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.

@Flaxmeadow

Plus, can we add that supermarkets tend to have very high ceilings. Practically cavernous in feel.

But there are thousands of people using this big supermarkets

My little classroom is about 12m square and I can touch the ceiling by standing on a chair (and I'm only a little over 5').

There are also many small metro type supermarkets. These are very small and the aisles especially

There were definitely not a thousand people in my local Sainsbury's earlier today!

As for the 'metro' supermarkets, they are, in my experience, limiting numbers. Shoppers are in there for less than, say, 30 mins (I'd struggle to be in one for more than about 10 minutes). All adults who are able to wearing masks. Adults either observing social distancing, following a one-way system and/or passing by other adults for a moment or two. Screens for cashiers. Big doors open direct to the outdoors all the time.

@Flaxmeadow i agree that supermarket workers have kept things going, especially at the height. My DD is one of them and carried on working when her exams were cancelled. My eldest DD worked on Covid wards so she did her bit too.
I did teach full time during lockdown as well as doing my 'bit' by being in for keyworker kids. And was back in for last month teaching years 10 & 12.
What teachers want is the same conditions you now have. Masks, screens and a bit of space. That's all. Nothing extra. Just the same as other workers. Not being crammed into rooms that are stuffy and breed germs every year. Bubbles are a farce as mine are 300 and I'm in 6 of them.
I'll say again. Staff get sick, schools close. Staff stay well, schools open. So put measures in place to keep staff well. Easy.

Look at France and how the numbers are now increasing exponentially. They were us a month ago

Please can we have some proportion

The infection rates, compared to March and April, are tiny in France and even Spain

In the UK. Millions of people were walking around in public places back in March and April infected with covid. Over 4 million had the infection in the space of weeks back then. These are conservative estimates

The numbers we see now are so small and we know more about it now, and there is more testing in place

It's such a shame some schools that could have done didn't make more effort to make on line provision better.

Then they would have strong arguments to ask for help to plug the gaps. And have strong arguments for rota working in and out of school... Which would thin out pupils.

Some schools, grabbed the initiative, trained teachers up Before lock down, and got on line immediately.
Others were in denial and proudly boasted of clubs still going ahead right up to lock down.

They did more than totally abandon our dc they undermined all this super strict unyielding crap that not one day can be missed without damaging dc education etc. What a crock of shite.

They let go so very easily. Belligerent even. Deliberately obstructive.

Our neighbour started to issue me with the actual proper learning pack their primary school, somehow managed to produce, their school has far more fsm than ours and ours is a better funded school.

My own setting has many vulnerable students and I could see first hand how beneficial it was to have contact with them, give them something to do... Keep in contact and keep a routine going.

Very hard to swallow the excuses from some schools when others got on with it and so very well.

Mum's I agree. The perspex screen is interesting but I'm wondering how it would work in practise with noise, how would the students hear you and how would your side stay ventilated?

• it may also have been helpful to keep dc in home clothes on the condition they are warm, because windows will have to remain open all winter.

@Flaxmeadow people are still dying of it. And increased transmission will increase deaths so let's try and keep transmission down.
I feel very sorry for the NHS staff who worked so hard to save lives in the spring. They can see what's coming this winter and must be terrified.

What teachers want is the same conditions you now have. Masks, screens and a bit of space. That's all. Nothing extra. Just the same as other workers. Not being crammed into rooms that are stuffy and breed germs every year. Bubbles are a farce as mine are 300 and I'm in 6 of them.
I'll say again. Staff get sick, schools close. Staff stay well, schools open. So put measures in place to keep staff well. Easy

But retail workers are not wearing masks and still do not have any real social distancing. It's impossible in a Tesco metro to social distance precisely to the rules. We all know this

But this is not the point I keep making. The crucial difference is that the infection numbers are very low ATM. If they start steeply rising again, like they did in March and April, then the schools will close again.....but the shops won't

@Spiderseason my screen is v thin - I've bought my own portable one. I tried a visor but had to shout. And we use safety screens for science all the time and noise is no problem. It's not perfect as air goes round it but does help if front row sneeze on me.

@Flaxmeadow my DD wears a mask as does everyone else in Waitrose. They've been given cool black ones. If your shop isn't wearing them I wouldn't shop there.

@Spiderseason

It's such a shame some schools that could have done didn't make more effort to make on line provision better.

Then they would have strong arguments to ask for help to plug the gaps. And have strong arguments for rota working in and out of school... Which would thin out pupils.

Some schools, grabbed the initiative, trained teachers up Before lock down, and got on line immediately.
Others were in denial and proudly boasted of clubs still going ahead right up to lock down.

They did more than totally abandon our dc they undermined all this super strict unyielding crap that not one day can be missed without damaging dc education etc. What a crock of shite.

They let go so very easily. Belligerent even. Deliberately obstructive.

Our neighbour started to issue me with the actual proper learning pack their primary school, somehow managed to produce, their school has far more fsm than ours and ours is a better funded school.

My own setting has many vulnerable students and I could see first hand how beneficial it was to have contact with them, give them something to do... Keep in contact and keep a routine going.

Very hard to swallow the excuses from some schools when others got on with it and so very well.

Oh definitely. Like I said, I don't understand the thinking of those MATs/Governing bodies/SLTs to make those kinds of decisions, except that they thought all schools would follow the Government guidance of not teaching new content. Which obviously many schools went against.

@Flaxmeadow

Most supermarkets have some sort of ventilation @Flaxmeadow.

No they do not.

As a supermarket worker do you stand within 2m next to the same people for at least an hour?Do any of your customers lick you? (mainly talking Primary here!)

You'd be surprised at what supermarket staff have to deal with. Try tackling a shoplifter/drug addict, not known for keeping good personal hygiene, who is spitting on you and trying to bite you

Its not the norm though, is it? The supermarkets aren't full of feral drug addicts.

The norm in supermarkets is socially distanced, airy and ventilated spaces. You could fit my classroom into the local Tesco many times over; in fact you could fit two floors' worth. The concentration of bodies is incomparable.

Some schools, grabbed the initiative, trained teachers up Before lock down, and got on line immediately.
Others were in denial and proudly boasted of clubs still going ahead right up to lock down. hmm
These were the only options, were they?

&@Flaxmeadow people are still dying of it. And increased transmission will increase deaths so let's try and keep transmission down.*

Yesterday the UK recorded 1 death. Back in April, the week leading up to Easter, someone was dying every 2 minutes

I feel very sorry for the NHS staff who worked so hard to save lives in the spring. They can see what's coming this winter and must be terrified.

This is a good point but I dont think they're terrified. They're just used to it. I think it's harder to understand what's been going on out there in the workplace if you've been working from home for the last 6 months and its understandable that all kinds of fears might get blown out of proportion because you're not used to it

@Flaxmeadow and the point teachers are making is if we can keep transmissions low we can keep schools open.
One case in a classroom means 30 students potentially taking it home. And me spreading it to the other 120 students I will see that day, who then take it home. One case then becomes 10-15 and the process repeats for a week. You then have a growth rate that is hard to stop. So why not prevent it ? Because that is possible if we act now.

But retail workers are not wearing masks and still do not have any real social distancing. It's impossible in a Tesco metro to social distance precisely to the rules. We all know this

I haven't seen a shop staff member not wearing a mask yet.

"As for the 'metro' supermarkets, they are, in my experience, limiting numbers. Shoppers are in there for less than, say, 30 mins (I'd struggle to be in one for more than about 10 minutes). All adults who are able to wearing masks. Adults either observing social distancing, following a one-way system and/or passing by other adults for a moment or two. Screens for cashiers. Big doors open direct to the outdoors all the time."

I got a feeling of actually helping and contributing to the effort and fight against covid whe I was working in retail at the height of the pandemic. I felt good to be a part of it. That I was contributing to something.

@Flaxmeadow supermarket workers haven't been endlessly criticised though have they? Being a teacher feels less like being a part of something and more like being the scapegoat to blame for the entirety of society's ills at the moment.

Yesterday the UK recorded 1 death. Back in April, the week leading up to Easter, someone was dying every 2 minutes

Two weeks ago my county recorded around 46 deaths, up from 21 the previous week. Not sure what last weeks number is.

Where do supermarkets come on this chart? And where do classrooms come?

Repeating for @Spiderseason's benefit: take that up.wotg your children's school. It's not typical.

with your

@Flaxmeadow I haven't been working from home for 6 months ?? I was in school weekly from lockdown and every day from June 16th. I have had 4 weeks 'off' this summer.
And I've held my child's hand as she cried after 13.5 hour shifts watching people suffer and die. But even worse for her was the day she held the 56 year old consultant who broke down on her. He sobbed. She says no one thought any of it was 'normal' or was 'used to it'.

I think it's harder to understand what's been going on out there in the workplace if you've been working from home for the last 6 months

Maybe. Unlike most teachers though.

Spiderseason

Not all school situations were/are the same.

It might be worth remembering that before lumping them all together.

supermarket workers haven't been endlessly criticised though have they

But they haven't made dozens of threads saying they're scared either. People are not criticising teachers, I think they're more not understanding what the fears are.

Being a teacher feels less like being a part of something and more like being the scapegoat to blame for the entirety of society's ills at the moment.

I don't see that. I just think people want children to be back in school and some teachers don't seem to agree with that ATM. Some want them schooled form home or to go back next year