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!

@noblegiraffe @Oaktree55 I simply don’t understand why people wouldn’t support schools being safe. It’s disappointing if people view school as childcare - I feel like I’m I don’t understand anything anymore.

Everyone should be working in safe conditions, I’ll be devastated if schools need to close, the improvement in my DC mood and interest has improved so much in just 2 weeks.
I do feel there was a missed chance in some schools to get parents on board with blended learning.
I also feel the failing of test and track fur schools (plus nhs/care) is a disgrace. This is what we should be shouting about.

@FrangipaniBlue

The thing is, there is nothing to stop your school making ppe/masks compulsory - my son's secondary have (and they're currently one of the few schools in my area not to have any "burst bubbles").

Why does your school need an "instruction from Boris" to do it? Lobby your Head and Governors if you feel so strongly about it.

Can you imagine the fuss from deniers and selfish Us4Ourselves types if schools were to insist on masks without government say so?

There is no real evidence that visors will protect you. For example,
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/22/face-shields-ineffective-trapping-aerosols-japanese-supercomputer-coronavirus
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/22/face-shields-ineffective-trapping-aerosols-japanese-supercomputer-coronavirus

I think they are really only useful to protect healthcare works in ITU in combination with other PPE to stop ingress of virus into eyes.

Masks would help teachers if you think you could teach in them. I also think all secondary school pupils should wear masks in lessons.

OP, you are anxious, and I completely understand why.

However, schools asked to be allowed to make local decisions and judgements, just like metropolitan councils have. It makes sense, if you think about it, use the guidance to make your own decisions, based upon your own area, or school. It happens in many other countries too, including Germany.

Your HT should be allowing you to wear masks if you feel unsafe. They are the ones who hold the power at YOUR school. As many pp's have said, other schools have made their own decisions based on their own circumstances. It can be done.

@onedayinthefuture

From Dfe guidance:

“Face coverings can have a negative impact on learning and teaching and so their use in the classroom should be avoided.“

Wearing a mask doesn’t make you much safer if you’ve got 30 non-mask-wearers facing you in a poorly ventilated small room.

OP it is simply dreadful and I don't know what the answer is. I do however want to point something out. If children can indeed spread the virus easily, then they won't just spread it to a teacher. They will also spread it to classmates. Children are not social distancing at all in schools (teachers are in our schools). So I have 3 DC in 3 different schools. One is in a bubble of 30, one is in a bubble of 25 and the other is in a bubble of 120 and she is doing GCSEs. Therefore as a family, we are exposed to all of these children and teachers.

I see around 50 patients a week (up close and personal), often in their homes with their family around. My DH is in the police and also up close and personal with many people.

Like most families, our exposure is high. Remember, our masks aren't protecting us, they are protecting the people we are close to. We are all in the same boat is my point, not just teachers.

If PPE would make you feel better then you simply wear it or tell your head you will be going off with stress (as you do sound incredibly stressed, understandably).

As for testing, of course it is a disgrace, we know this. Again, not just teachers in this boat. It is a massive problem for everyone. You are lucky in that you will be getting full pay whilst isolating, many won't. You will be off anyway as you say you are literally too ill to expand on your posts so clearly you would be sick off anyway even with a negative result.

I really hope that you fell better soon

[quote motherrunner]@onedayinthefuture

From Dfe guidance:

“Face coverings can have a negative impact on learning and teaching and so their use in the classroom should be avoided.“[/quote]
I am sure there is truth in this, however teaching in a classroom with a mask has to be preferable to kids being at home with bloody twinkl worksheets again? Why aren't teachers walking out until they are allowed to wear PPE (if they feel they would prefer to wear it). The teachers in my DCs school all wear masks (not England). Teachers need to stand up for themselves here, all of the parents that I know would fully support them. I would happily buy masks for our teachers if it made them feel a bit less stressed!

The situation is schools is crap. You’ve been let down. But your chances of needing an ambulance or dying are still extremely small

School staff are going to die as a direct result of what is happening now. It may not be in large numbers and it may be difficult to prove that being in school was the source of infection, but we have known all along that it would happen as soon as schools went back. Please don't make light of the situation or try to gloss over it. No one should be doing their job in the current climate with absolutely zero PPE or measures in place.

Our concerns are not necessarily about dying, however, it's about keeping schools open and providing a decent education. My friend is a supply teacher - she texted me at 8:30 today from a regular school she works in saying she was one of 11 supply teachers in today. It's not sustainable. If that's every local school, there aren't enough supply teachers to go round. Schools will be run by supply and then will close. We will sruggle to get them open again. That's not what we want. I just don't understand why people won't listen to us.

Behind a paywall, however;

21 September
"France is to relax Covid self-isolation rules in elementary and primary schools despite seeing an “exponential” rise in infections across most of the country, with the education ministry insisting younger pupils are not contagious"....

"There is no point sending pupils home when one or two classmates test positive, France has decreed"...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/21/france-relaxes-covid-rules-schools-despite-exponential-rise/

If the UK follow France I'll be deregistering. That is absolute madness. Why are they doing this to pupils and teachers? Why does it have to take people starting to die before they do anything?

I honestly do not want my school or any schools to close. I've seen first hand the effects 6 months of no schooling has had on children. Some have done well who have parents who encourage learning at home and others have been on their xbox for the past 6 months with no encouragement and are the ones who are suffering.
However, my point is that keeping teachers safe with PPE and readily accessible tests, will allow education to continue.
If I can't get a test, I self isolate for 2 weeks, my pupils education suffers. If I had the test and it said, no you don't have covid, I can come back to school once I'm feeling better. Therefore, the children may not have me for a few days, but that is better than not having me for 2 weeks...
I do not want covid, I've not kept to the rules and kept me and my family safe since March to now get it. I have known two healthy people age 35 and 47 who have died from it, so I take this virus very seriously.
Thank you for everyone's support.

I’m not sure how I can just ‘walk out’.

I have raised my concerns with my union rep, regional and national office but at the end of the day the guidance is there and my school is following it.

Schools are a very weird place to work at the moment. I wake up with anxiety but once I get here I’m in this alternate reality where it is life as usual. Then I’ll pop to the shop on my way home for some milk and I’m required to wear a mask, the Co-op is larger than my classroom but is only allowing 2 customers in at one time and the staff are behind a Perspex screen. Then I’m reminded how vulnerable I am.

@ParlezVousWronglais

I'm a teacher and Boris you have failed us. I’m a preacher and like Christ you have nailed us. I’m a creature and with lockdown you have jailed us. Like a train with no track you derailed us.

I’m a teacher, and Boris you have failed us.

Amazing! How did I miss this? X

@motherrunner

I’m not sure how I can just ‘walk out’.

I have raised my concerns with my union rep, regional and national office but at the end of the day the guidance is there and my school is following it.

Schools are a very weird place to work at the moment. I wake up with anxiety but once I get here I’m in this alternate reality where it is life as usual. Then I’ll pop to the shop on my way home for some milk and I’m required to wear a mask, the Co-op is larger than my classroom but is only allowing 2 customers in at one time and the staff are behind a Perspex screen. Then I’m reminded how vulnerable I am.

This 👆 We are being failed and not protected, are we not important? I'm the same, I'm going in to shops with a mask on and I haven't been ill, until I went back to school and I have been around 150 people a day who are not wearing masks. It really isn't hard to put two and two together here. I'm sorry you are in this situation as well x

@Beebityboo

If the UK follow France I'll be deregistering. That is absolute madness. Why are they doing this to pupils and teachers? Why does it have to take people starting to die before they do anything?

We have a reactive government, not proactive. Watch us follow Scotlands current restrictions, in 2 weeks time 😔

Teachers, you are heroes. Please wear masks, not visors. Study after study shows visors are window dressing - you need a mask to protect you from airborne virus.
I am so sorry at the way you are being treated. I have sent my kids to school in masks - other parents, please do the same. If you really want schools to stay open, vote with your feet & mask up to reduce in-school transmission.

OP, I've commented before, but wearing a mask at school is ultimately down to school/HT isn't it?
Our HT decided everyone, including teachers and students, staffs, need to wear them. There was no uproar by parents against it. And we have no case here, O positive case.

Visors are useless

I totally agree OP. My dc have wonderful, committed teachers and I think they are in a very vulnerable position. I don’t want any of them to get this disease while trying to educate my children . With so few safety measures, why are we expecting teachers to take this level of risk ? Why are we risking teens infecting the whole family ?

I am so sorry and so angry. I feel very impotent - is there a petition I can sign or anything, lame as that sounds? Or I could write to my MP (although he’s a Tory so probably not much use).

What can parents do to support teachers? I want schools to stay open but as safely as they can be, which is clearly not happening now.

@pastandpresent

OP, I've commented before, but wearing a mask at school is ultimately down to school/HT isn't it? Our HT decided everyone, including teachers and students, staffs, need to wear them. There was no uproar by parents against it. And we have no case here, O positive case.

Yes it is down to HT. I've just joined a union, I'm going to give them a call shortly and I will update this thread if they give me any useful information. For me, I've just joined this school and I am not only ill right now, but I feel uncomfortable rocking the boat in a school I love (apart from the lack of care from the HT for his staff). I don't know what to do either, my local MP is a Tory as well and didn't reply back to my DH email during covid, so I'm unlikely to get any support.

I'm so sorry you are having to go through this. The situation isn't right.

Clav entirely unsure how what France is doing is relevant here, but Boris disagrees with the French Education Minister and says that covid is readily transmissible between children and adults.

And this is why I don't want to go in tomorrow (aside from feeling utterly shite). I have a different bug( same as my children who tested negative and ended up on antibiotics). Head says go in if not covid and saying I'll let people down but nobody needs a different bug to feel shitty with and worry about at the moment.

Not been off ill ever but had to isolate as a family 2 weeks ago. Hope this is just my employer's attitude and not all primary schools.

Lots of kids feeling rough in my child's school- kids definitely seem more susceptible to winter bugs this year. Testing everyone probably is unachievable and I think we might HAVE to consider blended learning. Wonder if they relaxed childcare rules in lockdown areas for this reason?