Why not masks for all in secondary schools ?

[countryroses]

Why not ?

@Vinoonasunnyday I thought you were a teacher. Are you already back in school/college?

Ah yes, you're the one in FE who doesn't use full stops, I forgot (I'm not even going to link to the Daily Fail article about that particular topic). Your class sizes - are they 30+ with 6 different groups a day? If so you're foolhardy to say the least.

It’s not perfect but they’re not strangers to me
I’ll be seeing same faces everyday compared to down the pub or at the gym

I’ve never understood why we are supposed to be less likely to catch the virus from large groups of people we see “consistently” than from small groups of people we spend little time with.

I’m a teacher. I find mask wearing difficult. I can’t talk properly in them and I can’t hear properly when other people wear them.
Communication in schools needs to be crystal clear for learning and masks will hinder this.

@DBML

I’m a teacher. I find mask wearing difficult. I can’t talk properly in them and I can’t hear properly when other people wear them. Communication in schools needs to be crystal clear for learning and masks will hinder this.

So then the only other solutions are smaller class sizes or more space.

People need to buy comfortable masks. I bought one that goes over the ears, didn't like it. Bought one that fastens at the back of your head and it is fine and I forget I've got it on.

If kids turn up at school without a mask they should either be sent home or maybe parents should get a bill if they want children to stay in school with a reasonable charge per mask, it's amazing what you can remember when it hits the pocket. Maybe one chance and that is it. You can't just let teenagers dictate to you.

We keep being told this is unprecedented so we need to take unprecedented steps.

You recognise that is a problem then @SaltyAndFresh?

We can’t magic up more space or make half our children vanish either, so that leaves the only solution being to just get on with it and cope. Like we usually do in schools!

@NailsNeedDoing

You recognise that is a problem then *@SaltyAndFresh*?

We can’t magic up more space or make half our children vanish either, so that leaves the only solution being to just get on with it and cope. Like we usually do in schools!

Absolutely I recognise it's a problem, and if it doesn't work we'll have to go to blended learning. I will not martyr myself for anyone's children and before you tell me to, I'm not resigning either.

What people are forgetting is that people have to have it to pass it on

It’s passed through coughing and sneezing and touch via droplets etc

Most are now asymptomatic so it’ll be minimum transmission

That’s why people without symptoms are told not to bother testing cos their viral load is so low - if their viral load is so low it doesn’t show on a test, if asymptomatic, I doubt they’re transmitting left right and centre!

There are 7 active cases near me in a population of 300,000

None are in hospital. Yet we are being massively inconvenienced

Science doesn’t match the response currently

@CherieBabySpliffUp 😂 we do breath though! Do you really think if you breath gently the mask makes any difference?

[quote barbites]@CherieBabySpliffUp 😂 we do breath though! Do you really think if you breath gently the mask makes any difference?[/quote]
If we're breathing gently then there are less particles being expelled surely?

@Vinoonasunnyday

What people are forgetting is that people have to have it to pass it on

It’s passed through coughing and sneezing and touch via droplets etc

Most are now asymptomatic so it’ll be minimum transmission

That’s why people without symptoms are told not to bother testing cos their viral load is so low - if their viral load is so low it doesn’t show on a test, if asymptomatic, I doubt they’re transmitting left right and centre!

There are 7 active cases near me in a population of 300,000

None are in hospital. Yet we are being massively inconvenienced

Science doesn’t match the response currently

I mean, I've got a kid who sneezes five or six times in a row on a good day (it's not hay fever, it was happening in February).

I will not martyr myself for anyones children

Slightly dramatic! So I'll join in with the hysterics if that's what you want.
So by the same token why should children sacrifice as close to normal education for the sake of you? Who's "sacrifice" trumps the other?

@Vinoonasunnyday

What people are forgetting is that people have to have it to pass it on

It’s passed through coughing and sneezing and touch via droplets etc

Most are now asymptomatic so it’ll be minimum transmission

That’s why people without symptoms are told not to bother testing cos their viral load is so low - if their viral load is so low it doesn’t show on a test, if asymptomatic, I doubt they’re transmitting left right and centre!

There are 7 active cases near me in a population of 300,000

None are in hospital. Yet we are being massively inconvenienced

Science doesn’t match the response currently

But new research indicating asymptomatics can have the same viral load.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2769235

www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/08/10/asymptomatic

Agree though theoretically they are less likely to pass it on.

@Uhoh2020

I will not martyr myself for anyones children

Slightly dramatic! So I'll join in with the hysterics if that's what you want.
So by the same token why should children sacrifice as close to normal education for the sake of you? Who's "sacrifice" trumps the other?

Look, think what you like. I don't have to resign because you don't want me to. I don't suppose you want to fund my benefits of I resign either.

@SaltyAndFresh

I think for teachers it should be optional. But, I’m hard of hearing and masks inhibit my ability to communicate. I’m not deliberately trying to be difficult.

Currently when I go into a shop, I wear a mask, but I can’t communicate with anyone. At the checkout, I nod and smile behind my mask, wondering what on earth they are saying. I didn’t realise how much I depended on lip movement and facial expressions to help me.

I physically cannot teach in this manner. I’m just going to have to get on with it. If mask wearing becomes mandatory, I know my teaching will suffer.

"If kids turn up at school without a mask they should either be sent home or maybe parents should get a bill if they want children to stay in school with a reasonable charge per mask,"

In some schools that would to teenagers forgetting masks so they can go home, others not coming in because they don't have one and you would have zero chance of parents paying the bill.

@SaltyAndFresh at what point did i mention resignation

Because at some point idiots have to realise that the virus isn't the one and only important thing in the whole world and that you absolutely have to, at some point, get the fuck on with living, and that expecting teenagers to sit all day with their faces covered, trying to hear and understand someone at the top of the room who also has their face covered is fucking bonkers nonsense that only panic-ridden fools would suggest.
Well said @DailyCarbuncle.
And that there is not a scrap of evidence for masks.
You might as well say make it mandatory for them all to be sure to strike a black cat every day and avoid opening an umbrella indoors same level of superstition.

In the guidance for my school, masks are permitted for those who are paranoid and illogical but certainly not encouraged.

Well the WHO are suggesting masks should be worn in schools by those aged 12 and over but then again Berlin has seen outbreaks where children are required to wear masks.

Do you have any pupils who were shielding in your classes @lifeafter50? Will you call their families paranoid if they are concerned over their child’s health?

Do you tell people they are paranoid and illogical at the same time as telling the kids you teach that they have mickey mouse qualifications?

if good, dedicated, experienced and talented teachers leave
No, the good, talented and experienced ones are the one who are not making excuses right now not to go back without'PPE' and stamping their little feet in a tantrum at the government for not giving them the free unicorns they deserve.
The latter on here who whine all the time hardly give the impression of being good and/or talented, or even actually giving a stuff about the well/being of pupils they are employed to teach.

My good, talented and experienced DH has a heart condition.

The BHF says he should make sure the people surrounding him wear masks.

I think you make a lot of assumptions about the abilities and talents of some teachers.