AIBU to stand up for children and parents...

[alwaysraining123]

... and say that closing schools is not an option. Some observations.

(1) millions of children will suffer poorer mental health, educational deficits and be at risk of physical harm.
(2) if schools close now the government will struggle to get them back open.
(3) the unions are playing a highly political game preying shamelessly on people’s fears.
(4) online learning is of no use for most of the primary school years. Parents basically need to be available all day to support children.
(5) more parents are going to find themselves unable to work causing more financial hardship. This won’t affect your middle class sahps or people who can work from home as much- there are people who actually have to go out of their house to earn a living.
(6) if you’re parent and you’re worried you can keep your child at home.
(7) educational transmission of the virus is low and infection control standards can be escalated where needed.

Whatever is done we need to place maintaining educational provision for children at the heart of it. We need to make it work...there’s no other option.

@Abraxan

So basically, if we won't pay you to do nothing now for the foreseeable future you will walk on mass

So furlough staff if you don't want them working from home or only being open for Key Worker/vulnerable children.

But if you in effect sack them - so they can then claim benefits - you can hardly expect them to come back running with open arms later when you've decided you do wnat them after all.

People get paid on furlough. And furlough is to keep jobs in industries that would otherwise get rid of them.

I think the most teachers should expect is unpaid leave.

If I didn't got to work in my hospital because it wasn't 100% risk free people would die and I would be sacked, quite rightly. Teachers shouldn't think they are entitled to sit at home on full pay uploading a few worksheets a day while doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, care home workers, policemen, supermarket workers, bus drivers and everyone else go to work to keep the country running

Well said @Flippingnightmare. My prison service colleagues are putting themselves at risk every day just as they always have done, assisting covid positive residents daily without making any sort of fuss, because they recognise it needs to be done to keep the system going. My DDs schools were dreadful before and already said in September that using MSteams "didn't work for them" so there won't be any live teaching if schools close. Dreadful.

Flipping,

The problem is the teachers who will walk won’t be the ‘dead wood’, it will be those with excellent qualifications, often in scarcity subjects such as Mathematics and Physics.

So, not only will you struggle to find a good teacher for your child, you may find a more able candidate for your job!

Most teachers want to be in classrooms teaching. However they would also like to be kept at least reasonably safe.

Remember, teaching is not a ‘danger’ job ans teachers are not paid enough to take substantial risks with their health and lives.

@TheReluctantPhoenix

Flipping,

The problem is the teachers who will walk won’t be the ‘dead wood’, it will be those with excellent qualifications, often in scarcity subjects such as Mathematics and Physics.

So, not only will you struggle to find a good teacher for your child, you may find a more able candidate for your job!

Most teachers want to be in classrooms teaching. However they would also like to be kept at least reasonably safe.

Remember, teaching is not a ‘danger’ job ans teachers are not paid enough to take substantial risks with their health and lives.

Well, they get paid more than nurses.

Also doubt someone with a maths degree will be getting a job as a doctor or lawyer anytime soon. People are welcome to work wherever they like, and demand for teaching training places is going UP

Lot's of redundancies and jobs shortages for those math and physics graduates in other sectors...

Your issue here is with the government

Lot's?? Lots

@ofgavin

Controversial, but there's a high percentage of teachers who left Uni and went into teaching when they realised they didn't do well enough to go into industry...

you cheeky bastard!

I think many with maths/physics degree could probably go for software and finance jobs that are mainly wfh. I know someone who did (but was doing supply teaching).

YANBU
The way I am seeing it teachers think they are somehow above the millions of others who are putting their own safety before others by working if various other vocations. Postman, shop assistants (particularly in supermarkets), police officers, firemen, the list goes on.
Fact is, they aren't. And should do what the rest of us have had to do... put a mask on, sanitise your hands and get on with it!!
Our children are entitled to their proper education! Not having it pushed on parents to do a teachers job!!

The only profession getting COVID at the same rate as school staff are NHS staff.

If NHS staff don’t do their job for a few months, millions will die. If teachers work from home for a few months, millions of children will be a little less well educated, but have every opportunity to catch up later.

I really feel for NHS staff but they are literally saving lives. The shutting of schools for a few months can easily be recovered from.

For those who desperately want schools to stay open, perhaps donate a few £000s to your school. If everyone who could afford to did this, it would be easy to make them Covid secure.

Primary education cannot be delivered online, they are not eligible for furlough, they are key workers. They need to do what key workers do and go to work. If they refuse to work, they should face no pay.
My local school announced closure at 6pm this evening for tomorrow due to ‘union action’. Maybe the wages from the teachers not working can go back into helping families who have suffered the effects of poverty from being unable to work.

Teachers should have the right to workplace protections - including alternatives for those at the higher end of the age range and co-morbidities.

They should have safe distancing in classrooms with masks/screens, ventilation. Also clear cut-offs of prevalence, which if exceeded should trigger remote learning.

If these are not provided, I think it is fair not to work. Healthcare workers should not have to work without ppe or in rooms with multiple people not at the minimum distance.

@Newyearsamecovid

Primary education cannot be delivered online, they are not eligible for furlough, they are key workers. They need to do what key workers do and go to work. If they refuse to work, they should face no pay. My local school announced closure at 6pm this evening for tomorrow due to ‘union action’. Maybe the wages from the teachers not working can go back into helping families who have suffered the effects of poverty from being unable to work.

Do you really want to take away workers right to strike over working conditions?

Considering they are having meetings to discuss how they can best deliver remote learning rather than how they can make the workplace safer, it’s very obvious that they have no intention of implementing policy to make schools safer, just to
Close them.
If they said ‘were closing for a few days to try and implement a system whereby the school can be safer’ I’d have much more sympathy. Instead we have been told how helpful bbc bitesize is and they’ll try and make sure teachers call us weekly this time.

It's 8.34pm on the evening before my kids are due back in school, I've still not heard back yet as to whether or not my key worker kids can attend - bloody ridiculous

Well, they get paid more than nurses.

I’m not sure how much nurses get paid but I currently get paid the same amount as my mum who works on the tills at ASDA.

It's 8.34pm on the evening before my kids are due back in school

Less than 2 hours ago I had a friend saying her primary school is now closed it’s ridiculous!
I can see the government closing others in the next couple of days at short notice or they will reopen schools and shut everything else down.

What I don’t understand is this idea of teachers vs parents

• where teachers are selfish for thinking about their own physical and mental health and parents only want their children in schools because they don’t want to parent them.

What about teachers who are parents.

The majority of the time neither is the case. Most teachers are parents too and want to do their job as they know it and spend time with their classes.
Most parents including those that are teachers want their children to go and get an education like every other person has had and of course their job can only be done if there is childcare in place.

If there was no pandemic then no one would be saying schools should close. But the transmission rates are increasing too much so something has to be done.

We are being held to ransom by these bloody teachers and their sodding unions

I don’t know the details but it was to do with the testing and not having enough staff - so either too many tested positive or haven’t got their results back in time so can go in.
This is what happens when the government leaves it until the last minute though.

Given how annoyed the schools (understandably) get about late notices from government, I really didn’t expect them to pull this on parents with a few hours notice. It’s beyond belief.

My school is a tier 4 definitely closed and yet here we are, still sat waiting to find out if we have a golden ticket place of education, shockingly bad