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Covid

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Original poster

“Encouraged” to test twice a week - final straw.

117 replies

motherrunner · 10/12/2020 05:50

I have just read an email from my Head where PHE are recommending teachers take twice weekly lateral tests.

This is because:
-1 in 20 asymptomatic people in my city have tested positive
-my school has not been fully open since last week in Sept (we have fully closed on multiple occasions)

I am on my knees with exhaustion and stress. I teach full time, I leave the house at 7.15, drop my children at their breakfast club, work, collect them at 5.30 and then it’s home, tea, bedtimes and then planning/marking. How am I to find the time to go to the test centre twice a week? The email says we it is “voluntary” but we are “encouraged” to do so and focussed a lot on community responsibility etc.

I have slowly felt more undervalued at time from the ‘schools are safe’ propaganda, to ‘stressed teachers want to close a day early at Christmas’ (that’s another headache, my school not closing but my children’s school is). I haven’t seen my mum since March as she is a nursing home and I won’t be seeing any family at all over Christmas due to my job.

Is it unreasonable of me just to say ‘sod it, I’m not having the tests’ or is that irresponsible?

OP posts:

MoreW1ne · 10/12/2020 07:07

@Anon12345678910

I am teacher *@motherrunner* who has just caught coronavirus and CV we've just had an outbreak where they've finally shut the school but too late .... YABVU to put your colleagues at risk if you don't take up the opportunity. I'm literally screaming at you internally right now.

I'm also a teacher who most likely caught it at work a few weeks back whilst we had an outbreak of cases.

However, I recognise the challenges and pressures my colleagues are facing at the moment so certainly wouldn't blame them for not taking part in a voluntary test twice a week in their own time.

It's one thing to support and encourage participation, ideally considering some other possibilities like home kits or in school testing, but its pathetic to call someone very unreasonable when they've clearly explained they're struggling.

I'd be more concerned if I had a colleague like you, with your attitudes and opinions, working in the classroom with children than I would be the OP not taking part I'm this voluntary testing. I know we're desperately short of teachers at the moment, but I wouldn't begrudge you if you left the profession

Looneytune253 · 10/12/2020 07:09

Have you asked them about it? Ask them when, point out your current workload and suggest they allow everyone some time to do so. Though surely for them more staff testing will only lead to more shutdowns not less lol

Sforsh49 · 10/12/2020 07:11

If it's an NHS test centre they won't just test you twice a week. You have to have symptoms, even if it's a queue up no appointment necessary centre, so basically you'd have to lie to them twice a week that you had a temp/cough/loss of taste/smell.

If the head wants you testing twice a week then the school needs to pay for private tests for you all.

Just say no on the grounds that you won't lie to the NHS, cost them money an already stretched system doesn't have, and take up tests that may be desperately needed by genuinely ill patients.

MadameMinimes · 10/12/2020 07:12

If more teachers take up random testing then we get a clearer picture of the true situation in schools. We are now “encouraging” staff to take up the offer of asymptomatic testing in my school. We don’t really expect everyone to do it. What we are trying to say is that we support people taking tests where they can. It’s not compulsory. In some schools staff are actively discouraged from being tested without symptoms, being part of trials or studies or having the contact tracing app because they want to minimise absences. If it’s not convenient then don’t go, but I wouldn’t be annoyed at the school for trying to do what they can to make the workplace safer.

School leaders can’t do right for doing wrong at the minute. Whatever you do, there are some staff and parents who are convinced you are being neurotic and excessive and life should just be back to normal and then others who thInk that you aren’t doing enough to keep them or their children safe. It’s a constant tightrope. Workload is a huge issue, but schools have a duty to protect their more vulnerable staff. Suggesting people get tested a couple of times a week seems a reasonable thing to do to make the workplace safer. People can choose to do it or not, but if a reasonable proportion of people do then it could make a big difference.

MadameMinimes · 10/12/2020 07:14

Sforsh- That’s not true. Many local authorities, including mine, have designated specific test centres where school staff who are asymptomatic can be tested. You don’t have to say you have symptoms, you just show your staff ID.

SaltyAF · 10/12/2020 07:15

My LA is close to yours OP. We've been asked to get regular tests (not LF), but I don't live there and it takes another 45 mins out of my day to get there and have it done. I managed to book one postal test but after that I wasn't allowed to request another as I'd had the first.

Simple answer is therefore no. If they want me to test regularly they need to get the tests to me.

wildbarnet · 10/12/2020 07:16

Just to say I totally get the stressed out bit I am at the end of my tether I have 2 young kids got to drop them off in the morning come back full days work then pick ups dinner etc then sit down around 9 and sometimes work again a lot of people in same position you are not alone x

And if you don't have time to test rhen don't you can only do so much

HallFloor · 10/12/2020 07:18

We're in an area with very high numbers where mass lateral flow testing was started at the weekend. So far, they haven't been had a single positive result. What's that about?

I don't really see why you would object to taking the test though, what do you gain/lose either way?

I teach too and am currently positive. If whoever gave it to me was testing regularly, maybe I wouldn't be.

SaltyAF · 10/12/2020 07:18

@MadameMinimes

What @Sforsh49 says is true of my area. You still have to book using the same site as everyone else, and the computer says no if you've recently been tested. It's a shame as I was hoping to be able to at least use that to give me some reassurance over Christmas.

TableCat · 10/12/2020 07:22

I'm a teacher too.
I haven't needed to be tested at all,much as I detest teaching via Teams I think I would be willing to test regularly if it was available at school.
But the designated test centre for our LA is 15 miles away from my school and in the opposite direction from my house through horrendous city traffic so I would be very reluctant to travel there to test asymptomatically, obviously I'd be straight there if I had symptoms.

PegLegTrev · 10/12/2020 07:24

I don’t blame you OP. It’s a bind and you have enough on. Can you suggest to the head that they procure some lateral flow tests?

napcrackleandpop · 10/12/2020 07:26

Agree - if PHE think you need to do this, they need to provide home kits like they do for NHS staff.
Also, wouldn't it make more sense to test the teenagers who are most likely to be asymptomatic carriers?

ScrapThatThen · 10/12/2020 07:26

I wouldn't do that OP. Just say you are willing but not able, unless testing is at home or school. Even with being given a box lots of nhs staff are not taking it up.

Original poster

motherrunner · 10/12/2020 07:31

I’ll try to respond to as many posts as I can as am running late.

-There is a designated lateral test centre in my city, you can not go there if you have symptoms. This is where we’ve been encouraged to go.

-I would like us to be tested but I’m not even surely logistically I can get to the test centre before it closes at 7.

-The directive has come from PHE and our LEA, I feel sorry for my Head. They are is an impossible situation. I wish we could have the tests sent to us like other posters have suggested. I fortunately I don’t think that’ll happen as everything is so badly organised concerning schools.

-Many sympathies to the ill posters. I go into work worried about my health risk. I‘be lost count of the number of positive pupils I have taught.

I just feel so guilty. I feel like a terrible teacher, a terrible mother and a terrible wife at the moment and now I’m a terrible member of the community.

OP posts:

Original poster

motherrunner · 10/12/2020 07:32

@napcrackleandpop

Agree - if PHE think you need to do this, they need to provide home kits like they do for NHS staff. Also, wouldn't it make more sense to test the teenagers who are most likely to be asymptomatic carriers?

Pupils are also be encouraged to be tested twice weekly too.

OP posts:

ChikiTIKI · 10/12/2020 07:54

It should be at home testing especially if they want it doing that often. Friends and family I know testing that often (nhs workers) take the tests themselves at home.

WiseOwlWan · 10/12/2020 07:54

Sounds risiculous. Just stay 2 metres away from students. Hand wash. Im at work and have been all along. Havent caught it yet.

captainprincess · 10/12/2020 07:59

Sorry I haven't read all the responses, but we have had this introduced at work and you get given a box of 25 tests to take away and test at home twice weekly. This isn't what you're being asked then?
I agree, if you're being asked to go to test centre twice weekly, that's too much.

wildraisins · 10/12/2020 08:14

They should give you home test kits if they want you to test.

My partner tests twice a week and is given kits from work to do so (he works for the NHS) I assume this is what they mean, that they will be providing kits at some point.

wildraisins · 10/12/2020 08:16

If they do want you to go to the test centre in your own time I agree that's pretty unreasonable.

Original poster

motherrunner · 10/12/2020 08:18

@wildraisins

They should give you home test kits if they want you to test.

My partner tests twice a week and is given kits from work to do so (he works for the NHS) I assume this is what they mean, that they will be providing kits at some point.

From the LEA:

“ The testing centre is open 7 days a week, providing testing Monday to Friday 8.00am-7.00pm and weekends 10.00-6.00pm.

The testing site is open to all residents and employees, including those working in the City’s educational settings. We are encouraging settings to publicise this offer to their employees and wider school community as soon as possible. We advise people to access a test on a regular basis and for employees in educational settings twice weekly testing is encouraged.”

No home kits.

OP posts:

Original poster

motherrunner · 10/12/2020 08:19

I got the times of the testing centre wrong in my OP - I thought it was open 7-7 everyday,

OP posts:

SaltyAF · 10/12/2020 08:29

now I’m a terrible member of the community.

Um, no you're not. You're made to work in terrible conditions by a terrible government. If society doesn't care, let them deal with the consequences. Can't have it all ways.

Gazelda · 10/12/2020 08:30

I just feel so guilty. I feel like a terrible teacher, a terrible mother and a terrible wife at the moment and now I’m a terrible member of the community.

I'm so sad to read this. You're doing your best in an awful situation. I hope you DH, DC and Head appreciate how hard you're trying to keep all the balls in the air.

As a parent, I'm hugely grateful to my DD's teachers. I also have a lot of sympathy for Head Teachers who are in an impossible situation.

If I were you, I'd be honest with your Head and tell them that you're on your knees and simply can't manage this. Ask them to see if they can arrange home testing. If they are in any way reasonable, they'll want to do whatever they can to take this extra stress from you.

Mummyoflittledragon · 10/12/2020 08:31

@CatsForLife

Can you agree only on the basis you go in work’s time? I agree that it’s too much to ask. They can’t insist on anything if it’s clearly outside your working hours. It’s up to the school to decide how they will manage staff going to test centres during working hours. I’ve worked throughout the pandemic and while home schooling so not always the first in the sympathy queue for teachers. But you’re right here.

CatsForLife Has a very good suggestion. You will do the test. But during your working hours. Impossible otherwise. With all the extra staff, the centre will be chaos, especially in the evening and at weekends. Just another opportunity for you to get Covid really. So many people have caught it whilst queuing for a test. Why the fuck would going to a place teeming with symptomatic individuals be a good idea?!

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