ECV teachers and school staff...what does the advice mean for them?

[ForthPlace]

Work from home or have to be in school, seems a confused message.

Clear as mud...'take more precautions than the general public' ...which for school staff in a class of 30 all day is.....???

Thanks for the explanation re ECV.

Exactly Forth. Notning about this makes sense wrt schools.

Can't meet with 2 people outdoors in the safe open air..... but can go into a class of 30 in crowded badly ventilated space...

I am fucking furious. There is no way on earth our finance officer (head doesn't have a fucking say) would agree to us being at home and doing live lessons.

How fucking dare he not protect us. Basically, all keyworkers who are vulnerable are the ones losing out here. By losing out I mean potentially the worst case scenario.

Wtf not make masks at least mandatory in secondary schools? Even if it needs to be stated 'in clinically vulnerable teachers/student classes'.

I hope the unions kick ass. And I hope those colleagues who aren't vulnerable back us with any action

I interpret that as if you are extremely vulnerable you need to take are to reduce contacts. The bit about not going to work if you can't wfh wasn't very convincing in its delivery and I am not sure they will be allowed to stay at home, or how they take extra precautions at work

But he did thank them for their dedication.....

As someone who knows sod all about school budgets, if a teacher was off in normal circumstances for 4 weeks would a supply teacher be drafted in regardless of cost? Obviously multiple ECV teachers and limited supply teachers is going to be a logistical nightmare but will funds be an issue too? How would it be determined if a supply (if they could get one in the first place) is possible?

Our ECV teachers do live lessons from home with the cover supervisors doing crowd control in the classroom.
It's working well from what I have seen.

'Dedication' by which he means continuing to work in incredibly risky situations.

While they were waiting for BoJo to turn up, there was a BBC interview in which the presenter yet again pointed out that children 'aren't that badly affected' seemingly without even considering their families at home (if asymptomatic carriers) or school staff.

@3littlewords

As someone who knows sod all about school budgets, if a teacher was off in normal circumstances for 4 weeks would a supply teacher be drafted in regardless of cost? Obviously multiple ECV teachers and limited supply teachers is going to be a logistical nightmare but will funds be an issue too? How would it be determined if a supply (if they could get one in the first place) is possible?

Not sure about what will happen during lockdown, but I know that schools haven't been able to claim on their insurance to cover staff who are off work because they're self-isolating due to close contact with someone conformed COVID.

I'm so angry and upset. It's not just me, I have ECV teachers in my department (I'm HOD). We need the legal support from the government over this. Budgets are so so tight, this will not be supported by most schools. My bastards school hasn't even asked kids to wear masks between lessons.

I feel the kids have more compassion than my 'bosses' (not Head, the fucking finance officer). Least they sometimes remember vulnerable and remind their peers to back off and stop moaning about the bloody open windows.

The ECV list is actually quite small and narrowing more and more as new information regarding covid becomes available. The issue in March was that those that were vulnerable or lived with someone vulnerable rather than ECV were sent home from schools and that left a skeleton staff and schools unable to cope. Having asthma does not automatically equate to ECV as dies pregnancy, obesity or high blood pressure.

@NiceTwin

Our ECV teachers do live lessons from home with the cover supervisors doing crowd control in the classroom. It's working well from what I have seen.

That's interesting to hear!

Is it really as many as 1/4 - 1/2 of staff affected if ECV need to be at home? I thought ECV was the shielded group? Or is it the next group 'down' on the vulnerability scale? If the former, then it would surely be quite an unlucky school to be significantly affected. If the latter then we're probably all screwed - schools won't be able to cope without that number of staff.

But schools wouldn't be the biggest issue if a large section on an industry gave to work from home - what about all the ECV in healthcare?! If they all need to work from home things will be so difficult.

BBC summary suggests we should be extra cautious but don’t have to stay at home.... that’ll be me with 1000 kids and 500+ staff then, thanks for that

No pineapple I agree. I have listened to many say they are CV and actually when pressed that aren't at risk compared to most. But I have also seen lots of research that says my condition (type 1 diabetes) be on the ecv list. Problem is, there are far too may diabetics working .

Can head teachers force ecv staff to stay home? I can’t afford to not work and need to for my own sanity tbh. I am a qualified teacher currently working as a teaching assistant.

Ecv is extremely clinical vulnerable, and yes, they are the people who previously shielded.
Cv are the critically vulnerable. They are vulnerable but didn't shield.
Many staff in schools and hospitals are CV, yes. To be cv is stressful as you are the middle ground, not serious enough condition to be protected, but serious enough to cause actual harm to yourself if infected.

As an ECV teacher in a primary school I can't see how I could work from home.

This is the ECV list:

“People with the following conditions are automatically deemed clinically extremely vulnerable:

solid organ transplant recipients
people with specific cancers:
people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy
people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
people having other targeted cancer treatments that can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
people with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
people with rare diseases that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell disease)
people on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired
other people who have also been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs. GPs and hospital clinicians have been provided with guidance to support these decisions”

Our ECV teachers do live lessons from home with the cover supervisors doing crowd control in the classroom. It's working well from what I have seen

I've been doing this since schools went back in Victoria. It's not ideal but is do-able. It relies on good IT infrastructure in the school and preferably the same person supervising the class each time.

I work in secondary and can't imagine how it work for primary.

That's an interesting list, Lyra. The one for teachers in Victoria has only four criteria, has no ranking, e.g. the E bit, is more general and includes age.

Sorry, Hmmph

It’s from the bottom of this page:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19#Clinically

Is it really as many as 1/4 - 1/2 of staff affected if ECV need to be at home? I thought ECV was the shielded group? Or is it the next group 'down' on the vulnerability scale? If the former, then it would surely be quite an unlucky school to be significantly affected

But you are basing that on large schools. I work with schools with two classes. In some cases both teachers are ECV or the HT and one staff member is but are the DSL & DDSL - so no staff or no safeguarding in place, no school either.