Going back to school-from a teacher who has Covid

[minxthemanx]

I worked flat out for 17 weeks, through Easter holidays etc, running key worker/vulnerable group at our primary. The kids had an absolute blast- we were outdoors pretty much all day every day, and scrupulous about hand washing & hygiene. First week of the summer break I had what I thought was sinusitis: the pain in my face and head was excruciating and several times I nearly called an ambulance. My own teenage DS were worried about me. Eventually it cleared up with a week of anti biotics, but my stuffed up nose and lack of smell continued so I went for a test, and am positive for Covid. No normal symptoms, had no idea. My younger DS has also tested positive and we are isolating.
By the time we finish isolating I'll have one week, then be back in school. This time not outdoors all day but squashed in a room with 30 year 6 kids, v little space between us. I haven't admitted this to anyone, but I'm shit scared. If I managed to contract Covid in a mostly outdoor small group setting, how much more prevalent will it be in September?
I'm lucky. I'm otherwise very fit and healthy. Yet that week of illness was like nothing I've experienced before, and I suffer from sinus problems every summer. I really don't want to go through it again.
I don't know what the answer is. We need to get our children back, I want to be back teaching, but I am now very very wary.
Just thought it might be interesting to hear my perspective; this virus is horrid.

@latticechaos

But the strict social distancing that is seeming to be demanded in schools isn't happening in most places I have been too - maybe some shops. But certainly not on beaches, in holiday towns etc

I can avoid those places if they seem unsafe. At work there are rights of places seem unsafe. But kids have no rights to leave school.

It's unfair that young people won't be able to distance.

Exactly. You can avoid places where SD isn’t happening. Children and staff can’t avoid schools. Why shouldn’t they have the same safety measures as other places.

Education is important but it’s not more important than health. Missed education can be caught up on, health on the other hand is a different matter.

Schools are not responsible for holiday provision .

But the risk to young people is minimal! Those that need to shield should, but teachers will have been flocking to these places on holiday - it's not just the students returning who will have been away!

"You're sure?"
How about some evidence?

I think this was about whether millions of primary school children had had little help from their schools educationally during lockdown.

The answer is yes, pretty sure.

Normally you can go via your friends and relatives who, in this case, were all talking about the schools in their areas. There was one really good catholic primary and some schools did call once to check how the children were. But the majority provided almost nothing (just printed sheets you could pick from the school gates once a week) or if you were lucky something you could print out from their website until July or just before. No interaction with the teachers at all. In fact I could see the teachers from our school in the park or setting off on their bicycles on a sunny day so I know what they were doing.

But in my case my brother happens to be the director of public health for a different area of the country and he confirmed that what I had heard was true pretty much universally. There are exceptional schools and exceptional teachers but mostly, the children were getting nearly nothing.

Figure 1 from rs-delve.github.io/reports/2020/07/24/balancing-the-risk-of-pupils-returning-to-schools.html is pretty much all we know about the risks of opening schools.

Agree with @notevenat20 this is from friends in schools across my area and other friends with same age kids across the country.

"But in my case my brother happens to be the director of public health for a different area of the country and he confirmed that what I had heard was true pretty much universally"

What has a brother in public health got to do with schools online provision???

What has a brother in public health got to do with schools online provision???

It turns out, which I didn't know before, that the director of public health spends a lot their time dealing with how schools are dealing with covid. This involves talking to heads about what their schools are doing.

Whizzbang - i'm a teacher and i've been stringent about SD and not been anywhere where I can't, my kids also. This is because I care for my mum who is very vulnerable and lives with me plus I am clinically vulnerable.

Unfortunately, this will mean fuck all in September when i'll be in a small, airless pit of a room with 32 kids in all day in a bubble of over 100. Most of my pupils and their families have not been SD, i've seen them all over FB at themeparks and wherever. Plus my kids will be in secondary bubbles of over 200 and then get on a crammed school bus with all the other kids anyway. So no, i haven't been out "flocking"on the beaches with all the other entirely mythical teachers but i am worried about possibly bringing it back to my mum in September or becoming very ill myself and leaving her and my kids in trouble.

The complete sociopathic inability to empathise with teachers from some people on here is very worrying.

I worked with keyworker children then my year 6 before the holidays - even through the Easter break. I will go back and do my best, despite being vulnerable myself, but dear God - can't teachers at least have the same protection as EVERY OTHER JOB? I am not magically protected by a teacher gene. I'm a 50 year old menopausal woman with asthma and 2 autoimmune diseases who just wants to stand behind a bit of fucking perspex at least and not clean the kids loos after them.

phlebasconsidered - I have fully sympathy for the many teachers who have worked hard, especially over the holidays. You are all severely let down by the many other teachers who have done almost nothing and then complained about any possibility their holiday might be interrupted.

A good example is the teachers at our local school, including the head, who were shielding. Shielding means not going into the office, it doesn't mean not working. But they did absolutely nothing at all the entire period.

@lonelyplanet I only mentioned as some schools apparently were open over Easter/half term ?

So, @Notevenat20, you saw some teachers going on bike rides and your brother works in public health, and you reckon that qualifies you to know how hard the rest of the half million or so teachers in this country were working throughout lockdown.
OK.

@notevenat20

phlebasconsidered - I have fully sympathy for the many teachers who have worked hard, especially over the holidays. You are all severely let down by the many other teachers who have done almost nothing and then complained about any possibility their holiday might be interrupted.

A good example is the teachers at our local school, including the head, who were shielding. Shielding means not going into the office, it doesn't mean not working. But they did absolutely nothing at all the entire period.

It's weird that you were watching these people all day. Why were you not at home as directed by the government?

Anyway, even if the teachers at this school did literally no work since March, this has nothing to do with the feelings of OP or of PP about going back to work and their fears about the spread of the virus.

A good example is the teachers at our local school, including the head, who were shielding. Shielding means not going into the office, it doesn't mean not working. But they did absolutely nothing at all the entire period

I work in education for an LA. I and my colleagues were in constant contact with HT's, even those shielding from March onwards.
HT's also had to carry out work instigated but the DfE, LA Risk Assessments, school improvement work, CPD, work with the LA to develop volunteer systems for KW hubs through the holidays, feedback on vulnerable children, write and send school development plans, continue to plan the curriculum to meet the updates OFSTED requirements, feedback on staff and pupil health and well-being, complete NQT records and read and act on over 1000 DfE Guidance Documents. I attended governors meetings via Skype with HT's during the evening and again via Skype recruitment interviews.

Just some examples of the work going on.Hardly 'nothing at all'.

IndiaPalace You work in education yet you posted an incorrect article and declared that Covid was in schools in Scotland already?😳

In your position, wouldn’t you actually read beyond the headlines?

@Pomegranatepompom
Yes loads of teachers worked during their holiday to ensure that keyworker children were catered for while their parents were working. If you were not a key worker there was quite rightly no provision for your children during the holidays. Teachers were not paid extra to do this, they did it voluntarily.

Nicknacky did you read IndiaPlace's post? The article wasn't incorrect. She didn't say that the school had started back. She was demonstrating that the virus is going to cause chaos in schools.

@lonelyplanet we are both key workers. Provision in schools was inconsistent.

@lonelyplanet

Nicknacky did you read IndiaPlace's post? The article wasn't incorrect. She didn't say that the school had started back. She was demonstrating that the virus is going to cause chaos in schools.

She said And so it starts...Scotland's schools have been back less than a week anyone would assume she was inferring that the outbreak was in a school. Don't be disingenuous.

Anyway, even if the teachers at this school did literally no work since March, this has nothing to do with the feelings of OP or of PP about going back to work and their fears about the spread of the virus.

That is true. Although it was the end of March until the end of June. And now the end of July to the start of September.

lonelyplanet My point was, the article had nothing to do with the school and has not caused any issues in that particular school.

If that was the point she wanted to highlight, them she would have been better using the article about the primary in Aberdeenshire that had been closed after a member of staff has tested positive.

Briefing Room on Radio 4 is covering this topic; long chat with scientist from Sweden talking about their prevalence & problems (not bad sounding at all). No chaos.

I hope it wasn't the Swedish epidemiologist who wanted to keep schools open in an attempt to gain herd immunity!

This bloody obsession with Sweden! Why is this country so convinced that ‘Sweden got it right’??? We are nothing like Sweden. It’s comparing apples and oranges (yes, that old nugget)!!

Let’s ignore everything else we know about Sweden and consider their schools. Nothing like ours. If I stand in my classroom at the front with a measuring tape, 2m means I’ve wiped out the entire first two rows of desks. So right off the bat, approximately ten of those kids shouldn’t be in my classroom. So I’m down to 20 kids right? So where do I and my fellow teachers put those extra ten kids each? The hall? But that would mean 10 x 3 x 7 (reception to year 6) = 210 kids. Ok, so that won’t work.
Do we have extra classrooms? Nope. Maybe we can start a rota where x amount of children will be outside for lessons? PE?
What about dinner time? What about the toilets? Sinks for hand washing? I could go on and on and on.
For me, as a former secondary teacher and now a primary teacher, it’s not Covid I’m pissed off about. It’s the fact that the government has been cramming schools with more and more kids, that they’ve cut funding so much that we share classrooms and desks and resources and iPads and that for a school to function ‘as normal’ with Covid is a thankless task. At my current school, lunch is in two shifts - with Covid lunch will be going on until 3pm??
They’ve had six months - six bloody months - to do something! So don’t talk to me about Sweden with its tiny population, excellent school funding and airy classrooms!

IndiaPlace. I believe some heads have been great. But I also believe a number have been disgracefully bad. Our head, after 3 months of total silence , wrote to all the parents about how she has been in her pyjamas and drinking too much just as she was sure we had all been too. Then she told us that she was still trying to work out how to use Zoom but would crack it soon.