I'm a teacher and Boris you have failed us

[NewnameNelly]

My school has no ppe, we have a cleaner wiping touch points all through the day. We have antibacterial hand-wash and sanitiser, but it still isn't compulsory for us to wear masks/face shields. Two weeks in to us starting back and I'm off sick waiting for a home test and I've been trying to get hold of one for the past 2 days and all I am getting is this. Come back later, what when I'm calling an ambulance or dead. So much for having key workers as a priority. University lecturers are making students wear masks and so are they but us teachers are being completely forgotten. If you want your children to have an education, you need to protect and look after the teachers! Boris you have failed me!

I'm guessing that 40 kids spaced out with masks and mitigation measures is safer for teachers than 30 kids crammed in with no masks and mitigation measures, so you'd have fewer teachers off too.

I'm guessing that 40 kids spaced out with masks and mitigation measures is safer for teachers than 30 kids crammed in with no masks and mitigation measures, so you'd have fewer teachers off too.

Indeed. We could copy Taiwan as well - they banned overseas travel for teachers and pupils - private trips as well as school trips - we could ban teachers from travelling overseas at half-term.

Indeed. The average class size in Thailand is 40-50 students per class - teachers move from room to room. Sounds like a plan if we put the pupils in boxes - fewer teachers required if some teachers are self isolating

Clav how do you propose this working here?

Most posters: Blimey, things really are quite shit for teachers.
Clavinova: Here are some suggestions for making their lives worse.

What on earth is your motivation?

@Clavinova

I'm guessing that 40 kids spaced out with masks and mitigation measures is safer for teachers than 30 kids crammed in with no masks and mitigation measures, so you'd have fewer teachers off too.

Indeed. We could copy Taiwan as well - they banned overseas travel for teachers and pupils - private trips as well as school trips - we could ban teachers from travelling overseas at half-term.

Wow.

noblegiraffe

"BANGKOK - The Covid-19 outbreak gave Thai education an unexpected leg-up by forcing even the most resistant teachers to learn how to deliver lessons through video conferencing, says Thailand's education minister Nataphol Teepsuwan."

"In an interview with The Straits Times this week, he said less than 50 per cent of Thai teachers had basic digital skills like video conferencing before the pandemic. But some 98 per cent are now proficient."

"They learned from their fellow teachers, younger teachers. They learned among themselves. They learned from their children. They learned from whomever they could, without full assistance from the ministry of education," said Mr Nataphol. "It was a blessing in disguise."

"Budget funds that went unused for activities cut short by the pandemic, like scout camps, were redirected to purchasing the equipment needed for remote learning."

www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/coronavirus-pandemic-forced-thai-teachers-to-acquire-digital-skills-education-minister

What on earth is your motivation?

Can’t we just try and guess what Clav’s husband does?

For those kids at Primary there are many ways to learn.. BBC bite size.. YouTube.. a walk in the woods.. board games. Remember on the continent kids don't even start school until 7 .

But who will take them on those walks? And play the games with them? And watch them whilst they are on YouTube? If their parents are workers?

Clav how do you propose this working here?

Well obviously I am just illustrating that we don't want to copy Thailand with 40-50 pupils per class in boxes.

Not sure what your point is, Clav, I'm not going overseas at half term but due to quarantine rules neither are many other teachers, and I too, have been 'forced' to acquire digital conferencing skills and to deliver teaching remotely. The fact that Taiwan has actually funded the equipment to do this where I have had to buy my own equipment to facilitate this is something that I would consider a positive.

Well obviously

Not obvious at all Clav - given your complete defence of the Torys and absolute lack of knowing of the state sector 🤷🏻‍♀️

The fact that Taiwan [Thailand] has actually funded the equipment to do this where I have had to buy my own equipment to facilitate this is something that I would consider a positive.

The article suggests the schools funded the equipment - budget savings from cancelled activities.

budget savings from cancelled activities

Not applicable in the U.K. - that’s been explained several gazillion times.

I was being 'tongue in cheek' in several posts. It wasn't me who posted;

"This is what Thailand a developing country with seemingly no COVID looks like in the schools."

Either you want to copy Thailand or you don't. Similarly, Keir Starmer and others want us to have a test and trace system like South Korea. They don't really do they?

"South Korea is also enforcing a law that grants the government wide authority to access data: CCTV footage, GPS tracking data from phones and cars, credit card transactions, immigration entry information, and other personal details of people confirmed to have an infectious disease."

Either you want to copy Thailand or you don't

No, that's daft and you know it. Like I said above, there are loads of stages between Thailand and England which would be both safer and more acceptable.

I'm clinically vulnerable but not shielded. I work in infants but my role means I work in every class, so 270 children a week. There's no SDjng at all. Children touch you constantly. Their normal hygiene at 4-7y isn't great. This year is no different. I've been coughed and sneezed on daily. The windows open a bit but not fully. Rooms aren't well ventilated.

I can wear a visor if I want but we know these are pointless. I wear a mask in the playground around parents but not anywhere else in schoolZ

And although I'm in a bubble of 270 children I'm not allowed to be near other adults at school. So I can use the same kettle for drinks as one year group but have to SD from them which means I sit alone for breaks and lunch - in reality I sit at my desk and work alone each day. Staff meetings I sit to one side on my own rather than on a year group bubble table. When working on other classrooms behind my normal mine I'm not supposed to touch anything and if I do I need to clean it before and after use.

I managed three days before catching my first bug. Had sore throat and then a cold. Finally ended up with a sickness bug.

It's all pretty miserable from my side though I do realise it's important for the children to be there. I was so looking forward to normality but it's all a bit rubbish.

I've had a dreadful lockdown with three close family deaths, long working days doing home learning inc holidays and weekend, the a level and university debacle with Dd, etc. The deaths would have been awful anyway especially so many close together but Covid restrictions meant everything was so much harder. And work commitments meant there was no time to just take a break and switch off. Tomorrow Dd goes to university amidst a local lockdown and government threats of not being allowed home. I've never suffered from MH issues fortunately but lately I spend too much time feeling sad and near tears. It just feels like it's never going to end. I though being back working in school would help but it's just making me feel more isolated than ever.

Shutting the pubs at ten is meaningless. It's a meaningless gesture.

I was at a wedding in London yesterday. At 10pm we left the venue to go back to our hotel.

We had to walk past Oxford Circus at around 10:15pm and it was a nightmare. The queues and crowds to access the underground was dozens thick. No social distancing. Lots of very drunk people of all ages all together with no masks and stood should to shoulder.

We were walking and able to skirt around it but I was shocked at how busy some parts of the streets became just after 10.

I don't know what the answer to that bit is, but last night the curfew was certainly not helping the crowds to not socially interest.

We Don't have to copy Thailand but I would like a large dollop of that forward thinking problem solving. Yes.

I can't understand why there are no more perspex screens in the classrooms.
Why can't at least disposable masks be handed out, after gelling hands, worn for the duration of the class then chuck, hand gel and so on?
Lessons would be shorter due to managing this process but so what?

Teachers could also teach behind perspex screens .

There is so much more that could be done, it's jenny harries who makes my blood boil.. She said no further measures need to be taken because of the seating plan ie facing forward!

And yes as a hlta, despite the fact I teach every child in school with no SDing whilst being vulnerable , I don't qualify for priority testing either.

I think they forgot about TAs when doing the priority testing list because Eton doesn't have them.

@Clavinova

The fact that Taiwan [Thailand] has actually funded the equipment to do this where I have had to buy my own equipment to facilitate this is something that I would consider a positive.

The article suggests the schools funded the equipment - budget savings from cancelled activities.

How many times had it been pointed out to you Clav that state schools DO NOT have any leftover money to put towards anything.

I’m pretty sure that, unlike Thailand, English schools will not have any budget left over from cancelled scout camps.

Either you want to copy Thailand or you don't.

It's really odd and strangler limited to think in such black and white terms.

And don't worry @Clavinova, in sure the govt will see to it that teachers don't go abroad in half term by stealth, through timing a fire break lockdown to coincide with our holiday. Of course we're not free to use our annual leave at any other time. Banning us from travelling by stealth.

Strangler? strangely!

@deflationexasperation

We Don't have to copy Thailand but I would like a large dollop of that forward thinking problem solving. Yes.

I can't understand why there are no more perspex screens in the classrooms.
Why can't at least disposable masks be handed out, after gelling hands, worn for the duration of the class then chuck, hand gel and so on?
Lessons would be shorter due to managing this process but so what?

Teachers could also teach behind perspex screens .

There is so much more that could be done, it's jenny harries who makes my blood boil.. She said no further measures need to be taken because of the seating plan ie facing forward!

Because the government said social distancing would be enough; that we don't need further measures ... And what they actually meant - that schools don't have the money to fund this.