Wish I wasn't a teacher because of Covid

[NebularNerd]

In my family/friends circle, I am the only one who will be face to face with 150+ people per day with no PPE, no social distancing, nothing.

I have one relative who is not expecting to return to the office this year.
Another who now only works in the office two days per week, in a building where numbers are severely restricted, one way systems, spaced out desks etc.
Another friend who is also able to wfh for the foreseeable future.

I can't help but think that had I made a different career choice I would not now be faced with contracting a potentially life threatening virus and passing it on to my clinically extremely vulnerable husband or elderly parents.

I will go to work and try to ignore what's going on in the world and do my best. But I wish I could be made to feel safer - screens, masks, fewer pupils, something.

I hope I'm worrying for nothing, but it is getting difficult to sleep at night.

I hope you're not working without PPE.

@Itsjustabitofbanter

Oh dear lord. I’m a carer with 3 children. I’ve continued working throughout, the kids have continued going to school. My oh is a black hat on a power station working in very close proximity to 960 employees. He has to take two trains and two buses to get to work and back. We’ve been given no option but to carry on working the last 6 months the majority of teachers have been sat at home. No sympathy from me I’m afraid, that they’ve had the luxury of shielding for 6 months and are now complaining about having to go back to work in a relatively safe environment

Are you and your OH working without PPE? That's awful!

@NebularNerd she didn't say so, but I can only assume that from the dismissal of your concerns she is working in similar conditions, otherwise there wouldn't be any comparison.

twitter.com/tabitasurge/status/1299096622962442240?s=21

[quote SaltyAndFresh]@NebularNerd she didn't say so, but I can only assume that from the dismissal of your concerns she is working in similar conditions, otherwise there wouldn't be any comparison.[/quote]
Can only the assume the same, since I am working in 'relative safety' and I won't have any.

I wasn’t allowed ppe at the beginning of the outbreak, then it got hard to get hold of. It was worn for a few weeks but right now people have got it off more than on. It’s never been used safely enough for it to be effective, even when it was actually used.
No one in my oh’s workplace have used it at all. It’s impossible with the equipment they’re already wearing with the serious manual labour they’re doing

Nebula that is so sad. I hope her ma reaches her goal and gets a victorious result

@FrippEnos

WouldBeGood

And the police and prison service have been working throughout in close proximity without PPE.

I can't speak for the prison service, but it would certainly explain the pictures in the paper of police with face masks on at protests.
Except that it shows the opposite.

Pretty easy to wear a mask when your stationary at a pre planned protest, not so easy when your wrestling someone to the floor and being spat at. A lot of people will have jobs where there’s an element of risk, for some it’ll be bigger than others It’s shit but that’s the reality for now.

@SteffGreen1812 the situation with my OH’s work. Try telling men putting 60 foot scaffolding up in a 47 degree boiler tower that they need to wear hazmats and surgical masks

Surely as a carer you should be wearing a mask.

Clearly a heated issue and can see both sides of the debate here.

Focusing back to the OP's original post...

PPE wise, I am hoping your school will allow for PPE to be used and if for any reason you are not allowed to wear PPE, to explore these issues with your SLT and union if necessary.

If PPE is available for you to use and you still are uncomfortable with the whole situation, it may well be worth questioning whether you wish to continue teaching at this point in time, particularly if you feel your health and/or mental health will be affected.

Schools are germ ridden places regardless of Covid...there will continue to be the usual sickness bugs, flu, coughs and colds and of course the pesky head lice!

We all knew that September was going to come and the big push for everyone to get back in the classroom was always going to be there, although I do suspect that education will evolve to a more blended, e-learning approach in the near future.

You need to weigh up if this is something you can cope with moving forwards and there is no harm in questioning this.

Have you discussed these issues with your family and what do they think about the situation?

Wishing you the best of luck in whatever path you choose :)

I teach in Wales. Guidelines in the official documentation say that even if dealing with pupils who spit/lick/kiss and therefore raise the risk of transmission of the virus still can and should be handled as normal without PPE just because they are non symptomatic and therefore they deem the risk low.
And that's from the top. Doubt our unions are going to have much swap over that.

@ineedaholidaynow

Many lessons have been learnt over the last few months. It was thought that people working in care homes didn't need PPE, we saw how well that worked out.

Everyone in NHS hospitals now have to wear masks.

Supermarkets now have screens, social distancing etc, and the local ones have had them months.

The rules for my DH's office return are very long and thorough, so much so that the majority of the staff are going to continue to WFH.

It just seems with schools that the rules and the lessons learnt don't apply and we have to start from the beginning and see how it goes, and then maybe bring in measures that seem to work elsewhere when it all goes pear shaped.

This. It's Russian roulette! I don't understand why a slower approach, increasing attendance gradually isn't implemented. This approach is going to be chaotic and increase numbers of infections AND time off school! Of course some teachers and parents are scared - there are pretty much zero mitigation strategies in schools!

I feel very, very sorry for school teachers in the UK.

What a horrible situation.

You have my sympathy and support.

I work in a nursery and worked right through lockdown with key worker children and all through summer. No social distancing possible with this age group and they are the age where the sneeze on you, wee on you etc. And we get a fraction of teacher wages for the risk!

All we can do is make sure hand washing is done on arrival and through the day and sanitise and clean everything frequently. I’m getting more uneasy now some are catching colds again as this means they are mixing enough to catch more serious things. The ones sent home with a temp and cough have all tested negative so far though.

I’ll be limiting my contact with my vulnerable mum again once my children are back in school.

I think in many jobs you have to accept certain compromises, that some jobs can’t fully ppe or social distance... but as schools will all have to have done risk assessments and action plans for Covid, I don’t see why the government couldn’t have given advice and resources to maximise safety for teachers themselves.

At our work we socially distance/work outside when possible, we have screens where possible between us and the public, wear our masks, and accept to some extent we are a bubble with our small working team... but we are talking about 5 people, not hundreds.

The government have had all summer to prepare for this, it seems like they’ve been too busy patting themselves on the back with the half price food.

No one expects it to be risk free, but I don’t understand if teens can spread Covid like anyone else, the usual precautions don’t apply?

No protection at all? That's criminal and a potential death sentence. Here in the US teachers are updating their wills, it's that serious. Sorry but if I were you I would find another profession fast

Christ, must grown adults engage in this race to the bottom all the time - ‘I work in a 6x6 room with 852 other people and we are all licking each other’s faces so I don’t know what you’re worrying about’.

Can we not just accept that teachers - especially secondary - are facing a risk because of tiny overcrowded classrooms, little ventilation, no money for extra hygiene measures and no PPE allowed. Just like nursery workers, police officers and all other roles where their employers have banned the use of PPE.

One thing you can say about this government is that they’ve done a bloody good job with the anti teacher propaganda.

@SaltyAndFresh

I hope you're not working without PPE.

I feel like OP should read this and when she feels rubbish she needs to reflect upon it. This obsession with other people’s field of work (nurses and other fields) you don’t have a clue what PPE they have or don’t.

@SaltyAndFresh to be honest. When you say PPE do you actually know what it is? Because the term is constantly thrown around. A blue flimsy mask is not an actual FF3 mask there’s a difference.

I don’t think people are helping OP... if she is already taking antidepressants and she has not started teaching in the classrooms yet. Is it really that bad or is she just very anxious?
I saw someone post its not a race to the bottom... it’s true.

I understand the OPs concerns but there are implications and risks for all of us when they go back to school. My DC will have contact with hundreds of other students and lots of teachers at a large secondary school. They take public transport, see friends from other schools, do extracurricular activities. So multiply all this additional contact and we are all at increased risk. In turn it increases the risks for parents spreading of the virus to their workplaces and to other family members. This winter is sure going to be interesting.

Proper PPE or not, I'd be a lot happier if the 30 17 year olds I will have sat facing me today were all using face coverings.
They won't be.
Thank you to the posters who have posted some compassionate comments recently.

For those saying "supermarket workers put up with worse" - my brother works in a supermarket. He says it is "Low occupancy, indoors, well ventilated and silent"

Schools are high occupancy, indoors, poorly ventilated and speaking.

He is more worried for me than for himself. This chart helps show why.

I'm an MDS and also work in a shop. I worked last term, and certainly feel safer working in a shop where we're allowed masks, gloves, washing hands on a regular basis easier and my employer tells staff to try and keep 2m from customers. At school I'll be in a year bubble of 100 in a hot stuffy hall despite the fact windows are always open. Room is so tight, we sometimes can't squeeze our legs between chairs to get to children who are upset, need first aid, help opening something, having an argument, which we are constantly doing. Only way around social distancing is to supervise and not do the above. Just starting to wonder why I've been so careful over the last few months.

I have friends who work at schools in a secondary school bubble and one in two year bubbles and they aren't sleeping, one worked throughout and saw exactly the same as I did, even with class sizes if 15-17 there won't be social distancing. My other friends just happen to be another MDS and two nursery workers - we've been so careful and haven't braved someone's house yet. We will have very little in the way if s social life in the winter as can't meet indoors with so many social contacts.