Teachers/TAs - what can we do?

[Khara]

Ok - so as a primary school TA of a certain age (over 50) and overweight ( in the obese but not morbidly obese category) I am understandably nervous of going back to work next week in a newly tier 4 area.

My family, to whom I rant about these things, have said you need to stand up for yourself/do something. But what?

My dh says I need to complain to the Heath and safety executive. He says the risk-assessment provided by my school isn't worth the paper it's written on. (He works in the chemical industry and has been on courses about writing risk assessments.) Apparently it should include an actual numerically calculated risk. He has done some research and calculated my risk of death in the workplace as 1:400. The Health and Safety executive say that any risk lower than 1:1000000 is unacceptable.

Have any other teachers/TAs (especially in primary atm) considered actually complaining

You might want to ask for this to be moved to Staffroom OP, if you don't get much response here. Are you in a union?

Your option 8s to get signed off with mental health concerns. We've got 4 staff off on that basis.

There's nothing wrong with my mental health though. (Well there is, but that's another story.) The fact is we are entitled to a safe working environment and we don't have it.

I’m a primary TA, you’ll be wasting your breath. Resign or carry on I’m afraid. Can you not resign or do you absolutely need the money?

I need the money

Are you in a union?

There absolutely must be some legal hook to take up, on safety.. The right to life..

How did he calculate the risk? I'm interested, as a primary teacher. Totally understand your concern.

Health and safety audit and..

Asking doctor to sign yiu off with stress??

OP has a point if she's not suffering from mental health issues but changes in working conditions pose a significantly increased threat.

How has he calculated your risk of dying as 1 in 400?

I do feel for you and don't think that schools (in general, don't know your specifics, obviously) haven't been able to adequately protect staff, but I don't think making up stats is helpful.

Sadly, if you are so concerned, I think your only options are resigning or being signed off.

Approach your union.

This is what he's sent me:

I'm a teaching assistant in a primary school and have the same worries. A teaching assistant in a local school has died this week after contracting Covid from school, she also had an underlying health condition. I have NHS friends who are working from home apart from going into clinic 1 day a week (not Covid wards) and yet they have just had their first vaccination today. We are armed with nothing more than soap and are with 30 5 year olds who will happily cough in your face and run into you with a snotty nose for a cuddle (I love my job, I really do). It doesn't feel safe because it isn't.

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Are you sure your school won't be closed at the start of term?

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That won’t wash-sorry. I don’t think there is a lot you can do apart from get signed off or resign.

School will be open, unless there's another u-turn

Completely understand where you are coming from, asthmatic TA here I'm under 50 and I may have had covid in March but couldn't get tested. My chest is far worse than it was before March and I'm terrified of getting anything on top of it.
I really don't understand how the government don't think 30 small licking people won't spread anything!

Are the stats for a 50-59 year old woman who is infected of covid dying 1%? I thought that 1% was the overall death rate - skewed towards the elderly, males, bame, those with underlying conditions, overweight...

You're female, not elderly, you are overweight, don't know your ethnicity or medical conditions. But would likely place you lower than 1%.

Also the likelihood of catching covid after 4 hours in classroom can't be 1. Or everyone in the classroom would catch it/have already caught it.

Sorry OP, I don't see that plucking figures is going to help you. And indeed, might unnecessarily frighten you.

I would take some time to consider whether that calculation is likely to be correct. Staff aren’t dying at the rate of 1:2000 or 1:400.

I’m not saying that you don’t have a case to pursue but I don’t think that calculation helps you. Your union are the best port of call.

Op, I am a teacher but I think it's unfair of your husband to say the 1 in 400 death rate?! It doesn't make sense.
It's shit what's happening to schools, really really crap. The government will definitely have blood on their hands and I think schools will be the next scandal after care homes. However, there is nothing we can do other than resign or go on the sick. The unions are as much good as a chocolate fireguard at this point. I know and understand how horrible and scary it is though.

You are absolutely right to want support, he is absolutely wrong that your chance of death in the workplace is anywhere near 1 in 400. It's more like 1 in 212,766.

Below I'll link a rough calculator via Oxford University - the mortality rates come from the first peak so they're a bit more pessimistic as we now have better treatments and a lot of people with few or no symptoms weren't showing up as positive then.

According to this, as a woman over 50 with an o BMI between 30-40 your risk of death if you contract covid is around 1 in 21277 (0.036%). Given that the chance of you contracting it are still relatively low, that risk lowers again. At my school, in a covid hotspot, we've had 4 of a teaching staff of over 90 be off with positive tests, so around 4.4%. Even if the number was much higher, say 10% of teachers caught covid at your school, your risk of catching and then dying from covid caught in the workplace is 0.00047%, which is well over 1 in 200,000, and under the benchmark you said your DH set.

It's also worth noting that by ONS figures, the first wave did not show any higher death rates for teachers than for other white collar workers, it was people like hairdressers and factory workers who were far more affected

Your DH is being incredibly anxiety-inducing with his maths, he may be trying to help but it sounds incredibly stress inducing. You are almost certain to be ok. I hope you are able to get support and also vaccine priority.

www.qcovid.org/Calculation

*well under 1 in 200,000 that should be!

There is some advice from the NEU here about what to do if you genuinely feel unsafe at work: neu.org.uk/media/10816/view