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.

@HeresMe

Btw I really do hope I am wrong! I love my job despite the suggestion of many previous posters

You don't though do you, you desperately want to be proved right. You are looking for faults everywhere, and the water thing is just your school.

This. Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Sorry to bring up the water again but The kids in my class have never been able to fill up their water bottles from the tap in the classroom. Like the OP they say not drinking water. The kids bring a bottle everyday, some bring two. It has never been an issue.

regarding drinking water, when we were in during lockdown we filled jugs up in the staff room and did refills in the classroom. I’d assume that staffrooms have a drinking water tap to fill the kettle! Not ideal to do it this way but best we can do at the minute 🤷‍♀️

Actually I just googled it because I wasn't sure. Lots of reports of lots of Scottish schools unable to fill the kids water bottles.

That's due to the Scottish government failing to ensure schools are maintained.

Also in most country's in the UK it is illegal not to provide drinking water in workplaces.

Both providing water and using fans or air conditioning both banned for the full school year, as far as we know at the moment

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 🙈

@covidteacherscotland

So speak to your head about PPE. Schools in scotland are using face coverings.

I'm allowed to wear a face covering. The big standard ones that we can buy require EVERYONE to wear them for them to be effective. It's unfair to ask children to wear a mask for 6-7 hours a day. Parents wouldn't stand for it.

I'm not even sure that completely protective masks exist b it if they do we certainly don't have access to them.

And yet you say the difference between you and professionals who have carried on working out of their home through lockdown is PPE. I wear a mask now in work, but the people I care for don't. It is silly to make it a competition. It is shit right now for everyone. I get that you are unhappy, but surely you can see children need an education every bit as much as the women I care for need a midwife? It is an essential job.

Teachers on here were united in saying they could not provide any sort of online learning so there is no other option but to get back into the classroom I am afraid.

OP

Thick bastard alert 🚨

I have no idea who that was directed at, but you just lost my support. We (the whole community) only deal with this through intelligent debate. Making reasoned arguments, looking for workable solutions.

Somebody provoked you, but surely you give your pupils some strategies for not responding... ?

re: your own protection - I've seen people wearing a mask ( to prevent spread) AND also a clear face shield to protect themselves.

OP I get that your first week back has been hard. I understand you are scared. But teachers are certainly not the only group in this position. I am a clinician working in mental health services, both inaptients and community. I work with some very unwell patients who certainly cant socially distance. Sometimes they like to hit, bite, spit, etc... I have worked full time in clinical settings throughout all of this. Yes, I have worn a mask but as you said this mostly protects the patients not me. None of my inpatients wear masks, very few of my outpatients either. I see well over 30 people a week, and spend long ammounts of time with them in small cramped NHS building rooms or sometimes even in their own homes. On each ward I mix with at least 15 patients and spend several hours with them. The restrictions put in place have made my job harder, and possibly reduced the quality of care I can give, which I get is frustrating.
But we have had no choice but to carry on. And you know what, it has been fine. Yes, some days have been realy, really hard. Hours in ppe stuck in a tiny room with patients in 30 degree heat isnt fun. Dealing with a massive increase in worload due to people's deteriorating mental health isn't fun. Having to try our best to observe precautions depsite contsant conmtact with others is challenging.This is most definitely not the job I signed up for. But it is what it.
I think if you give it time you will adjust. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself chance to get your head around how things are working.

Op has a point. Not sure why every is having a go at her. She has to sit in a sealed room with 30 bodies and a high risk of aerosol transmission. Indoor spaces like this are like Petri dishes. It sounds hard OP.

Yep, and every parent who says “so what?” Is an ungrateful piece of work. Nobody knew for sure there was a pandemic coming when they trained to be teachers, doctors, nurses and even police officers. We are all doing what we can, a person that refuses to take the flack for the lack of protection and bad planing, is not a whim, just a whistleblower.

But obviously we are trained to believe we all need to behave like heroes to the point of martyrdom.

Op, and thanks to you and all teachers for continuing going to work to educate children, whose parents do not even appreciate the risks you are taking working in environment that is I’ll prepared to keep you and the children safe.

I am absolutely shocked at how people are treating the op! She is just saying how it is at her school

I think it's the thread title that rubs you up the wrong way before you even open it tbh. Most of us are in England or Wales on this site (I assume) and are busy preparing, either physically, mentally or both to get back to school. Whether you're excited, apprehensive or terrified, it's a bit gutting to see a blanket 'school return will fail' stated so definitely.

I think the water thing is a Covid measure though. I've seen a couple of secondary school 'back to school' videos and letters that say children must bring a big water bottle or 2 smaller ones because the water fountains will be sealed off. I'm guessing adults will have access to a tap though.

I've been at my classroom windows with a screwdriver this afternoon, taking the safety catches off (they only open a few inches normally). Not sure if I'm allowed to do that but I'm on the ground floor so I'm happy to take the risk! Having said that, I'm a wimp, so if I get challenged I'll undoubtedly meekly screw them back on

This was the guidance from our secondary as they left for summer. Whether it will change before they go back, but they were unequivocal that you basically are drinking whatever you take in with you only

 No drinks will be sold in school and water fountains cannot be used so students will need to bring drinking
water for each day


@whatsleep

regarding drinking water, when we were in during lockdown we filled jugs up in the staff room and did refills in the classroom. I’d assume that staffrooms have a drinking water tap to fill the kettle! Not ideal to do it this way but best we can do at the minute 🤷‍♀️

Staff room and staff kettle also not in use, and no, the staff do not have access to drinking water either and if we did, it would be very irresponsible to be carrying it around and sharing it from jugs. The risk assessment is in place to prevent dangerous behaviour like this

That's good, you can wear PPE OP, so wear whatever makes you feel safe.

As for School Guvs and Councils being 'chocolate teapots', if you have done it and still think so, then find out more about the Powers and Roles of the Organization you are a Member of. Yes, they CAN be a 'nodding shop' but that's only down to everyone Nodding in Agreement with the Chair and the Head - so not properly Guverning.

There's at least one Staff Rep on each Guv/Counc Body and if they just Nod Away then the Staff they Represeent need to Remove them.

God I feel sorry for teachers. What other job requires the employee to be present for sustained lengths of time in a room with up to 30 others, who may or may not be Covid-positive. How scary. I would be very nervous indeed. I’m not in the least surprised you feel like you do.

OP you have my sympathies. The stress of facing this situation would be too much for most. And what exactly has the govt done to help mitigate the risk for teachers & pupils? It’s a shitshow

I don’t understand the no drinking water thing? I work in a private school and we will be feeding and watering our kids as normal! Covid isn’t living in the taps is it? 🤔
And nobody has a packed lunch, it’s all hot meals, and trays of snacks at break time.

We won’t have masks because it’s a primary school. But our obvious advantage is much smaller classes and large outdoor areas.

Just resign then? Think of all the supermarket workers, doctors, porters, nurses etcetera etcetera who worked during the height of the pandemic. They seemed to manage it with people who actually had Covid 19.

If you can’t or don’t want to do the job, why should I, as a taxpayer fund your lifestyle. No worky = no payy. We need to get back to as near as normal as possible without the hysteria coming from a small minority of teachers. I am sure there are plenty willing to teach who can step into the breach.

Totally agree. Teachers like to make out they're badly paid (they're not - mate of mine has just had her pay got up to £43k thanks to the pay rise). They also like to moan a lot and find all the things that are WRONG instead of working out HOW to do it safely themselves.

1. Just buy PPE yourself - a visor isn't expensive. You can wear a mask as well if you want to - £2.95 for a washable one.

1. Get a water bottle £4 in Tesco.

1. Open the windows and the doors.

99.97 % survival rate. It isn't anywhere near as deadly as SARS was, and yet we had no where near the hype about that. If you're fit, healthy and don't have any underlying health conditions, you are very very unlikely to suffer.

Oh and fgs. Pupils can bring a water bottle that will last the day. Do you know, back in the 80's none of us took water bottles into school and there was no such thing as a water fountain. We all had a drink at lunch (and let's be honest, the odd drink from the toilet taps, which yes wasn't acceptable) BUT NONE OF US DIED FROM A LACK OF WATER.

If you're fit, healthy and don't have any underlying health conditions, you are very very unlikely to suffer

And what about those of us who aren't? Or are the parent of a newly deshielded child?

It is heartless to assume that only the healthy should be in school

@HateIsNotGood

That's good, you can wear PPE OP, so wear whatever makes you feel safe.

As for School Guvs and Councils being 'chocolate teapots', if you have done it and still think so, then find out more about the Powers and Roles of the Organization you are a Member of. Yes, they CAN be a 'nodding shop' but that's only down to everyone Nodding in Agreement with the Chair and the Head - so not properly Guverning.

There's at least one Staff Rep on each Guv/Counc Body and if they just Nod Away then the Staff they Represeent need to Remove them.

Oh.my.god, will you please spell Governors properly, especially if you're going to turn the abbreviation into a verb! Really put my teeth on edge.

What's stopping you wearing PPE?

Nurseries are back and have been a long time. The children there can't even communicate because a lot are so young

At my DS’s school, they have apparently put filters on the taps and the DC have to fill their bottles without touching the tap or sink - they have been shown how to use a paper towel to turn the tap on.
I do share your concerns, OP, because DD is in S6. She is wearing a mask between classes and they are spaced apart, facing forward, in the classrooms, there is also hand sanitiser at each classroom door and cleaning equipment for the tables once they have lunch, plus zones for each year group. So I do feel like the school is doing its best, but teenagers do not naturally social distance and in DS’s school, the teachers are not socially distancing from each other, only the children.

So at some point somewhere, yes, there will be an outbreak. We all got covid in March and I was very ill for a good three months and still have chest pain. But, and this is what I tell myself, at that point there was unchecked community transmission, the bare minimum of social distancing and hygiene in place and no testing unless you were in hospital. There is a risk, which is scary, but it is less than it was in March when we got it. My DC are both really happy to be back at school. So I don’t know what the answer is. I would have preferred some kind of blended learning but that was not the prevailing view.

Teachers on here were united in saying they could not provide any sort of online learning so there is no other option but to get back into the classroom I am afraid
As a "teacher on here" I have to say - utter bollocks. Not worthy of rehashing further.

@GetThatHelmetOn thank you for your post that was good to read.

OP is in Scotland, no governors, no MATs.

Also, PPE is not the name given to face coverings you made at home or bought in the supermarket.

@cocopops what a horrible post you made. Fine. Homeschool your children then if teachers are so shit. Oh wait...what's that...actually you need us to look after your children? Actually, maybe teaching isn't that easy? Actually, maybe you need somebody to look after your children so you can work. Oh yes, forgot about that.

Totally agree. Teachers like to make out they're badly paid (they're not - mate of mine has just had her pay got up to £43k thanks to the pay rise). They also like to moan a lot and find all the things that are WRONG instead of working out HOW to do it safely themselves.

1. Just buy PPE yourself - a visor isn't expensive. You can wear a mask as well if you want to - £2.95 for a washable one.
Doesn't work unless everyone wears one.

2. Get a water bottle £4 in Tesco.
That's fine for me. What about kids whose parents don't send them in with anything . What about the kids who drink a lot on a hot day but just want to fill up?
3. Open the windows and the doors.
The doors out into the indoor corridors? many classrooms don't have windows.

99.97 % survival rate. It isn't anywhere near as deadly as SARS was, and yet we had no where near the hype about that. If you're fit, healthy and don't have any underlying health conditions, you are very very unlikely to suffer.
Made up shite. Can you link to wear you get your survival rate? What about long terms effects? How come you know more than the WHO and most high ranking scientists.

Seems weird when you haven't even managed to read the thread.

Plenty of parents have health conditions , and there are also many parents who fall into the more risky age bracket ( I am 56, both my children are still at school).