Teaching during a pandemic

[NebularNerd]

I posted before going back to work about my concerns about teaching at the moment, about feeling unsafe.

Since going back I'm finding there is little/no social distancing between students and staff. No/little opportunity to clean hands as I run between different bubbles for every lesson. We wear masks in corridors which is something, but not in the classrooms. I teach secondary.

Like everybody else, I'm just getting on with it. I'm hoping we're lucky and it doesn't reach our school, because if it does the 'safety measures' won't protect staff. When we have rules such as the rule of six outside of work I just can't my head around it.

As the numbers rise once more and staff and students begin to test positive, I'm wondering what is next for schools.

How are other teachers getting on?

Loved being back at work
I'm not worried about corona, so I'm confident/ happy.
However, I can completely understand why , if you were anxious / worried you wouldn't be happy as a teacher right now.
Bubbles of hundreds, zero distancing really...

Im supposed to be shielding but I never did and I personally have never been bothered by any of this but I still feel that teachers, like doctors and nurses with the horrific lack of PPE during the peak, have been thrown under the bus somewhat....

Wolff - that sounds awful - and unsustainable.

school is like a parallel universe where the onus for infection control in my classroom is on me alone, yet I have to accept all the risk

I agree with this.

Infant teacher. Lots of the children trying to hold my hand, cuddle me, sneeze in my face. Handwashing takes ages.

It's fabulous being back at school and I feel positive for now but who knows what will happen.

Is anyone else noticong a change in atmosphere at work?

At first, everyone was relieved to be back but the worrying seems to have increased massively today. No SD, no masks, cases rising every day... I have heard several people say its like March again.

I work in a special school and today met with the therapists who support our children. They wont come in without full PPE and said that were they in my situation (was in shielded group) there is no way they would be allowed to work in a school ....

Huge high school.
Kids back last week.
4 teachers already isolating - two still can't get tests.
Bubbles of 300.
10 minutes chopped off our lunch time.
Complicated one way system which collapsed yesterday when a year 7 threw up and part of it had to be sectioned off for cleaning, meaning change over resulted in two bubbles having to meet.
Year 7 brought his mask to me and waved it in my face, because it had broken.
Windows that should be able to open are still closed, due to not being fixed.
SLT are doing their best - but it's like trying to push back the tide.
Shambles.

Senior admin staff here. Teachers lunch breaks in our schools are down to 45 minutes and they have to do two break times a week. I now do every lunch duty, setting up and clearing the dining hall, mixing with every child in the school and cleaning 60x chairs and tables 4 times a day (between bubbles) It takes 2.5 hrs out of my day which I really can’t spare!

My to-do list is now so long that I’ve given up trying to keep up with it. I’m paid 8-3.30 but work 7.15-4/5pm every day.

For the first time in my time in education, I have been composing resignation letters as I stack the dining chairs and heave around tables yet again.

Started in school yesterday. Not one thing mentioned about covid precautions despite a document that I had read in advance outlining x, y and z. None of that was happening. Told on several occasions, 'we don't really mind, but do what you are comfortable with'. There's no way I can learn to teach my subject well from the front so I won't be. I can't afford to fail the year. I cannot see the point at all in bubbles if staff are popping those bubbles. Pointless. Scary. Stressful.

@Dorual

I'd give anything to be in secondary instead right now!

Would you really? The grass isn’t always greener. I work across the year groups in a school with 1,700 students and am still going to teach in 2 other huge secondary schools in our Trust. That’s about 4,000. Albeit in the other trusts I only teach 3 year groups.

@Scoopstroop

Im coming face to face with 600 people a day. Visor only. No ventilation. No open windows. Guests need help with the menu. I cant serve people from 2m away. Obviously. My arms are not 2m long. Im handling things people have had in their mouths. Hundreds of times a day. Not touching books is just daft. I agree its not a competition but another perspecive might help some people to feel less like the victim when they realise others are working in the same or worse conditions. And have been throughout. My sister works with disabled adults. My brother works in a residential childrens home. Both earn much less than a teacher does. As do I. We have no choice.

Well done. Perhaps you'd like to start your own thread about how workers in the hospitality industry are coping and not come barging on to one headed "Teaching in a pandemic" to offer us the benefit of your own completely irrelevant experience?

@overtherainbow88

I didn't say I'd rather be you... just that I'd rather be working in secondary. I've worked in both before and unless you've worked in Foundation it's hard to get across the complete loss of personal space. And basic hygiene. Plus I'm sure secondary kids and teachers will allowed masks at some point, but definitely not in early years. AND we have to have a bigger adult bubble of 6 staff, rather than just one teacher and one LSA (if you're lucky).

@Scoopstroop

Im coming face to face with 600 people a day. Visor only. No ventilation. No open windows. Guests need help with the menu. I cant serve people from 2m away. Obviously. My arms are not 2m long. Im handling things people have had in their mouths. Hundreds of times a day. Not touching books is just daft. I agree its not a competition but another perspecive might help some people to feel less like the victim when they realise others are working in the same or worse conditions. And have been throughout. My sister works with disabled adults. My brother works in a residential childrens home. Both earn much less than a teacher does. As do I. We have no choice.

This is a thread about teaching I spent all of yesterday sat next to a child with a streaming cold With no ppe In a classroom of children With the same streaming cold With no ppe I spent all monday with a child coughing in my face. With no ppe I don't get paid enough to even cover my childcare Im on the shielding list Is this a weird competition of who has it the worst that I don't know about? I wonder if so if any doctors or nurses With inadequate ppe Working with covid patients Would like to weigh in?

Having just RTFT I think it's the shitshow it was expected to be & I'd have seriously been considering striking by now!
I'm not going to give any comments which may seem patronising so I'll just settle for: to all teachers, as a parent, thank you.

Firstly can i say a massive THANK YOU to all school staff, i think you are doing an amazing job under incredibly difficult conditions. I just can't imagine.

I really wonder if all year groups had gone back to school in June as originally planned, whether some of the current problems might have been ironed out by now, without the addition of autumn coughs and colds. What are your thoughts? I know it's too late for what ifs but a lot of people at the time did think it was a mistake to put it off.

@musicalfrog I work in primary. I think we should have been allowed to have children back in on rotas from June but still in bubbles / groups of 12-15 max which are kept separate from other bubbles within school. As hospital admissions were low then I think the key worker status should have been dropped so this could happen. The government should have given money for additional cleaning, soap and Covid costs to all schools and mandate that all school staff should be given the right to wear a clear visor if they choose. Shielding staff could and children could stay at home and the staff prepare, resource and feedback lessons for these children. This system would have allowed all children to come back to school (albeit part time), offered some protection to shielding staff and children and enabled schools to assess how well their risk assessments were working before the September start.

I believe that secondary schools should be treated differently to primary as they have different issues to deal with such as larger pupil numbers (in many cases) and students moving around site more. I personally believe that secondaries should be working in blended learning now so that students can be taught in small groups for 1 weeks for intense teaching then complete follow up work at home for the next week to consolidate learning to keep schools open this term and reduce disruption to learning.

Teachers and all school staff, I am so grateful for all you are doing for our children. I want you to be safe. You didn't sign up for this. xxxxx

Ophelias we know its not a competition.

End of march I was in hospital, for an op. I know what they did, i know the surgeon, nurses, even the taxi driver who took me had it worse than teachers but its a thread about education.

@PheasantPlucker1

Ophelias we know its not a competition.

End of march I was in hospital, for an op. I know what they did, i know the surgeon, nurses, even the taxi driver who took me had it worse than teachers but its a thread about education.

You didn't write the post I was taking the piss out of though. Why is someone writing about working ok restaurants in a thread about education, as you so rightly pointed out?

Huge apologies Ophelia, I missed the middle bit of your post

Hope your day has been slightly better.

@PheasantPlucker1

Huge apologies Ophelia, I missed the middle bit of your post

Hope your day has been slightly better.

I don't work on Wednesdays...I'm just waiting for either the cold or the cough I'm certainly going to get from Monday and Tuesday....and then presumably I won't be able to work for 2 weeks as there are no available tests......

Haven’t seen anyone in here mention that Johnson has now said that’s it’s clear infection passes easily from children to adults (in defence of children being included in the rule of 6). Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the whole basis of allowing schools back as normal without SD that children didn’t pass it to adults?

I started a thread on it, cardibach

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4025351-It-is-alas-a-fact-of-the-disease-that-it-is-readily-transmissible-between-children-and-adults

The response seems to be 'of course kids can transmit it, nobody ever said that they couldn't'

We do seem to have imagined a lot of stuff around this pandemic, @noblegiraffe. Must be an aspect of the virus...
Hadn’t seen the thread I’ll look now.

I teach in a PRU. They spit.
Add the fact that my own kids are at 3 different schools (infant, junior, secondary) so as a household we are coming in to contact with literally hundreds of other households.
Something’s got to give...

@Jenniferturkington

I teach in a PRU. They spit. Add the fact that my own kids are at 3 different schools (infant, junior, secondary) so as a household we are coming in to contact with literally hundreds of other households. Something’s got to give...

Oh I feel you! Another SEN teacher here. The number of bodily fluids I have been in contact with this week alone!!! I'm sure the cold I have got now is just going to morph into another one from whoever does something vile to me next .