One rule for Bojo...another for teachers

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Because they weren’t actually distancing...

Yes if you’re a teacher you a. Have to suck it up and b. Should have been social distancing better 🙄.

(I work in a school (non teaching role) and see first hand the lack of social distancing in bubbles. Not that that is schools’ fault.)

Johnson was in a non essential meeting and they weren't 2 metres apart. Also Lee Anderson had symptoms on Friday but was out in his constituency on Saturday. Different rules for them.

I don't know how teachers keep going through all this. The problem is if you speak up the gutter press will make you into the bad guys.

Are you joking? For once Boris Johnson is actually doing something vaguely sensible and cautious. No need to have a go at this too! Sometimes, I almost (not quite!) feel sorry for this govt!

He can do his job just as fully (was going to say effectively, but ...) from home. So he should. Teachers can't. So we shouldn't. It's bad enough knowing that we could get sent home any day for being within 2m without having to worry about getting sent home for actually following the rules too!

Teachers are also being told to ignore instructions to isolate by the T&T app and to switch it off in school.

Bit rich considering the comments about "educating the educators" about "social distancing during coffee breaks" - which we no longer have by the way!

We had a letter from school saying that they have no midday supervisors as they are close contacts for the one who has tested positive. (Staff have apparently volunteered to cover the shifts until the midday supervisors return from self isolation. )

It’s shit. Every time there’s been a positive case in a room I teach in (12 times and counting). I just get told it’s fine because I should have made sure I stayed 2 metres away from everyone.

I’ve now gone from being scared I’ll catch Covid, to being scared I’m the one spreading it (asymptotically).

Itisasecret Some teachers are! Some of my colleagues are brilliant at it. I've no idea how. I'm worse than hopeless. We had a mock Covid drill last week to help prepare for a case and some people were able to honestly say that they had not been within 2m of any of the children randomly selected from different year groups. I had been close to all of them ...

Arguably, the ones that are distancing are teaching less effectively than me. But, if the drill had been for real, they'd still be teaching physically this week and I'd be stuck back on MS Teams which is worse.

I suppose it's a choice between teaching at 90% effectiveness but, if unlucky, having to go down to 10%. Or teaching safely at 50% effectiveness the whole time. I don't know which is worse!!!

whenshewasbad But don't you have to tell PHE that you were closer than 2m. At which point they send you home?

Sorry, posted too soon.

I thought that was the point of an independent body doing it, not individual school leadership with a vested interest in lying.

It's a disgrace.

I will be writing to my local MP. Please consider doing the same.

Obviously the 2m social distancing guidelines were not followed for the whole time and he was instructed by the track and trace system to self isolate

We can’t maintain 2m and haven’t always wear masks As it’s was not deemed necessary (we certainly didn’t at first as we didn’t have enough)

It’s rubbish but I no longer worry like I did

But teachers should be able to wear masks I’m surprised more are not doing so and high school pupils should too

But teachers should be able to wear masks I’m surprised more are not doing so and high school pupils should too

Agree this is increasingly important but it can make you complacent. I always wear a mask in the classroom except when I'm speaking to the whole class but I'm fairly sure that's not enough to make it okay to sit right next to children and work with them. I tend to think that I'm 'safe' because of the mask. But it's just a piece of cloth. And the child usually isn't wearing one.

Yes agree masks do make you complacent

SansaShark and ItsaSecret
Yes, some of our classrooms are big enough to be 2m from the front desks. But, even the ones that aren't, the children in the drill were randomly selected. Not front row children. So some of my colleagues are managing to be distant from all the children regardless of where they sit. Whereas I hadn't stayed 2m from any of them, regardless of where they sat!

But don't you have to tell PHE that you were closer than 2m

Individual teachers don’t get grilled by the school helpline. The head will say that all teachers have maintained social distance so it’s a conversation to have with your head

And it’s not even within 2m, it’s within 2m for more than 15 minutes, so where were you stood in the classroom?

Same here at my work; I work for the NHS. colleague in same office tested positive but apparently no need for us to isolate

Ah ok, thanks, Noble I didn't realise that we don't get asked personally.

Isn't it within 2m for 15 mins but within 1m for any amount of time, though? I spend a lot of time sitting next to children. Maybe the mask would count as a protective measure but I doubt it

The government are gaslighting parents and making them believe it is possible

Yup. I feel so sorry for teachers - they are the sacrificial lambs of this government's incompetence.

I would not want to tell my head that I had sat next to a kid. That would not be pretty.

I try my best to stay 2m away, to the point of regularly changing position at the front of a class where the front row is within 2m, so that it’s not 15 mins.