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.

Government (and union) guidance (early April) stated that school staff looking after key worker children during the school holidays should be given time off in lieu or extra payment

Funnily enough, the funds for this never materialised. Just as they still haven’t for cleaning staff/materials or cover teachers during isolations.

HercwasanEnemyofEducation
Not given in my experience! (wasn't that added to the guidance in Dec 2020, not April)

Tes
The DfE says it is “asking schools where possible” to maintain provision for vulnerable children and children of workers critical to the COVID-19 response over the Easter holidays, and says it knows that school leaders and local authorities will “make sensible decisions on staffing in doing so”.

Its guidance states that it would look to schools to cover the Easter period through:

•adopting rota systems, so that staff work working during the Easter period can have time off in lieu at another point in the year.
•sharing staff with other institutions (for example, institutions which will be shut over Easter.
•making use of existing budget set aside for supply teacher costs, if Easter staffing needs cannot be met through rota systems and sharing of staff.
if schools still have unavoidable additional staffing costs they should discuss these with their Regional School Commissioner who will support them to resolve the issue.

@ancientgran you do realise nhs staff were prioritised for vaccinations because of high contact/exposure as proven by the ONS data? I don’t think any need to be a bit unpleasant about nhs staff pay - people would much rather not do the extra hours.

I think this, and some of the responses, just demonstrate how blissfully unaware some people are about the realities of working in a school right now.

The fact that people think that adults in a primary or special school classroom can socially distance from each other is just laughable. Bubbles are often of whole year groups, so you could have, say, a dozen adults, who, unmasked, are in close contact with each other, in different combinations all day, unmasked.

And then people think that they shouldn't collect a plateful of food from the same buffet table.

I'd be looking for another school for my kids in your place, OP.
I really wish you'd posted here before you took the decision to email the head. Your kids aren't even in school at the moment, so how did the staff's buffet impact you in any way? it's not even as if they were putting your kids or your family at risk. You really are marked as That Parent.

There are a few things here but yes it would annoy me to see this picture. Staff are in bubbles and shouldn't be sharing spaces let alone food. An awful lot of cases have come about from transmission between staff and a party sends the wrong message - contact should be as limited as possible. Boring but true. I've wfh a whole year, cutting down on this sort of thing is just what we've all had to do. Some schools have better covid measures than others and this is an example of what not to do.

With the above in mind no, I don't think you can do anything. The criticism you've had on here just shows the sort of response you'd get. If they didn't think about it beforehand, they won't think about it when you mention it. They'd just make excuses.

Lastly, like us you're a wfh keyworker and the reality of it is no-one acknowledges the challenge, sacrifices and difficulties we've faced - other than other colleagues really. The school won't thank you, your kids won't thank you and your boss won't thank you.

It's all s* but it's how it is. Anything a school does is seen as virtuous, anything a homewoker does is seen as 'not appreciating how lucky you are.' so try to move on from it, look after yourself and look out for yourself.

Clavinova

Isn't that from last year?

From the same time when the government were (are still are) refusing to pay extra money to schools.

Ugh. Should have checked before posting. Two lots of 'unmasked' in one sentence. Maybe that's a reflection of how strongly I feel about the lack of PPE for teachers.

Staff are in bubbles and shouldn't be sharing spaces

Have you been in a primary classroom? How, exactly, can the adults not share space?
And bubbles aren't single classes. They can't be, because their needs to be cover for people's breaks/illness etc. So a bubble needs to be at least two classes, and is usually three or more.

Hmm that doesn't give any extra funding to actually pay the staff that did work. There was also may half term, and most of the Christmas holidays (at least for leadership teams).

Our staff went on a rota and weren't paid. More a goodwill thing to get through the pandemic. Luckily we're a big secondary so most people only did one day. Small primary schools were shafted and some worked nearly every day.

Staff are in bubbles and shouldn't be sharing spaces

Secondary staff aren't in bubbles. We're magic and can cross bubbles and not carry any virus.

Lastly, like us you're a wfh keyworker and the reality of it is no-one acknowledges the challenge, sacrifices and difficulties we've faced - other than other colleagues really. The school won't thank you

How rude.

Plenty of teachers are WFH key workers and keeping their kids at home. I'm thankful for any parents keeping their children at home.

I think the teachers were unwise to post this on social media.

@ancientgran-NHS staff are prioritised for the vaccine because they have direct contact with patients with Covid or at risk or Covid. For what it's worth, I think teachers should be higher up the priority for vaccination.

What you said about NHS staff being paid for all hours worked is totally untrue by the way. Many, many unpaid hours worked across the NHS. It would not have functioned without the goodwill of the staff.

They’re in a bubble! Husband just did this for a colleagues milestone birthday. Six of them who are in a department and meeting anyway for work purposes (working as a team both with and without kids present) so what’s the difference if there’s a bowl of crisps there or not?! It’s not bending the rules at al from what I can gather and if it is a bit it’s not in a way that will make any difference to anything. I can’t get cross about it.

@gorillasinthemist

I think the teachers were unwise to post this on social media.

@ancientgran-NHS staff are prioritised for the vaccine because they have direct contact with patients with Covid or at risk or Covid. For what it's worth, I think teachers should be higher up the priority for vaccination.

What you said about NHS staff being paid for all hours worked is totally untrue by the way. Many, many unpaid hours worked across the NHS. It would not have functioned without the goodwill of the staff.

Well I've got a doctor and a nurse in the family who would disagree with you on the pay. One is thinking of investing in a buy to let to use some of the money sitting in the bank.

I know why NHS staff got the vaccine, you obviously did get that my point was saying NHS staff can't eat together so teachers shouldn't doesn't really apply as there are thing NHS staff can do/have that teachers can't.

@AllTheWayFromLondonDAMN

They’re in a bubble! Husband just did this for a colleagues milestone birthday. Six of them who are in a department and meeting anyway for work purposes (working as a team both with and without kids present) so what’s the difference if there’s a bowl of crisps there or not?! It’s not bending the rules at al from what I can gather and if it is a bit it’s not in a way that will make any difference to anything. I can’t get cross about it.

Aren't teachers and TAs eating in classrooms with the children? I'm sure a teacher I know told me that so I suppose it is OK to eat together if you are looking after children in your lunch hour.

@saraclara exactly - so 2 or 3 teachers mixing but not the whole school? That was my understanding anyway. Most primaries don't have mixing in the staff room like they used to. Regardless you're far more likely to get covid from another adult so sharing food and socialising is really stupid.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation exactly! You've completely ignored the experience of non teaching wfh workers to bang on about WFH teachers.

It's very tedious.

I'm thankful for any parents keeping their children at home.

How is this only including teachers? I've literally said I'm thanking all parents keeping their children at home . Anyone WFH is having a shit time right now, especially if they're trying to keep young children occupied/educated.

We eat with our children, so in each room 4/5 adults and 8 children eat together every day.

Then the adults collect the children's plates and cutlery and load into dishwasher.

Did people not realise school is like this? Maybe a little too bought into the BBC's pictures of 1 teacher and 4 children all several metres apart.

Sharing food probably isn’t a wonderful idea, but I couldn’t get worked up about this. I don’t know what you’d be hoping to achieve by reporting it?

In which case, the op was probably right to complain about the staff at her dc's school.

Who, she said, were in a classroom. Not a staff room.

We eat with the children. We open banana skins and yogurts, water bottles and crisp packets.

@ancientgran that’s hardly representative. Anyone who either extra days deserved to be paid for those hours. If teachers worked extra they should also be paid.
Getting a vaccine wasn’t some perk which made nhs staff go buffet crazy. We were relieved to be able to continue to work and be less likely to need sick / isolation time.
I hope teachers do get vaccinated soon (Plus other frontline workers) and I hope this stops some of these tedious tit for tat posts.

@slothpaw

This thread has given me the impetus I need to finally quit mumsnet.

So sick of the teacher bashing when we risk our health and our lives and the lives of our loved ones every day.

Where is the teacher bashing?

*worked not either