School return will fail

[covidteacherscotland]

Okay so we have been back to school for a week! Great? No. Definitely not. Some thoughts on why this will be a disaster:

16 and 17 year olds are not children.

Social distancing is impossible. Genuinely impossible. Children will not or cannot stay out your space.

There is no PPE in school at all and staff are not protected in any way.

Children don't give a shit about washing their hands.

We've been doing double periods instead of single to minimise movement. This means that we are stuck in a room with 30 17 year olds with few or no windows as the respiratory droplets add up.

Educating your child is impossible if you can't go near them.

Our time management and pupil progress relies on us being able to give feedback to children formatively as we teach. To mark jotters as we go. We can't do this now.

I think that because infection is so low we'll be okay for a while - a few weeks - then the shit will hit the fan.

covidteacherscotland I have one mask I can use for one use only. Then it gets binned. It’s only for Covid positive incidents, not general use.

Our training was done by our Covid Response team, I don’t know who trains them.

But this level of mask is only required of you are working with covid + patients. The current infection rates are 1 in 2000, your chance of contact is very small. Your chance of having sustained contact with someone with a high viral load is lower that that.

@covidteacherscotland no, but nothing that you are saying is new information. What is embarrassing is the loud and constant whinging from some colleagues who seem to have such a negative attitude towards this term. I resent being tarred with the same brush and having the teaching profession made to look obstructive and workshy.

There has been ongoing discussion about safety at our school and I've raised queries myself where I can foresee issues, but I'd rather be solution focussed than just saying nothing is possible.

@Nicknacky

Hear No, Like I said I have one available for Covid positive incidents.

Other than that it’s just the normal paper masks but I don’t wear them all the time. Only when necessary.

What's a Covid positive incident? Who tells you that it is such?

Although the training was ran though a computer who gave the fail/pass result.

@covidteacherscotland

Complain to Nicki then.
She is the one trying to outdo Al in the fuck-up stakes.

I have managed o go to work all the way through, and accept that although there is a risk, my job still needs to be done. I would really like to think my DC's teachers are able to do the same. The supposed home learning has been woeful. We can't carry on without our DC getting a proper education.

I am surprised that 17 Yr olds usually had singke period lessons?
My dds all had double lessons from gcse onwards
The op sounds as if teaching a group of 17 yrs for a double period is impossible.
Surely, as she later describes them as adults, they are capable of staying in their seats, concentrating and being taught for a double period?
They are not babies after all.

hear It will be treated as Covid positive if the people involved in the incident confirm they have tested positive, or have symptoms.

It just means any incident the police are attending, the call handler will ask the initial question.

emmcan I thought you meant me there😂

Thank you teachers in Scotland. Thank you for putting yourself out there for our kids.

I hear all your concerns and wish I had suggestions to make it better.

I don't see difference between a bunch of adults in a pub in Aberdeen and a bunch of older teenagers in a classroom, I agree that it's risky. I completely under your worries and I think it's atrocious that people are not taking you seriously on this thread.

@Nicknacky

Police Officer. SD is definitely not one of the things my customers do well.

Yeah arresting someone at 2m distance definitely gives a new meaning to "wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!"

I guess though despite those times you wore masks and had gloves?

Police in the uk wore masks and gloves for cat sharing with their partners. Wore them for inside work and had the offices etc made safe with measures.

Those patrolling streets tended not to wear masks but they were outside and no one wore them walking around them.

@Nicknacky

hear It will be treated as Covid positive if the people involved in the incident confirm they have tested positive, or have symptoms.

It just means any incident the police are attending, the call handler will ask the initial question.

So, in schools will teachers and first aid staff have fit tested N95 masks to wear when dealing with children who are showing symptoms at least? The answer is no.

I can't believe how blasé parents are being towards their children's health, even if not for teachers. I wonder how relaxed parents will be if their child catches Covid at school? I hope there will be no complaints.

I also assume there will be no complaints when bubbles or schools go into lockdown as a result of an outbreak in school, caused by a total lack of mitigation, it's what many posters want after all.

I am surprised that 17 Yr olds usually had singke period lessons?
My dds all had double lessons from gcse onwards
The op sounds as if teaching a group of 17 yrs for a double period is impossible.
Surely, as she later describes them as adults, they are capable of staying in their seats, concentrating and being taught for a double period?
They are not babies after all.

Usually double periods or two doubles two singles. Depends on the timetable. Of course they can sit quietly. That was never my issue.
My issues are

1. It's dangerous being in a room with 30 'children' who really are adults for a sustained length of time because of the respiratory droplets and their build up in the atmosphere.
2. If you cannot go near the pupils and you can't walk round and check work and speak to them individually then only the most confident ones will speak out. You will realise which pupils are in the wrong track when you take their work in but research suggests that the time to fix errors and correct learning is in the actual moment. When they are practising the skill.

misstressiggi yes I am in Scotland. I know the teachers should be social distancing, but in DS’s primary school, this seemed to have gone out the window (and there is literally no social distancing among parents in the playground despite the huge signs 🤦‍♀️).

I am fairly sure from what DD says that the teachers are social distancing in her school. Not a private school, the desks are all facing forward and apart though, at least in her classes, and some of the teachers are wearing masks. I honestly do think they are doing everything they can given the numbers and size of the school. The primary less so.

So in relation to the OP, I can see how it would depend on the school.

itsgettingweird None of our officers are wearing masks while on patrol or inside offices.

I’m certainly not and there has been no guidance in Scotland to do so.

@loulouljh

It is a mystery then! But its a serious point. I don't hear complaints but on here I here just obstacles. I don't get it.

I wonder equally how many police officers we have on here. Again, maybe I have missed it, but police officers mix with so many people per day and really put themselves at risk, I don't hear complaints from them. I assume they don't have PPE and just carry on with their jobs. It would be interesting to hear from them and their perspective.

Probably don't hear from police officers because they are not needed for childcare, and they're not constantly having to defend themselves from endless threads slagging them off for being lazy bastards.

I’ve read through all the OP posts here and whilst I sympathise with this difficult situation to find yourself, colleagues and pupils in - I’ve been in and out of hospital recently as an inpatient and for check ups etc. And although some clinics require you to wear and mask, the staff on lots of inpatient wards have nothing more than the standard medical masks and a thin apron whilst patients aren’t required to wear any ppe when staying in the hospital - some nurses and doctors are seeing hundreds of patients a week, as are social workers, community mental health teams, community midwives... we aren’t seeing huge increases in cases based on this... it also means that teachers aren’t the only jobs in the country where there is a level of risk to the work that they do. Because that work is essential.

Of course teaching is essential. That's why it's important to ensure that schools open safely, so that we can continue the good work for as long as possible.
What is there not to understand about this?

@Remy82 absolutely true, nhs staff just wear paper masks too. Most depts average 50+ patients per day, plus relatives plus many other hcp.

2. If you cannot go near the pupils and you can't walk round and check work and speak to them individually then only the most confident ones will speak out. You will realise which pupils are in the wrong track when you take their work in but research suggests that the time to fix errors and correct learning is in the actual moment. When they are practising the skill.

I really can see the issue with this, but it must be worse with online teaching? So the best shot is smaller classes, and hoping more will speak out, but that’s still very hard for many subjects - maths is easier if you look at it for example.

So maybe PPE over all is the way to go.

*non covid nhs staff

*no, but nothing that you are saying is new information. What is embarrassing is the loud and constant whinging from some colleagues who seem to have such a negative attitude towards this term. I resent being tarred with the same brush and having the teaching profession made to look obstructive and workshy.

There has been ongoing discussion about safety at our school and I've raised queries myself where I can foresee issues, but I'd rather be solution focussed than just saying nothing is possible.*
That's the attitude of my great teacher friends too. Bravo to you and the lovely law enforcement people on here too[Applauds].

@BlusteryShowers bold type fail sorry!

@whatsleep

The kids in my school love yo waste time emptying out the old water (the stuff that’s been in the bottle all of 2 hours) and queue at the water machine for a refill....... they are going to have to get more creative this term if they want to waste time 🙈

Be careful what you wish for.

They usually rise to a challenge