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?

In a school of 600, for example, even relocating 4 classes - 120 students - into an annexe (for example with large office rooms, so each teacher could still teach 30, but spaced out more) would then make the school less crowded for those students left. It might not be perfect, but it might make the difference between the school remaining open or not.

What schools do you think have a spare annex with large office rooms? If we use every single square inch on our premises, we can get almost one third of our students in. We would need an extra 40 teachers, as well, though

Thanks noble

Are these the same teachers that during the last few months have been on holidays , eating out , down the pub , going round to different friends houses , working as tutors ????

@noblegiraffe - There's another thread on the go just now about troll spotting. I'm useless I have no idea who you are calling a troll.

@wellhellohi

Copied from a colleague: From us working in the NHS...... thinking about my friends, who are teachers, about to return to work this week coming.

Dear Teachers, ❤️

We were terrified.
We were not ready.
We didn’t know what was to come.
We did not want to change our ways.
We couldn’t imagine what each day would look like.
We were stressed, exhausted, overwhelmed, and anxious.

But fast forward 5 months.

We are ok.
We have adapted.
We are stronger.
We are essential.
We feel our worth.
We make a difference and others know it.
We are proud to go to work.

I know many of you return to work in the coming weeks and it is scary, but I promise it will be okay. Be flexible, be strong, be creative, and be proud! You are so needed and remember that now more than ever these kids need your 💙 and support.

Just thought you could use a little encouragement from some people who have felt what you feel.

Love,
Your NHS friends
❤️💚💜💙💜

And did all those nhs friends get given ppe?

Because if they did they have no idea how teachers - who aren't allowed to wear it - feel.

Teachers: We would really like to be able to have some faith in the safety measures that the govt has put in place for schools for when we go back, here are the reasons why they could be better
@TurnUpTheHeat, somehow: Why don’t teachers want to do their jobs???

Like... is there a reason you feel that teachers are unreasonable for asking for some of the same protection pretty much all other public facing jobs have? What is that reason? Or do you just dislike teachers

ONS link:

An estimated 28,300 people (95% credible interval: 18,900 to 40,800) within the community population in England had the coronavirus (COVID-19) during the most recent week, from 27 July to 2 August 2020, equating to around 1 in 1,900 individuals.

From:
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/england7august2020

@Charliescar

Nobody thought they would be working in a pandemic !!!! People have to go to work , why should teachers be any different ? Supermarket workers have hundreds of people entering their stores , touching things with no PPE , just to mention one job .

Children have to go to school .

Why do we have to wear masks in supermarkets then, but not schools? No teacher wants to not work.

I'm starting to see panic amongst the trolling now - what if one day there's no teachers and a big queue for school!

I'm a teacher. I came down with it in March. 5 months on and I'm just starting to feel on the road to recovery. I am not a 'high risk'. It's not good, but you're not alone feeling scared.

Because we cannot carry on in total lockdown. It’s unfair on our children in so many ways . My 12 year old needs school .

@Charliescar literally none of those things are done with such pathetic safety measures that schools reopening will be, and also, none of them involve even marginally the same level of risk. Especially when you look at secondary schools, where teachers will be exposed to hundreds of kids.
Come on.

I’ve done most of those things and have also worked teaching a bubble over lockdown, and will be going back in September feeling (fairly) ok about the whole thing. But surely you can see that a teacher working as a tutor for one child is different to teaching like, 100 kids a day?!

No one is refusing to work. We would just like to have something more than “hygiene and distancing” to protect us when the actual government guidance says you don’t have to social distance in schools.

Are these the same teachers that during the last few months have been on holidays , eating out , down the pub , going round to different friends houses , working as tutors ????

I’ve not done any of those things.
You say the last few months. Schools have been open the entire time. The summer holidays only started a week or 2 ago. And pubs and things have only recently re-opened. So I’m not sure where you got ‘the last few months’ from.

@Charliescar

Because we cannot carry on in total lockdown. It’s unfair on our children in so many ways . My 12 year old needs school .

But why do you not want schools arranged in a way that means they can stay open then? Won't your 12yo be affected when they shut?

Your position makes no sense.

@Charliescar

Because we cannot carry on in total lockdown. It’s unfair on our children in so many ways . My 12 year old needs school .

No teachers are suggesting total lockdown.

We want to do our jobs, in the type of working conditions allowed to everyone else. that is all.

currently, your 12 year olf may get school for a few days or weeks at the start of september - and then, because Cobvid will circulate in and through schools, they will be off again.

That NHS letter thing is patronising.

We've been at work. Looking after NHS staff children.

This from the European Centre for Transmission and Disease Control

@Charliescar

Because we cannot carry on in total lockdown. It’s unfair on our children in so many ways . My 12 year old needs school .

Show me the teacher who is asking for us to stay in total lockdown?

Actually, just show me the teacher on this thread who wants schools to stay shut...

...

No I didn't think you could, because that's not what teachers are asking for.

If anyone screaming about how awful teachers are can give me a good answer as to why they think we deserve less protection than everyone else in public facing roles, and also that we aren’t allowed to dare say anything about it, I’ll be surprised.

@Parky04

Then resign and do something else that you deem to be safe. You don't have to work as a teacher.

Let's hope that when this happens at half term and children's education suffers that not one single parent complains that their child is getting a poor standard of education.

Let's hope if schools start shutting due to outbreaks not one person blames teachers due to lack of SD and PPe.

Let's hope not one of the children in those naysayers in this thread has a child who brings Covid home and kills a loved one.

I would love nothing better than schools to open problem free.
But I'm still scared on behalf of teachers because I've read the guidance and it's all about how they aren't getting protection and aren't allowed ppe and won't be getting any funding.

Oh and the most recent. How they may be held liable for a Covid death in school under HSE.

So many people on here who can’t or won’t read the information out there, or just love to have a go at teachers.
My GPs have been totally closed for face to face consultations since before lockdown, they are refusing to do essential screening work, they are still being paid in full, my NHS dentist did no work from mid March until mid July, again being paid in full by the government. He then charged me double the NHS fee for an appointment, despite his salary still being made up to full. You see no, or virtually no vitriol against these professionals on mumsnet but time after time teachers get kicked around.
It is not that teachers don’t want to go back to school, I am desperate to go back but we deserve the same level of protection as every other member of society.
If I go into a supermarket I must wear a mask, observe social distancing, the checkout operative is behind a perspex screen and I am only in their presence for 5 minutes or so.
We are forbidden from wearing masks, I will teach 375 different kids each week, many of them will have siblings at other schools. They will wear masks on the buses but not on the corridors and some poster thinks it is abusive to expect them to do so 😳 I will spend an hour at a time with 28-32 in my classroom, with no possibility of social distancing.
According to the government not only must I teach those face to face, but any asked to self isolate I must also teach remotely. Since last term remote teaching occupied about 50 hours of my week alone I am looking at 100h plus/ week minimum.
I am on an excellent international education network and the vast majority of schools across the world are either doing fully remote or blended learning at least until Christmas. Blended learning eg week in, week out halve the class sizes would at least give schools a sporting chance of remaining open all term.

Extraordinary. All the secondary schools I looked at when mine were due for secondary transfer had five or six rows of desks and at the front, behind a desk sat the teacher.

If it's customary for secondary school children to spit at teachers they need to be expelled. Unfortunately many teachers don't agree. Just as dd's head teacher didn't think half a dozen girls who swore at teachers, threatened other pupils, beat one up, etc, shouldn't be expelled. If the leadership in schools supports unacceptable standards of behaviour, then teachers and heads can't really and truly complain about it. Covid or no Covid.

@Charliescar

Are these the same teachers that during the last few months have been on holidays , eating out , down the pub , going round to different friends houses , working as tutors ????

Charlie,

You mean the ones who isolated except for going to work (in school) from 1st June?

The ones who then went into quarantine for 2 weeks to ensure that they hadn't caught anything from school, so they could visit elderly parents, once?

The ones who have 2 weeks of cautious normal life - a little shopping in masks, seeing 1 or 2 others at 2m+ outdoors before going back into quarantine so as not to carry the virus back into school?

Or do we not count?

@mosquitofeast
"What schools do you think have a spare annex with large office rooms? If we use every single square inch on our premises, we can get almost one third of our students in. We would need an extra 40 teachers, as well, though"

It was a follow-up post from one where I was suggesting that small-scale, local schemes could have taken place, so that government could have funded the use of church halls, large empty offices, etc. to allow them to be turned into temporary annexes. Of course it would take funding for all of the health and safety and cleaning aspects, but it could have given more space for classrooms, avoiding taking on extra staff and allowing more distancing and use of otherwise empty properties. It would be entirely dependent on the availability of places from area to area, and how local schools could divide and use it.

Our schools use a few local church halls for large assemblies, drama productions, events etc. now. So it occurred to me that, with a lot of organisation and planning, at least some classes/year groups could be taught off-site in such large, airy buildings on weekdays.

@Charliescar

Because we cannot carry on in total lockdown. It’s unfair on our children in so many ways . My 12 year old needs school .

All kids need school.

Which is exactly why teachers want them open safely. So they remain open.

Not this chucking everyone in together with no hygiene measures funded and no ppe.
Because that is likely to have the exact opposite effect that anyone - teachers parents and students want.

So the NHS is all good now, then?

We are ok.

• Although many clinics and routine surgeries have yet to restart

We have adapted.

• And see many fewer patients

We are stronger.

• Apart from those who got sick or worse

We are essential.

• Especially dentistry - essential services only

We feel our worth.

• So do all sectors

We make a difference and others know it.

• but there's no more money I'm afraid

We are proud to go to work.

• So are all key workers.

I get the poem came from a place of concern but to me it just highlights that the playing field is far from level and yes, it's patronising.