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.

you will be in a bubble with your own class won't you?

No. Not in secondary school teachers won't be. Some primary teachers won't be either.

I'll be teaching about 9 different classes of 30+ students. They will all have different sets for different subjects. The "bubble" is the entire year of 200-300 ish but teachers don't count as part of the bubble so we are in all bubbles. Yet we are talking at/with the students in unventilated rooms for an hour at a time.
It's a nonsense.

Backtobasics5

Well maybe you need to read a bit closer because COVID has caused a lot of deaths hence the teachers complaining....

Maybe you should read closer because that isn't what I said.

I’m sure Scottish teachers feel the same as you. There’s a couple of weeks to go so we can hope.

I'm sure that most teachers are concerned about going back, mainly because we would like to keep the schools open.

And its a lot easier to do that if we go in with more than we need to do, than it would be to try and implement solutions once schools are having to close.

@BikeTyson

Are there any stats around serious cases/hospitalisation/deaths by profession from earlier in the pandemic? Because it’s now clear that COVID was spreading wildly Feb half term onwards, and schools didn’t close until towards the end of March. Teachers and other adults working in schools would have been coming into contact with exponentially more carriers of the virus then than they will be now. Might the impact it had then be a clue to the likely impact now? It’s a genuine question, by the way, I’m not attempting to make a point - it’s just not something I’ve seen anything about. I’ve seen comments about risks to different professions being dismissed because schools were closed to most pupils, but this glosses over that early period.

I don't know what the stats are, but I know many, many schools were struggling to stay open at that point due to staff absence and indeed many closed altogether before the government directed them to.

So, we may well see a repeat of this in the autumn term.

@BikeTyson

Are there any stats around serious cases/hospitalisation/deaths by profession from earlier in the pandemic? Because it’s now clear that COVID was spreading wildly Feb half term onwards, and schools didn’t close until towards the end of March. Teachers and other adults working in schools would have been coming into contact with exponentially more carriers of the virus then than they will be now. Might the impact it had then be a clue to the likely impact now? It’s a genuine question, by the way, I’m not attempting to make a point - it’s just not something I’ve seen anything about. I’ve seen comments about risks to different professions being dismissed because schools were closed to most pupils, but this glosses over that early period.

@BikeTyson

That is an interesting question. I remember teaching back in March and lots of students being off with a cough, or hacking away in the classrooms (and getting sent home!)

Anyway. An ONS study reported 65 Covid-related deaths of education workers. Here’s the link:

schoolsweek.co.uk/ons-figures-reveal-65-covid-related-deaths-in-education/

I wonder how many posts before we get the “Well they probably caught it in the supermarket.” (True for any job.) or a variation of “Well that’s much safer than other jobs!” Probably true depending on the job, but I’d rather like to keep it that way with sensible measures.

(None of that last bit was directed at you *BikeTyson btw . I just know how these threads go with other posters!)

@saddoiam

All schools I know are social distancing as best they can. One way systems, pick up and drop offs spaced out ect.. you will be in a bubble with your own class won't you? I don't see what more they can realistically do, they are children after all, and they need to get back to some education.

No, I'll be teaching 300 pupils across years 7-11 every week in 11 different classes.

I totally understand, I do think child need to be back but am still wary of returning and had the same thoughts yesterday about wishing I could work from home.

@Malteserdiet

Although for some reason there seems to have been little to no research into it, considering many countries declared finding Covid cases last year in December and even at the end of November, I think it’s relevant to consider that coronavirus was happily circulating undetected throughout December, January and February where all schools and businesses ran completely as normal and without all this fear. Of course I appreciate that things came to a peak in April and we had the lockdown requirement but the actual risk has not actually changed and if anything, treatments and wider understanding of public hygiene have improved outcomes and risk to 99% of people.

A valid point.

The school my DCs go to have a line at the front of the classroom which means the teacher can socially distance from the pupils, they aren't allowed to cross and so are two metres away from him/here.

Then you have tables with three teenagers sitting in a row. How are my 15-18 year olds less entitled to protection than the teacher? They can be disciplined by the school for not staying 2m away from the teacher but aren't allowed to sit 2m apart? They are having lessons in the sports hall so it's more than possible to be spaced out, they do it for exams.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/explainers-53917432

Some good advice here about the need for well ventilated rooms. Just a shame it doesn't count for kids / staff in schools 🙈

You can't have the whole school having lessons in the sports hall? Ours only fits about a third of the school anyway....
I cannot teach from 2m away effectively. And to be honest as I'm going to be breathing the same stale air for an hour or more, I don't think 2m will make that much difference...
The 2m line is just so we can't sue if we die or get disabled as a result of catching it at school. So it is our fault if we catch it....

My school has written 1m into the RA. Still not really achievable unless I teach with my back against the wall all day.

@WhyNotMe40

You can't have the whole school having lessons in the sports hall? Ours only fits about a third of the school anyway.... I cannot teach from 2m away effectively. And to be honest as I'm going to be breathing the same stale air for an hour or more, I don't think 2m will make that much difference... The 2m line is just so we can't sue if we die or get disabled as a result of catching it at school. So it is our fault if we catch it....

Obviously you can't but that's the room his tutor group have been assigned and the teachers will go to them. You have the 2m line to give you protection but what protection do the pupils have?

I want teachers and pupils to have protection, where possible.

The pupils have zero protection. They are shoulder to shoulder literally touching.
It should be illegal

I think they are banking on the "kids don't get it badly", and "grown ups stay 2m away", as their get out clauses.

@WhyNotMe40

The pupils have zero protection. They are shoulder to shoulder literally touching. It should be illegal

Yes.

Hospital inpatients do not wear masks whether they have covid or not unless they choose to. The only time we put a mask on them is when being transported around the hospital. During the actual peak of the virus all we had on our ward to protect us was those basic paper masks , teeny plastic pinnies that cover nothing and gloves to actually look after people with Covid. we just had to put up with them coughing all over our hair and faces. Given a choice I’d much rather be in a classroom with 30 children at very low risk of actually having covid.

I don't know what the stats are, but I know many, many schools were struggling to stay open at that point due to staff absence and indeed many closed altogether before the government directed them to.

Yes that’s true - I was hoping that faster testing might be available by now to mitigate it but if anything some of the results return times seem to be going backwards! I’ve read about some universities in the US which are testing everyone every week, symptoms or not, and they were hoping that would help keep a lid on asymptomatic spread. Regular (rapid) testing seems to only way to avoid this happening again in both schools and the NHS who also struggled a lot during with staff isolating.

@stairway

Hospital inpatients do not wear masks whether they have covid or not unless they choose to. The only time we put a mask on them is when being transported around the hospital. During the actual peak of the virus all we had on our ward to protect us was those basic paper masks , teeny plastic pinnies that cover nothing and gloves to actually look after people with Covid. we just had to put up with them coughing all over our hair and faces. Given a choice I’d much rather be in a classroom with 30 children at very low risk of actually having covid.

I'm very sorry that you were put in this position.

Can I ask why that means you do not want me to have any protection at work? Because that's all I am asking for. I'm not saying I have it worse than anyone else 🤷‍♀️

TaxTheRatFarms

That is an interesting question. I remember teaching back in March and lots of students being off with a cough, or hacking away in the classrooms (and getting sent home!)

The teachers and pupils were dropping like flies just before schools shut in March at DH’s school, a lot of which were probably the usual coughs and viruses but undoubtedly some will have been COVID too. I suspect the same is coming this winter whether there’s more PPE and SD in place or not; it’s so unfortunate that the symptoms are the same as so many typical winter illnesses.

@stairway

Hospital inpatients do not wear masks whether they have covid or not unless they choose to. The only time we put a mask on them is when being transported around the hospital. During the actual peak of the virus all we had on our ward to protect us was those basic paper masks , teeny plastic pinnies that cover nothing and gloves to actually look after people with Covid. we just had to put up with them coughing all over our hair and faces. Given a choice I’d much rather be in a classroom with 30 children at very low risk of actually having covid.

That absolutely wasn't acceptable. There was a national outcry. The media went on a huge campaign about it.

But also teachers and teenagers being expected to breath in each other stale air for hours at a time absolutely no mitigations, is also not acceptable.
No it's not the same being on a Covid ward with no mask - but we have no idea how many of our teenagers will have it because they will be asymptomatic and you don't get tested without symptoms.
Until it spreads to an adult who gets symptoms, it could be happily spreading around the student population.
That is not acceptable.

I also believe all patients in hospital are asked to isolate (if a planned stay) and all are tested before. So you can have a reasonable confidence now of their coronavirus status?

What protection do you want NebularNerd? I support your right to wear a face mask and secondary schools can now ask all students to wear masks if they want to. We know younger children are less likely to transmit the virus so don’t need masks. I vulnerable teachers working from home but I don’t support part time schooling as children will suffer.

Whynotme40, working in a hospital is now very safe, but it wasn’t during the peak and it won’t be during another peak.

I would like everyone who can wear masks to wear masks.
I would like massive funding provided so ventilation can be improved in classrooms with dodgy or non existent windows.
I would like funding for extra sinks and toilet blocks.
I would like extra funding for enhanced cleaning.
I would like extra funding for extra temporary classrooms and more staff - or blended learning for secondary to enable lower occupancy of rooms.