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.

Well, good for your sister, Molteni.
I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what your point is.
And I'm getting a little fed up with the references to "moaning," dating back to a poster who deliberately misunderstood my post about marking. I wasn't complaining about having had to mark many pieces of work (much of which had already been looked at online). My point was that, having done so, it then learned that apparently many teachers have been told that they are not to mark at all! My point, therefore, was that there should be some consistency.
Ditto all those schools who have said masks are not allowed and those that are refusing temperature checks. Or vice versa.
We need some clarity. And parity.

And it will be fun seeing how "just get another job then" works out for all those children who will be left without teachers. Have you forgotten about the recruitment crisis in teaching that is already pretty bad. Add in worsening conditions and it's going to be carnage.

I believe hand gel is considered inferior to a proper hand wash, as it goes.

I offered about 10 Suggestions , one of which was keep distance!!

It will be interesting to see how many teachers put in resignations by the October deadline. It is already a pain recruiting for shortage subjects

The DfE’s own forecasts suggest a nearly 15% rise in the secondary school population by 2027, adding around 400,000 pupils in state secondary schools in England. However, for the past seven years, The government has failed to reach its recruitment targets for secondary school teacher trainees. Now we might reach the target this year and next year as graduates have fewer options but we have a lot of under recruitment to make up for.

in the meantime, class sizes will grow and any differentiation will have to be thrown out of the window.

I offered about 10 Suggestions , one of which was keep distance!!

I agreed with some of your suggestions, particularly the ones about having hand washing stations and closing bubbles after one positive test.

They aren’t in the government guidelines though, so won’t be what will be used in schools.

Teachers just want sensible plans like that in place and it’s currently the care that aren’t.

I think what I would like, above all, is a simple acknowledgement from the 'Powers that Be' that teachers are going to be working in workplaces that cannot be made 'Covid safe' if we also want to achieve (a full return to school for all children).

I would then like to see a significant budget allocation to each school to be spent on mitigation measures, tailored for each specific school - in some it might be cleaning, in others extra buses, in others temporary toilet blocks or sinks in playgrounds, in others purchase of perspex screens to put around teachers' desks - according to a standard risk assessment for all schools.

(So e.g. in schools where 2m around a teacher's desk cannot be achieved in all or some classrooms, then the cost of perspex screens, or visors, or both, is covered)

However, just the acknowledgement alone would be enough, tbh.

It would be lovely if the government could cover the cost of the autumn term return which according to a TES article seems to be around £10k. So if £10k is being spent on sanitisation stations etc it means that it is not being spent on pupils dedication, for example, a class set of textbooks costs in the region of £600.

@OverTheRainbow88

Right I’m giving up on this thread!! Too tiring!

That'll be the exclamation marks. You've worn yourself out.

Nope! Listening to all the negativity

Will you come to hospital with me to cure me with your positivity if I end up on a ventilator?

Hopefully a doctor would be less argumentative about all the details and will be in work doing their job

As I said on the simultaneously-running thread about whether or not teachers are happy to be going back to school fully in September (ignoring the fact that all primary school teachers except the shielding have been in school since June 1st):

I am thrilled to be going back.

I worried that the guidelines mean that I - and more importantly, many vulnerable people in the community - will be much less safe.

I am pleased that returning will make some vulnerable children safer.

I am worried that the money that will have to be spent on COVID safety measures will mean children's education will be harmed.

I am delighted that most children, most of the time, will be able to return to school.

I am worried that the way this is being done makes it more likely that sudden year group and school closures will persist well into next year

I don't think that relentless blind positivity is a sensible way through this crisis. Balancing the good of pupils with the good of staff and the wider community is vital.

Still reading through comments and I'm becoming more discouraged going back in September. It's clear that 2m rule cannot work but teachers in Wales have 0 social distancing from September.

I'm terrified

Overthe Rainbow,

i have been working, doing my job, continuously since the start of lockdown.

I have been in school full time since June 1st, as has every one of my colleagues except those shielding.

Could you clarify what you mean by 'in work doing their job', in light of the fact that that is exactly what primary teachers have been doing since half term? We have just been doing it under conditions that are rather safer than those planned for September....

Even in primary schools the bubbles will have specialist teachers working with all of them. At my DD's school that is games, pe or swimming, French and music so 4 sessions per week. If those sessions don't run - what happens to those teachers?

@OverTheRainbow88

Hopefully a doctor would be less argumentative about all the details and will be in work doing their job

A doctor who wasn’t very picky about the details if their work environment wouldn’t be fit to work.

I guess older children have more of a social awareness, so may be easier during break time etc

I was really optimistic that this would be the case too when I was covering secondary age key worker/vulnerable kids during “closure”, but when we let a group play socially distanced football with strict instructions not to tackle, within minutes, one tackled another and they rolled around tangled up in each other. Another teacher caught two in the toilets taking turns to drink out of the same coke bottle, kids constantly leaning over my desk or appearing at my shoulder.. Amd this is with us yelling “2 meters apart!!” every 5 minutes.

They’re all lovely kids, but they do not get how much I worry about them, and myself.

I think the problem is, Rainbow that you haven’t read the guidelines and your ‘suggestions’ aren’t helpful because they aren’t in the guidelines. Suggesting stuff that either isn’t allowed, possible or won’t happen because it costs money isn’t tackling negativity, it’s just annoying the people who are better informed on the matter than you.

OverTheRainbow88
Right I’m giving up on this thread!! Too tiring!

I thought you were going? Please go!

They are GUIDELINES not the written law! And yes I am informed of them, but equally aware they are likely to change, as have most the other guidelines, like no face masks on must to you must wear a face covering on a bus, by September so I am not taking them as gospel.

If I want to stand by my door and squirt some alcohol jel in the kids hands as they walk in , I will do that

If I want to wear a face visor, I will do that.

it's going to be compulsory in shops
Wishful 'thinking' (for those who are hard of thinking) this has not been announced - however desperate you are to force another pointless superstition on the populace.

Even in primary schools the bubbles will have specialist teachers working with all of them. At my DD's school that is games, pe or swimming, French and music so 4 sessions per week. If those sessions don't run - what happens to those teachers?

Goodness, I haven’t worked in a school where we could afford specialists for years.

All primary teachers teach all subjects here and all PPA is covered by one of two TAs.

A huge part of the problem is the government don't seem to have understood the differences between primary and secondary. If there wasthe funding to go with the guidelines (as if!) for cleaning and extra staff, I'm fairly confident primaries could be made relatively safe with bubbles, extra cleaning etc, although i do think vulnerable staff should be allowed to wear visors.

Secondary is a completely different situation and needs completely different guidelines not just "welllll bubble in 300s and wash your hands when you can".

If I want to stand by my door and squirt some alcohol jel in the kids hands as they walk in , I will do that

You’ll be pleased to know that’s in the guidelines. Do try reading them.