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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Class teacher is currently COVID positive.

118 replies

Moelwynbach · 03/09/2021 20:51

My son is due to start his new class year next week. We have notification from school to say that his class teacher is COVID positive so he will be starting later, this is yet another pain in the arse that I can do nothing about. I have no alternative childcare other than wrap around school club and holiday club.
Under the new rules on an ongoing basis do schools have to replace teachers with supply teachers or is the onus still on parents to use their infinite leave.
Please be aware that I know that this cannot be helped but my workplace wont be over chuffed if I keep having to take time off work!

OP posts:
Awalkintime · 05/09/2021 08:43

Gavin Williamson will not listen to teachers, he's ignored them all the while he has been in role. I've spoken to my MP about this and the potential problems in the coming year and he is very good at responding and getting his point across in parliament so hopefully he will do.

Kiduknot · 05/09/2021 09:00

If I was a class TA, I wouldn’t want full responsibility for a class. That would be beyond my remit and probable comfort zone.

ilovesooty · 05/09/2021 09:10

@Kiduknot

If I was a class TA, I wouldn’t want full responsibility for a class. That would be beyond my remit and probable comfort zone.
And well beyond the level at which they're paid.
CassandraTrotter · 05/09/2021 09:12

And well beyond the level at which they're paid
I was about to say this.

Dee1975 · 05/09/2021 09:14

Normally when a teacher is off sick they have a supply teacher? Never known a class be told to stay at home because the teacher the ill!

nancyclancy123 · 05/09/2021 09:18

I’m a TA in a school and we’ve had a few positive cases at the start of this term. HLTA’s/TA’s and agencies are covering, no closed classes…….yet!!

LakieLady · 05/09/2021 09:19

@AICM

Funny place Mumsnet.

A thread A day or so was started about a Pharmacy closing because there were no staff. The MN verdict- if they can't get the staff they have to close.

If a school can't get staff they have to magic them out of this air.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'll say it to get it over with:

"I'd be fuming"

There it's been said, the standard MN response to a school issue. No body needs to say it now.

LEAs have a statutory duty to provide education. There is no such duty for anyone to provide a pharmacy. And no-one has ever had to take emergency leave because a pharmacy was closed. You're comparing apples to oranges here.

I find it hard to believe that it's impossible for the school to cobble together cover from TAs and SLT staff if they can't get a supply teacher in. Unless of course other teachers are off as well.

I'd be livid too.

Toastytoads · 05/09/2021 09:26

In our school the Head has been covering the absent teachers classes.

amillionmenonmars · 05/09/2021 09:30

Parents on MN need to brace themselves because this is going to be far more common as we head towards winter. Those posters who think there are lots of surplus staff hanging around in schools who can be drafted in to cover for sick colleagues - think again. Most schools run on a shoestring, and the single most expensive commodity they have is the staff budget, so these have been cut right down to save money.

TAs are very often employed for named students - they cannot be redirected to teach elsewhere - they are there for 1:1 support for children who rely on them.

Supply is very expensive, and the number of people on the supply lists is a low lower than it was. I retired recently and considered doing some supply, but I am so exhausted after the past couple of years, plus I don't want to risk being on a small, overcrowded, poorly ventilated classroom with unvaccinated students. I couldn't be dragged back innow - even if the pay was doubled.

Once covid hits a school it spreads fast. Last term there were processes in place to try to slow this down - bubbles, staggered start and finish times, restrictions on parents coming into school etc. A lot of this is being removed. In my old school the critical point for being able to cover was having 15% of the teachers off sick. That isn't a very large safety margin before it becomes impossible to cover and children have to be kept off because there is simply no one to put in front of their class.

JuliaBlackberry · 05/09/2021 09:36

I"m sorry to hear this op, very frustrating and a shame they can't get supply.
I'm a teacher though, and I think this is going to be more common. I teach from two different rooms and one of them has no opening windows, and classes of well over 30 unmasked, unvaccinated teenagers. Covid is going to get to teachers like me and many others and schools just won't have the supply budget or readily available suppy teachers.

Parker231 · 05/09/2021 09:39

There’s a shortage of supply teachers and schools don’t have the budgets to pay for them.

JuliaBlackberry · 05/09/2021 09:41

@AICM

Funny place Mumsnet.

A thread A day or so was started about a Pharmacy closing because there were no staff. The MN verdict- if they can't get the staff they have to close.

If a school can't get staff they have to magic them out of this air.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'll say it to get it over with:

"I'd be fuming"

There it's been said, the standard MN response to a school issue. No body needs to say it now.

This is completely incomparable. If a pharmacy is closed it is frustrating but you can head to one in the next town or supermarket. If a school is closed you can't ship a class to the next town for their education. The op has a right to expect her child to be in school from the beginning of the teaching term.
ilovesooty · 05/09/2021 09:55

Just because the OP has a right to expect her child to be in school doesn't make it possible.

There will be increasing numbers of schools facing this situation as the months go on and different illnesses - not just covid - happen. The budgets just don't accommodate emergency staffing in many schools, even if supply were to be readily available.

It's not the schools' fault.

JuliaBlackberry · 05/09/2021 10:04

@ilovesooty

Just because the OP has a right to expect her child to be in school doesn't make it possible.

There will be increasing numbers of schools facing this situation as the months go on and different illnesses - not just covid - happen. The budgets just don't accommodate emergency staffing in many schools, even if supply were to be readily available.

It's not the schools' fault.

I agree. It's literally what I said a couple of posts up . But, until 18 months ago we all held the belief that our children had a right to an education for 195 days a year (or whatever it is). Children are rarely getting that and it's frustrating for parents. I say this as a teacher and a parent.
MumofSpud · 05/09/2021 10:06

@User5827372728

Hopefully this class teacher didn’t attend an INSET day, before they knew they had covid, like the ones we had at my school as by next week there won’t be any teachers left!
Ya - same her - at one point we had a training we had to go to - there must have been 50+ staff squeezed in a classroom. Ironically it was H & S Hmm
Italiandreams · 05/09/2021 10:07

I do worry about this coming year, in many schools around here the leadership party from the head all teach, there are barely any TA’s that are not assigned to children. We managed to cover with supply last year but at times it was a struggle as there seems to be much less supply available for reasons mentioned. The school should do their best to cover , and hopefully it will manage but I can imagine situations where this is just not possible. And should TA’s be covering on their pay? I personally don’t think it really is an acceptable ask anyway.

Nosferatussidebit · 05/09/2021 10:37

Legally school has to be open and available for children to attend for a certain number of days per year however I'm not sure how the emergency covid legislation has impacted that.

RubyViolet · 05/09/2021 11:40

@Awalkintime

Gavin Williamson will not listen to teachers, he's ignored them all the while he has been in role. I've spoken to my MP about this and the potential problems in the coming year and he is very good at responding and getting his point across in parliament so hopefully he will do.
And that’s exactly the problem, he’s not on top of his brief. The man is inept. Everyone could see this coming and yet he has done zero. There’s no plan A or plan B. Parents and staff deserve better than him, he’s just not qualified for this job.
AICM · 05/09/2021 12:02

What do people think schools should do when due to circumstances completely beyond their control it genuinely becomes impossible to meet their legal obligations?

RubyFowler · 05/09/2021 12:11

I'd expect all avenues to have been explored to ensure the class could be in.
Including the head teacher taking the class as others on the thread have said does happen at times.

AICM · 05/09/2021 12:15

And when they have been...

Awalkintime · 05/09/2021 12:19

The head can take the class from time to time but the head also has their work to do, they don't just sit in an office looking pretty. They would also have to produce the work for that class as the sick teacher can't be expected to. A full time job for a teacher at the moment is double the legal working limit. Add onto that a full time head role - when could this person expect to sleep? Eat? Urinate?

Also some heads already teach, ours is a teaching head. She can't cover when she is already in class herself.

RubyFowler · 05/09/2021 12:31

Yes a head can take class from time to time and only in emergency situations i agree. Absolutely shouldn't become the norm.
Similar to a matron in a hospital is a head of a service and a managerial role. Would only do hands on nursing in a dire situation, but it is stated in the contingency planning as a solution if for example a service would otherwise close due to lack of nursing staff available.

RubyFowler · 05/09/2021 12:32

@AICM

And when they have been...
Indeed.
AmelieLovesAutumn · 05/09/2021 12:58

@BritishSummertime

When DD's teacher had to isolate last term he taught them online on a big screen with a TA in the room to keep order/help, was fine for a week
That's all well and good if he was 'isolating' for any of the other reasons that were necessary, but this teacher is ill with Covid. She's off sick!