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?

[quote NeurotrashWarrior]This research outlines different risks with different ages of pupils:

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.06.20169797v1[/quote]
Well, that study isn't very reassuring is it and seems to differentiate between children under 10 and then older children and adults are grouped together.

There is a much lower incidence rate in Scotland, though helpful so I am not convinced but am watching the space, anyway. A very sparsely populated area of Germany closed down - much to their won surprise!- 2 schools on the first day back.

own

Anyone remember the NHS training day the other month. Didn't that close an entire department down?

It has been a few years I admit, I'm sure the first Inset back is one where we are all squished up together in a hot room as it's child protection or something? One of those that need someone trained to do it. Cannot be delayed as it's a yearly requirement.

Even if it's not, how many schools can only do these in the hall together because it's the only place with the overhead projector?

As for the antibody tests, I know people who were admitted with confirmed CV, yet recently the anti-body tests showed negative. Wonder if this has something to do with research that shows some people are only protected for a short amount of time?

It’s more to do with the maturity of the immune system that it is do so with size - a 5ft and a 6ft 16 year old will have similar immune responses despite their physical differences.

The American kids camp and folks back home tested negative, or did I dream that?

I think the other thing that worries me is that PHE won't be very proactive with bubble or schools closures. they seem decisive in other countries and - rightly or wrongly - close down things very quickly. It feels to me like they will be lurching form one outbreak to another in schools trying to keep a lid on things and trying to trace contacts (very very hard in large schools ) and doing almost anything to keep going. With higher community transmission is some areas, that could be quite disastrous.

I am thinning of how anyone would even begin to track the contact of one year 10 child in my class moving from class to class, with different students in each, a different teacher in each, perhaps some TAs, the friends they sit with at lunch and break, the students on their bus or journey home. the pals in their after school activities etc etc. That is an enormous task.

I mentioned a Canadian summer camp upthread, not the American one.

OP I share your concerns. I love teaching (secondary) but we have been very careful about going anywhere for 5 months as DH was classed as very vulnerable.

I have read the thread. I just wondered what would happen if teachers took their own risk assessments and donned gloves, masks and visors? I don’t think many Heads would have the appetite to dole out written warnings to staff who might otherwise just walk out...

OP, I have been reassured by several calm posts on here by others. I hope all goes well and that returning to the classroom is less awful than you fear.

(To be honest, I think Bojo is making things up as he goes along and schools will be subject to closures very swiftly.)

I am a teacher and I am not scared to go back but I am worried because mentally I’m exhausted.

The stress of the extra workload, of rules changing all the time, dealing with the extra anxiety and worry from pupils parents and other staff, wondering how I’m going to bridge the gap in learning, wondering how I can successfully teach by just standing at the front the entire time, worrying about how my lowest ability pupils are going to cope without a TA when they can barely read. As well as the worry of being a single parent and dealing with everything else the pandemic throws our way.

staff.
because ggleeighle
But your job is extremely important and like health workers, you will be exposed to a small risk more than others.

I don’t know if any other group who have been told they can’t wear face coverings.

I sympathise OP. I’m a primary teacher and I’m worried too. Our so called bubbles aren’t small (not as bad as in secondary schools) but we do have children with brothers and sisters in secondary school and that opens up a whole new risk factor.

I work in a school and totally understand being nervous. It doesn't mean I don't feel the same empathy for all keyworkers. Doesn't mean I don't admire wholeheartedly the NHS staff who have worked all the way through. It's not who risks the most!!

I have been in school every day. I don't think it's Covid safe, I have children, we have ALL children included had Covid in my family.

Also to a PP who said teachers haven’t died of COVID, of course they have but you can’t pinpoint where and when they caught it.

@Barbie222

The misinformation referred to above is now out of date and yes, it is a particularly weasel worded article. I don't think any bus drivers or care workers have been "proven" to catch the virus at work either. Employers and the government will obviously not be interested in researching how we can prove a virus was contracted at work rather than elsewhere!

The article is a new one this morning which refers to a PHE study which will be published next week. Is this still out of date?

@SummerPeony

People “like” me? I’m a nurse!!! How many teachers have died through covid? How many caught it at work? Evidence please!

Teachers have caught it and school staff have died.

It was in March and April when mass testing wasn't available.

So they can't say it wasn't caught at school or from a pupil anymore than they can say they did.

I don’t think many Heads would have the appetite to dole out written warnings to staff who might otherwise just walk out...

Nice reasonable heads may not. I have worked for people though who would make your life hell for shows of ‘disobedience’ like this. Otherwise good teachers who had come up against them for something would find themselves with sudden unsatisfactory lesson observations, book scrutinies or extra monitoring due to anonymous complaints. I think there will be people scared to put their head above the parapet for this if nobody else is. Those heads may well see it as a good reason to get rid of ‘flaky vulnerable types’ (I can almost hear my old head saying such things! )

I'd noticed.
I just find it incredulous that people are still saying oh lets wait and see what happens in such and such place.

But we've already seen what happens. Schools were closing due to shortages before they were told to close.

Yes they were still open to key workers and vulnerable. Many didn't even have 30 from the whole school. When the primaries started going back, news showed them mainly outside and even then groups of 15 I believe?

Some were closed.

Israel, France, Germany, Australia, Spain and more have tried to reopen and had to close the year/class/school. Many of these countries have smaller class sizes to begin with, Germany certainly does, never mind they could SD. and wore masks.

If everything is going to be ok, lets get together and book out an entire cinema screen suitable for kids. Get some staff who are crb'd in for the ratio, no masks etc. Not sure if my own will want to come, but I will volunteer 2 hours to supervise. Make it fun, hire out a couple of screens, and volunteers can rotate between rooms and we will make it a double-feature!!

@monkeytennis97

I am too. I'm closer to 50 than 40 and am obese (BMI 32) although was morbidly obese in March (BMI 42). Really, really scared. DH also a secondary teacher and scared too. I haven't been in a shop or anywhere with lots of people. Honestly don't know if I'm going to cope.

Congratulations on that weight loss

OP regardless of how many teachers have/have not died, how many nurses have/have not died, shop workers etc... (I think you get my drift!) you are absolutely not unreasonable to be afraid and actually I do disagree with the schools going back regardless of economy. I've tried often enough to explain that economies recover, the dead do not and am past caring whether it's popular opinion or not! Either way, thank you for everything you and all the other teachers are doing, you certainly don't get the appreciation you deserve 🤗 (socially distanced of course!)

@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?

I’m really hoping that the unions step in if the government doesn’t start coming up with safer proposals. If the unions don’t then I can see a lot teachers going off with stress.

What they are asking is not reasonable. We can’t expect teachers to operate as they’re proposing.

I really feel for you. I think schools need to continue to work with key workers’ children and look to build up the numbers based on need.

Listening to some posters on here it’s obvious there are lots of people that need and want the return, and yet they’ve given schools no time to find and liaise with their communities. No time to plan or resource anything. Which is curious as all these things would cost 💰.

It feels like Boris is a gambling man. It’s unethical.

I think we need to reduce the stakes as much as we can collectively if he’s not prepared to. These are people’s lives. And even if you’re ok with that, it’s not sustainable.

Local lockdowns are surely not something to be planning for - where’s the slow, measured, intelligent approach? And why is he talking about shutting pubs? Why isn’t he doing it seeing as Chris Whitty said we are at the limits of what we can do.

The plans are just blunt, ill thought out bravado, lacking one care, compassion and common sense. Oh and guess what, they’re free.

@CindersCatsSister

You said - "children don’t not replicate the virus the same way that adults do. Hence they are poor transmitters of disease. "

Does this account for the South Korean research? Or was their findings (that children over 10 do pass on the virus as easily as adults) false in some way? If so, what are the problems with this study?

I have a teenage daughter with underlying health condition and have to decide whether to send her back to school in Sept.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.amp.html

@bigglewiggle

How do you think the risk compares to supermarket workers? In the height of things masks weren't mandatory or even common. They had far more traffic coming through, with less control. Surely they were the experiment people keep referring to?

I agree with PP though that it's not a race to the bottom. You do invaluable work and it's horrible to think how scared people are.

All I can say is that when I went back out into work and doing things more, it felt normal pretty quickly.

Supermarkets were limiting customers. They were aisles crammed full of people like school corridors. They had protective screens fitted.

I agree that supermarket staff had risk and I thanked all supermarket staff for what they were doing at the time and asked them if they felt safe etc.

But just because one area had risk doesn't mean it's ok to accept others do.

Totally agree with you OP. I frequently work one to one with my students and apparently no-one is allowed to wear PPE and social distancing is impossible. I think most other indoor settings you're supposed to social distance and wear masks. But not in schools.

I totally appreciate the importance of my kids education - have two in secondary, one starting yr11.

The government and civil service have had months to come up with a plan for schools but nothing has appeared where I am. I have ptsd which also means my immune system is not great. I also know a couple of people suffering with 'long covid' and it's seriously unfunny.

I will be wearing a mask regardless, and I guess paying for my own hand sanitiser. And not visiting my sheilding parents any more. Still very worried.

And this is the original study:

wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-1315_article

As a teacher, you may be in a room with lots of students, and so you may have a slightly increased risk of getting the virus. However you don’t have much extra risk of viral overload. You won’t be getting up close to students for longer than 15 minutes at a time. You can wear a face mask and stand at a distance from the children for most of the class. You can open up the windows. Children with symptoms will have to isolate, lowering the risk of the virus coming into the classroom in any event. The ones that do accidentally bring it in will not be showing symptoms and therefore will not be coughing and shedding the virus everywhere in great quantities. If you are reasonably healthy and don’t get viral overload, the actual risk of death is less than 1%.

By comparison, nurses, doctors and care workers working directly with people who are sick with covid and are therefore shedding vast quantities of the virus have a much higher risk of viral overload. Even with PPE the risk to them is far greater. And you don’t see them complaining.