to think Gavin Williamsons views on teachers have been found out and he is trying to back pedal

[cakeorwine]

Leaked WhatsApp messages about schools during Covid and re-opening.

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/01/leaked-messages-boris-johnson-bemoaning-face-masks-u-turn

In October 2020, Williamson said publicly the following year’s exams would be postponed for a few weeks to make up teaching time. According to the leaked messages, Hancock then got in touch with his cabinet colleague to say “what a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are”.

Williamson replied: “I know they really really do just hate work.” Hancock then responded with a laughing emoji and a bullseye.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said in response to the leak: “Why am I utterly unsurprised to now have it absolutely confirmed that Gavin Williamson was unfit to be secretary of state for education?”

According to Williamson, these comments were about "some unions" and he has the utmost respect for teachers who went above and beyond during the pandemic.

Yet it's the teachers who would be doing the work, not the Unions. So who was he saying who "really really just hate work"

I would like to be a fly on the wall when Hancock and Williamson have the next parents evening for their kids. As a 'lazy arse' I'd quite enjoy doing that😇

noblegiraffe

Are you reading the same article as me? Your BBC link doesn't say any of that.

he tried not to let online trolls affect him, but was worried about other teachers who are not as used to social media

Also, the article doesn't confirm whether the original lessons were available for general viewing by anyone on his social media platform - or only available through a school portal link.

Are you reading the same article as me? Your BBC link doesn't say any of that.

Other sources are available.

Botw1

The unions were actively campaigning for safety measures in schools just like everybody else.. Not to keep them closed.
This is what shows your bias.

@FrippEnos

There are multiple articles from the time quoting unions saying schools should be closed.

Or stay closed longer.

It's not bias.

It's there in black and white

They even advised their members to refuse to return if schools did open.

@Botw1

and they will all be from when the government was going to sue schools for trying to close 3 days early before the Christmas break due to the amount of teachers and children that were ill. and they advised their members not to return to school under a certain section (21 I think) due to the workplace being unsafe.

then the government closed everything down again the day after schools were going back.

So yes Bias.

The biggest tosser ever to be Secretary of State for Education. A blithering fool of a man.

noblegiraffe
Other sources are available

OK - “The anonymous user had taken photographs from my professional Twitter account, and overlaid them with text”

Not seeking to diminish the impact of what happened to him (from other sources as you say), but teachers were not asked to set up professional Twitter accounts with thousands of followers. His dating platform on Twitter was also set up in April 2020 (link at top of main professional account) - teachers were not asked to set up online dating agencies during lockdown either.

Good luck when there’s no teachers left to teach your children.

Everyone l know totally supports them.

Unlikely for that poster: she is in Scotland where there appear to be a surplus of teachers.

err why wouldn't they? many teachers are older and schools have terrible ventilation, they also had no effective PPE.

Or do you think that whilst you wfh others should tend to your every need, risking their health?

There are huge shortfalls of teachers in many key subjects, yours and Govts attitudes will ensure this keeps getting worse.

My colleague died of Covid. Never hit retirement, never got the pension. It was an avoidable death.
Unions were campaigning for measures such as adequate ventilation and masks. Absolutely right to do so.
Gavin Williamson is the worst education secretary there has ever been, which is really saying something.

Actually supply teachers through agencies just make minimum wage.

The fact people hate teachers so much in this country and treat the profession as scum - is why you’ll shortly have the poorest qualified educators in the world. Own goal.

A teacher from the school my kids previously went to is now a quadruple amputee. From catching Covid from the little germ factories she continued to teach. You entitled bastards, calling people selfish to desperately try to do something to get more people attracted to public services careers. They were and are trying to safeguard your and your families’ lives/education/health. I know it’s weird, but we have families too, and frankly, working for this unappreciative government and population is just going to degrade what you all take for granted. You’re the same people screaming because you can’t see your gp, your roads are wrecked and crime is through the roof. This is what you get when you enable the rich to siphon off taxes and private companies to run amuck making profits from us all. You Tory supporters deserve everything you’ve got coming. Everything.

This is the cunt who told parents to complain to OFSTED about their child’s school during a global pandemic with no PPE or real guidance, yeah?!

Nowt but agreement here. X

@FrippEnos

No, theyre from June 2020 onwards up to March 21.

Im not sure why you're trying to deny fact/rewrite history. It's a bit odd..

@GPTec1

Because schools should never have been allowed to close, regardless of risk. Like hospitals and supermarkets weren't

As it stood the actual risk was negligible.

The damage that was done has far outweighed any perceived benefit (there wasn't 1)

So yeah, I absolutely think schools should never have been closed.

Odd you jumped to me wfh? Lots of people continued working as normal, actually putting their health at risk. The teaching profession was not one of those groups. They were proven to be at no more risk than any other job role.

I agree the govt are to blame for making the decision (which was made to increase compliance not because of risk to teachers) but the unions absolutely campaigned to keep them closed/close them earlier.

@Greywhippet

The oh avoidable covid deaths were perhaps the nursing home ones at the start of the pandemic. The merits of unsuccessful lock downs aside

You can't prevent a pandemic.

Plenty of teachers in Scotland, just no permanent contracts.
probationers filling places for a year, inevitably moving on(see above)
Forever shifting staff, no stability for teachers or pupils, lack of continuity.
Oh, and only being allowed to strike over pay, not conditions…

@Bunnyfuller

So it's OK for teachers to say everything is the govt fault but you think children should be blamed for a teacher catching covid?

Germ factories?

This is the kind of awful comment I saw during the pandemic that completely soured my opinion of some teachers.

@Botw1 you quite clearly have a far better understanding of the profession than we do.

Please do let us know where you were working through the pandemic, as I would like to offer you my congratulations.

To repeat:

I've had covid 3 times. Every time (though I can't prove it), suspect it was caught at school. First time by a y11 who coughed repeatedly in my face because it was funny.

March 2020 I set and marked work online. Every day. I called every member of my form every week and ensure I spoke to them. I came into school to print work packs and send then out. I then became part of the team which dismantled all our IT rooms and delivered machines to every child who did not have a computer. Jan 2021 every single lesson was taught live, online. Individual intervention still happened over teams in the evenings and, in some cases, at the weekend.

What part of running out of ICU beds don’t people get? Closing schools wasn’t to protect teachers (heaven forbid we take them into account, right?! Lazy bastards with their after school unpaid marking and planning, buying materials for school and doing clubs for free! No, it was to stop germ spreading kids taking Covid home to mummy and daddy and nanny and auntie with cancer and cousin with asthma. Because, if we HAD ‘let it rip’ (and keeping schools open would’ve guaranteed that - track the rise in infections every time the kids go back) a LOT more people would have died. Many of them down to lack of ICU space/personnel.

you know, it’s not obligatory to not think a little wider than DM obvious impacts. God, was it shit, both my kids were in GCSE years. But their clinically vulnerable mum is still alive, so that’s good, eh?

But they are! What’s the big deal?

Any crowded place is a germ factory, and schools are one of the worst. Loads of people with little regard or knowledge of hygiene packed in closely together. How would you describe if?

How would schools have coped with staffing levels if never 'closed' during lockdown, before the advent of vaccines? DS is in Y13, in his 2 years in Sixth Form (so post lockdown closures) he has had at least 2 periods of a week each being sent home as not enough staff in, to do remote lessons again. There have been other numerous times of self study or teacher teaching from home whilst DS in class due to sickness. Most teacher friends I know who contract COVID are sick with it, not just a mere sniffle. Not sure whether it is the viral load they get from all the little darlings (including my son in this) breathing all over them.