How many teachers will be handing in the section 44 letter tomorrow and not going in?

[SoscaredforJan]

My DSis is scared to go to work tomorrow in a private primary school in Tier 3 but lowish numbers. She is not ECV but has got chemo damaged lungs so it petrified of catching Covid.

She desperately wants to follow union advice and not go in tomorrow but she’s worried that most teachers will be in as normal, she will have a black Mark against her and will be quietly pushed out.

Are there many teachers on here planning not to go in tomorrow? What do you think will happen tomorrow?

Many schools are not asking if there is a second parent at home if one is a key worker

Ours mustn't either. I felt guilty using the space (both working ft, one critical one not) - saw three mums dropping their dc off this morning who are all on maternity leave.

I feel less guilty now.

Completely agree Bernadette, we are in a lucky position as my vulnerable mum has had her first injection so with childcare bubble we are able. I'm just curious as many of the places at our school are taken up where there is a parent who is a SAHP and full time places taken up by part time staff. I had considered applying for a place but as I had an option I didn't but I hadn't expected the schools to be quite so full which means teachers remain in a risky position.

Mass testing is still going ahead in secondary schools for staff and for children who are attending school.

No sign of it in my school, fallenmadonna.

Really? We are testing staff this week, students next week. I completed all my training modules today!!

The webinar yesterday said that it was still the plan to test for all onsite. However, we are behind schedule because I spent Monday planning a testing programme that was scrapped Monday night, and then yesterday was about planning for blended learning, so maybe it'll happen soon...

Literally zero mention of it anywhere, for staff or students. Are you still PRU?

Yes, but the mainstream secondary near us is testing this week too. We definitely need to do it because still lots of kids in.

We are doing them for all staff this week at my SEN school. We've all had to do the training but it's voluntary as to whether we want to be involved which I don't. Students are not in now until next week as we are also behind. After going through it all I cannot get my head around how a large secondary school was supposed to do this whilst fully open.

@WhoLettheCatOut

How are teachers feeling about the current position? I've been surprised so many children have been allocated key worker places at ours having kept mine off with grandparents instead of taking up a place but school is running classes of around 20 per class which doesn't seem to reduce the risk to teachers by much?

Same here. I am a TA (it's us supervising the bubble). We have 20 in our KS2 bubble. It's less than usual but still a full room and I am scared. I saw in the news about the ITUs have lots of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. I don't even get to wear a mask but there is one window open very high up (it doesn't feel like much protection to me). Definition of key worker is certainly very broad and we have keyword children in who have another parent at home.

That is just ridiculous @OwlWearingGlasses. Can you contact your union for advice?

How are we feeling? In fucking despair. Well I am. It's not even about staff safety. It's the fact that we're still going in, risking our health while the numbers get higher and higher knowing that it's not enough. It's not enough to reduce the spread and it's a waste. This isn't a school closure. Kids and parents are making the sacrifice for nothing. It's depressing. I hope I'm wrong and the secondary schools are less packed. Hopefully that might be enough but I'm not optimistic.

Not much can do really apart from be rigorous in applying the guidance. A lot of our parents are NHS doctors and nurses but a lot also in admin type roles but qualify.

Our head is robust in not allowing kids in that have one parent who isn't a critical worker...not in line with the guidance but has reduced numbers

If schools continue like that with 20 plus children in classrooms without masks for the teachers/tas and the children, it defeats the purpose. Staff are still at greater risk and the community transmission continues.

My school is rewriting the risk assessment and changing the bubbles and classes to separate into smaller groups but we are SEN with smaller numbers to begin with.

Are these primary schools with the large class sizes?

I'm sorry to hear that @owlwearingglaases it sounds a lot. Our school has used previous calculations about safe numbers in a classroom to try and keep them smaller but there seems to be very little guidance.

Complete side note....your user name is my IRL nickname!