Asking too much of teachers?

[DomDoesWotHeWants]

It's looking like masks are going to be a requirement in shops and possibly other indoor venues.

Yet teachers are expected to teach - for hours at a time - in confined, poorly ventilated spaces, with no social distancing. They have been told they do not need PPE. If I was still teaching there is no way I'd go into a room crowded with teenagers and not wear a mask at the moment.

Teachers should be allowed as much protection as possible not thrown under a corona bus because Johnson wants them for child care so their parents can go back to work.

I really can't understand why it's going to be compulsory in shops where meetings are fleeting but not in schools which are crowded and have people crammed in for hours.

Does the right of children to go back to school over rule the rights of of school staff (teaching and ancillary) to be as protected as possible?

This means they should be allowed to wear PPE, if they choose, and secondary children should be wearing masks as happens in some other countries. In some countries younger children also have to wear masks in school.

The safety of teachers has been ignored by Johnson and his chums in their urge to get people back to work and the cry of "back to normal" is taken up by those ignorant of the facts about the virus.

Teachers have been made out to be the bad guys almost from the beginning - as can be seen from many bile infested threads on here. They deserve better.

I'm sure the unions and teachers are thrashing this out. It's clearly something that they will have thought of.

I am a secondary school teacher. We have had our guidance for Sept. I will be required to do a daily morning duty, break duty and a lunch time duty meaning I will have a single 20 minute break from 8am-4pm. I will be circulating around the school to different year groups’s ‘zones’ all whilst carrying books/equipment for the day as I’ll no longer have a classroom base. I will be doing all this without any protection. To say I feel sick is an understatement.

That's so unfair @motherrunner. I hope your union rep speaks up.

Unfortunately re my working time in ratio to break that is perfectly according to employment law - I checked!

Hope we can wear masks or visors though. Pupils will be wearing them to school on public transport and then take them off. I teach mainly Yr 9-13 with a couple of single Yr and 8 lessons where we have split classes. These pupils aren’t ‘children’ (Under 10s) according to data.

I think secondary students & teachers should definitely all be wearing masks. The bubble system doesn’t work for secondary and social distancing is impossible in most (all?) state schools. Classrooms are too small, too many students etc.

Personally as a primary teacher in a small school I am happy with our bubbles of 30 along with good hygiene and parents keeping children off with symptoms. As wearing a mask protects others more than me, and I don’t think it is reasonable to ask young children to wear masks (certainly not effectively), plus my job would be a lot harder in a mask, I don’t personally want to have to wear one at work.

I do think secondary is a whole other ball game though and those students are old enough to wear masks.

I’m also a secondary school teacher. We have had no information whatsoever from our school. I’m hoping this means our SLT are grappling with the gov guidance and are concerned for our safety.

I don’t have a problem with masks being required in schools and that would seem very sensible.

Schools are not just opening for childcare but for education I think it is important that we work towards a safe way of educating our children and think that is important I agree that masks would seem a sensible part of that strategy.

I would fully support any teacher in wearing a mask. It clearly can be done, or it couldn't be happening in so many other countries.

I would hope that respect is given to the fact that not all people can wear masks, but if they become mandatory in indoor public spaces, this should absolutely include schools. Trickier in primary, where I agree that children could not be expected to wear a mask successfully, or possibly safely (I can definitely imagine mask related injuries), but by secondary, it should be more than possible. School staff deserve as much protection as anyone else.

Teachers should be allowed to wear visors. Much easier to communicate with a visor than a mask because you can still see the face, and more comfortable to wear for a long period. Even small children would get used to it I think.
Probably not quite as effective but much better than nothing surely?

It is heartening, as a teacher, to read that finally some people see the issue. I have been harping on about this for months now. The guidance is basically saying we should keep ourselves as distant as we can from older students which is obviously completely inadequate advice. Most of us have classrooms whereby 2 metres distance just isn't possible (even a metre is problematic in some rooms) and if you're on anything other than a ground floor, your windows probably don't open more than an inch or even at all. Even on the ground floor they don't always open.

It is a disaster waiting to happen and I predict school staff will experience higher incidences of serious illness and death. It seems, however, we are expendable in the wake of the state of the economy.

I have been in school in primary in lock down and with a bubble since June. Because we have been in with no PPE I can see that being used as a reason why none is needed in education. They also say it will affect teaching and learning if we wear anything on our face.

I'm a primary teacher. I would rather not wear a mask and am quite pleased they are not mandatory. Not because I have a problem with them, I wear them for shopping, but from a practical point of view I would really struggle to teach phonics with my mouth covered/obscured.
I don't think the risks from a single primary class are the same as from 1000+ secondary kids though so can see why secondary teachers are concerned.

I’ve been a teacher for many years and this has finally led me to quit. I won’t go back into a classroom with 35 pupils, non-opening windows and no PPE. Especially not when I’d be teaching teenagers who do stupid things like “corona cough” in each other’s faces for a laugh.

We've been told we'll have to teach for 2 meters away from small children. And if we're closer than a meter, can only be there for up to 15 minutes. Each time.

I can't teach children who are struggling to read and count from 2 meters away at all times. And there will be up to 30 in my classroom.

And we're not supposed to wear masks.

@back2good

We've been told we'll have to teach for 2 meters away from small children. And if we're closer than a meter, can only be there for up to 15 minutes. Each time.

I can't teach children who are struggling to read and count from 2 meters away at all times. And there will be up to 30 in my classroom.

And we're not supposed to wear masks.

Interesting how guidance has been interpreted. I am allowed to interact as normal with the yr1s I will have next year but have to be at 2m from my TA at all times.

Asking too much of teachers?

A “please” would have been nice...

Secondary teacher here and yes it’s too much to ask. Seems like teachers alone will have no right to a covid secure workplace.

Even aside from covid racing around from one zone to another carrying sets of books, equipment and laptop is going to be exhausting and as far as I can tell no consideration for mobility issues, pregnancy, reduced toilet access etc.

Plus we’ll be working in environments that are even more under resourced because schools are spending thousands on sanitiser and signage etc when they were already too skint for proper staffing and resources.

It’s awful reading the posters on the boards who clearly don’t care at all about teacher safety

I've been defending teachers all along because of the guidance saying

"Teachers etc don't require PPE". The undertone being that they shouldn't wear it and they are precious to think it's necessary.

Which I've always said is ridiculous as required on transport, they aren't to SD either and other places have covid secure guidelines - which apparently apply to everywhere but a classroom.

My friend teaches in my old school which specialises in taking students with hearing difficulties and some are profoundly deaf. For a long time they were talking about masks but had no answer for these students.
I think it’s an impossible situation.

I'm going back to a class of 32, in a tiny 1950's classroom with tiny windows where the kids will be 2 or 3 to a desk. There is no chance of social distancing and no masks or visors for me. Plus several are so badly behaved they routinely require handling. I will be expected to supervise them at break and eat lunch with them. I do not get paid for my lunch break - no teacher does. On top of this I will be cleaning desks and the toilets. And on top of that we've been told we will be doing boosters for no extra pay.

I am desperately looking for another job. I feel like we have been treated terribly and i'm frightened for my family. My mother lives with us and has vascular dementia. She is high risk. I am clinically vulnerable and apparently the dfe risk assessment says it's fine. But i better put a mask on to go toTesco, ffs.

I teach in primary, and wouldn’t expect my children or I to wear masks, but I’m lucky as we’re in a rural area without the public transport issue (I’m choosing not to think about all the children whose parents commute to London daily!).

I absolutely get why secondary colleagues might be wary.

What worries me is the online provision for shielding children. I absolutely appreciate that we need to provide for them as best we can, but I’d hoped that could be done via Oak/zooming into our lessons in school. Our head is currently querying the guidance on this, as normal teaching involves working every evening to keep up, adding recording 20 lessons a week for shielding children is going to be tricky. They’re going to end up being very left behind.

@phlebasconsidered

I'm going back to a class of 32, in a tiny 1950's classroom with tiny windows where the kids will be 2 or 3 to a desk. There is no chance of social distancing and no masks or visors for me. Plus several are so badly behaved they routinely require handling. I will be expected to supervise them at break and eat lunch with them. I do not get paid for my lunch break - no teacher does. On top of this I will be cleaning desks and the toilets. And on top of that we've been told we will be doing boosters for no extra pay.

I am desperately looking for another job. I feel like we have been treated terribly and i'm frightened for my family. My mother lives with us and has vascular dementia. She is high risk. I am clinically vulnerable and apparently the dfe risk assessment says it's fine. But i better put a mask on to go toTesco, ffs.

Unbelievable. This is just out of the question. What is your union rep doing about it?

Maybe you should go off with stress. I would in your position.

Up to 32 in a class here. It would have been nice to have had some Gov money to reduce class sizes ( my school actually has the empty rooms so it is not impossible everywhere!) so 2m could be possible or even 1m!!

Am not looking forwards to toilets - as we share with the kids - oh joy of new buildings! And windows that hardly open and corridors with fire doors that cannot be kept open. And only one staircase.

As someone who has had to shield to have the joy of moving rooms, so children are safer in the same room, carrying all equipment up and down the staircase ( no lift to be used! ) and meeting large numbers of staff and children in corridors does not fill me with joy.

I wonder what the legal position is if staff die after a risk assessment says it is low risk - as mine does?

I completely agree. Staff and children should be wearing masks if there is no other form of ‘protection’ in the classroom.

At my school-we will be 32 to a room. No decent opening windows, no social distancing, no children facing forward in rows, no masks, no reduction in numbers, 6+ hours a day at close proximity. We will be relying on parents being honest in not sending them in with symptoms (or if someone in their house has), being honest in taking them for a test and telling us the result. That is the only form of protection we have.

My own children will be getting public transport to school with loads of other people, wearing a mask, but they will be taking the mask off when they arrive at school as that’s suddenly safe.

It is ridiculous.

I agree it's asking too much also gov guidelines say bubble only closes if 2 pupils/adults test positive in 14 days!!! So if pupil A has been sitting in very close proximity to children and staff, needed first aid etc tests positive we all carry on for another 2 weeks in our tiny squashed classroom and just hope alls OK 🙄