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.

@ItsSummer *There you go... more if you search...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-53151035*

That article refers to individual cases. By definition, an individual case is not an outbreak....

Why on earth shouldn’t teachers wear masks? It’s ridiculous- those clear visor ones would still allow good communication. I think this guidance will change before September - we can’t have masks everywhere else but not in classrooms.

Just wear your own mask. If your head complains, then you then speak with your governing body (they have to sign off all current risk assessments and measures at the moment and will take your complaints seriously if you direct it at them).

And then if necessary tell your doctor you're feeling stressed. You only have to mention your career to a doctor to get signed off these days.

I teach in an FE college. All my learners are 16-19 as I don’t teach adults. We have been told that each department is a bubble- the department I teach in is made up of 3 subjects and includes apprentices and adult learners. 480 students planned from Sept. in addition many of the students also resit English and maths. When they go to their m+E lessons they will form a bubble with their respective m+E slots. Lunchtimes have been cut to 20 mins with no students or staff allowed to leave the site once the day has started. We’re a city centre so all students travel by public transport from across the county and most staff- there’s only 82 parking spaces for an onsite staff of over 800 which are issued on a lottery basis. Staff aren’t allowed to use the canteen and students will have a set time. There are 3 sinks per sex (shared between students and staff) per corridor. 1 bottle of sanitiser will be provided per classroom but once it’s gone teachers need to buy their own as there isn’t any money for more. I use my mum for childcare, she’s a manager...in a care home. The wider implications of just sending schools and staff back without any protection cannot be stressed enough.

It seems almost unbelieveable that staff are not being supplied with the very basic necessities.

The schools and colleges should be supplying wipes and anti-bac gel for all classrooms.

Teachers should not be responsible for cleaning - pay the cleaning staff to do it and provide them with what's needed including PPE. There should be cleaners available all day to keep on top of the sanitising.

There's no way I'd be cleaning of I was still a teacher, they have enough to do in preparation and actual teaching.

Why aren't the unions all over this very loudly?

pay the cleaning staff to do it and provide them with what's needed including PPE. There should be cleaners available all day to keep on top of the sanitising.

We had mass redundancies a few years ago and smaller ones ever since. We’ve gone down from a team of around 11 cleaners to 3. We have 1 large main building and 5 smaller buildings including workshops such as motor vehicle and construction. Classrooms are hoovered once a week and the back stairs are cleaned each term. The cuts of the past 10 years (noticeably the last 5) are now exacerbating the problem when cleanliness is key. I don’t know how many classrooms there are in the college but there are 30 In my department alone.

I think teachers and unions have taken so much of a battering these last few months and painted as the ‘villains’ in the Lockdown narrative (wherever you have a ‘hero’ there always has to be a villain), that we have no energy to fight.

Just today there was this article on BBC news about the lockdown in Leicester. It focuses on the impact of the schools closing again. Totally misses the point about who ordered the lockdown and why.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-53336197

There's no money to pay the cleaning staff that's the reality. Government have specifically said they will provide no extra funding.

I found this article online (which mentions that even Sweden 'allows' masks.). What is notable is a)how little evidence or research there is into children's' spread at this point and b) how other countries who have already opened up and have lower infection rates are being a good deal more cautious with their measures in schools. I think it is they who understand community spread better.

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaks

@Hercwasonaroll

There's no money to pay the cleaning staff that's the reality. Government have specifically said they will provide no extra funding.

Then the unions have to bite. All that money to other industries and nothing for schools. It shows how much they value children. I hope the teacher-bashing parents turn their attention to where it belongs.

I only went on strike once and that was when out LEA wanted to sack the lunchtime supervisors and expected teaches to do it on a rota system. A day's strike and the kids being sent home every lunchtime as all teachers left the building soon sorted that out. We didn't mind being "on call" but no way were we going to be unpaid dinner supervisors.

The unions do have to bite. There's so much anti teacher feeling that the public will not be on board with "the unions" trying to stop the schools reopening.

I am not a fan of cleaning the loos but at the end of the day certainly in primary teaching everyone pitches in and you do what you need to do. Even in normal times I have mopped floors and cleaned up pooey toilets just not as often as we do now obviously.
I would not support strike action, the last thing the children need is more disruption. We need to keep things as normal as we can for as long as we can and deal with closures for infection control when they come up.

Maybe that is what the government is hoping for. Then they can smash the unions once and for all. No more Burgundy book, many more cheap, unqualified teachers. Centralised text books, all doing the same page at the same time?

I personally feel this is a good time for teachers to address the work life balance here in secondary. There is going to so much opportunity to work slow and not do things.

Rather than trying to be a hero sprinting around rooms all over the school so these 'so called bubbles' of over 250 can remain, just relax and take it casual. Use this as an opportunity not to do all the unreasonable admin tasks you are given.

Wash your hands. Then do it again. If a SLT means at all just mention health and safety and get it in an email that they're asking you to compromise health and safety.

Schools are going to be under a lot of pressures with staff that they're not going to want to be trying to go through capabilities to get rid of one.

Any decent head here is going to be reasonable (a lot I know are allowing and even providing masks). Maybe some teachers here might even take the opportunity to move to a more reasonable school....plenty of vacancies around.

Teachers are getting the brunt of blame as a clever distraction for the Govt's incompetence throughout the pandemic and their clear denial of their accountability for the massive cuts in schools over the last 10 years. I knew it would happen- they blamed care homes for the death in care homes and now they're chucking us under the bus. Next, it'll be the NHS workers followed by transport workers. Anything to deflect.

I'm very worried as 2 metres or even 1 metre distancing between desks in classes and around school is difficult- but in Wales, there is to be ZERO social distancing from September! What the actual f-?!

@TennisButterfly

I am not a fan of cleaning the loos but at the end of the day certainly in primary teaching everyone pitches in and you do what you need to do. Even in normal times I have mopped floors and cleaned up pooey toilets just not as often as we do now obviously. I would not support strike action, the last thing the children need is more disruption. We need to keep things as normal as we can for as long as we can and deal with closures for infection control when they come up.

This attitude is exactly why schools are in such a mess. Teachers take on things for the sake of the children. This has to stop. Not our job. No more!

You are just asking to be trampled all over some more. Stop it.

@TennisButterfly

I am not a fan of cleaning the loos but at the end of the day certainly in primary teaching everyone pitches in and you do what you need to do. Even in normal times I have mopped floors and cleaned up pooey toilets just not as often as we do now obviously. I would not support strike action, the last thing the children need is more disruption. We need to keep things as normal as we can for as long as we can and deal with closures for infection control when they come up.

Then I really hope you aren’t a member of my union and take advantage of union protection. ‘Everyone pitching in’ is why we are expected to put up with the (lack of) measures in place for our protection this September.

With proper health and safety measures there may not be a need for infection control closures - accepting the current guidance as is will result in children’s education being frequently disrupted.

I don't understand the idea that there isn't enough money to pay cleaners, but there is enough money to pay a teacher's wage to clean. Teachers get paid a lot more than cleaners. If I were cleaning for half an hour that's half an hour less of teaching I can do, and I'm being paid more for that half hour than any cleaner.

I’m a secondary teacher, my school have been as sensible as possible when planning for September. School is split into 6 bubbles (by year group roughly) of just less than 200. Each staff member is assigned a bubble and they only teach or come into contact with that bubble.

Each bubble has it’s own classrooms, toilet and own eating space. Breaks and lunch are staggered so outside space is only used by one bubble at a time.

Each bubble has its open start and finish time and route around school so they don’t come across other bubbles.

6 separate staff rooms for break and lunch.

Classes around 25 pupils at times, teacher to stay 2m away at the front as much as possible. No handing out equipment and booms quarantined for 72 hours before I can touch them to mark.

It’s going to be very different!

@MoreW1ne I think that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve already requested an updated risk assessment for myself as I have a musco-skeletal condition that essentially means my spine is degenerating. Due to this I’m based in a classroom near the lift. It’ll be fun September when I’m moving 5 times a day to teach and have 4 duties. I’m also going to raise the issue of being me menopausal and a risk of flooding.

It’ll be the pupils who suffer ultimately. Two lunch times a week my dept who offer a revision session for Yr 11 and one for Yr 13 on going through the year. If I am only getting a 20 minute break all day I am not giving that up.

Snailsetsail Will you be teaching outside of your subject area? In small subjects I can't see how that would work - you would need to be in the same bubble as your exam class so who would teach the younger pupils?

@Whitestick no, I’m a core subject teacher. Our school have identified 5 staff who will have to teach more than one bubble, everyone else they can work. It’s a large school though with 13 maths teachers, 8 humanities etc.

Agreed the children will suffer. But better they suffer the short term and we improve things for them long term.

Too many teachers see themselves as a martyr running around doing every little thing to the point that we now have teachers cleaning toilets in their break time! Ridiculous.

The difference between good and bad schools isn't that good schools have hard working teachers that 'go the extra mile'. Its that good schools have teachers who refuse to do all the crap and focus on quality teaching.

but there is enough money to pay a teacher's wage to clean

You're missing the point. Teachers won't be paid any extra.

Not missing it at all. There is an assumption that teachers will do this in addition to other duties ie they are doing it on a voluntary basis. But, if we have any backbone, we will be doing it instead of something else - so therefore they are paying a teacher's wage for 30 mins or whatever of cleaning. Are you willing to add three hours onto your working week to get the cleaning done, all for free?