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

Ok - so dh has got figures off the internet as the starting basis of the argument. However, I strongly suspect my risk of death in the workplace is more than 1:1000000 which is certainly the figure he uses at work. I'm fat, over fifty and do have some underlying auto-immune conditions.

I would also ask to see updated risk assessments for anything they want you to do this term, in light of the new strain.

If you're not in an education specific union, I'd strongly suggest joining one ASAP.

Of course the first wave didn't show increased risk for school staff because the majority of kids weren't in school and we could socially-distance more effectively. Since September it's been business as usual except for increased hand-washing and bubbles not mixing. We're not even meant to keep 2 metres away from children only other members of staff. Oh yes and toilet cleaning between bubbles - and guess who does that...

I work in special education (secondary) and feel like we don't matter and are just forgotten. If other secondary schools are allowed to keep staff and pupils safe at home while testing is put in place why aren't we? No, it'll just be crack on come Monday which is really concerning now we have a super strain. I expect bubbles will burst almost immediately and staff will be off constantly self isolating.

@Khara

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 get what you're saying but unfortunately from a pragmatic point of view I'm not sure there's much else you can do really. If being in work would cause you stress and anxiety then that is a mental health issue, even if it's caused by the current circumstances rather than an underlying problem - it's akin to having to take time off for stress because you're being bullied at work. So I think it would be legitimate to cite mental health as a reason for absence.

Is there a practical reason you'd be reluctant to go down that path (e.g. potential repercussions from school) or is it more a feeling of injustice at being put in that position in the first place?

My husband and I are both teachers and we’ve both had Covid. Classrooms aren’t ‘safe’ and if I was in a vulnerable category I think I’d try and get signed off work.

I am a type 1 diabetic teacher, also a little bit fat lol, and I’m honestly not worried. Nor are the other members of staff. We are in a small village school but still. I want my class back

Probably the latter

@Khara

Of course the first wave didn't show increased risk for school staff because the majority of kids weren't in school and we could socially-distance more effectively. Since September it's been business as usual except for increased hand-washing and bubbles not mixing. We're not even meant to keep 2 metres away from children only other members of staff. Oh yes and toilet cleaning between bubbles - and guess who does that...

The numbers from the first wave were before lockdown - teachers had the same rate as corporate managers (very low)

I'm at wit's end too. Overweight and asthmatic but under 50. I know my risk of dying isn't necessarily hugely increased but I think my chances of being very ill are reasonably high. I love my job and if I didn't I'd already have resigned. I don't want to let anyone down but genuinely terrified to go back with this new variant circulating in a tier 4 area. What do I do? Unions don't want to know, head has been lovely but she needs bodies in front of kids, DH keeps telling me I can't jack it in as I'd struggle to get another job when this is over. I didn't suffer with MH but the cognitive dissonance we are suffering as teachers is taking it's toll.

Note that I still support more covid safety measures and priority vaccination for teachers, but also don't think it helps people's mental health or practical discussions around schooling to be talking about a higher risk for teachers than has actually been seen.

I am sur many non teachers are behind you OP. I don’t have any advice but I am really worried about my dds teaching staff. I am keeping my children at home but the staff will have to go in soon, into a situation that is completely unsafe, even though the school are doing their best.

It's not an occupied building assessment or for a comah report... Looking at what is 'alarp' from a high hazard industry perspective. Its a bog standard risk assessment which can quite legally have or not have scores..these type of RA or JSA are also used on chemical sites for day to day tasks

In fact the example from the HSE website for covid doesn't have scores on
www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/risk-assessment.htm

The best way is collectively, as a staff in a union. A union is not a third party that swoops in and saves you. The members are the union. If you are in a union, become the health and safety rep and carry out and health and safety audit. Put your concerns in writing to the Head about the risk assessment t.

TA here and also very scared.

I get frustrated when people quote figures from the first lockdown (clearly a wind up as everyone knows only a few children were in school then and it was summer so more ventilation was possible).
Also frustrating when people compare us with other jobs which can socially distance, wear PPE, work behind a screen or have only a very very short time of contact (eg the classic "but what about shop/delivery workers" etc).
Ooh and then there is the "but children don't pass it on" brigade.
Or the "just quit" brigade.
Or the "the teachers must have caught it when shopping or from another adult as kids don't get it". It's so so much more likely that they got it from an asymptomatic child (as conditions in the classroom are so COVID unsafe) but they never accept that.

Just a reminder that TAs are sat right next to children hearing them read, hold their hands (and yes, kids pick their noses frequently), hug and comfort, perform first aid, wipe noses, help get children cleaned and changed after toilet accidents, serve lunches and clear away after, are in overcrowded, poorly ventilated rooms with 32 children for the whole of the school day. No masks.

Honestly I could play an Us4Them bingo game every time. They just spout the same stuff.

Anyway the rates in primary were very high so most likely a lot of next term the bubbles will be popped and we will all be at home anyway.

All you can do OP is open windows if you can.

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
I’m so sick of this, @OverTheRubicon
In the first wave teachers worked from home. It’s really an irrelevant stat now. And for some reason the government refuse to release the data from this last term...but I’m sure it still says the same, despite the secrecy....

You can refuse to go in and cite Section 44 of the (I think) 1996 Employment Act.

I'm not sure of all the details but this is the advice you will be given unofficially from the union once you have exhausted all other avenues.

@Redbrickwall

I am a type 1 diabetic teacher, also a little bit fat lol, and I’m honestly not worried. Nor are the other members of staff. We are in a small village school but still. I want my class back

Well whoopiedo for you. You aren’t scared so everyone else should just get on with it. You should be scared, FYI.

Our RA concludes that our risk (of what? - it doesn’t specify) is “low” but there is no justification for this and there is no reply when we ask how that judgement was made. The RA is pretty useless overall - far too many “where possible”s - and isn’t being adhered to anyway.

Cases started to rocket just before we broke up. I have been wondering what it would take for us to say “enough is enough”.

Exactly - even our risk assessment (not updated since august) isn't being followed to the letter.

Have you considered reducing your own risk by losing weight? At least it’s something you can control?

@Bigtom

Have you considered reducing your own risk by losing weight? At least it’s something you can control?

By Monday when the schools are back?

I have lost weight thank you - still in the obese category however.

I'm. a teacher, in a newly tier 4 area. I am happy going back and think they should be open. What I can't understand is why primary staff are not being prioritised for testing! Secondary schools are preparing but we are going back in with no testing available.

@cardibach @FoxinaScarf those figures, showing that teachers had the same rate of covid death as corporate managers, were from April 2020.www.google.com/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/ons-figures-reveal-65-covid-related-deaths-in-education/amp/
Both schools and hairdressers closed from 23 March, but the rate for hairdressers, for example, was still far far above the rate for teachers. This was even though teachers had higher ongoing exposure as many stayed on to teach key worker and vulnerable children, and even though with an average age of 39 they are older than the average hairdressers, over 50% of
whom are 25-34 and many younger.

Given this, and given that it takes 5-14 days for symptoms to appear and that there was an average of 14 days from symptom onset to death for those who died in the first wave, it's fair to assume that the vast majority of the teachers (and hairdressers) who were shown in those figures contracted covid pre-lockdown. These figures are therefore likely to be indicative of real risk, though of course with small numbers.

As I said, I still believe that school staff have the right to safety, to better protection and priority vaccination. My DCs will be off for Jan in a hotspot area and I support that. BUT I also think that there's a subset of teachers on MN who show a worrying lack of basic maths when it comes to seeing the risk here. It's bad for people's mental health and it's bad for kids.