Any school staff feel like they are being made much more vulnerable to contracting this by keeping schools open ?

[starrynight19]

Just a thought. As we know schools are breeding grounds.
What about all the staff who are more exposed by being at work ?
And them taking this home to their vulnerable family members ?
Could schools be forced to close anyway if multiple staff members contract it anyway ?

No. I don't feel I'm any more vulnerable in school than I am anywhere else. The person stood next to me in the supermarket could be unwittingly incubating it for all I know.

Yes, I do feel more vulnerable. My partner and I both work in different schools. We both have asthma. I feel like we're being thrown under a bus and it's now giving me anxiety issues.

I think all school staff 60 or over should be told that they don't have to work, they can take unpaid leave. Or those that live with vulnerable or elderly people. Of course they won't, but they should.

Supermarket workers are similarly exposed to large groups of the general public.

What about people who work in doctors’ surgeries?

justgivemethehobnobs completely agree with that we should be protecting the most high risk teachers for definate.

I do- I have a newly diabetic child (illness being an unknown so far) and a father with lots of issues, and I’m asthmatic. I am finding it harder every day to cope with kids standing over me, borrowing pens, just the general numbers in corridors etc.

But, I really worry about the impact of closure on our most needy kids and the futures of whole year groups.

I don’t know what the answer is.

Yes definitely.

When I'm in classes and getting close to students re work, chatting, using computers, different desks, lunch queues, loos I feel very very exposed esp when they say things like '' dad had a case at work but he felt fine so working, we don't have it '' then that pupil is off ill for a week and doesn't understand incubation periods or the virus, they all share water bottles, food, one student said '' those gels are stupid they don't do nothing '' (we have extra gels up) and then refused to listen to the mandatory hand washing video.
Students coming back from anywhere in Europe etc.

Staff that think it's a load of nonsense...

I don't feel comfortable constantly gelling.

In a supermarket!!

I can choose my distance, so what I want! My main shop is on line and I'm very careful getting in and out of supermarket for small things

I feel vulnerable because of the crowded environment , the lack of clean facilities and cleaning and the fact that young people are said to get few symptoms, so highly unlikely to stay away from school.

We are listed as a vulnerable group because of our high number of social interactions.

I didn't feel any more vulnerable until today. A little girl in my class started feeling really poorly at the end of the day. Definitely starting a temperature and was coughing, it wasn't long til home time and I obviously spoke to her mum at pick up. They are a year one class so there's a lot of physical contact. Definitely a lot more wary.

Also, I am quite severely allergic to perfumed soaps and hand creams and gels. Off topic a bit but it is causing me a lot of difficulty.

I work as a primary teacher, part time.

On Monday I'm going to London to an exhibition. I keep being advised not to go.

I feel that I'm more at risk at school!!

Young children literally cough into your eyes and mouth.

Of course teachers are at risk.

Working with very young children it’s impossible to keep any distance. Being coughed at whilst tying shoelaces happens all the time. This week I have held two ill children on my knee whilst waiting for mums to pick them up (both with high temperatures).
I don’t particularly feel like schools should close but it does all feel like a bit of a waiting game.

I feel worried. I am asthmatic and autoimmune. My ds is asthmatic. My mother is on dialysis and lives with us. My mil has heart issues. I'm getting them to wash their hands in class but tbh it's pissing in the wind - my class are siblings of secondary students who were sking in Italy but it's ok to send them in even though their siblings are off.

I am really anxious about it and about the fact that when the results dip ( as they will if we close) I won't be moved up my expected pay scale and it will all be my fault.

I do - i'm in the office and every sick child in the school comes and sits with me whilst i decide if they are ill enough to go home and then they wait with me for their parents to pick them up. The room isnt very big - so i spent 3 hours today with various children with fevers in a confined space ' and one with a hacking cough.
I dont of course think i am the only persom exposed and recognise plernty if other people are in riskier positions.

I do really feel that measures should be being implemented for those who are high risk who are being asked to teach right now

NASUWT have issued guidance for high-risk teachers www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/3847193-NASUWT-advice-re-school-closures-etc

I'm not sure that teachers are any more vulnerable than A and E staff, nurses, social workers, super market staff, shop workers or anyone else who works with the public?

Who knows. I am very much encouraging my class to wash their hands but is it really helping?

Teaching with colleagues (plural) who have had chemo in the last year. One has just finished treatment.

I wish they could be cotton woolled at home

I feel horribly exposed. Decent risk assessment wouldn't allow it!

Not yet because there are no cases in the towns that the kids at our school live in. Plus I generally give them as wide a berth as possible because the boys in particular are rank. We’ve kept the toilets constantly filled with soap and sanitiser and they’re reminded at least once a day to use them and why. The boys are hardly touching the soap and sanitiser.

I’m sure I’ll be jumped on in true MN fashion and yes, there will be exceptions but these are facts.

noble that advice is useless...really vague.

At least there’s a suggestion that vulnerable teachers should stay at home on doctor’s advice.