Have state school teachers faced redundancy for not working during lockdown?

[notevenat20]

I recently read

I think those of us who work in the private sector understand we are going to have to work during periods of self isolation whilst juggling family. It was the same during lockdown. We want to keep our jobs so we will have to provide the service.

This got me wondering, is this a pressure state school teachers feel too?

Certainly at DC’s school no educational provision was given for almost all of lockdown (there were 6 key worker children in the school, out of 420).

I swear one is a Tory plant

Wouldn’t surprise me. Might even be BoJo, given how little else he seems to be doing 🤷🏻‍♀️

They only attended on 6 days as we were trying to minimise contact due to the nature of my job. I was obviously keen to protect other children plus the school team from exposure.
But yes I did think the school could have done more. Before you ask - yes I did contact them about this.

I like the school, I have enormous respect for the deputy head, I will talk to her about it at some point. I think it was a leadership issue (new head) and lack of willingness from some staff (refusing your go in).

There are definitely political workers all over social media trying to influence people. Not just from this country either.

Yep, and some of the most vicious are from parental campaign groups.

Watching the news- America even more terrible if they manage to appoint another right winger in the Supreme Court.. we could be worse. ..

saltyandfresh "I really hope you'll be freeing up a space in state education to home ed your child with all these fabulous US resources. I'm sure schools would love to replace teachers at four quid an hour, but they might find that behaviour management and assessment is something of an issue. Good luck with preparing you DCs for GCSE."

I never did mention 4 quid an hour.

I never advocated for schools to replace teachers at 4 quid an hour.

I did mention US resources.

You have misinterpreted a separate poster mentioning an art class.

I mentioned there are lots of different resources out there, both in the UK and further afield.

It is getting ridiculous.

I said I would leave and I really must.

Some schools were brilliant, some not, I don’t know why there is a need to defend the ones who were poor. That’s what gets people backs up.On the nhs threads, when people are critical, there’s normally someone apologising if care wasn’t correct and offering to help, rather than aiming to belittle or deny.

What a great point. Thank you.

@zoras

Thank you for your really valuable comments. Is there any chance I could get some of the US resources that you mentioned from you?

Pomegranatepompom
These threads turn nasty because a few posters refuse to accept that some schools/teachers made little effort and trot out unhelpful we’re not childcare/parents can’t be bothered comments

Lack of provision has been accepted and explained as far as it can be.

But I am surprised that you don't see the title of the thread as generalised goady rubbish by a poster with form for goading teachers.

This thread started with the OP copying and pasting someone else's comment from another thread (without their knowledge) and wilfully misconstruing it. The thread from which it was magpie was actually , for the most part, perfectly civil. Funny that.
Read the OP title , then read the comment. They don't match.

When reported to MNHQ they will let these threads run as , for some reason, they think the coronavirus board is a version of AIBU.

On the nhs threads, when people are critical, there’s normally someone apologising if care wasn’t correct and offering to help, rather than aiming to belittle or deny.

This literally happens all the time on threads about schools.

But this isn't a poster asking for help. This is someone wanting to know if teachers are going to be sacked.

*I wonder if there was an element of claiming they didn't have any work and parents not checking?
*

This definitely happened in several situations, both by older pupils at secondary and also parents of pupils in primary. Also complaints saying there was no work which just meant no work they fancied doing or not in the format they wanted ie not face to face in school, or not using the school approved system and only wanting 1:1 calls from staff members.

@Piggywaspushed

But this isn't a poster asking for help. This is someone wanting to know if teachers are going to be sacked.

@Piggywaspushed I agree. I reported the thread yesterday as soon I read the OP but I’m disappointed MNHQ didn’t take it down.

It’s obvious the thread was designed to stir up unnecessary criticism. I posted several times about the full timetable of lessons my pupils had in their state school and also the provision my own children had at their state primary but those posts were wilfully ignored as they obviously don’t fit the ‘lazy teachers/schools’ narrative.

But I am surprised that you don't see the title of the thread as generalised goady rubbish by a poster with form for goading teachers.

Does goad mean criticise here? I have noticed MN has its own vocab as well as acronyms.

Oh don't be so disingenuous. You have been on MN some time.

@Mogtheforgetfulmum

What a pointless thread... this has repeatedly been discussed on countless threads.

There will always be people in any industry or vocation who try to get away with doing very little. So many stories of 'my neighbour is a teacher and I saw them sitting in the garden in the middle of the day AND I saw them going out for bike rides'. I was working whilst looking after a 1 year old throughout lockdown (teachers, like everyone else, had to look after their own children and homeschool them too) so I would have to catch up on most of my work after 7pm. Neighbours probably saw me going out on walks in the middle of the day but they will have had no idea how much I was doing. How could anyone. My head of department was pretty much working 12 hour days.

We got very little in return from the kids, despite our best efforts. So I find it mind boggling listening to all these parents complaining. The majority of our parents didn't even make their kids do any of the work we spent hours preparing each week. We had to practically beg them to do anything. We also had a huge number of kids lie and tell their parents they had been sent nothing. Not always the kids you would expect either- good ones did this too, prompted by their friends. They deleted emails, deleted google classroom invites so parents were none the wiser. I wonder if any of those parents are on this thread now complaining that the school 'didn't send them anything'.

Staff at my school also had to deliver food parcels to almost 50% of our pupils families which took a significant amount of logistical planning and time out of each week.

I don't even know why I'm writing this. I've been going into work for the last 3 weeks with none of the PPE or safety afforded to ALL other professions. I've had to comfort colleagues in tears, terrified they're going to bring this home to their vulnerable family members. We are working harder than ever as we are moving from room to room and have had to significantly adapt our long term planning and lesson plans. We have had to deal with the emotional fallout of lockdown with kids who have suffered from a lack of any rules, routine or consistency for the last 6 months- to say the least. I teach 300 students a week. I'm exhausted. Then I come on to read this.

What a perfect summation, this reflects my experience exactly.

And yet again @notevenat20 has proved my point as they have ignored my post about the excellent state school provision my school provides and my own children received.

Does goad mean criticise here?

No. It means goad.

Hope it’s going ok so far this term.

I can’t even put in to words how awfully you are coming across OP. If you had a bad experience with your children’s’ school not providing work during lockdown you should have complained to the Head, Senior Leadership, the governors or the Local Education Authority. You issue would then have been addressed. In the meantime you could have used National Oak Academy lessons, which allowed students to work independently and were a very expensive investment by the government.

I’m a Secondary School teacher and I worked everyday during lockdown for a minimum of 8 hours (not including breaks), often more. So did everyone I work with and everyone I used to work with at my old school. If you want a breakdown of what I was doing I was planning content for the summer and autumn terms, delivering live lessons, recording video lessons and messages, setting assignments, marking assignments, phoning my form (32 kids every week), doing online Professional Development, training newly qualified teachers, attending Management, department and year group meetings. This list is not exhaustive. The job was much harder then in school, because it was much more boring and difficult without being able to interact with the kids face to face. But I kept on, because like the vast majority of teachers I am a professional, I love my job and I knew everyone was struggling through lockdown. It was also incredibly emotionally draining as I work in quite a rough part of a London and I was very worried about the wellbeing of my students without the physical support system of school.

But you are right- most teachers are lazy, work shy freeloaders with well paid, cushy jobs who deserve to be publicly fired and forced to apologise to the nation as a whole. The education system would definitely improve as a result.

Hi @SmileEachDay, hope your username means you are IRL at the moment.

One year group isolating, racing around to classes like the proverbial fly and each day is a blur between duty-teaching-duty-teaching, but I’m still standing so I’m taking that as a win each day!

We have one year group out also mother - and cover is crazy!!

Glad you’re still on your feet ⭐️

Not on the threads I have seen @Piggywaspushed
there’s a core group of teachers that pretty much come on the thread and reply in a defensive, dismissive and sometimes rude/patronising manner.

@FrippEnos yes thread title unhelpful and unnecessary.