I'm a teacher and I'm scared.

[NebularNerd]

I don't feel safe going back to work in September. When I became a teacher I did not anticipate doing so during a pandemic. I, like many others in secondary schools, will be facing up to 150 students a day, indoors, with no protection.
I am over 40 but not otherwise in a high risk category, although my husband is and we have elderly parents who will be exposed if I'm infected, as well as young children who will also be in school and potentially exposed.
I'm not disputing the need for children to return to school at all. I'm just starting to fear returning.
Anyone else feel this way?

Can’t believe there is a petition to make teenagers wear masks. It’s horrendously abusive

It’s really not.

I'm getting increasingly nervous now. I've not been in since March as I was in the clinically vulnerable group. The timetable I've been given for September has me teaching in a very small room with no chance of social distancing from 30 plus year 11s.

I'm worried about bringing the virus home to elderly relatives who rely on us. I can't imagine any other profession being expected to sit in a poorly ventilated room with 30 people, shoulder to shoulder, who change every hour. Masks for the kids and a visor for me (mask when I'm not speaking) would make it tolerable and comparable to other professions operating in similar circumstances. Preferably I'd like to see blended learning for secondary with half in half out and a national online offering to fill the gaps when the kids can't be in school. Primary is more problematic as childcare is a bigger issue. The government have stuck their heads in the sand though and outright lied (whatever happened to the summer schools?).

I've considered resigning and homeschooling my own kids but we'd struggle financially. I honestly don't know what we're going to do. I keep telling myself I just have to keep myself safe until the government realise what a disaster this is going to be and make the necessary changes.

@Michaelschofield

Can’t believe there is a petition to make teenagers wear masks. It’s horrendously abusive.

And posters accuse teachers of being hysterical...

Michael you come across like a conspiracy theorist

Once again teenagers do not need to wear masks

I really really hope you are right. But I have a feeling that unless the government requires mask wearing huge numbers of schools will be shut by November.
Honestly nothing would please me more than to be wrong about that.

Is it 'abusive' and unnecessary for over 11s to wear masks on public transport, in shops and museums and other indoor spaces too, which is current policy...? I haven't seen a national outcry about this

Can’t believe there is a petition to make teenagers wear masks. It’s horrendously abusive.

Abusive. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Mine wore them today in a shop, it's not abusive, it's a mask.

I’m a secondary teacher and scared too.

I posted something similar along this line back in March ...

Yes I’m your child’s teacher but I’m more than that. I’m a wife, a mother of two, a daughter, a sister, a friend ... I’m a person and I deserve the same protection as everyone else I meet on a daily basis.

(And on a side note I must be an abusive parent as today I took my children to a farm and for them to see the animals in the barn they wore masks. Send social services immediately)

@labyrinthloafer

Mine wore them today in a shop, it's not abusive, it's a mask.

I suspect they actually wanted to wear them as well, and you didn't need to force the issue?

A lot of the teenagers I know want to wear them, even in school. As they're aware that a school building with lots of people close to one another is just as risky, if not more so, than a trip to the local Tescos.

It's very different wearing a mask on a bus for 20 minutes or in a shop for 10. School lasts six hours. I think in Germany some states are requiring them all day (morning) but others are not requiring them in lessons, just in the corridors etc.

As for teachers not wearing a visor, just wear one if you want to. Is a head teacher really going to tell you you can't? And if they do is a teaching union going to stand for it? Come on, they don't even think their members should have done any work for the last six months (and before I get jumped on they said no online lessons, no face to face and no marking of work so not sure what they did think was acceptable work) , they definitely won't stand for a teacher being told they can't protect themselves. If you are not a member of a union, I'd join before the beginning of term.

My older one is pretty pissed off there'll be no distancing in school.after all the efforts of lockdown. They'd happily wear a mask.

Yes it’s abusive and unnecessary to make your child wear a mask. Poor kids, what kind of childhood is that.

Why do they?

@Michaelschofield

Yes it’s abusive and unnecessary to make your child wear a mask. Poor kids, what kind of childhood is that.

It's mandatory for those over age 11. If you think it's abusive then take it up with the government.

Because the alternative is virtual school?

"Without better safety measures schools will be closed within weeks. I don’t understand why parents aren’t screaming out for schools to open in a way that will mean they stay open!"

Some of us are! (See other threads on 'are you sending your child to school immediately' etc).
I get the impression that for some people it just hasn't dawned yet quite how things will work. And for many others, they simply do not have any choice in getting back to work, so they're kind of blocking out any uncertainties about the safety, because there's nothing they can do about it, so it's not something you want to think about.

I'm truly sorry OP for the situation as it stands at the moment. I am worried enough about my own (secondary) kids, and also the staff - but can only imagine how scary it must be as a staff member having what basically amounts to a potentially unsafe working environment with nowhere near enough support. Hopefully you will be fine and not catch anything, but you should have more reassurance than just hope.

I don't know what to suggest, apart from encouraging everyone who's concerned to write to their MPs. There doesn't seem to be an easy solution to this because of logistics and because there's not been enough creative thinking in how to use other buildings, for example, to reduce the risk, but I do hope that as the time comes closer, more parents will stand with teachers in calling for better safety.

I really want my kids to get back to some kind of normality (like everyone does), but it's just not going to happen by pretending there's no risk. We wouldn't send office employees back into a hugely crowded office of 30+, sitting all day with bubbles of 120-300 with only a few toilets. I don't see why this is so different for schools.

A lot of the teenagers I know want to wear them, even in school. As they're aware that a school building with lots of people close to one another is just as risky, if not more so, than a trip to the local Tescos.

Same here. The kids are not the issue, at least not the ones I know. They are all wearing them, would be fine with wearing them at school and all managing not to feel abused.

@cologne4711 my head teacher has said that no teachers or pupils are allowed to wear masks or visors as the government guidance says they are not required. We have no choice even if we fund and source it ourselves.

On the basis that teachers feel it's unsafe to teach may I respectfully ask if the same teachers think;

Nurses shouldn't nurse?
Supermarkets shouldn't be open?
Buses and trains should cease?
Courts should stop and criminals run riot?
Prisons should be opened so staff no longer have to work there?

Who is going to pay for it all, and who precisely do you think will pay your wages? If teachers, like anyone else who choses not to work and fulfil the terms of their contracts, they should not be paid. If the country goes bankrupt, how will benefits be paid?

I'll bet my last pound the independent schools will open. Actually perhaps they should and if all is well that will stuff the union negotiators once and for all!

More people will die from heart disease this year than Coronavirus. We all die of something but we all need to live as well. The world will go on, not for all, but we need to keep going and show the children that we are not afraid. Their mental health and physical health is as important than the risk of coronavirus.

@TurnUpTheHeat

On the basis that teachers feel it's unsafe to teach may I respectfully ask if the same teachers think;

Nurses shouldn't nurse?
Supermarkets shouldn't be open?
Buses and trains should cease?
Courts should stop and criminals run riot?
Prisons should be opened so staff no longer have to work there?

Who is going to pay for it all, and who precisely do you think will pay your wages? If teachers, like anyone else who choses not to work and fulfil the terms of their contracts, they should not be paid. If the country goes bankrupt, how will benefits be paid?

I'll bet my last pound the independent schools will open. Actually perhaps they should and if all is well that will stuff the union negotiators once and for all!

FFS not this AGAIN. Teachers are asking for the SAME mitigations as shop workers etc. Reduced numbers Ventilation Masks Social distancing.

Don't make out that we are asking not to work. In fact blended learning will give us EXTRA work.

“It's mandatory for those over age 11. If you think it's abusive then take it up with the government.”

I don’t care if secondary pupils wear masks or not, I don’t have skin in that game, but come on. There’s a difference between mandating masks for short optional activities like museums or looking at animals in a barn and mandating masks for 6-8 hours a day, every day, in a compulsory activity like school. The latter might be necessary, but it’s not equivalent.

Turnuptheheat- I think the issue mainly lies in the lack of PPE and unsafe working conditions compared to other professions such as the ones you have mentioned. If teachers were afforded the same level of protection as others working in courts or hospitals, there would not be an issue

Students in other countries are managing fine with masks right down to the age of 3.
Why are our kids such snowflakes that a simple piece of cloth makes them fall apart. When it might help keep their teachers friends and families from becoming ill?