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.

Except that schools have been open all the way through, albeit to a smaller number of pupils, without major issues. DC1 was back for half of last term. No issue at all. There will no doubt be scares, some cases, and even local lockdowns but this is life now. Covid is an issue for everyone in every setting and we just have to find ways to make it work as best we can. I would look at what can be done to improve the situation and I hope your school principal will support sensible suggestions at lowering the risk.

I would hate my children to wear face coverings. Hate it. If teachers wish to do so then maybe that's acceptable. But not for children.

Yes there are protective masks but no one can hear you speak through them, or so I have heard!

Perhaps making secondary school pupils wear them would solve more than 1 issue

@covidteacherscotland

Would all secondary kids in face coverings help? Not ideal but better than schools being closed.

Yes. I think young people and their parents might have a bit to say about it but I definitely think it would be safer.

@covidteacherscotland can pupils wear masks now if they wish to? If pupils and their parents felt this was so much safer, why wouldn’t they and you be wearing one already? You keep saying that just the teacher wearing one won’t make a difference but that isn’t true on inpatient wards for doctors and nurses in hospitals, the patients don’t wear masks and the staff do.

I wouldn’t like it either @loulouljh and one of my children is actually exempt but I’d hate it less than schools closing if push came to shove!

@PrivateD00r

OK so now we are getting somewhere. OP would like pupils to wear face coverings. Only took 13 pages to get there! In the country I am in, it was announced today that pupils and teachers may wear coverings if they choose. One local school has announced they will be compulsory for all. I suspect many more schools will follow suit. OP, have you contacted your union asking could they push for this, if its something that you want? Have you written to your MP? A 13 page post on MN finally getting to the point isn't likely to help!

Could you be any more patronising? The unions are fully aware about masks etc. Urgh I haven't the strength for all this tonight.#solidarity

Yes we are asking students to make sure and bring large water bottles to last all day.
My kids have had to do this since their first day of primary school.
I don’t understand the outcry.
Yes there will be changes. Necessary changes to enable our children to be educated in a school environment.
It sounds like you simply don’t want to be back at work.

[quote Uhoh2020]@Illegitiminoncarborundum sarcasm because it seems the only spread according to these many threads are from children alone[/quote]
Really? You've deduced that from these threads?
I think you need to brush up on your comprehension skills.

And so have many Parents also come up with ideas, but apparently, as with all these threads about teacher's concerns about schools, anything other than decribing all classrooms as airless, windowless rooms crammed full with the CV19-infected DC of Parents that irresponsibly spread CV19 around as they get on with 'life',

no one appears to "understand".

In order to prepare all our DC life, I'd rather the majority of DC were taught by people who found ways to make education accessible, rather than putting up barriers for others to tear down.

There are many Teachers and Schools working towards safely opening their doors to their students - most of them are too busy doing just that to vetch and angst on MN.

Many Parents have been engaged in educating their dc, with varied levels of support from their dc's schools, whilst also juggling their own jobs and/or furlough/no job/reduced or no pay too. Since the beginning of April.

Well, many teachers complain here that parents hardly respect them, so now would be a good time to demonstrate why teachers deserve this respect, rather than providing more reasons why parents can't respect teachers more than they should respect anyone else.

We have been told anyone can wear a face covering if they choose. My son has one in his bag that he can wear if he wants. Obviously to be replaced if he does!

Hmmm. See the thing is with masks, younger children couldn't realistically wear them properly.

Would I trust a room full of teenagers to wear them properly, and not actually cause more trouble with them? Probably not no.

Masks are really only effective if you use them properly. From personal experience the vast majority of adults don't wear them properly (Inc me!) So I wouldn't think teens would.

I imagine there would be lots of face touching and then you've defeated the object.

Not much point in the OP pushing her unions re masks - it is already allowed for both staff and children to wear them.
One person in a room wearing a face covering doesn't help that much though, it is not compulsory.

How effective are masks over 6 or however many hours?

I’ve seen conflicting information on this.

I think PPE is actually the solution but not sure about masks

Well, many teachers complain here that parents hardly respect them, so now would be a good time to demonstrate why teachers deserve this respect, rather than providing more reasons why parents can't respect teachers more than they should respect anyone else

Teachers couldn't give shiny shit about your respect. What they want is respect given to the job and they be allowed to get on with it safely.

There are many Teachers and Schools working towards safely opening their doors to their students - most of them are too busy doing just that to vetch and angst on MN
You'd be surprised We are one and the same.

Could you be any more patronising? The unions are fully aware about masks etc. Urgh I haven't the strength for all this tonight.#solidarity

Wow. Ok, well I guess I best stop caring because the replies on this thread have been something else.

Good luck guys, I will leave you to it.

Teachers couldn't give shiny shit about your respect. What they want is respect given to the job and they be allowed to get on with it safely.

Well said! I don't know why people's annoyance isn't directed towards the government, who should surely be providing money for schools to impliment the neccessary changes for a start, and actually putting in safe measures rather than fuck it it'll be fine.

@echt

Well, many teachers complain here that parents hardly respect them, so now would be a good time to demonstrate why teachers deserve this respect, rather than providing more reasons why parents can't respect teachers more than they should respect anyone else

Teachers couldn't give shiny shit about your respect. What they want is respect given to the job and they be allowed to get on with it safely.

Quite.

@echt

Well, many teachers complain here that parents hardly respect them, so now would be a good time to demonstrate why teachers deserve this respect, rather than providing more reasons why parents can't respect teachers more than they should respect anyone else

Teachers couldn't give shiny shit about your respect. What they want is respect given to the job and they be allowed to get on with it safely.

Hear hear

I think we'd all love teachers to get on with it safely, however there doesn't seem to be a genuine solution to that.

Well echt if that's your attitude, I couldn't give a shiny shit about you or the respect you think you deserve merely because of your Job Title.

I'd rather Can Do Teachers, than "couldn't give a shiny shit" Teachers like you.

If it was in my gift I'd be giving you your P45, lucky for you Teachers don''t get sacked for not giving a shiny shit do they?

I think that there are so many variations in school infrastructure, that we wouldn't all put the same things on our wish list.
So, whilst my own classroom is large, airy, has a number of windows that open wide and are positioned so you can get a good flow of air through, I recognise that other schools don't have this, and I don't know what the 'can-do' solution is for them.
We have lots of outdoor space, so when the weather is good, we can be outside a lot. Other teachers would therefore put that on their wishlist, but I don't need to as the box is ticked.
We are allowed to wear mask if we want to, although personally I don't relish the thought, to be honest, as they are so hot and uncomfortable, but the children won't be wearing them and I actually think that could be a nightmare to police anyway.
What I would like to see in my school is temperature testing before children arrive each morning (this won't happen).
I would also like for unwell children to be sent home immediately and not allowed to return until a negative test result has been seen by the office. This also won't happen.
I would also like children who are known to have been abroad in countries on the quarantine list in recent days, to remain at home (Won't happen either).
I would like all school toilets to be regularly cleaned throughout the day by designated cleaners. (nope. Won't/hasn't happened).
I'm not happy about the sheer size of the 'bubbles' or that they are burst so easily outside school and in families, but don't see we can do much about that.
Hand-washing/staggered starts/designated entrances for different year groups are easy to organise and have been running efficiently (but we have 3 basins per classroom, so that helps).

@covidteacherscotland

Because there is no PPE - that must be an individual school thing. No masks no visors in our schools.

Nobody was in to keep the water systems going. They can't be used until they are serviced. I heard on BBC Radio Scotland that they were, for the meantime, stopping water and vending machines as areas of cross contamination. I'm not 100% if this is true but certainly seems to be the case in my authority.

That’s because of the possibility of legionnaires disease.

What I would like to see in my school is temperature testing before children arrive each morning (this won't happen).

I was talking about this today. OK in a secondary school there are a lot of kids but at our school they are all going in different doors and lining up and going in single file. Would this be possible to do? I was wondering why it hadn’t been considered

covidteacherscotland can pupils wear masks now if they wish to? If pupils and their parents felt this was so much safer, why wouldn’t they and you be wearing one already? You keep saying that just the teacher wearing one won’t make a difference but that isn’t true on inpatient wards for doctors and nurses in hospitals, the patients don’t wear masks and the staff do.

Yes I do keep saying that because that was genuinely my understanding from the government advice they keep putting out. All the wee videos and infographics to show that it's only effective when they are worn by all. My mask protects you, yours protects me and all that. I'm genuinely shocked, and have said that, that so many healthcare professionals have come on here saying that's not the case and they are only wearing flimsy surgical masks and actual COVID patients are wearing none. I'm genuinely confused by it. 🤷🏿‍♀️