Teachers social gathering at work

[Notsureifitssomethingornothing]

Hi, I have name changed just in case my previous posts mention my location. I’m not sure if I’m overreacting or not, and I’m not normally the Covid police: I can understand a bit of low level rule bending as things are tough at the moment. However, I have seen a post on Facebook showing a social get together for some of the staff at my dcs school. It is a photo of a finger buffet laid out on a table in a classroom, with a big bowl of crisps, a cheese board with one knife etc and is described as an ‘end of term party’. 7 people are tagged in it, as in x is with y and 6 others.
Would this annoy you/make you cross, or would you just think let them have their fun? I’m classed as a key worker (as is about 50% of parents in my area judging by school attendance) but as I work from home I haven’t sent my dc in. It’s been really tough at home but I thought I was doing the right thing, mainly out of respect for the school staff. The school had already announced they would only be opening to kw+v children prior to Boris closing school because lots of staff members felt unsafe.
Is there legislation regarding this at the moment? I do feel cross but have had issues with the remote learning provision and not sure if my feelings are clouded by already being a bit unhappy with the school.
How would you feel if you were aware of this happening at your dc’s school?
In ‘normal’ times I am very happy with the school and my children are content there. I don’t want to be ‘that parent’ but I have emailed them asking why this went ahead and whether a risk assessment was considered. Just not sure if I’m making a mountain out of it due to skewed perspective with lockdown etc.

I don’t understand the ‘bubble’ excuse in regards teachers. They are adults and should be social distancing, surely.

Well neither do many teachers understand it, as it’s impossible to socially distance and/or preserve the integrity of bubbles in many (not all) schools.

However, the fiction of SD and bubbles is all part of the “schools are safe” mantra from the Government, which saw infection soar in school children of all ages in November/December, caused a spike after one day of primary schools back in January, and is a major reason why we are in this current lockdown. If when we come out of lockdown schools go back in the same way, infections will soar again, among children and their as yet unvaccinated parents.

OP you'd be aghast at the situation before Christmas in secondary schools.

Even now the staffroom is in use and there are regularly sharing snacks available.

@Notsureifitssomethingornothing

No you don’t need to just sit in a cupboard on your own while you work, but many people are just sitting on their own in a room while they work at the moment, so I thought it was poor judgement to post describing something as a party. Maybe they used the wrong wording for something that was actually fine and distanced with ppe, hand washing etc.

Hilariously, I DID spent a few months this year teaching live from a cupboard. Granted it was a walk in one but...

Leave them be!

I'm a nurse and we've had all our usual birthday fuddles over the past 6 months. We can easily whip up a socially distanced buffet so I'm sure teachers can to.
Its easy to take turns to go to the buffet and then return to our socially distanced chair in the staffroom to eat it. We can fit 6 in our staffroom. We just take turns.

It's very hard when you and your family haven't been within 2 metres of another human being for months. We're in lockdown. It probably feels really different if you have to go out to work and be around people, so these staff members probably don't even consider that doing something like this feels like going to the moon to those of us who are at home. I'm sure they feel that if they can't be safe at home, why shouldn't they have some fun? It shows a huge lack of empathy to post it on social media though. I really feel like my DD's school has no understand of the isolation and alienation that the families at home are experiencing as it's all "look what fun we are having in school with no social distancing and staff crossing bubbles". And I know that lots of the staff (either those working at home or going into school) are continuing to socialise. It's a tricky one.

The vast majority of schools have staff testing so they probably know they are negative.

I’m not the Covid police and this wouldn’t bother me at all, but if it was say a child having a party at home with their bubble I imagine the answers would be a little different! This is Mumsnet, teachers can do no wrong!

@Notsureifitssomethingornothing what the hell is wrong with you? The poor teachers are forced to all work together through this awful time. They don't have the option to stay home. What difference does it make if they are eating sandwiches while they are there????

@Notsureifitssomethingornothing

I do appreciate what you’re saying and maybe I am over reacting but would just like to clarify that there was far more food on the table... big tub of popcorn, sandwiches etc with chairs all round the table, not just the two items I mentioned.

Doubtful

@fairgame84

Well 40% of people caught covid in a hospital in wave one. So maybe it’s not the best idea really.

I wouldn’t be eating from a buffet at the moment. And I’m really not a germ phobe.

@Notsureifitssomethingornothing

I do appreciate what you’re saying and maybe I am over reacting but would just like to clarify that there was far more food on the table... big tub of popcorn, sandwiches etc with chairs all round the table, not just the two items I mentioned.

So if you were photographed next to a big pile of cocaine, should we assume you snorted it? I assume not, but you assume different.

Teachers are teaching in the same building, part of bubbles, using shared toilets, shared kitchens, etc. provided they washed their hands before they loaded up their plates, and used normal social distancing rules, what is the issue?

I’m so done with covid!

And I know that lots of the staff (either those working at home or going into school) are continuing to socialise.

Socialise where and with who?

The poor teachers are forced to all work together through this awful time.

I’m not forced to work with any other adults at the moment or previously.

Kids yes... adults no!

Well they were a bit daft to put photos on social media.

I wish it had been posted where the school is, I'd like to send the teachers a vat of gin (other intoxicating beverages would be offered) to help them deal with any fallout of your email.

Do let us know what their reply to your email is

@user1493494961

Well they were a bit daft to put photos on social media.

Quite!

@OverTheRainbow88 so you go into work and never enter the same room or have to sit near another member of staff?

I agree with you OP, and situations like this compromise the school staffs arguments that their working environments aren’t safe. School staff are not the only professions who are working hard, putting themselves at risk and worried about contracting Covid, however sharing food and putting pictures of it online is reckless. The more people see others breaking the rules, the easier it becomes for them to justify it too.
Would the reactions here be the same if it had been Police officers, nurses, social workers? I think not.
School staff are working hard and have had to deal with lots of last minute changes but so have a lot of other people.

@MichelleScarn

I wish it had been posted where the school is, I'd like to send the teachers a vat of gin (other intoxicating beverages would be offered) to help them deal with any fallout of your email.

Hear hear

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@fairgame84

Well 40% of people caught covid in a hospital in wave one. So maybe it’s not the best idea really.

I wouldn’t be eating from a buffet at the moment. And I’m really not a germ phobe.[/quote]
We rarely get a covid patient on our ward. We all do LFT twice per week and it's no different from us eating our usual lunch in the staffroom. The fuddle is always in another room and we go up individually. It's highly unlikely you can catch covid from food hence fuddles have not been banned by infection control yet.

They should be sent to the naughty step.

We wouldn’t be allowed to do this in my school. Limited numbers in staff rooms, socially distanced. No sharing food stuffs, utensils etc. I eat in my classroom by myself when in. Different rules I suppose.

@reefedsail

There are 10 adults in my class bubble. This week at least 4 of us were spat on by the same child. We changed children side by side, we physically supported children side by side, we took turns cleaning the children's toilets as the cleaners don't come in during the day any more. It's going to make fuck all difference if we eat biscuits out of the same tub.

I would expect the spitter to be banned, whatever the parents do or the reason they're in school, no-one should have to assaulted like that. let the parents take some rersponsibility. It won't have happened of course, there will be some 'good reason' to excuse the assault.

@Notsureifitssomethingornothing

"...we had to do lots of risk assessments and justify why it needed to be in person and not remotely. I just assumed it was the same for most workplaces..."

Ha ha ha! You were actually thinking we didn't have to do risk assessments? Or you were actually thinking we would all be on our own, in a school, whilst teaching?
Our risk assessments are written in the context that we will be in a room without PPE with children who are also without PPE, with other members of our bubble . In our my case, that's four people. (Two One to One TAs, class TA and a student.)
No we are not sitting in a room on our own because, let's face it, that would make teaching difficult. We are freely sharing all microbes in a classroom with children.
So let's just visualise for a second incorporating your ideas into our risk assessment. Let's see - chairs - hmmm. Can the children still have chairs or should we all stand all day ? Actually that's what teachers do anyway , so yes - no chairs. We won't miss them! We could add that the children may keep their chairs, as long as the teachers don't sit on them or arrange them round a table.
Cupboard teaching - could catch on. There are, after all, several times in a week, when a teacher may feel like sitting in a cupboard - Sorry! standing in a cupboard - even before Covid happened. The problem here is that I don't have a walk-in cupboard. I would have to squeeze into one of my work-top height cupboards for teaching which would be highly entertaining, if a little claustrophobic.
Sorry -back to the issue of a bubble of teachers daring to share food together. My fifteen keyworker children eat their lunch in the classroom. As I am currently supervising them and wiping down the tables etc afterwards due to the absence of a colleague, is that ok? Does that count as something or nothing? Should we remove the children's chairs too, as they're eating?
@Notsureifitssomethingornothing, hang your head in shame. I can't decide whether your post or your ridiculous goady name change is the most utterly insulting aspect of this thread, but you have embarrassed yourself big time. And to echo other posters, yes - you are that parent.