Teachers not self isolating

[Clearasmuddypuddles]

I’ve been notified that I have taught a student who tested positive for COVID. He sits on the front row of my classroom. I cannot physically be 2m away from him when explaining the work at the board. I have to hand out worksheets and supervise work, from 2m of course.

The entire class (over 70% of which are more than 2m away from this child) has to self isolate. I don’t, because as a teacher I am meant to be 2m away.

This is the case in every school I know. Staff are putting themselves and their families at risk because they are not allowed to self isolate when they have been in contact with a positive case.

Government mandated manslaughter.

In front of our very eyes. It's disgusting.

It’s so frustrating that I can’t keep the children I am teaching safe. I will be extra cautious in the next 14 days to keep as far away as possible, but I’m in the same room as them knowing I’ve been in contact with a positive case.

Many schools I know are saying that under the risk assessments they have to say thay staff are remaining 2m away where possible, but they are also telling staff to inform them if they have reason to believe they have been a close contact.

It's meaning staff who remain in their teacher space but have students sitting within 2m are then able to tell SLT what SLT already know: "Mrs Smith was a close contact as Timothy's seat is less than 2m from her teaching space. As such she is a contact and needs to isolate".

4 of my classes out of 6 have had positive cases. I've not been contacted once by SLT to check if I've been in close contact. Instead I've been left with about 4 pupils whilst the rest isolate. I'm fuming with this approach from the government.

No advice OP but it's the same in my secondary. It's absolute shit.

@Clearasmuddypuddles that is even more terrifying, or have they replaced all the trained public health practitioners in PHE now with Dido Harding's chums?

Have you tried talking to the Union?

Why is it one rule for everyone EXCEPT teachers? If you go in presumably it puts your colleagues at risk too - so it seems a very counterproductive decision even if you only consider staffing levels and not safety.

Unless your entire workforce is under the age of 25, some of those staff that could be infected will be sick enough to be off for long periods - several teachers on here have documented how they've been off for 6-8 weeks. Is that what they want? It must be.

I do think the senior management in schools need to step up and protect teachers and AT LEAST ECV/CV families now. It is just unacceptable to not tell parents if a teacher who has had a positive case in their classroom is going to teach their child instead of isolating as they should.

I hope you're ok Clear, that you don't catch it, and that you manage to isolate (honestly, I'd be making up a close contact elsewhere I think). If they have to shut the school, they'll have to shut the school, plenty of others have had to close for the same reason. Better than creating a massive coronavirus outbreak.

@flumposie I had to challenge my school to change their policy as they weren’t even informing staff last week! I turned up this week (I work part time) to find out one of my classes were isolating and I hadn’t been told. Meant I could have seen my vulnerable parent over the weekend unknowing that I had been in contact with a positive case!

Due to my shouting loudly they have now said they will always inform staff if they are discovered to have taught a positive student.

Meant I could have seen my vulnerable parent over the weekend unknowing that I had been in contact with a positive case! That is just really upsetting. Who wants to work for an employer that treats you like that?

Why is it one rule for everyone EXCEPT teachers?

1. Government doesn't give a shit about teachers safety
2. A large proportion of parents don't give a shit.
3. The media doesn't seem to give a shit.

Until it affects them of course, which it will soon.

@Clearasmuddypuddles it's dreadful. I'm part time also and I only found out about the most recent case last week from another teacher who was telling me about the chaos the previous afternoon. It was only when I asked her which form it was that I found out it was the one I teach !

Go to your union or whistleblow?

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss it seems it’s a government national issue and not an individual school one!

For the record I actually don’t want to self isolate- I have 2 children under 4 who are able to start up their activities again next week and I would hate for them to miss them. However public safety is more important!

Yes and it would be awful to give it to someone who was really ill because you didn't isolate - no matter how inconvenient it is to isolate.

Isolating sucks, but if we want other people to protect our vulnerable loved ones, everyone should do it. That's how it works.

Except, according to the government, in schools. And they wonder why this lockdown didn't bring rates down more....

[quote Clearasmuddypuddles]@IceCreamAndCandyfloss it seems it’s a government national issue and not an individual school one!

For the record I actually don’t want to self isolate- I have 2 children under 4 who are able to start up their activities again next week and I would hate for them to miss them. However public safety is more important![/quote]
Even if you did have to isolate your dc could still do their activities just Dad will have to take them not you

@3littlewords dad works full time for the NHS, he won’t be able to take them anywhere.

I’m so sorry OP. It’s awful isn’t it?
This week alone, I’ve had a Year 8 and a Year 10 a day later test positive and my classroom just isn’t big enough but still not told to self isolate. What with my DD still having to self isolate at home and a positive case in her class in a different school and it’s so difficult to know whether you are at risk or not!

I'm secondary too, OP. I've had three cases in my classes. Each time, the kids sitting either side had to isolate. My cleaner who was in my room every night tested positive. I wasn't even told. SHE told me after I asked where she'd been for three weeks. It's a matter of time. We have two members of staff in intensive care now. The Head says she's proud of how we've managed. It's a bloody disgrace.

@Incacat2 that is scandalous- I am so sorry to hear about your colleagues. I really hope they pull through. How can your HT say in the knowledge of 2 staff in ICU?!!

@Clearasmuddypuddles Classroom situation is same in my secondary. All front row children are within 2m of the teacher because the 2m is measured from the back wall where the board is. Even pressed up against the wall the entire lesson I still couldn't be 2m from front row students in some rooms. The whole thing is a farce. If any front row students of mine test positive I will have to isolate- and if that happens within 2 weeks of Christmas I will be raging.

I don't think that teachers should be self isolating unless they've had significant close contact with an infected child. And they shouldn't be having significant close with any child if they are following guidelines.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 You obviously don't work in a school.

Our policy is where a student tests positive all teachers of that student are contacted and are asked if they maintained the distance all the time etc. In this circumstance you would have also been asked to isolate if you weren’t confident you’d been able to maintain a 2 metre distance at all times.

I don't think that teachers should be self isolating unless they've had significant close contact with an infected child. And they shouldn't be having significant close with any child if they are following guidelines.

Teaching staff should be subject to the same rules as anyone else in the country regarding SI.

So close contact is closer than 2m for more than 15 minutes - easily done if you are stood at the board teaching and there are children on the front row.

In many classrooms it is impossible to be 2m away from the front row of children. I presume you haven't been in many classrooms if you believe it is always possible to follow the so called guidelines. Please don't believe the nonsense pictures being used by the UK media, new sites and newspapers about what classrooms are currently like!

Also in many schools SDing isn't even expected - at primary it isn't, especially in key stage 1 and reception.

Before I caught Covid I was teaching 270 young children a week, with no social distancing most of the time and no masks allowed. I could open the windows and use anti bac. Since returning this week, after 7 weeks off ill, I have worked with the HT to reduce this risk - I am now allocated to a year group bubble only and I am allowed to wear my mask whenever I want in classrooms. I wear it whenever I need to go close to the children, such as when listening to them read, helping them on the computer, etc. Strangely enough not one child has been bothered by the mask either.

@mrsm43s

Regardless of whether we think the regulations are correct/what we think the risk is, the OPs complaint is that she and her family are put at risk because she can't self isolate. That's simply not true. If she has been close enough for the risk of infection, then the people who are put at risk by her not isolating are her pupils (and other teachers, but they should be socially distancing from her). I'm not saying that's OK, I'm saying she's not putting herself and her family at greater risk by not self isolating.

That isn't the part of your first comment that people are having an issue with. It is the latter part - that you actually think the Government has put in guidelines that are even vaguely possible in many schools. That you are almost blaming the teachers for being 2m away - because they must not be following the rules if they are closer for any length of time. Like the Government keep trying to hint at - this situation is rarely the teacher's fault.

The Government guidelines keep adding a very handy, for them, phrase 'wherever possible'

You need to tell your employer that you have spent a significant amount of time closer than 2m.

Technically therefore you need to self isolate.

I taught 16 kids over ten days who then got a positive test and I don’t have to self isolate.. wtf

In this case I am so glad I am in a primary school. We automatically send home the whole class staff included.
Secondary school teachers cannot keep 2m away. It seems to have been accepted in primary why not secondary ?