What's going to happen with schools?

[NebularNerd]

I'm a secondary teacher and I've posted before about my concerns about going back to work. For context, my husband was previously shielding which adds to my fear of catching this thing & I have two young children.

So I'm back at work, no social distancing possible but at least we wear masks I'm the corridors. I'm in the North East so in local lockdown, so not allowed to see friends or family, but still in daily close contact with hundreds of people.

I'm fucking exhausted at the end of each day as we have to move classroom for every single lesson as the students stay in their bubbles. Behaviour is worse.

Daily cases in schools in the local vicinity.

Staff off self isolating, awaiting test results. Students off in droves too.

And we're only four weeks in.

Honestly, how long is this sustainable?

Isn't that more because cases were low in the community in June? Would social distancing really happen? Back in June schools were all over the news saying that even with 15 they couldn't SD.

Every school is doing tithings differently. From a parents perspective my dcs schools are handling it well and it's nothing like described on here in terms of packed corridors and bubbles of hundreds.

Not claiming to have a solution anyway. I acknowledge the work teachers do. My dc are so happy in school so most teachers must be doing a great job.

What I would like to see is some personal responsibility to not send Covid into school. I'm happy to limit our social interactions and activities so that none of us take Covid into school or work. Yes that makes life shit but I just see it as trying to get through this time and trying to keep our employment and our children's education going.

@Missingsockswheresotheygo No, most schools couldn't do 2m but we could seat children at separate desks. Transmission was low then, and it should have been low to return schools fully in September. Whatever the difference is now, it hasn't worked. The problem isn't schools opening full time. It's the level of incidence. Schools began by reflecting the scale of incidence in the community, but due to the nature of in person schooling going on now here they inevitably enhance spread.

@Missingsockswheresotheygo

Isn't that more because cases were low in the community in June? Would social distancing really happen? Back in June schools were all over the news saying that even with 15 they couldn't SD.

Every school is doing tithings differently. From a parents perspective my dcs schools are handling it well and it's nothing like described on here in terms of packed corridors and bubbles of hundreds.

Not claiming to have a solution anyway. I acknowledge the work teachers do. My dc are so happy in school so most teachers must be doing a great job.

What I would like to see is some personal responsibility to not send Covid into school. I'm happy to limit our social interactions and activities so that none of us take Covid into school or work. Yes that makes life shit but I just see it as trying to get through this time and trying to keep our employment and our children's education going.

How do you know your not sending Covid into school? Not just you me also as well as others.

Unless you WFM only and just do your grocery shop online?

Well no one can guarantee 100% can they.

I see it as having a quota of risk. We have no choice but to go to school/work, but we don't do any other risky things.

Secondary schools barely had anyone in in June. Primary schools only had half of the years groups in.

Of course it made a difference. My DD couldn’t catch it from school in June because she was at home due to being in Y2.

@Missingsockswheresotheygo

Well no one can guarantee 100% can they.

I see it as having a quota of risk. We have no choice but to go to school/work, but we don't do any other risky things.

No. But what I’m trying to say is with people mixing on a weekend this is always going to happen.. children testing positive at some point. Especially in the schools that are 3 formed.

This is so hard. Honestly it’s not going to change unless your individual school closes due to an outbreak, or the government shuts schools full time or partially, or there’s a vaccine.
I think we have to find a way to be ok with it and if we can’t then we need to look at speaking to SLT, and potentially getting signed off with stress. Because however wrong it is that the government hasn’t put enough in place to make this safe (and ultimately it’s the kids who will potentially suffer as a result due to more disruption), there’s nothing we can do about it.
I am personally ok with being in work, I’m in primary which is different but we all have colds so it shows how fucked we would be if Covid got into the class. I have basically just accepted that. There’s lots of reasons why people won’t be able to accept that due to their own personal risk or that of their households. I’ve accepted that I can’t see my parents other than outside and from 2m with a mask on because of it, but there’s nothing else I can do honestly without being signed off, so I’ve just made myself be ok with it.

@kiwibee

There will be many teachers signed off by Christmas. I don’t know anyone who works in a school who isn’t on their knees already.

Please stop saying things like this - especially if you don't work in a school (not sure whether you do or not). It's really embarrassing and makes us look, at best, severely lacking in resilience and, at worst, totally pathetic. Consider what doctors and nurses have been through and are starting to go through again. Teaching can't come close to comparing to that and most of us are only 3-4 weeks in. We're certainly not all 'on our knees already'.

Teachers working in very large, poorly Covid adapted secondaries may well be. Teachers with pre existing physical and mental health vulnerabilities may well be. Senior Leadership Team teachers may well be. But the average teacher is, in my experience, really doing okay right now!

I'm very happy to be back. Many things are worse than normal. But it's a whole lot better than online learning.

@year5teacher that's what I mean. We are in a lockdown area anyway. But because there is risk involved in our family going to school and work. I wouldn't go visiting family anyway, I wouldn't go and sit in a packed restaurant for 2 hours. I wouldn't host a children's party. Too many potential chains of transmission.

There have been a few cases in one of my children's schools. It thankfully didn't spread to anyone else or the teachers.

It depends on the teachers surely?

The fantastic teachers I have spoken to are

• on the one hand delighted to be back with the kids as they love teaching and didn't particularly like being stuck at home

but

• on the other hand are very aware that schools are not a covid secure environment and, given the buildings they have and resources they have, with the best will in the world, that can't be changed.

We need to revisit this urgently

@Missingsockswheresotheygo exactly - it’s shit not being able to see my family in the same way that my siblings who WFH can but ultimately it’s my job and there’s nothing I can do about it. We just have to find a way to be ok with it. That’s not easy but it’s the only viable thing other than somehow not going to work.

Our school is fine, teachers all seem to be happy and doing fine. Things must be very very different where you live? Maybe you are in a dif country? As far as I have heard the U.K. government is doing everything possible to keep schools OPEN. I don't really know of anywhere that is closing schools because teachers are "tired from wearing PPE & walking to different classrooms"?

But the average teacher is, in my experience, really doing okay right now!

That's not my experience in a ms secondary that has taken covid security as seriously as it can.

Some of this is down to leadership decisions re workload. However a large part is the change in routines, heavier timetables and exhaustion.

Nowhere is closing because teachers are tired. They're closing because teachers have Covid-19.

@scarfy

Our school is fine, teachers all seem to be happy and doing fine. Things must be very very different where you live? Maybe you are in a dif country? As far as I have heard the U.K. government is doing everything possible to keep schools OPEN. I don't really know of anywhere that is closing schools because teachers are "tired from wearing PPE & walking to different classrooms"?

I’m fairly sure no teacher is going to be confiding in parents of their students about how tired and fed up they are, especially primary teachers who permanently wear their game face in my experience. The U.K. government is doing nothing to keep schools open other than decreeing that they must be open - SLT and all other school staff are busting a gut to do their best to fit with the ludicrous guidance. No one has said that schools are closed because teachers are tired for any reason (particularly the goady quote that you have made up) and your lack of understanding shows your true colours quite starkly.

@Missingsockswheresotheygo

Yes and lots of workplace Covid regulations are shit, and our Covid secure regulations are poor, and I'd rather be around hundreds of kids than hundreds of members of the public that we get.

But whatever I say you'll come back to tell me why you are worse off.

The m just not sure what teachers want. Apart from part time school or school closures.

A little compassion and understanding of their difficult position would be nice.

But carry on kicking them when their down. Your empathy bypass is working well.

Carrie I completely agree. I am nothing but "game face on" to parents.

However I am not game face on to anyone who asks me outside of work what it's like. I used to lie, now I tell the cold hard truth. People have stopped asking.

@scarfy

Our school is fine, teachers all seem to be happy and doing fine. Things must be very very different where you live? Maybe you are in a dif country? As far as I have heard the U.K. government is doing everything possible to keep schools OPEN. I don't really know of anywhere that is closing schools because teachers are "tired from wearing PPE & walking to different classrooms"?

Such a lack of understanding of what is being said is baffling. Making up quotes doesn't help or add anything other than ignorance.

I see we have another thread where some posters who aren't teachers think teachers need to positively think the very real issues in schools away.

I look forward to those posters telling workers in other sectors to be a bit happier and all their health and safety concerns will disappear.

@scarfy

Our school is fine, teachers all seem to be happy and doing fine. Things must be very very different where you live? Maybe you are in a dif country? As far as I have heard the U.K. government is doing everything possible to keep schools OPEN. I don't really know of anywhere that is closing schools because teachers are "tired from wearing PPE & walking to different classrooms"?

Schools will close because teachers & students have Covid or are self-isolating & can't get tested, not because teachers are tired.

And, we aren't wearing any PPE 🤷‍♀️

I'm coping. I'm pleased the kids are still in. I want them to stay in as long as possible. I want my own kids to stay at school as long as possible.

But I'm so stressed. Sometimes, I feel a buzzy panicky feeling that everything is going to fall apart, starting with me. I am all smiles to the outside world though.

It's like when a spider comes into the classroom. I am all matter of fact, "Don't be silly, it's more scared of you than you are of it." I fetch a book, I catch it, I shake it out the window (or in emergency, just squish it and bin it).

In reality, I hate, hate, hate spiders. They make me so squeamish. At home it is absolutely my husbands job. I don't have an actual phobia though, so I tough it out at school.

So, um, yeah. It's absolutely great having the kids there, but it's also like having to deal with a spider and smile at the same time.

The U.K. government is doing nothing to keep schools open other than decreeing that they must be open

Totally true CarrieBlue. It's a shambles.

@NebularNerd your post really hit home. SNAP - secondary teacher here. This week broke me. Every day I have a full day of running about, not just replanning exciting lessons that require a lot of energy to deliver, normally teach in a lab, but now not allowed to do anything practical and also having to manage feral behaviour, not allowed a proper break due to staggered lunchtimes and have to be on duty for said staggered breaks, when all the kids want to do is fight or lynch someone. There is no hierarchy because all the kids are in year bubbles so they are all vying to be king of the castle in their own bubble (natural instinctive behaviour) but so so tiring. managing such disruptive is so draining and detracts from the quality of teaching. I so want to do the best for all of our students, they deserve the best, but the stress and the energy required to do the best is beginning to kill me. Not just me but all my colleagues. We WANT the best for the young people we work with, but to what price? I don't know what the answer is, but education is a powder keg in the making.

@Nellodee I can completely understand that. Despite what a pp said I haven't had an empathy bypass.

I was simply saying that from another perspective, my children are absolutely thriving back in school.

Dh and I are just existing, we go to work, we then do homework with the dc, to try to catch up all they've missed, go to bed then it all starts again.

I'm an a constant state of anxiety much like the spider analogy. Because if schools DO close, not only will my dc be missing out on a proper education once again but I'll probably lose my job.

I am not blaming teachers for this, but at times it feels as though some teachers are willing for the schools to close.

I'm not coping, neither is DH really (both secondary teachers).I was shaking for most of the day yesterday and had an anxiety attack when I tried to go out on a run. As other posters have said so much contact with no SD with so many people (adults and kids) when I've tried to minimize it for the sake of seeing our DC who is disabled and in a care home. Many staff are young and don't seem to care about SD or ventilation or any Covid mitigations. Changing rooms every lesson with no resources to hand, computers that have no sound and you don't know how to sort it out in front of an audience of noisy teenagers. Expectations of setting work for isolating students on top of school day and getting remote learning links all organised (to teachers like us who are technophobes this is scary in itself), not knowing if anyone has got it in the school and if anyone will tell you, all the usual stuff on top - performance management, learning walks, book scrutiny. It's unsustainable.

Teachers also have kids in schools. Teachers on here are also parents.

It’s not like we don’t have to worry about our kids being sent home to isolate and how we’ll juggle that with the commitments of two working parents.

So don’t make it parents vs teachers. It should be both campaigning together for better safety measures to keep schools open.