, but we'll do our absolute best.

@AnoDeLosMuertos

Thing is, a lot of teachers are going to quit over this.

Yes , and given teacher recruitment was in a bad way before this it doesn’t bode well. It’s sad that some people can’t see this far. I really want my children taught by specialist teachers. Lots of supply and cover teachers can quickly disengage a child from a subject.

Doesn’t stop some of us being scared to go back. We kept all our bubbles intact the whole term but since breaking up have had 4 staff members testing positive so far. Christmas ruined for all their families, so far poorly but not in hospital. Just get better in time to start again in Jan. Very worried particularly for vulnerable staff. Parents, please keep your families safe to protect them, you, fellow pupils and don’t forget loyal staff.

I've seen a number of posts similar to this recently and I always reply along a similar vein. Despite the bluster of the unions, I don't have a single colleague who would like schools to close. This is the first time in my life I'd be willing to go against my union.

There are some children for whom life at home is unbearable. A long stretch with no respite from neglect or abuse and no contact with outside professionals poses far more danger to these children than covid would.

I think it's very easy to forget that just because we love our children, try our best with them and can afford to feed them and keep them in a clean, comfortable home, not all children are as lucky.

**Thing is, a lot of teachers are going to quit over this.

Maybe so but the job market won’t be great for a while though.

**I've seen a number of posts similar to this recently and I always reply along a similar vein. Despite the bluster of the unions, I don't have a single colleague who would like schools to close. This is the first time in my life I'd be willing to go against my union.

There are some children for whom life at home is unbearable. A long stretch with no respite from neglect or abuse and no contact with outside professionals poses far more danger to these children than covid would.

I think it's very easy to forget that just because we love our children, try our best with them and can afford to feed them and keep them in a clean, comfortable home, not all children are as lucky.

Very good post.

I agree there will be a significant shortage of teachers after this, particularly more experienced staff, I'm planning my exit, working part time and retraining for a different job. We've already got the youngest teaching workforce in Europe. It's a real shame because if we hadn't been treated with such contempt by government and vilified by certain sections of the press this crisis could have had the opposite effect. Teaching is a wonderful profession if teachers are trusted and empowered to do the right things for their students.

PoptartPoptart

I think teaching might be the only profession that are denied the protection of wearing PPE.
Doctors, nurses, shop workers, bus drivers, office workers, and even the police can wear a mask. But teachers? Nope.
Also, secondary school children are required to wear a mask when on public transport and in shops. Yet in the classroom they are not allowed.
How is that right?
A teacher or pupil are not allowed in a shop without a mask because it is too dangerous. Yet anything goes in schools.
It’s disgraceful.
And everyone, yes EVERYONE, should care about this because ultimately the virus is spreading in schools which poses a risk not only to teachers and pupils but to their families, friends, and the public as a whole.

100% this.

In my opinion the government have been vilifying our public sector for the last decade.
It’s almost like they want the public to dislike us.
It’s now a race to the bottom to compete with the public sector. I can’t even talk about striking, I could be sacked for it, as could the Police service.
Sorry I’ve gone off topic.

@ktp100

PoptartPoptart

I think teaching might be the only profession that are denied the protection of wearing PPE.
Doctors, nurses, shop workers, bus drivers, office workers, and even the police can wear a mask. But teachers? Nope.
Also, secondary school children are required to wear a mask when on public transport and in shops. Yet in the classroom they are not allowed.
How is that right?
A teacher or pupil are not allowed in a shop without a mask because it is too dangerous. Yet anything goes in schools.
It’s disgraceful.
And everyone, yes EVERYONE, should care about this because ultimately the virus is spreading in schools which poses a risk not only to teachers and pupils but to their families, friends, and the public as a whole.

100% this.

Yes I think the advice today was to social distance and treat everyone as if they had the virus. Except if your in a classroom obviously.

Pop tart pop tart

👏

Noble good letter but I think there needs to be a risk assessment and reassurance that children won't end up in hospital with this new strain and 100 %reassurance that that they will not.

Yanbu.
I want safe schools to be open. I want all secondary dc's in masks all day. Everyone tested every week. I don't want anymore school staff friends to get ill and I don't want my dc's bringing home the virus to wipe me out.

I hate the government for what they have done to teachers over the last term. And yet the kids will always come first. If I could wish for two things from 2021 it would be that a) I never have to have another ‘but it’s all a plandemic/I don’t believe in wearing masks, me/you’re not making my son/daughter follow any Covid rule conversation with a parent and b) the press stop calling us all lazy bastards. These two things have made a difficult job MUCH harder.

no contact with outside professionals

Yes, but are we asking why ??

My son wears a mask in every lesson except PE outside. His teachers wear masks too for much of the lesson after the initial instructions. If his secondary school does this as students all seem to comply, I just don't understand why other schools don't do this too. Is it a leadership decision not to wear masks? I know people are saying masks don't protect you from the mutant strain but surely it should help a bit. I think all teachers who want to wear a mask should be able to do so. I think all students should be told to wear a mask all day except outdoor break, lunch time and PE.

Thank you noble, I will be adjusting and sending this letter