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/

It’s not about education. It’s about damage limitation. To put it coldly, it’s about keeping the NHS going so there are not bodies in the hospital corridors. If that’s the way we are genuinely headed then of course schools should shut.

@Flippingnightmare

My 'beef' with the profession comes from being married to a primary school DH, so seeing from the inside how much work is actually going on.

He would do less than half of what he usually does during working from home. Fortunately he is actually a professional person with a sense of vocation, so he is desperate for schools to open and for children to actually be educated again. Perhaps it's because we have young children and he can see the damage that all this is causing.

Don't pretend that 'working from home' is anywhere NEAR the amount of teaching and work you would usually do, I have seen first hand that it isn't. And seen some of DH's colleagues plead corona fear even though they are runners in their 30s, when they clearly want to just stay at home.

Are you sure your feelings are nothing to do with reducing the 6-6 day you mentioned earlier? Or are you claiming to be working from home 6am -6pm?

Interesting as I'm the absolute opposite. Working at home creates about twice as much for me.

The issue in these threads is people try to lump teachers and schools together as one homogeneous group based on anecdotal evidence, such as your partner.

Who's opinion is worth more, mine saying it's harder with my "inside" view or yours?

Or do you think teachers should work for free because........????

You do realise that a lot of the country is working twice as hard for no extra pay don't you? It doesn't look good to imply that only teachers should be exempt from this.

My experience of teachers were they seemed to work a few fewer hours during the first lockdown - more like the 30/40 hours that people think they work than the 60-70 that they often work during term time BUT they also worked through the holidays on a rota to keep schools accessible for keyworker's children.
The Government should have shut schools for a few weeks to bring the numbers down. The Government should also fund laptops for teachers - like other employers do for their employees to work at home - and fund internet and devices for pupils who need them.
I am fine as my employer expects me to work from home for the foreseeable future, my eldest's college has told them to study from home for at least next week, and the youngest is going to embark on an OU course.

@notevenat20 We are also doing more work for no extra pay. It takes a really long time to plan and resource all the home learning that we have up for self-isolating children. It took me 8+ hours one weekend recently to do 10 days planning (I admit I am also shit with technology). And god, the amount of extra work SLT have had - they’re not paid extra to act as track and trace, you realise?

All the way through this pandemic I’ve been on the side of schools staying open.
Right now though, it seems the absolutely best thing is for them to shut. Nurseries too (my DS is in preschool) in fact - 4 weeks of a nationwide, actual lockdown. Spend those 4 weeks vaccinating as many people as possible (including teachers) and hopefully, after 4 weeks things might start to improve.

It’s the slightly lesser of two evils IMO.

I’ve never yet seen a post from a teacher on the subject of COVID where they have expressed dislike of children. Posters are forever bringing this up to try and fit their agenda.

Teachers are the ones who are looking after your offspring. If you think they dislike children so much I am amazed you are happy to send your children to school.

The teachers on here worrying about their safety and the safety of their pupils (your children) will be the same ones welcoming your children with a smile when they return to school. They will not pass their concerns to their pupils. It would be hilarious for those complaining about the teachers on here and saying how amazing the teachers are in their DC’s school if they find out one day that they are one and the same.

If your child in Secondary school has an amazing maths teacher that could well be @noblegiraffe who has been championing the cause for safe schools throughout this pandemic even though some posters have treated her horrendously.

I am not a teacher by the way but I am a school governor and am fully aware of the stresses that schools are under and the absolute shit show this Government has been in respect of Education throughout the last 9 months. I am also a parent of Y11 pupil who is nervous about going back to school this term and he would much rather have remote provision at the moment even though he has GCSEs later this year.

Teachers are also well aware of the impact on vulnerable children if schools close. They are the ones who have huge pressure on them to ensure these children are identified and this role goes well beyond education, especially as the Government have cut other children services so much. But I didn’t see so much concern from non teacher posters on here for the vulnerable children before COVID. Some of those children had shit lives before COVID and will continue to have shit lives even when schools are completely back to normal. Will those posters forget about them then and expect the teachers to pick up the pieces. Maybe more people should be questioning why for many children school is their only safe space and more people should be doing something about it rather than heaping all the responsibility on schools.

@year5teacher Understood. My university lecturer friend effectively had to make a MOOC from scratch over the summer at no extra pay and using only equipment he bought out of his own pocket. This is on top of his normal job and took hundreds of hours. This is what life is like now. We should have sympathy for each other rather than claiming we are exceptional all the time m

Oh for gods sake why does this always come back to workload. I will work all the hours required of me to do my job well happily but it isn’t about teachers and our workloads it’s about KEEPING PEOPLE ALIVE.

Hope those state teachers all have their online teaching ready. Don't want them sat at home watching the morning/afternoon television.

So my children’s school, tier four have posted on facebook they are fully opening as expected on Tuesday. How can she be so sure?

Good. It's about time.

Great post @ineedaholidaynow as a parent I totally agree.

Vacuum at the heart of government. It’s now local authorities and unions etc who are demanding data, criteria and when not provided we get u turns from gov or now this finally teachers unions saying they are working in an unsafe environment and gosling something about it.
So ashamed and embarrassed by current ministers.

We saw from the last lockdown that once you close things down, people are scared to open back up, and it ends up taking months. The NEU may be saying close for two weeks but it seems to me highly unlikely schools will then re-open before February and maybe not before Easter. Apart from anything else, does anyone really think effective testing for all school staff and students can be sorted out in two weeks?

I have generally been critical of lockdowns and am highly critical of unions but I'd support a full lockdown including school closures now if it was used to roll out vaccinations at speed and if support was available for those this would plunge further into poverty. I doubt either would happen and instead we'll be in to another endless, rolling lockdown which doesn't do any more than squash this wave so we get a bigger one next time. It's just so depressing....

@SeldomFollowedIt

So my children’s school, tier four have posted on facebook they are fully opening as expected on Tuesday. How can she be so sure?

At this point she can't say for certain, it's all guess work.

If all schools close then how can you expect people to vaccinate the public. As schools are saying both parents need to be key workers.

There appears to be a lot of “who works the hardest” “puts the most hours in” bashing going on here. There will always be those who work until the last hour and those that don’t in every walk of life...this is not what school closures are about. The figures today are over £57k new cases and over 400 deaths. That’s just today...what about tomorrow and the day after? People are dying or becoming seriously ill, hospitals cannot cope, please put this into perspective. What will it take for people to realise this is about life and death...yes it might not be your death but it could be someone you would die for....an 8 year old died yesterday. Good forbid if that was my 8 year old.

Only one parent has to be a key worker government states.

[quote LadyPenelope68]@year5teacher
You really are in unpleasant person and from your comments and derogatory digs at other education staff, I don’t think there is any chance that you are actually a teacher. If you are, I feel very sorry for you and for your colleagues who have to deal with your lack of empathy.[/quote]
@LadyPenelope68. Eh? I haven’t seen anything in their posts that warrant that. Are you sure you tagged the right person?

*God forbid

What's actually likely to happen now?

Is this an individual choice for teachers, do HT phone their staff to see who's going in and then decide if they can open?

Just wondering when as parents we are likely to find out.

@AaronPurr

Agree but the way she has worded it was with absolute certainty. I should imagine she hasn’t even spoken to any of her staff yet but who knows.

@Gogglebox20

Only one parent has to be a key worker government states.

True but schools do have to limit numbers and sometimes they do say both keyworkers or at least both working.

We actually had SAHP's emailing to say their DH/W was a keyworker so would be sending their child in as they were 'entitled' to a space.

I think this caused some of the issue and resentment because schools then tightened the criteria which made it difficult for those who did really need it.

@Omeara

What's actually likely to happen now?

Is this an individual choice for teachers, do HT phone their staff to see who's going in and then decide if they can open?

Just wondering when as parents we are likely to find out.

noble posted a good overview earlier

Primary school teachers who are NEU members are being told that they should contact their head about refusal to work in unsafe conditions under section 44.

Primary Heads have been instructed by their unions to expect this.

Primary Heads will then have to make the decision whether this affects staffing levels to the extent that they will be unable to open safely.

Some heads may open their schools because they can still staff them and are willing to risk that it's safe enough to do so.

Some heads will have to close their schools to all but keyworkers and vulnerable students due to lack of staffing.

Some heads will decide to close to all but keyworker and vulnerable students after making an updated covid risk assessment.

Parents need to wait to hear from their school.