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).

How so? You seem to know the movements of your headteacher. It sounds like you weren't getting much work done.

He would stop on my road with his deep tan and children to tell anyone who was listening about yet another day bike trip they were going on!

Good idea.

That was a reference to your PP.

You also timed the length of teachers' lunches in the park.

We absolutely do see that many people in the country have been suffering. (I don't agree it is everyone)

We are also working women.

You honestly have been going on about this since April. You need to move on. I assume your kids are back at school now.

You never mention a DP. Does he not support you with your DCs and their learning?

astonishingly self righteous posts here from a minority of teachers have upset me

Incredibly abusive posts from a large number of MNetters have upset a huge amount of teachers. Incredibly upset then in some cases.

You are contributing to that with this goady thread. If you have a problem with a minority of teachers, either engage with them as individuals or ignore them. Don’t deliberately start threads inviting the slating of teachers in general because it will hit them all.

I mean, probably because lots of teachers were working, whether online or in school.

My school was open for around 300 children.

Quite, noble and piggy.

Schools are not shut now though unless there is an outbreak of Covid across multiple bubbles. Schools are back full time.

Nope, my job is very secure and I’m not slightly worried about being made redundant. If I am,
I will easily find another teaching job

I just don't get why these teachers don't see that everyone in the country has been suffering. That millions of people have been trying to hold down a job while looking after children at home.

Teachers are 'everyone' too. I also had to hold down my job while looking after children at home. What did you want? A teacher to personally come to your house every day and teach your child while you worked?

Teachers didn't cause covid.
Teachers didn't choose to close schools.
Teachers didnt write the schools lockdown guidance.
Teachers didnt decide the length of lockdown.
Teachers didnt organise your relationship so that you took the hit on homeschooling.
Teachers didnt cause systemic sexism that put you in this position.
Teachers didnt cause a decade of increasing poverty.
Teachers didnt make children vulnerable.
Teachers didnt decide that the curriculum should be paused.
Teachers didnt do anything to you personally.

It's time for your to redirect you anger towards the government. And probably move your children from a school you are unhappy with.

I think people struggle to understand that the fact that their child’s school didn’t provide adequate provision actually has absolutely nothing to do with teachers who don’t teach at that school.

Amazingly, teachers are all individual people with different motivations and work ethics. Same with SLT, heads etc. The fact that you were unhappy with the provision your children received says nothing about the provision that a different school gives. I don’t have any say over or responsibility for what a different school gives their children. It’s a waste of time to insist anything different.

If you don’t like the provision offered by your child’s school and have followed all avenues directly with the school and local authority to raise your concerns and nothing has improved then it sounds like you need to move schools.

@Piggywaspushed, maybe they haven't actually been sacked- the communication I had was that they were no longer employed by the school.

It's interesting that you said that teachers should not be working as tutors during school hours. My DC had english, maths and science tutors during lockdown as their school provided barely any teaching. All three work for a school in the large town close to us. All this was done during school hours, and I've kept them all on as I feel it's only a matter of time before school closes again.

Do you understand the concept of redundancy OP? As long as schools need to be staffed by teachers, teachers can't be made redundant. Whether or not it is safe for the school to be fully open has no bearing on the need for the role.

If I have to SI I will provide live lessons but I can't make pupils attend them. If I'm furloughed or made redundant I provide nothing at all.

Why don't you retrain as a teacher? It's a blast. Feet up drinking gin in the garden all day. Could it be because you know it isn't really like that at all?

Chaotic bad teachers are those who work as tutors during school hours and yet you yourself have hired teachers to do this for your own kids?

@ohthegoats totally agree with everything you have said in your last post. This is exactly how I feel too.

Teachers do not live in a bubble separate from the rest of society.
Teachers are not an homogeneous group of people.
Teachers have her affected by the fall out from Covid too (could be through death of a loved one, illness, home schooling, job loss, poor mental health for themselves or their children, reduced household income, increased work hours etc.)

I guess what sets teachers apart from much of the rest of the country are a) they get paid in full when they are not working b) if they don't work, you can't work (if you are a parent).

So I don't think it's right to say it's just like any other job.

@noblegiraffe- I didn't say there were bad, although I do obviously see why it could be a bad thing for their 'regular' pupils. It's not possible for me to know whether tutoring my DC means that they are or aren't doing a decent job of teaching their own pupils.

A previous listed said it was illegal for an agency to hire teachers to work during school hours. That was the comment that I was responding to.

I absolutely do see why hiring private tutors means I could be contributing to the problem but after it became clear that DC's secondary were not going to provide any reasonable home learning resources I felt I had to take matters into my own hands. It's not ideal, or fair, or right.

Teachers are not an homogeneous group of people

Yes. I tried to make this clear a few times

Can I ask, what is the difference between my sister who was furloughed on full pay until last week, and wasn’t expected to do any work as per furlough rules, and a teacher receiving their salary during lockdown but having to do some work such as providing online learning? Hundreds of thousands or people didn’t work but still received full pay, either through furlough or their employer. And yet its teachers who get a bashing!

Most furloughed people got 80% I believe. Well done your sister for getting more!

I take your point and more less said this above. It’s very unfair on people like you. Maybe the nation just needs an apology.

On behalf of teachers everywhere, I'd like to apologise for complying with national lockdown regulations. I'd like to apologise for not personally supplying every pupil with a laptop, paying for their internet package and for not having the wherewithal to generate a holographic version of myself in each pupils home, so that I could give them live feedback. I apologise for only marking and feeding back on the work I'd received - I probably should have reminded each pupil who hadn't completed the work (and their parents) more than twice. Perhaps I should've gone round and knocked on every door, waiting for them to produce each piece of work, completed to an acceptable standard. Maybe I could've done more than record my concerns electronically so that their form tutor could contact them in person. I accept that now.

I'm really, really sorry that I supervised key worker and vulnerable children every week. I genuinely thought it was better than leaving hospitals, care homes and supermarkets understaffed. That sounds ridiculous in hindsight. As for the vulnerable children, I just didn't have it in me to tell them they couldn't come to a safe place where they'd be fed and supported with their online learning.

Please accept my apologies for testing the water by teaching Year 10 pupils face to face throughout June and July. In my defence, I thought it would benefit them to revise one of their GCSE texts. I'm also really sorry that I couldn't give my Year 11s the opportunity to prove they deserved their CAGs by sitting the external exams. I'm truly ashamed.

I prostrate myself before your better judgement. What can I say, OP? We teachers are very sorry to have disappointed you, Us4Ourselves, the Daily Mail and the Covid deniers.

Can you give us a fucking break now? Thanks.

@notevenat20

How so? You seem to know the movements of your headteacher. It sounds like you weren't getting much work done.

He would stop on my road with his deep tan and children to tell anyone who was listening about yet another day bike trip they were going on!

I can guarantee that this never happened.

@notevenat20

Lots of my friends had their furlough topped up by their employer to make 100% salary