NEU tells teachers not to go to work on Monday

[Workyticket]

skwawkbox.org/2021/01/02/breaking-union-tells-teachers-not-to-go-to-work-on-monday/

[quote DrRamsesEmerson]@FrippEnos, the amount of work being done by Dad's teacher last spring was invisible to the naked eye. She wasn't unique by any means.[/quote]
you do know that the situation has changed with the (admittedly poor) instructions that we have received form the government.

I have no idea what provision will be like this time and neither do you.

I do know that the laptop scheme that the government proposed has really do any good as they didn't arrive or arrived in such a condition that they couldn't be used

I know that there are no detailed instructions as to what the online learning will be and that schools have been left to their own devices again.

I know that some schools will be offering online live lessons and others that do not have the facilities to do so.

We have had 10 + years of under funding.

Why weren't you being vocal about education during those last 10 years?

Let's hope nhs staff don't follow

January as well, not an ideal time for an endless unpaid strike, yikes

It's not an endless unpaid strike. It's not strike action at all.

It's a section 44 walkout under health and safety legislation and therefore paid.

Happy to be furloughed. I imagine many will be.

However, you can’t work on furlough. So there would be no online learning or keyworker/vulnerable children provisions.

January as well, not an ideal time for an endless unpaid strike, yikes

It's not a strike.

You've already been told it's not a strike and that teachers will be working to provide remote education. You really are a Flipping Nightmare.

@rossogingerale

I support this 100%. I am in tier 4 area up north, every tier should be treated the same and no one should be asked to work in unsafe conditions.

This fucking government are shite and so inconsistent.

This^^ 100%.

I am not a teacher. I am a parent of a primary aged child and I do not think teachers should have to go to work. I would support my DC's teacher if she refused to work. The government are play fast and loose with teachers' lives, the absolute, solid gold assholes that they are, (government, not teachers)!

Beebity

Personally I'd say not because the onus is on them to now prove schools are safe.

However, they may wheel Dr jenny harries out, and she may '' reassure '' us like last time that teachers are a low risk.

@Beebityboo

So what do you think happens now? Can the government really just ignore all of this and plough ahead?

No, not with the headteachers unions taking legal action. That has to be responded to.

All the people talking about furlough, LOL furlough is for struggling sectors to retain jobs, not to pay people who can't be arsed to o in.

Can you IMAGINE if doctors and nurses had done this during the first lockdown? At least they have professional integrity.

@noblegiraffe that's fair enough but norovirus can also be deadly and afaik there is no vaccine for that? There are probably other highly contagious 'winter' bugs in circulation every year with the potential to cause serious illness (especially in children) and deaths too but only now does everyone care about people not catching them.

On another note, hate it when people shoot down any comparison between flu, for example, and covid. They are both contagious, they can both kill people, even the symptoms are similar.

I imagine the government is trying their best to ignore this and hope it all blows over.

Then place all the blame on NEU instead of admitting blame and their complete failure to protect teachers. They have done nothing to help protect teachers and staff, and it's not like they haven't had time to prepare support.

@PaperHalo

I’m failing to under what is so horrifying about expecting teachers to continue to work... like bus drivers, prison officers, supermarket workers, pharmacists, care workers, vets, accommodation managers... all of whom would expect to come in to contact with 30+ people a day? Should all of these people refuse to go to work too? And expect to continue to receive 100% of their pay?

What's an accommodation manager and why are they on that list? The others look like keyworkers.

If teachers are working whether at school or from home they are working. So should get paid. Just like all the other people working from home at the moment. It isn't like being furloughed.

Yes some schools were not providing education or contact first lockdown. No body denies that. However a lot of schools did everything they could for their kids.

I want schools to stay open but even I see their needs to be a short national lockdown and then hopefully with safety measures some less affected areas can reopen.

'm not well off at all. I don't have loaded parents and my DH earns less than me. However I considered it my duty as a parent to provide my DCs with relatively inexpensive laptops so they can access schoolwork when unable to be there

I really dislike people who take this smug approach.

Assume they won't get paid if they don't go into work.....

• Chocolatte21 If teachers want schools closed then they should also have to work from home whilst caring for their children. It’s simply not fair that teachers get to send their children to school while they WFH under key worker provision whilst parents are forced to WFH AND care/home school their children, and without the job security that teachers have. I did this last time. 🤷‍♀️*

I worked from home next to my 6 year old throughout. She was allowed back as a year 1 child at the end of the summer term and I kept her at home because I wasn't convinced it was safe and didn't want to add to the teacher's burden. I worked all weekend every weekend to catch up a bit to make it possible.

[quote SeldomFollowedIt]@Thunderpunt

My sisters are nurses and would disagree entirely with you. One works in the NHS and has already had her vaccine, and the other one gets tested twice weekly as she manages a care home.

They feel safer at work than what I do (primary TA).[/quote]
That's nice... do you think they represent the entire nursing community? To maybe there's an opposing view, such as ; just bloody well get on with it, we had to!

@SaltyAF

How does that work when the parent is working from home, on the computer. How do two or three children aged 5-11 not miss out? I'm not talking about pupils who are so deprived that they would qualify for free ipads or whatever. I'm talking about the so-called 'squeezed middle' who qualify for nothing, but can't afford anything either.

I'm not well off at all. I don't have loaded parents and my DH earns less than me. However I considered it my duty as a parent to provide my DCs with relatively inexpensive laptops so they can access schoolwork when unable to be there. Many children have very expensive consoles and / or their parents drive pretty new cars, so it's surprising how many families consider basic technology so far out of reach.

I don't want to agree with this because it sounds gosst BUT just this afternoon a mum on the WhatsApp chat has been moaning about her son not having a laptop to work on yet I know she bought him a Nintendo switch for Christmas...

Workplaces have a duty to provide the equipment to work from home so if there is only one computer in the house the child should use it and parent use a work device.

The whole point is that its not safe in the current circumstances. A class full of 30 children and 2/3 adults is not the same as one with 6 children. Social distancing is impossible, which is where the risk lies

And it’s really lucky teachers fall under KW status so their kids luckily have a space in that nice SD class room ... who’d have thought it eh?

If I'm not going in (although as I'm secondary, it's already been announced that we are working from home for next week at least) then my primary aged child won't go in under keyworkers. As it is, his school is about as safe as it can be. There are only 12 children in his class, purley by virtue of it being a tiny village school in the middle of nowhere, and despite having a really high rate from September onwards, they haven't had a single case (again, there are only 36 kids in the school and 4 members of staff anyway, so not a massive surprise).

When I have to go in to my school, which as a head of year 11, I very probably will have to, then he will go in. But last time, he was one of 2 children who were in under KW provision. Every school is different and I would feel very differently if he was going back to a more typical primary classroom of 30. However, as I said, if I'm WFH then he will be at home anyway. He became quite the expert in Kantian Deontological ethics during the summer term as he joined in with my Year 12 lessons!

I fully support the teachers in this action. They’ve been asking for months for schools to be made safer and the government has just ignored them. Unfortunately it will mean that some parents will struggle to work and will lose their jobs. But parents can’t realistically expect teachers to sacrifice their own health and safety so parents can work. Nobody is going to make that sacrifice for a complete stranger!

@NeverForgetYourDreams

Assume they won't get paid if they don't go into work.....

Under a section 44 walk out they would claim any deduction to be unlawful so yes, they will get paid unless the DfE instruct school not to pay I wouldn't put it past them

Softsheen there were no books in my home actually. I just went to the local library .

But as I say, I am basically an autodidact and have learnt most of what I know through real life, books and (these days) the internet. I mean, once I learnt to read and write properly, by the age of about 12 or 13, it was just a couple of years of exams, then out into the world.

Education has become the "new God" (George Orwell). And quite frankly, it is often no more than an exam factory and moneymaking machine now, with massive insitututions part of the corporate-life (look to American where thousands and thousands are spent on useless college "degrees"). Universities are like corporate pyramid schemes now, where young people are tied into massive loan-schemes for the benefit of a a dull lecture (usually delivered online now!) and a certificate almost worthless because the education machine has downgraded them so much (is this not a shocking indictment of their greed and self-aggrandisement?).

A pilot needs a plan. A surgeon needs a theatre. A student just needs a book and some good company (mostly not available in schools).

Like I said, I've met some lovely and committed teachers. Probably better than when I was younger, it must be said in their defence. But I still think there needs to be a reality check.

As much as I'd love for my children to go back to school I fully understand why some teachers don't wish to.

I work in our school, not in a teaching position but as a midday and class helper. The younger children can really struggle with remembering things like sanitising hands and not sharing objects. Couple that with children who's parents sent them in with heavy coughs and colds. It's a breeding ground for germs already.

I am devastated for children whose education, wellbeing and mental health will be affected by school closures, and it makes my life a nightmare but I am 100% unequivocally behind teachers who take this stand.