Please be kind to teachers

[Tiktokersmiracle]

Please be kind to teachers, heads, support staff

I often see threads on Mumsnet where teachers take a bashing.
They have been let down by the government immensely. The DofE finally released figures for Covid cases amongst teachers compared to the rest of the population and it was huge

As a result, a teacher at my DC's School has passed away. We are all as a community devastated

The government willfully ignored the stats, kept promising it was safe when they knew by October half term it wasn't.

So whilst we all want our children back in school, please know that what may result in a tiny amount of virus of no great concern if our children get it, is putting staff in danger.
And please be respectful to them doing what they can. It's the government we should be angry with.

I'm a TA, thank you for this thread.

I'm so sorry to hear about your DC's teacher. It truly is awful at the moment. We've had about 7/30 staff get the virus up to now. One of the TAs in my class just tested positive today bringing the number to 7. Lots have been very ill with it and 1 of the ladies in the kitchen died from it.

The stress of catching it when you know you're in an unsafe environment is constant, and is extremely mentally taxing when you're already exhausted from working longer days anyway. Then there is lockkdown too.

I earn less than £17,000 a year and I've worked through all the lockdowns and half terms to keep keyworker provision going. I wonder whether it is worth carrying on at times, especially when you see some of the hate spewed on here.

It's not a joke, people are dying and once this is all over and I know I have done my duty by keeping the country going, I will probably leave education and not come back.

School staff retention was already awful pre-Covid, I think it will only get worse until the government and society as a whole start treating us better.

I am so sorry, OP, to hear of your school community’s terrible loss and for everyone else who had lost colleagues, friends and family in the education community.

I am so angry that things weren’t managed better and that all these wonderful people weren’t adequately protected.

It’s obviously a tragedy that anyone has died of this awful virus but it’s even harder to accept when we know it may have been prevented with basic safety measures.

I'm so sorry to hear this 😔.

After a thread moaning about lack of live teaching in primary (so many reasons for this and Im so glad our primary just has short zoom check ins, with video content) I decided to email my school to thank them for all they're doing and Im so glad I did. All schools get parents moaning so it's so good to send positive feedback.

Im sorry for your loss OP.
I'm an SEN teacher and feeling the strain currently as I'm very unwell with other things.
Whilst I thank you for your kindness towards us in education, may I jump on this thread to urged teachers and school staff to be kind to themselves. It's so tough right now, so so tough, with what we are doing. I'm still working in school but I know how hard the online stuff is and how very much less than ideal it is. My daughter's teacher is doing an absolutely sterling job and I frequently message her to tell her so. But please be kind to yourselves everyone - we are only one person being asked to do multiple people's roles. I'm trying currently, writing this laid on my bed taking a few minutes out from everything. Even if it's just a few moments...we deserve it :)

I teach in a primary school in London. Many of us have had the virus, the majority caught it in the last week before Christmas hols. I have been very lucky so far. We have had weekly testing for a while here and every week there’s at least one person testing positive.

One of our TAs sadly passed away a week ago.

Absolutely. Thank you for everything you do. From a grateful parent who values your safety even if homeschooling is driving me to drink!!

Sorry for those who have lost family, friends or colleagues

I'm so sorry to hear that OP. And I think teachers are doing great. You can hear some of them are having issues when they give their classes and I find it so sad. One of our teachers does Friday dances and my ds says he loves it and always sends a happy Friday picture (and he's not the type to do this!)

@TheQueenRaven

OP - do you have a link? I'm not disputing your facts but this is what I found when I googled.

The data in that report is dated June 2020! The figures were from March-May 2020...completely irrelevant now.

Op I wonder if I live in the same community as you. Was this teacher involved in behaviour support?

@noblegiraffe

I am so sorry, OP, to hear of your school community’s terrible loss and for everyone else who had lost colleagues, friends and family in the education community.

I am so angry that things weren’t managed better and that all these wonderful people weren’t adequately protected.

It’s obviously a tragedy that anyone has died of this awful virus but it’s even harder to accept when we know it may have been prevented with basic safety measures.

Absolutely this

Isn't offering staff lateral flow tests and assuming that will solve the problem a bit like offering pregnancy tests and thinking that will help stop pregnancies?

This is a brilliant analogy. Why not make the school environment safer in the first place? So many suggestions on so many threads, so many scientists offering plans. So many countries doing it already.

As noble said

It’s obviously a tragedy that anyone has died of this awful virus but it’s even harder to accept when we know it may have been prevented with basic safety measures