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.

@CallmeAngelGabriel

I am a teacher and of COURSE we shouldn't go on strike!

What on earth good would that do? Even if, IF, schools do largely close from January, we will be needed just as much to coordinate Home Learning and liaise with our pupils to check on their welfare and progress.

No one is in this profession for the pats on the back - we'd be a long time waiting for those, but we need to pull together as a nation at the moment to fight this pandemic and strikes play no part in that.

I am under no illusion that everybody is pulling together as a nation. How can we be when schools and everybody in them are being left to work almost as if there is no pandemic happening? Teachers are being villified as thinking they are something special just because they want the same covid-safe workplaces as everybody else. Show me a workplace where 30+ people are working side by side for a minimum of one hour a day, and I will happily do my bit for the nation.

@AnotherOneBitesTheDust2020

I fully agree.

I'm a Primary School teacher and despite being super careful, following all of the rules (not visiting relatives, grocery shopping online etc) I caught COVID.

It's horrific. I was in bed for over a week. I have no underlying health issues and am a non-smoker. However, months later I'm still struggling and have now been put on medication by my GP to help keep my airways open.

Bottom line - most parents believe what the government tells them re: schools. It suits them to believe it because it's essentially free childcare.

I'd love to strike to highlight the appalling way teachers, classroom assistants, office staff, first aiders, janitors, lunch staff etc are being sacrificed to placate parents.

In Scotland you cannot attend a drive in film/panto HOWEVER you can sit in a room with 33 children. I'd love to hear the scientific logic behind that.

Before anyone dears suggest COVID is not a problem for primary school aged children - I caught it from a young child!

Can you get on board with the scientists ASAP.... you seem very sure of who you caught it from! Spill the beans don’t keep us waiting.

To wear a mask that is.

But at present the guidelines (updated today!) actively discourage it. Despite even most parents being OK with it.

Thank you OP. It’s nice to know that the public are now beginning to realise that schools are not COVID secure, and that not everyone hates us.

We won’t strike. We’ve lost too much public support this year as it, and we’re all worried about the loss of learning as it is. But we really, REALLY need some funding - even just enough to cover cleaning costs would help enormously.

@spanieleyes

That's great for you but unfortunately I teach small ones who DONT stay out of range, it's already killed my father and I still have symptoms 7 months after catching it. So I'm possibly a little more cautious than you.

Oh, @spanieleyes, I was wondering how you were (as I have wondered about all the long time teacher members of MN who I have crossed paths with in more normal times).

So sorry to hear about your father and the long term symptoms.

Thinking of you and all your colleagues.

little would you speak to everyone who was really ill like that or just a teacher?

Walking through a local FE College that has a public right of way and seeing groups of students with no SD and them all going into the buildings with limited mask compliance does not fill me with confidence, but I dont think a strike would help. Online learning for a few weeks would be a lot better.

@spanieleyes

Teachers will not go on strike, they don't really do strikes! They moan and groan and then just get on with it, doing the best they can under the most difficult of circumstances.

Exactly if they want something done they should strike. The nursing unions didn’t do that much either. So teachers will have to walk what their talking if they want to see results.

@Piggyinblankets sorry? The previous poster accused parents of “free childcare” pot kettle black don’t you think?

I've honestly had enough of jenny h and it's really feel she should physically get into classrooms. Show us how it's done and tell us whilst in that class why we don't need more protection and masks made mandatory. She mustn't be introduced, just explained as a new ta... She must stay in the room all day at lunch and when teachers disappear...

Section 44 walkout led by all the unions until we get better safety mitigations AND release of the latest figures showing education workforce infection and death rates, broken down by sector and area.

@PandemicPavolova

I've honestly had enough of jenny h and it's really feel she should physically get into classrooms. Show us how it's done and tell us whilst in that class why we don't need more protection and masks made mandatory. She mustn't be introduced, just explained as a new ta... She must stay in the room all day at lunch and when teachers disappear...

I would 110% support this.

Maybe she could carry out this mass testing whilst she’s there.

I’ve just started a thread on the CV board about my school’s bubbles disappearing after Christmas.

At my secondary school the majority of our mitigation measures will disappear after Christmas. There will be no more staggered breaks, no more separating bubbles, no extra cleaning, we will just be protected by the ‘2m’ rule and masks in corridors. The reason why is that our budget only allowed for extra cleaning until Christmas and were only able to keep pupils separated by is taking on extra duties each day and our 1265 hours only could be spared until
Christmas. We won’t even be protected by SI anymore as contacts won’t be isolating, just taking a lateral flow test each day which aren’t very successful.

Striking is the last resort but I really don’t feel safe and am actually shaking at the thought of returning in January.

This would achieve nothing.

I think the students should strike not teachers. I agree more needs to be done to keep schools safe however unfortunately teachers have a bad reputation amongst the public sector for strikes and I don’t think they will be supported by some other sectors. The government have done well putting different sectors against each other and there are far more NHS staff falling down with Covid despite PPE and yet we are told it’s what we signed up for and here’s another pay freeze.

I am genuinely shocked motherruner - what on earth has your union rep said about this? Because we know, of course, that they have the power to override gvt policy...

How can we have a bad reputation for strikes, we NEVER strike!

I bloody wish we would strike, but our unions are being pathetic and focusing on lots of things other than protecting their members.

I am really, really tempted to stop paying my subs if they don't take decent action before January.

OP Can you link to the death rates for teachers from Covid?

Teachers can try the best they can but parents have to start taking responsibility too ! Bubbles all day in school then evenings all the teens are in groups hanging around town or parks!

Can you get on board with the scientists ASAP.... you seem very sure of who you caught it from! Spill the beans don’t keep us waiting.

I definitely caught Covid through school.

I have always wanted schools to stay open and followed every possible piece of feeble guidance provided to schools in England (as guidance is different in Scotland etc) but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t catch it through school just to make some feel better.
PHE gathered my data (and agreed) so I do wonder what they will do with it.

@MrsDanvers123 Radio silence from school rep and regional. When I’ve contacted national office in the last I was given the ‘well
you’re in an academy’ response.

@Littleyell For most teachers, it is bloody obvious they have to have caught it in school- because a lot of us are not going anywhere except school, home, maybe to the shops.

If there are cases in your class and then you test positive, it is a bloody reasonable assumption that you caught it from the kids.

Lots of scientists think schools are unsafe, but the ones on the government payroll don't talk about it.

@spanieleyes it’s the threats to strike that have been in the news frequently over the last 5/10 years. I think us NHS staff are just jealous your unions seem more effective than ours.

OP Can you link to the death rates for teachers from Covid?

No one can. We have not had any occupational death rates for a long time now or have you not noticed?