'Unsustainable, overwhelming' Covid burden on schools

[LastGoldenDaysOfSummer]

Ofsted finds school staff 'exhausted' from ‘firefighting’ amid Covid crisis – and that 'last-minute' DfE decisions aren't helping

www.tes.com/news/unsustainable-overwhelming-covid-burden-schools?fbclid=IwAR0hhEWbw0JML_n__3WxhgzxkTNjQs6Pnc_0GEC1rVf5Y5ddWvT-5d1sR-c

Yes, another schools one. But evidence of what teachers are going through in the face of a total lack of support from some parents, the LEAs and the government.

Oh pom you can’t read posts like Susan’s and think it is someone simply expressing a different view.

Pom - or keeping their I'll children at home, getting them tested, not breaking lockdown to have playdates and sleepovers, keeping children at home if they themselves have temperatures and reinforcing to their children that they must follow all the Covid rules on their schools at all times.

The above not happening is also why we don't feel safe.

Not temperatures - symptoms.

I didn’t really read it tbh - looked too long 😳

What continues to baffle me is that if anyone in any other line of work posts anything about their difficult working conditions, people are generally sympathetic. When it's a teacher, it often turns into a witch hunt.

[quote Hercwasonaroll]@GreenOwlBlue What you described completely resonated. Everything is a teeny bit harder, and the compound effect is huge.[/quote]
Yes, compound effect is right.

I guess it's hard to understand unless you are seeing it yourself.

For the record, I'm still team 'keep schools open', but will be in bed before 9pm tonight.

@Danglingmod disappointing people not doing that. I don’t understand this mentality, can see how frustrating and unfair that is. I feel the same when people don’t stick to guidelines then put people in nhs at risk - patients plus staff.

Teachers have a huge responsibility towards 20+ students each class, how people cannot see how that makes this especially stressful for them I cannot understand.

Why do people come down so so hard on teachers?

Thanks, Pom. And absolutely re the NHS too.

I think if you yourself are very responsible and community minded you have no idea just how selfish other people can be unless you work directly with members of the public in a service like education, health, policing.

There was a very bright side today - Dominic C has gone. Perhaps have a 🍸 before exhaustion sets in.

@gottakeeponmovin

I'm sorry your school didnt provide the support you and your family needed - as a teacher and Head of Department, I would be frustrated if I had families that felt like yours. However, as I am sure you can see, teachers were doing a huge amount of different things over lockdown one and there was no government mandated consistency. In another purely anecdotal piece of evidence, I was delivering computers and FSM to vulnerable families, sending working online daily, taking some live lessons, recording and uploading youtube lessons and calling each member of my form weekly.

I dont want to go back to that. But equally my current working life is untenable - I am in tears daily at the sheer amount of pressure there is. I am desperately trying to keep things as normal as possible but this is taking a huge toll.on me personally and I see this in every other member of staff.

I am turning around work as quickly as humanly possible (overnight exam paper feedback) because I know that my exam classes need that. I am trying to learn how to use new tech (and we have new stuff seemingly introduced every week). I complete huge amounts of paperwork for what we think needs doing and then the goalposts change. I have students being pulled out of my lessons halfway through because of track and trace. Today I had a 6th former spit on the ground next to me because I asked him to put his mask on properly - behaviour is deteriorating because we cannot apply any of the normal sanctions. I cried before going to work this morning because, for the first time in my career, I do not feel safe at work.

I understand that people want their students in school - so do I. I love my job and my classes. But I cannot keep hiding in my office for a quick cry and then putting on a brave face. Something has to give.

@MillieEpple

This is the most bizarre thread. It really feels like people are saying that because their school let down children 6 months ago (in their opinion) my son should sit right next to a child with covid in an airless room without a mask and teachers are moaning if they feel stressed about it.

Yup.

Evvyjb - everything you said.

I love my job. I love the kids.

But I cry at some point every single day and I categorically do not feel safe in school.

As teachers will warn you, you’ll think you’ve seen the last of Dominic Cummings and then he’ll be back, fucking something else up irretrievably.

I worked 12.30pm - midnight most days during lockdown preparing lessons and so on. That was between mid April - end May. After that I went to school and did full time hours. Between 7am and 12.30 during those 6 weeks I was only required in school once a week, I home schooled my own child. I'd have snapped someone's hand off for furlough, but we didn't get the option. And even if I had, I was in my normal place of work for 20% of the time... not quite sure how that might have made me cheaper to the tax payer.

Anyway, I think this means I deserve safe working conditions according to MN. So that's good.

You know, my experience of lockdown 1 wasn't the best to begin with. It got better. I'm aware now, as I was then, that schools had no notice before it was made public about closures. Of course that impacted what they could do to ensure the children received an education. My children love being back in school with their friends but... We've had 1 lot of isolation and the other school closed for a week before half term.

I'd rather (as would my DC) know that my children, their friends and all staff members are going in to a safe as possible environment. The "sanitise your hands and hope for the best" is not a safe as possible environment. How anyone can think it is, is beyond me. This school bubbles hokey cokey that's going on really is no good for the children at all. Teachers deserve a safe working environment and stating none do because you feel your school was useless is messed up.

behaviour is deteriorating because we cannot apply any of the normal sanctions

Yep. Right down to the early years primary.

I am 5 months pregnant and received a positive test today after editing 5 days got my result. I have a mild case - I think-I am in bed. Tired but actually I think more than anything, stressed. Stressed that I need to sort online learning for Monday and stressed that I have caused 30 children and 6 adults to not be present in school on Monday. As SLT I have more contact with others but I feel like I have done some thing wrong and I feel desperately guilty about it.

Tell me Another job where my illness causes that impact?! Most people are not in work because it cannot be made safe. We are in work not safely wfh. Cut teachers some slack.

Stressed that I need to sort online learning for Monday and stressed that I have caused 30 children and 6 adults to not be present in school on Monday

You need to have a word with your school. If you're off ill you should not be setting cover. Especially at 5 months pregnant with covid.

You've done nothing wrong. It'll be an asymptomatic child. Most of our positive students have been asymptomatic ONS tests or students getting a test after parents test positive (even though they have no symptoms.... Not sure they should be getting tested however plenty of people are).

@Excitablemuch you're not allowed to be stressed, because that makes you weak, according to some posters.

People who were unhappy with the way schools were working in lockdown should surely want more safety measures, as this is what will keep schools open for longer. If schools are unsafe for students, they will end up being sent home to self isolate. If schools are unsafe for staff, you will end up with rotas, partial closures and full closures. Schools closed in March because there weren't the teachers available to staff them. I think we are approaching that point again.

I think it is the unpredictability which is making things more exhausting than normal.

We adapted to a new way of working in September, and then things have changed again due to lockdown. We are doing extra duties because of year group bubbles, staggered breaks and lunches. We have to enforce so many new/extra rules (e.g. mask wearing, exiting the school, bubble areas, desk cleaning and so on)- having battles with kids every day about these things is increasingly wearing.

It is also completely unpredictable who will be off/sent home/isolating each day, and sending home work (90% of which is not being done) is an extra thing to manage. When work is done, it's an additional marking issue. We have to phone home to support tutees who are isolating, which is fine in theory, but another thing to do/remember.

But next week we will have observations for PMR as normal- none of the expectations have changed.

I am not saying we have it harder than anyone else, but it is harder than it was before and there was already a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching...

All I really want is for SLT to acknowledge we are all trying our best and to back off the performance management stuff for a bit!

shitfuckoh I actually really believe most parents , despite some of the vitriol on here , feel like you.

It’s not been all plain sailing here for me and my own dc but we are doing our best to work with school as I know they are doing their damned best in this horrendous situation.

I really want schools to stay open safely , I know my dd needs to be In school. But after five days attendance in in the last six weeks due to isolating I’m past what happened in the spring and am pushing for a safer environment for her and her teachers. Still awaiting a reply from my mp but it’s a start.

I really worry for those people who are happy enough to think anyone deserves to work in an unsafe place.

@Hercwasonaroll teachers always have to set work of off sick. Who do you think does it ? It's the only job where being off is more work than being in.

teachers always have to set work of off sick. Who do you think does it ? It's the only job where being off is more work than being in.

I'm a teacher. I know it is courteous if you are well enough to set work. There is no legal requirement or obligation to set any cover if you have self certified or been signed off.

At 5 months pregnant with coronavirus there is no way any of my dept would be setting their own cover.

We have 27 teachers out at the moment due to having covid or isolating due to track and trace. We’ve sent 2 year groups home. The staff in school are having to cover for absent staff when they would have been teaching those year groups. So they just can’t do live lessons home at the same time. Teachers at home are doing live lessons where they can, but where that is to a year group still in school that still requires an adult to be present in the room with them, so yet more cover. Yes, there was wide variation in provision during lockdown 1. But this is not about that. If things carry on a very large number of children are going to be getting a rubbish education because they are isolating so much. Teachers cannot provide decent remote learning and in school learning at the same time, there just aren’t enough of us.