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/

@MarshaBradyo

Is the walkout against school as normal or is it for any school at all?

Ie if government did the same as London provision which is KW etc only would the walk out still go ahead?

The unions are advising teaching staff to provide keyworker provision.

I think the question is what is the minimum amount of contact society can still function with. The more people get together for whatever reason, the more chance of the virus mutating further/overwhelming the NHS. Getting the balance right appears to be impossible. There is no way of objectively assessing the damage done by ether opening schools or switching to remote learning until all this is over. There will be damage either way.

Since 1/12/2020 the number of recorded cases in my town has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.

Appreciate not all we're recorded but even so that's 7 months vs 1 and I don't believe they were 6 times higher before.

Our rate of increase is slowing. It's still increasing and we have 3 times as many cases per 100,000 as we did 4 weeks ago.

So the tiers are obviously having some effect here. Perhaps the schools being out has also has some effect? Our highest recorded days in a months have been 17-22/12 and then 29/12.

I'd say that was mixing as we got new variant and Christmas?

Why make that increase increase faster right now? Why?

I also think teachers 'working from home' should include the 30 hours of contact tme with children.

So each child gets 1 hour a week zoom discussion each week, or 2 minutes/day.

So teachers should be still going into the empty schools, doing 30 hours of face to face (through zoom) teaching and can do their planning in the time they would usually do it.

None of this bung a couple fo work sheets and videos online then make a couple of comments int he afternoon nonsense. They should be doing the same hours for the same pay, I'd expect to have at least 2 x 5 minute face to face contacts with my childs teacher per day

@noblegiraffe

It's not a strike.

It's a section 44 walkout.

Employees have the legal right to a safe workplace and the government is breaking that law.

Exactly this. I support them 100%

*12 minutes/day

Barbie I’m just wondering about the mechanism of walk out.

On first day of it goes ahead teachers don’t turn up (some of not all)

But what would satisfy union to not do walk out from your answer I assume changing all schools to KW provision as London is before first day

Thunder - when will I think it’s safe? When I have the same protection as other workers. Other workers are not being expected to spend an hour a time in a room of 30 teenagers 5 or 6 times a day (= 150 people) five days a week with no one wearing a mask. No one except teachers is doing this. Shop workers are exposed to many people but for very short periods of time and have screens. Health workers have PPE.

Why is #StarmerQuits trending on Twitter?

@Justajot

I think that teachers probably won't actually follow this. Going into work "for the sake of the children" is pretty ingrained into teachers, as is avoiding conflict with senior leaders.

I also think that having the more militant NEU do this will make Gavin Williamson dig his heels in. Ignoring scientific and public health advice is one thing, but a U turn with pressure from a union would go completely against the grain. Sadly I think this means schools are even less likely to close. It's ridiculous, but lives depend on playing games with egos.

The head teachers' union sounds that they at least want the DfE to prove that it is safe knowing they can't. That's the nearest to agreeing with the NEU I've ever witnessed.

I think it'll end up with a press frenzy about how the evil teachers want to sit at home eating biscuits like they apparently do on their three month holidays and throughout lockdown, etc. etc. Bugger all about it being unsafe, but all about whether they get paid/that it's a strike when it isn't, etc, etc.

That was a bit muddled

Basically to prevent this walk out all schools need to go to KW provision, otherwise they may not be able to open to anyone as a walk out occurs

So we can expect an announcement tomorrow to stop it... or not

Is it linked to his refusal to support yen unions (including education)?

Sorry but what are parents not classed as a “key worker” supposed to do if they are still working!?! Whether working from home or actually going into a work place you cannot expect parents to have the hell of home schooling and working full time again and it’s an unfair expectation for them to go on unpaid leave because unions don’t want teachers to work and the government have messed up again. Also why is the education of a key worker child more important than that of a child with parents working from home? It’s grossly unfair.

In areas with the new variant schools being open will significantly increase the risk for supermarket and nhs staff. I dont know enough about virus transmission but i do know food is essential and i would like my friends working in supermarkets to be as safe as possible. I fully support any measures thst would increase their safety taken by their very profitable businesses. So perspex screens, limiting cutomer numbers, mask wearing, increasing ventilation, breaks for handwashing. The more vulnerable staff staying at home. Anything that could help.
If ultimatley the only way to keep essential retail and healthcare going is to move to online learning then so be it. Glad its not my decision.

@Flippingnightmare I agree. My daughter has a maths tutor on zoom an hour a week and has made huge progress. An hour with each child would be far more meaningful that crappy worksheets and a chirpy email about what they have been doing with all their free time.

And small group work would be an option, so an hour a day with each small group

@Flippingnightmare

I also think teachers 'working from home' should include the 30 hours of contact tme with children.

So each child gets 1 hour a week zoom discussion each week, or 2 minutes/day.

So teachers should be still going into the empty schools, doing 30 hours of face to face (through zoom) teaching and can do their planning in the time they would usually do it.

None of this bung a couple fo work sheets and videos online then make a couple of comments int he afternoon nonsense. They should be doing the same hours for the same pay, I'd expect to have at least 2 x 5 minute face to face contacts with my childs teacher per day

My kids have been having really decent core subject lessons from 9-3pm with breaks in between whenever their primary school bubbles have been sent home to isolate. The teachers also set them homework to complete and submit which they mark and give feedback on. Guess all schools may not all be like this.

@Flippingnightmare couldn’t agree more. So few teachers are really teaching to the same extent. The number of children who’ve had no individual support since early this year is shocking.

I’m not supportive of this anyway - the government gets to make nationwide policy decisions, unions don’t. Where would we be if supermarket workers, nurses, delivery drivers, food factory workers all walked out because they didn’t feel safe? I feel a sense of duty and service has completely disappeared from the teaching profession, thank god it’s still there in other key worker professions.

@Thunderpunt

I guess the question is exactly at what point will teachers deem it safe to work? Quantify it? Back in the summer it wasn't safe, so ok we will have bubbles. Still not safe, ok masks can be worn in communal areas Still not safe, track and trace all positive cases and their contacts, isolate them. Still not safe, introduce rapid testing in secondary schools

Lo and behold....still not safe

It just feels like until the entire population is vaccinated, teachers are working in full hazmat suits from with a perplex box teaching groups of no more than 5 students at at least 2 meters distance.... it won't be enough.

I'd like to know what is deemed safe to open?

Maybe when there aren't nearly 60,000 cases in a single day. The idiocy is just astounding.

@TheWorstShed

On a personal level, bugger. But it is the right thing to do at this point.

Same here. I don't want schools to close but I think they have to. Otherwise we will have longer closures a few weeks done the line as the impact on the infection rate will be huge.

@PinkFondantFancy

If teachers genuinely believe it's not safe, so much so that they're willing to attempt the impossible that the rest of us were attempting a lot of doing two jobs, they have my full backing. Not so much if they're expecting TAs to go in and babysit their children while they work from home

Completely agree with this but strongly suspect that teachers will argue that they can’t possibly be expected to do that (despite forcing the rest of us to)

@borntohula

My job involves being in close proximity to customers who are not wearing masks and around colleagues for hours on end, it's not a job where you can realistically keep your distance all the time. It's nowhere near as important as teaching but surely my life is as important? I'm not personally overly worried but there seems to be no concern whatsoever for staff in other industries.

My keyworker husband is in a similar position to you. Is in his 50s and worked throughout.

Yes teachers are not the only ones that have dodgy conditions to work in during the pandemic. However that doesn't mean improvements to their conditions should be ignored.

The main point at the moment is even people like myself who want schools open realise we need to delay term starting. The hospitals are not going to cope unless the virus is slowed. That means changes in school safety.

@Kjc39

Schools are no more unsafe then supermarkets. It’s a good job that supermarket staff didn’t refuse to work. Absolutely ridiculous!! Covid has become a rampant madness that’s stopping people having common sense!

Can you explain how they are the same?

Supermarkets:

Controlled numbers, bigger premises, masks, SD, people are in and out and generally moving, contact tracing by PHE.

Schools

Sanitiser.

@notevenat20

Stop being so melodramatic we need the schools off for two weeks whilst then sort mass testing out.

@Flippingnightmare

I also think teachers 'working from home' should include the 30 hours of contact tme with children.

So each child gets 1 hour a week zoom discussion each week, or 2 minutes/day.

So teachers should be still going into the empty schools, doing 30 hours of face to face (through zoom) teaching and can do their planning in the time they would usually do it.

None of this bung a couple fo work sheets and videos online then make a couple of comments int he afternoon nonsense. They should be doing the same hours for the same pay, I'd expect to have at least 2 x 5 minute face to face contacts with my childs teacher per day

You have a long list of demands and yet you really don’t seem to grasp how shit home learning is for everyone, including teachers, do you?

I don’t know anyone who would prefer to be doing key worker provision/remote learning. The stress about how the children will go backwards and what that will look like in our data, whether or not SLT will accept lockdown as a reason for it, knowing the children are probably sad to be off work, not having the jokes, fun, laughter with them in class, no connecting (sort of) with colleagues, no feeling of success when you work 1:1 with a child and they understand something. No real connection. It’s shit. And the fact that you seem to think we’d all jump at the chance because it’s apparently easier shows how little you understand.

It’s beyond what I, or you, want. And beyond what any of us want. Yes, given the choice I would just go in every day as normal until my bubble closed and then come back and continue, vaccine or not, obviously. If schools are not closed by the government, that’s what I’ll be doing. But can you not see that right now the issue is about the NHS becoming overwhelmed and it does actually seem like that is happening in some areas. If you cannot grasp that this is somehow bigger than your weird, petty little beef with an entire profession then that’s on you.

Same as a pp said, on a personal level this won't be great for me, but it is absolutely the right thing to happen.