School re-opening under threat

[jomartin281271]

Headline in the London Evening Standard today that this new surge could threaten re-opening of schools. I'm not surprised. The government know that it's not safe to open schools under their current guidance. Cramming children, teachers and admin staff into those tiny spaces could cause a catastrophe. I feel sorry for teachers. Most of them are really committed to the job and their lives are being put at risk. Scary times.
www.standard.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-second-wave-schools-september-a4511516.html

My family comes way before anything to do with my work.

@noblegiraffe

it's the needs of children first and foremost

Oh no, I’m not a martyr for your cause and you don’t get to decide that for me. I’m an employee with rights and my employer has a duty of care towards me.

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Righty ho.

I removed exact borough from chart but I’m in London so not remote.

Why do the majority seem incapable of understanding we’re in unprecedented times? Most posts from parents demanding schools open normally read as though they’ve been shut on a whim. Even if there’s a vaccine tomorrow are people realising the enormity of the economic impact? Keeping up with curriculum really isn’t a priority now. Kids nearing the job market will need life lessons in resilience etc and other skills not necessarily KS4 Geography Curriculum on coastal erosion (no offence to Teachers of Geography). The clever kids and those from supportive families will be ok, it’s the others we need to focus on, but education in its established sense will be pretty useless to them. We need to adapt Education and fast!

Marsha, my local area graph looked relatively similar to that - the initial spike was huge, and truncated on the graph due to lack of testing at that point, and that was when all the school cases I know of occurred. The flatline element was similar until this week. It's now creeping up, just as the national picture is.

Are you unemployed now?
Yep. Safely at home, not catching coronavirus from being exposed to hundreds of pupils without PPE. No job is worth dying for.

it's the needs of children first and foremost
There has to be a balance between providing education and keeping staff safe. I don’t find it acceptable to sacrifice staff safety in order to provide full time face time face education. Yes children are important but their right to be educated doesn’t trump my right to be safe, or my DCs right to have a mum who’s not deceased. I’d have been happy to continue to teach in small SD groups with PPE and regular hand washing, but I’m not happy to just carry on as normal with no changes, which is what was being demanded of me.

I think you will find teachers have a duty of care towards their class

Haha, nice. I'm not responsible for the children in my class when they aren't at school, any more than I'm responsible for any members of the public.

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Didn’t say that at all.

I’m not going to put the needs of your kids over and above mine though.

There’s a lot of grey behind the red that is very high, quite interesting. I’ll go back to it to see if it changes.

Are you in London? Or remote / other city

@noblegiraffe

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Didn’t say that at all.

I’m not going to put the needs of your kids over and above mine though.

Do your kids not need an education then?

You're talking like you absolutely will die

Pineapple did you give notice at Easter? How did you know what was going to happen in September or do you not have to give notice?

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Righty ho.

Yep, that's exactly what she said. Spot on. In fact no teacher gives a stuff about the needs of children. None of us give a shiny shit.

In fact, what an embarrassing thing to have said.

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Trust, that is a deliberate twisting of what noble said.

i care deeply about the children I teach - and I know noble to be a caring and passionate teacher also. However, you don't get to tell me that I must put myself - my husband's wife, my elderly parents' daughter, my own children's mother - at high risk without question just because my job happens to be with other people's children.

My children - and my husband, and my own children - need me to be alive and well. The children I teach need me to be alive and well, and to that extent their needs align. I rely on my employer - my school and the government who employ me - to make sure that my working conditions are such that those needs are met.

Yeah because degree educated mathematicians are bound to dedicate their professional life to education if they don’t give a shit about kids.

Obviously there’s no way someone with a maths degree could get a better paid job than teaching.

You're talking like you absolutely will die

Some teachers have, and more teachers will.

When nurses at the start of the pandemic were concerned about their working conditions, did you think it was unreasonable of them to do so just because it might be their colleagues, and not they themselves, who happened to be the ones who became ill and died?

That’s why we’ve got such a surplus of them. You open a cupboard at our school and a maths teacher falls out. They’re cluttering up the place.

@TheHoneyBadger

That’s why we’ve got such a surplus of them. You open a cupboard at our school and a maths teacher falls out. They’re cluttering up the place.

Oh no, your place too? We've run out of storage space for them, had to put up an extra shed for the rarely used ones who like teaching A-level Stats.....

I now realise why the school seemed so buoyant when I finally entered through the doors (pick up report). Hopefully this will stop all the resignations as pp are discussing here.

@TheHoneyBadger

That’s why we’ve got such a surplus of them. You open a cupboard at our school and a maths teacher falls out. They’re cluttering up the place.

Are you sure it's a cupboard? We keep our spare ones in a storage cube.

@cantkeepawayforever

You're talking like you absolutely will die

Some teachers have, and more teachers will.

When nurses at the start of the pandemic were concerned about their working conditions, did you think it was unreasonable of them to do so just because it might be their colleagues, and not they themselves, who happened to be the ones who became ill and died?

Considering hcps are working with confirmed covid cases id say it was slightly different wouldn't you?

Are you sure it's a cupboard? We keep our spare ones in a storage cube.

Oooh, you have the higher quality folding models, I see...

@cantkeepawayforever

So you don't care about the needs of children?

Trust, that is a deliberate twisting of what noble said.

i care deeply about the children I teach - and I know noble to be a caring and passionate teacher also. However, you don't get to tell me that I must put myself - my husband's wife, my elderly parents' daughter, my own children's mother - at high risk without question just because my job happens to be with other people's children.

My children - and my husband, and my own children - need me to be alive and well. The children I teach need me to be alive and well, and to that extent their needs align. I rely on my employer - my school and the government who employ me - to make sure that my working conditions are such that those needs are met.

Don't everyone's families need them to be alive and well?

If you feel too at risk, quit?

I personally feel you're massively overestimating the chances of your impending death.

@cantkeepawayforever

You're talking like you absolutely will die

Some teachers have, and more teachers will.

When nurses at the start of the pandemic were concerned about their working conditions, did you think it was unreasonable of them to do so just because it might be their colleagues, and not they themselves, who happened to be the ones who became ill and died?

People of all professions will though. I am a teacher but feel like my partner is more at risk than me in a factory with 7000 other people for 10 hours a day. They have had outbreaks despite the compulsary use of n95 masks, social distancing, no aircon and they even have their own booths for lunch! Outbreaks are going to happen. The phe report on occupations said shop workers are most at risk and had the highest deaths yet did we consider their safety when we trotted off to supermarkets maskless right through the peak?

@cantkeepawayforever

Are you sure it's a cupboard? We keep our spare ones in a storage cube.

Oooh, you have the higher quality folding models, I see...

They do cost a bit more but are so useful for teaching fractions.