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 a shame so many people can't see that the government manipulated this situation through inaction so they didn't have to be the bad guys, so they could literally pitch parents against teachers instead of making the hard decision.

It's so sad to see two disempowered groups fighting for scraps at the table of equity instead of challenging the fundamental premise that the only equity to be shared is that which they are permitted by the government.

The government is printing money. They could have solved this ages ago by letting people bubble properly instead of keeping schools open and telling them to sort themselves out with no time or money to do that. Schools are not childcare. Right now they are disease vectors. Just because the kids can't catch the illness doesn't mean they're not spreading it.

Headteachers aren't epidemiologists, they shouldn't be solving the issue of how to make schools Covid secure, there should have been specific guidance based on scientific study of how this disease spreads.

We know it survives on surfaces for ages FGS, think of children as self-mobile surfaces with bits constantly falling off them (snot, clothes, stray hairs, dead skin, toys) then put two and two together, people!

Parents AND teachers deserve better.

They probably don't want teachers to die. How unreasonable of them!

@mrjuno that’s a massively frustrating and challenging situation to be in; I’m in a similar one myself. It’s the government’s responsibility to make provision for this - the role of government is to provide for its people’s well-being. The problem is, they’re failing at this, and we need to challenge them, rather than the school staff who have been - deliberately - placed in the middle and vilified.

What about the millions of parents who need to work, their employer says come in or quit, they are self employed and they are doing vital jobs just not in healthcare or food production (dp makes the components for masks and his employees were not allowed key worker status!). We don't have kids at home, they are grown but I really feel for those not able to wfh

The problem with the NEU is they cry wolf too much - making a big fuss about the opening up last June when the numbers were much lower, then again in Sept and then with the Nov lockdown.

And now we truly are in the shit people won't take them as seriously. This always happens with the unions, they don't understand that sometimes it's best just to press on quietly!

@CallmeAngelina

Will just put this here...

"Teachers are not responsible for babysitting children"

Yet teachers here have said that they would expect other teachers or TAs to do exactly that to help them work....

And would do it in turn for the other essential workers. Meanwhile, all non essential workers isolate as much as possible to minimise spread of the virus.

But you know this.

@kowari Have they got phones with internet enabled? Students who I teach that didn’t even have a phone were offered a school laptop or a place in school to use IT facilities.

I'm not talking about pupils who are so deprived that they would qualify for free ipads or whatever.

The laptops that didn't happen, is that what you're referring to? Where schools received roughly a fifth of what they were promised. How do you split a laptop between five kids?

The problem with the NEU is they cry wolf too much - making a big fuss about the opening up last June when the numbers were much lower, then again in Sept and then with the Nov lockdown.

Which is why being backed by the headteachers unions with legal action against the DfE is so important.

I don't think people understand just how united all the education bodies are against the government right now.

[quote mrjuno]@motherrunner. Of course anything is possible. But that doesn't mean it's right, or that it's possible for everyone.

Some children are going to be massively disadvantaged by yet another school closure.[/quote]
You're telling serving teachers this?
Where was your concern when you left the profession pre-Covid?

But then as a teacher, who will have to work to support key worker and vulnerable children, while my husband works in the Nhs, what am I meant to do? Teacher’s children need the provision but it will be safer as they’ll be fewer households.

@SansaSnark, that sounds well thought through. I'm absolutely not out to have a go at teachers. My own DC have had brilliant, life-changing teachers with whom they are still in touch. I was a teacher. I married a teacher (now retired). And so on.

I just don't think schools are the essential problem. The essential problem is that a virus is doing what viruses do, and no school closures or lockdowns are going to stop it. They might make it slower and longer - which, of course, is where the 'save the NHS' idea comes in.

The fact that the NHS is unfit for purpose is the fundamental problem.

And even if schools close now to 'save the NHS', the NHS is doomed anyway because of the long-term consequences of lockdown (MH, but also postponed operations, appointments, etc, etc, etc). I was due to have an operation last April (waited for about 16 weeks for the date). I have now been told that I will have to wait "at least three years" for the same operation (not 'urgent', but life-changing).

My (large primary) school's application for laptops was rejected and we were allocated four.
Don't think they've arrived yet.

Good, not before time! Nobody else is expected to work in unsafe conditions and banned from wearing PPE, it's scandalous.

@Jetatyeovilaerodrome

The problem with the NEU is they cry wolf too much - making a big fuss about the opening up last June when the numbers were much lower, then again in Sept and then with the Nov lockdown.

And now we truly are in the shit people won't take them as seriously. This always happens with the unions, they don't understand that sometimes it's best just to press on quietly!

Really?

Asking for Health and safety provision is now crying wolf.

You really need to get a grip.

I have been a fierce critic of unions in relation to their stance in online teaching and have been very vocal about the lack of actual "teaching" my children have had when schools were closed. But I think this is absolutely the right thing for the unions to do and sadly I do think schools need to move online. I just hope the quality of remote education provided is less diabolical than last time.

Its went on too long with classes half empty, teachers crying and stressed, some schools not even telling teachers if pupils are infected with CV yet they were in their class all day. I really do not blame them at all.

They might make it slower and longer

We have a vaccine. All we need to do is to make it slow enough and long enough to build up a buffer of vaccinated people, and hit the warmer months. We just need to make it to some time around Easter.

Or, we could just, after nine months of suffering and with the end in sight, say "Fuck it, let's just let it run rampant."

@Achristmaspudsskidu I haven't worked as a teacher for a very long time. I wasn't working as a teacher prior to the first lockdown. I moved into another sector that enabled me to be at home with the children before they went to school, and enabled me to work p/t after that (one of my DC has a disability and needed me to be around more than any teaching job would have allowed me to be).

However, I'd be very glad to return now.

@Becsim, don’t you see the hypocrisy in reckoning that you need the provision but other families will just have to manage without? Not everyone who works is a keyworker, and children are at much greater risk from poverty and homelessness than Covid.

I think teachers understand where you are coming from, @mrjuno. There are no easy answers. Teachers have been shouting about what could be done for some time but it has fallen on deaf ears. This situation was not inevitable which makes it all the more frustrating.

Many schools are recording and posting lessons to Teams or google classroom so they can be listened to at a convenient time. That will help families manage a lack of suitable devices maybe a little. Ask the school if they are able to help with a device - you may find they can lend you something.

I know that feels inadequate and I am sorry that this is causing stress, upset and hardship in many households. But I personally cannot stand by any longer and pretend this isn’t happening. I don’t want to lose colleagues, friends and family and nor do I want to see that happen to the children I teach. Unfortunately, I suspect it is already too late for that.

However, I'd be very glad to return now.

What's stopping you? www.tes.com/jobs/

@movingonup20

What about the millions of parents who need to work, their employer says come in or quit, they are self employed and they are doing vital jobs just not in healthcare or food production (dp makes the components for masks and his employees were not allowed key worker status!). We don't have kids at home, they are grown but I really feel for those not able to wfh

I would hope those people count as key workers.

@Noellodee I'm glad you mentioned the vaccine. Where has it gone? Why was it being publicised a week or so ago, but now there's no mention of it? Other than that it might be bugger all use to anyone, because people might still be able to transmit Covid despite being vaccinated. Which means it solves precisely nothing. Though I would dearly love to be wrong about this.