Do any teachers out there think schools should stay open?

[YouAreMySunshine123]

Just wondering if you ALL think they should be closed again?

@Lavenderseas so am I

I’m a teacher and I do not think schools should close but I DO think they should be made safer especially for vulnerable staff and children.

I can want schools to stay open OP as much as I like, that will have zero impact on whether I catch Covid, my pupils do, we are contacts and so isolating... if enough people are off the schools will effectively close anyway.

I want vulnerable staff and students to be allowed the choice to shield during a lockdown.

I’m a primary teacher and I want schools to stay open but I believe they should be made safer and that all staff should be provided with PPE. Social distancing is impossible. I have seen first hand what a damaging effect the lockdown has had on the attainment of some of our children and I would hate for that to worsen. I do think a two week full lockdown would have been better though.

I think secondary schools may be forced to close soon though, the numbers are worrying.

All the teachers and teaching staff I work with want it to stay open for their own sanity if nothing else. I’m not sure where I stand on it. From one point of view I want my kids to carry on going in and to be able to go to work but on the other I do think they schools that I work in and my children go to are responsible for a lot of spread. DD caught it off a teacher and the staff in both schools are dropping like flies.

I'm always surprised when people know what their colleagues want re schools - it's not something I talk about with mine, we're mostly too busy, and anyway we aren't socialising in staff rooms or having much contact with anyone else at all. It can be pretty lonely these days.

What I really want to be open is the NHS. We need more threads about the hospital clinics that have been closed since March and fewer repeating the same conversation about schools.

I want vulnerable staff and students to be allowed the choice to shield during a lockdown.

@Sixpencefaux that sounds reasonable. Are vulnerable teachers not allowed to shield? (Sorry if that is a silly question)

All of the primary teachers I know want schools to stay open for the under 11s at least. They’re mostly not quite able to take part meaningfully in online learning until Year 5 or 6, even if parents are able to support.

If I was a secondary teacher I’d be worried about the numbers though, and possibly leaning towards a rota system.

I love my job, trust me you have to to put up with the challenges and poor wage. But, I don't think schools are a safe place to be right now. I teach reception and there are zero safety measures in place to stop me or the children contracting coronavirus. The ones that are in place seem to just be for show, and realistically wouldn't actually stop the spread. If one person in my class gets it, it's very likely we would all get it.
Does that mean I think schools should close? No. But it does mean I think there should be more robust safety measures put into place, and if there can't be then perhaps things would need to be reconsidered.

Shielding ended in August, vulnerable staff (and the partners or parents of vulnerable people) have been working in schools since then. How can you honestly not know that? And yet post about keeping schools open?

DP is a primary teacher and wants them to stay open.

I have a DC in year 11 and praying their school isn’t closed again. There hasn’t been one single positive case in the school throughout the whole thing despite several kids and staff going home with symptoms. We are in a low case area.

@YouAreMySunshine123 no - not allowed to shield at all.

I got flamed on Facebook by teachers, after I disagreed and said they should stay open. I can't say I have a huge amount of sympathy for teachers. I'm a nurse!

@Sixpencefaux now that is surely where money should be being spent 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Toddlerteaplease I don't think most teachers want schools to close.

Obviously I want schools to stay open. Pointing out that the current situation isn’t that safe nor is it going to prevent classes/bubbles closing anyway doesn’t mean we want schools to close. Sorry about that.

@Toddlerteaplease
That’s a shame because all the teachers I know including myself have had nothing but sympathy for nurses and looked after their children during lockdown, staff also made PPE and delivered them to nurses and carers. Surely we can have sympathy with each other and support each other without it being a race to the bottom. I don’t begrudge those fortunate enough to be able to work from home.

I’ve been arguing for better safety measures in schools for ages and people have been insisting I want schools closed.

Wanting schools closed during this lockdown to make it shorter and more effective is a different argument to wanting schools closed in general, IMO. Lots of people don’t want a prolonged, less effective lockdown which is what keeping schools open during lockdown will mean.

I want schools open, but I think it is counterproductive to have a nationwide lockdown and to keep schools, particularly secondary schools where there are real issues, open as they are with no changes made to make them safer. I also think that arguing for schools to close during lockdown without arguing for improved mitigation measures when they re-open will be counterproductive in the long run.

Basically, open or closed during lockdown, we should all want them to be made safer.

Secondary teacher and don’t know any teachers in my school who want it closed. There’s been two cases at the school both times no spreading. Children can not afford to lose more classroom time. I’m pregnant and I will begrudgingly work from home from 28 weeks. I feel like I should be allowed to judge the risk and stay in the classroom if I want to.

@Toddlerteaplease

I got flamed on Facebook by teachers, after I disagreed and said they should stay open. I can't say I have a huge amount of sympathy for teachers. I'm a nurse!

Well that's odd as I had lots of sympathy for nurses. Is empathy a one way street?

@ILoveMyMonkey

I also think teachers should continue to attend schools in lockdown (without kids, schools are pretty much the safest places ever) and that we should offer a combination of both live and recorded lessons with support available over this period. It wouldn't be necessary for every teacher to live teach every class nor record every class.

Teacher here. If I'm in school teaching live lessons to an empty classroom where is my 7 year old son? Home alone? And if you then have keyworker groups how can I teach remotely to some and in person to others?

1 person does live lessons, 1 does recorded, 1 does keyworker. Not every teacher does everything.

My daughter is a teacher. She wants schools open but with much better safety procedures. They are pretty rubbish at the moment.

I'm a secondary teacher and I absolutely don't want schools to close BUT I don't believe they are safe at the moment. I think secondary schools (with the exception of the most vulnerable who should be in as much as possible) should be on a 50% blended learning 50% in the building rota. That would allow for social distancing and give us a reasonable shot at keeping schools going throughout the winter. At the moment it's not sustainable or safe IMO.