Headteacher unions begin legal proceedings against DfE

[Makingnumber2]

www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/leadership-news/update-regarding-start-of-term-sent-to-members-on-2-jan-2021/?fbclid=IwAR3WFugSo-KsSToWAvbteMs8HspeXZTMBd9VaiOlAVxOeL0FM1wDRzqbviA

NAHT and ASCL start legal proceedings against DfE

@noblegiraffe @Candycane2020
Thank you! tried googling but came up with weird stuff :)

@Bagamoyo1 I don’t see that vaccinators are being expected to do their normal job at the same time as this new role. And surgeries are being offered extra money for every person they vaccinate.

@RigaBalsam Year 10 DD has "worksheets to access on the website" from Tuesday. This isn't submitted, discussed, marked or fed back. Not all schools are doing online Teams.

If schools can close when it snows as they are deemed unsafe why are the government not supporting them now, when it really really isn’t safe ?

But other key services have changed what they do.

I no longer can go to my gp surgery and I cannot sit in the waiting room (bigger than a classroom and can SD).

We can only ring, we can only be seen if a gp deems it necessary. They then have a maximum of 10 people in the waiting room (twice the size of a classroom) and I doubt it's ever at capacity.

Bagamoyo,
GP's have full PPE, teachers don't have any!

for a non teacher - what is section 44?

Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996:

1)An employee has the right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, by his employer done on the ground that—
(d)in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which he could not reasonably have been expected to avert, he left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to his place of work or any dangerous part of his place of work, or
(e)in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, he took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect himself or other persons from the danger.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/44

[quote Candycane2020]@Bagamoyo1 I don’t see that vaccinators are being expected to do their normal job at the same time as this new role. And surgeries are being offered extra money for every person they vaccinate.[/quote]
Yes £10 per head for every resident in a care home.

That works out about £100 an hour if you can do 10 people in that time. More than covers hiring extra staff.

"I'm OK with teachers and vulnerable parents and grandparents dying on mass as long as my kids are in school" is really all the us for them argument is now. Look at the numbers, put down your David Icke books and stop being dense. It sucks. No one wanted this to happen. Yes some kids will struggle but many, many lives will be saved. That's all there is to it.

@Makingnumber2

Here here *@BumbleBeegu*

@Bagamoyo1toddle off back to the crackpot anti vaxxers and tin foil hat wearing loonies in your U4T group why don't you and leave the adults to talk intelligently?

@CallmeAngelina think how much faster they'll be able to call them once they've been chipped via the vaccine!!

Actually as a GP I’ll be administering the vaccine.
I’ve reported your post because it’s very rude. Someone with a different opinion to you isn’t necessarily a crackpot.

Tell me who is doing the majority of the vaccines?
Is it GPs?And if so, who is doing their normal work while they do the vaccines?I’ll tell you. No one. They are basically doing 2 jobs. For the greater good of society. And they aren’t going to court to stamp their feet about it. They’re just getting on with it. Which is what teachers should do.

I read yesterday that for the vaccination program, they are recruiting hundreds of retired health care staff and part timers wanting to pick up extra hours.

HTH

[quote copernicium]@RigaBalsam Year 10 DD has "worksheets to access on the website" from Tuesday. This isn't submitted, discussed, marked or fed back. Not all schools are doing online Teams. [/quote]
Please speak to your school. Is it secondary? Were the whole year isolating?

It would depend on if its a whole year isolating or just a few pupils. Also primary would be different.

I have managed to teach some difficult Physics over teams and they have remembered it.

Taken from Sky News:

National Education Union: 'Teachers have a legal right to refuse to work'

The National Education Union says it has informed teachers of their legal rights not to have to work in an unsafe environment, as they call on the government to close all English schools for two weeks.

Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said teachers have a right to refuse to work in "conditions which are a danger to their health".

Mr Courtney added: "In order for viral levels in children and in the community to decrease to below R1 primary schools should not open in the first weeks of January.

"We will be informing our members that they have the right to work in safe conditions which do not endanger their health.

'We realise that this late notice is a huge inconvenience for parents and for head teachers. The fault, however, is of the government’s own making and is a result of their inability to understand data."

Tell me who is doing the majority of the vaccines?
Is it GPs?

It'll be the nurses at the GP practices, certainly is at ours. GPs don't tend to do vaccines. Vaccines are normal work for the nurses.
If children get vaccines then it will be the school nurses* going round to schools to do them.

*unless they decide that's something else the teachers can do.

Every ``RULE '' that we have now will soon be trampled over and defied in nearly every school, in the coming weeks... This is the whole point, on the one hand we are told its so serious stay at home, distance, hands face space but then, all of those measures will melt away in school.

[quote copernicium]@RigaBalsam Year 10 DD has "worksheets to access on the website" from Tuesday. This isn't submitted, discussed, marked or fed back. Not all schools are doing online Teams. [/quote]
Exactly.
I’m tired of being told that online learning is just as good.

Actually as a GP I’ll be administering the vaccine.

You'll be aware of the money you've been allocated to get the job done, then. You might not be able to administer the vaccine so easily if your school closes to key worker children, though.

Oh, Us4Them. Come in, your time is up. Your rhetoric has been shown up for the drivel it is. You must feel really proud of the fact that the shite you spouted has led to problems we are facing now. No one wanted schools to ‘close’, we wanted them to be safe. You must take a huge slice of responsibility for this situation. That must hurt.

@Ihateme

How is this going to be resolved before Monday though?

We now find ourselves in a position where some of those risk assessments could suggest that it will not be safe to open the school next week. As an example, an absence of staff could well mean that schools do not have capacity to open safely for all pupils.

The above taken from the link, if there are not enough staff the schools wont open anyway, its a loophole that could be used to gain extra time until this is resolved

neu.org.uk/press-releases/neu-advises-primary-members-it-unsafe-return-work

@Witchend

Tell me who is doing the majority of the vaccines? Is it GPs?

It'll be the nurses at the GP practices, certainly is at ours. GPs don't tend to do vaccines. Vaccines are normal work for the nurses.
If children get vaccines then it will be the school nurses* going round to schools to do them.

*unless they decide that's something else the teachers can do.

GPs do vaccines, and have to be present at Covid vaccine centres.

I’m tired of being told that online learning is just as good.

Duh. Of course being in front of a teacher is better than being in front of a laptop.

But in the middle of a pandemic where a new strain is running out of control and hospitals are overwhelmed, AND NO EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE AT ALL, needs must.

The government could have avoided this scenario. Now they're being forced to sit down with teachers and discuss school safety. Meetings that they've been avoiding since the summer.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

Oh, Us4Them. Come in, your time is up. Your rhetoric has been shown up for the drivel it is. You must feel really proud of the fact that the shite you spouted has led to problems we are facing now. No one wanted schools to ‘close’, we wanted them to be safe. You must take a huge slice of responsibility for this situation. That must hurt.

Hear hear. It's scary the links that are coming out about us4them and the anti vaccine groups

Thanks for letting me know @Bagamoyo1 I think it was very rude of you to say teachers wanting to work in safe schools are 'unreasonable' and 'ridiculous'. Shall I report you for rudeness in expressing your opposing opinion to mine? No one really likes a tattle tale... Plus I didn't call you a crackpot etc. I called the members (well most of them from what I have seen on that shambles of a facebook page) of U4T that.
As a GP are you being asked to do vaccinations and also see your usual number of patients/make your usual number of phonecalls to patients every day?
If so, have a word with your practice manager I would. I've just asked my SIL who is also a GP whether she is being asked to do her normal case load AND vaccinations on top of it- she's said no.

Good.