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Original poster

NEU tells teachers not to go to work on Monday

944 replies

Workyticket · 02/01/2021 13:24

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
AaronPurr · 02/01/2021 14:30

I haven't worked as a teacher for a very long time...However, I'd be very glad to return now.

I admire you for wanting to return, but I suspect the teaching environment you'd go back to would be unrecognisable from what you left all those years ago. It's changed so much, and not for the better.

noblegiraffe · 02/01/2021 14:31

[quote mrjuno]@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.[/quote]
The anti-lockdowner is also a vaccine-sceptic.

What a surprise.

Irre247 · 02/01/2021 14:31

I would be happy for my daughter to come with me to school while I had to care for key worker children. I would prefer that than her go to her own school, another teacher have to supervise her and expose us to a much greater pool of families, therefore risk.

We have had Covid, but I do not want to be responsible for further spread.

DrRamsesEmerson · 02/01/2021 14:31

@KeyboardWorriers, fat chance of the provision being any better than last time. DD’s school didn’t bother to check whether she was alive last time - we could have been beating, starving and neglecting her and the school wouldn’t have known or cared. I really hope they made a bit more effort for higher risk children.

mrjuno · 02/01/2021 14:33

@Orf1abc

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?

That is the question. I didn't know what the actual situation was with free laptops/iPads as my children aren't of an age where it was relevant. But I'm sorry that it was/is the case.
Rosehip10 · 02/01/2021 14:33

@mrjuno Ok fine, but aside from root and branch reform and investment in the NHS (would take years if it ever happens) what is your brilliant plan for the next 6 months that is eluding everyone else? People who keep droning on that "lockdowns and closures" are not the answer and leading to "shield the vulnerable all other crack on" have zero answers for what do when the virus spreads massively and sure, most are okay, but even if a tiny percentage of millions getting it need hospital care they won't be able to get it as hospitals are full? So people should just suffer and potentially die at home or at the hospital gates?

Noellodee · 02/01/2021 14:33

Mrjuno, I suggest you read an online newspaper if you want to know anything about the vaccines. There are lots of articles, it won't matter which paper you choose.

Stellaris22 · 02/01/2021 14:33

100% support the teachers and the union, glad they are taking much needed action as the government is incompetent.

I'm dreading school closure and know my daughter (primary) will suffer because of more school closures.

But parents need to support teachers and staff, they aren't just convenient and free childcare. I love DDs school and her teachers, I'll support them in any way I can to keep them safe. Shame other parents are selfish and seek to blame teachers for wanting safe working conditions.

A lot of school buildings are old and not fit for purpose at the best of times, they are dangerous now.

But the government needs to work with the unions, not another last minute decision so parents have no time to prepare. But of cause they'll seek to blame the unions instead of admitting blame.

Wakeupin2022 · 02/01/2021 14:34

here they don't.

A lot of parents will be royally fucked by this & i would be surprised if employers were as supportive as last time. The 'we are all in this together' attitude has definitrly gone, especially when we see so many now not following the rules!

Original poster
Workyticket · 02/01/2021 14:36

DP (worked in an industry where PPE was the norm pre covid) doesnt believe that school staff have been told not to wear it.

I'm FE - we've been told we can if we want to.

Was it down to Heads or was it government guided?

OP posts:
mrjuno · 02/01/2021 14:36

@AaronPurr

I haven't worked as a teacher for a very long time...However, I'd be very glad to return now.

I admire you for wanting to return, but I suspect the teaching environment you'd go back to would be unrecognisable from what you left all those years ago. It's changed so much, and not for the better.

Now, that's probably true. I just feel so frustrated to see people becoming unionised and refusing to work when there are people who are absolutely desperate to work and bring in some money (that's my situation, anyway). I'd run the risk of Covid in return for a reasonable salary.

@noblegiraffe I am absolutely not a vaccine-sceptic. I am fully in favour. That's the main reason I'm so pissed off that it is now being said to be no use, and am bothered by why it's all gone quiet on that front. All my hopes of normal life resuming were pinned on the blasted vaccine, so I'm hardly an anti-vaxxer!

FrippEnos · 02/01/2021 14:36

DrRamsesEmerson

well given that the government has done fuck all to help teachers provide online learning other than passing a law that it now a requirement, I am sure that you will be happy to lay the blame at the governments feet and not the teachers.

But looking at your posts there is little to no chance of that happening.

mrjuno · 02/01/2021 14:37

@Noellodee

Mrjuno, I suggest you read an online newspaper if you want to know anything about the vaccines. There are lots of articles, it won't matter which paper you choose.
Oh goodness, I read the newspaper endlessly (The Times, as it happens). That's where I got the information that people are still potential carriers even if they are vaccinated...
FrippEnos · 02/01/2021 14:38

mrjuno
Now, that's probably true. I just feel so frustrated to see people becoming unionised and refusing to work when there are people who are absolutely desperate to work and bring in some money (that's my situation, anyway). I'd run the risk of Covid in return for a reasonable salary.

So why are you not going back into the classroom?
There is still a shortage of teachers.
I am sure that you could get a job in teaching if you actually wanted one.

Tootletum · 02/01/2021 14:39

Oh fuck this shit. In that case we can forget about school until the summer.

KeyboardWorriers · 02/01/2021 14:39

[quote DrRamsesEmerson]@KeyboardWorriers, fat chance of the provision being any better than last time. DD’s school didn’t bother to check whether she was alive last time - we could have been beating, starving and neglecting her and the school wouldn’t have known or cared. I really hope they made a bit more effort for higher risk children.[/quote]
Same with my children's school. No one even checked they existed between March -September! And they could reasonably be classed as fairly high risk as there has been SS involvement in the past due to their dad.

And there was no teaching, even in bubble closures the "best" we have had is undifferentiated worksheets that take them 20 mins max to do

sausageathlete · 02/01/2021 14:39

I wonder how many of the schools who are supposed to be starting the tests on Monday have actually received the tests yet?

SaltyAF · 02/01/2021 14:40

@DrRamsesEmerson

Hmm, so they’ll expect someone to turn up in school for their own children, but won’t do it for other people’s. Great, really principled.
How can teachers look after key worker and vulnerable children if their own aren't in school? Just a breathtakingly idiotic comment.
PaperHalo · 02/01/2021 14:40

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?

FrippEnos · 02/01/2021 14:41

@sausageathlete

I wonder how many of the schools who are supposed to be starting the tests on Monday have actually received the tests yet?
I can safely state that we haven't and the email from the head isn't looking optimistic for them to arrive on Monday either.
81Byerley · 02/01/2021 14:42

I have a daughter in law who is a teaching assistant. I hope they do close her school. I understand how difficult it is for parents who have to work, but I'd prefer her to be safe. I know how scared she is.

Tootletum · 02/01/2021 14:42

@mrjuno yeah well running the risk of a disease with a comparable death rate to flu seems reasonable. Only if you believe mumsnet, everyone gets long covid or is in the 0.3% of people who die. I might as well hop off a bridge now given that I have no future outside my own house and neither do my children.

noblegiraffe · 02/01/2021 14:42

PaperHalo you seem woefully ill-informed about the debate about safety in schools. How embarrassing for you to be coming out with those tired old arguments.

DrRamsesEmerson · 02/01/2021 14:42

@FrippEnos On the contrary, I blame the Government for a great deal, they’ve handled this appallingly. But that doesn’t absolve schools and teachers of any responsibility at all - DD’s school shouldn’t have needed government guidance to tell them to mark work and give feedback.

And I am phenomenally unimpressed by the attitude of the teaching unions, I’m afraid; there isn’t even a pretence of caring about kids’ education going on (or any recognition that a hell of a lot of other people are having to leave the house and go to work notwithstanding the risks). What makes teachers so special? As someone pointed out upthread, if NHS staff took the same approach, we’d all be stuffed.

AaronPurr · 02/01/2021 14:43

@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?
If you don't understand it now, then I doubt you want to understand. I suspect you're chosing to ignore teachers, school staff and scientists explanations.