Those who work in schools ....

[THATbasicSNOWFLAKE]

How would you feel about full reopening from 8th March with conditions as before?

Are your unions starting to look at what can be done?

If you submitted a section 44 letter last time would you do so again?

I'm sen education so been in throughout but smaller classes - even though ours are already quite small.

It's difficult. We are in an area with a number of schools sharing a large site.

When classes have had cases it's ripped through.

So I don't feel safe as in protected from the virus. I just feel smaller classes means less infected people per positive case.

I'm in as usual - SEN teacher. So it won't make much difference to me. I didn't hand in a section 44 as my union didn't advise it either.

We're having twice-weekly lateral flow tests which have picked up two symptomless cases in staff in the last three weeks, so I suppose that's good that those bubbles were able to isolate. We didn't have that last term.

I'm not worried for myself, more for my DH who suffered with anxiety and if one of us had to be hospitalised he would find it very hard to cope either way (he's older than me and over 50). So he's stressing about that which is negatively impacting on his mood, and mine! But I'm not actually that worried for my own health by being in school.

Oh and I also didn't hand in section 44.

I am in full time and have been through the last two lockdowns.
I just can’t see sending all children back at once being any different than last year.
It’s just going to be constant rounds of isolations and bubbles bursting.
I was one of six who caught covid in my class when we had an outbreak.
My daughter isolated four times. It was horrendous.
I wish the government would take it slowly and carefully monitor by sending a few year groups at a time back and tracking infections. But I fully expect them to send everyone back and it will be a repeat of the disaster last year.

I sent a section 44 letter. We all did.

If schools open as they did before Christmas, we're going to be in the same situation we were in then. New variant has meant that tiny school bubbles have been closing. It's going to be the hokey cokey again.

I've now had covid, luckily mildly but on principle think school staff (along with all key workers) should be offered vaccination and schools going back should be staggered.

Also agree with those who mention the new variant. It spreads like wild fire.

I want to be back at school with all the children (I'm a TA, currently in school 50% of the time and working from home - personally, I have plenty to do - the rest of the time), but I also want it to be safe. And I can't see how it can be yet, with cases still high.

We had 0 covid cases last term, but this half term (with about 30% of pupils in) all four bubbles (Junior School) have had to isolate once, and Y3 have gone twice. Luckily, we haven't had any outbreaks, just isolated cases, but I could see how those isolated cases would lead to outbreaks if we had everyone in.

The school my mum works at had a big outbreak just before Christmas (including her, CV but not CEV) and they were way more stringent with measures than we were, so if it can happen there it can happen everywhere.

I'm not too personally worried about catching Covid (part of me thinks I may have had it in March, or if not then then maybe in December when my mum had it) or passing it on to my mum, who should still have immunity from having it in December, and has also just got her first vaccine, but I am worried about schools contributing to more community spread, and also the mental health impact on staff and students having to isolate repeatedly.

I think we should wait until after Easter, as from the 8th March til the end of term is only 3 1/2 weeks, and after Easter would be an extra 2 1/2 weeks without missing any school, if you see what I mean. Or if they really want to get children back in before Easter then a rota.

@HipTightOnions

Reactions will depend very much on individuals’ situations. A twenty-something with no health conditions will feel quite differently about it to a fifty-something who is “clinically vulnerable”, who still has a while to wait before being vaccinated.

The CV should be done within the coming weeks, some areas already are at the CV groups so initially there will be minimal personal protection for the CV it will come fairly soon

Good comment @getthegoodlookingguy
I also feel that there won't be much motivation for parents and teachers to obey any rules on indoor mixing if this happens. The government messaging almost always seems to be that schools are not a risk. They don't seem to care about vaccinating staff or putting measures in place, I'm running out of road to care if schools are back without mitigation.

Off subject slightly but do you think once the ones most vulnerable to severe reaction to covid are vaccinated that isolation of close contacts will cease and only the infected person, and maybe their household will isolate?

I’m ok with the idea of going back as we did in September, but I’m worried that it’s too soon and it will mean that everything else will take longer to open up than it would if we’d been more cautious with schools.

There is no doubt to me that transmission in schools is going to be high, we need to stop pretending that schools can go back ‘safely’. They can’t.

I think 8th March is far too soon for every pupil to return. It's only a 5 week half term and the students will only go back for 3 weeks before breaking up for Easter if they return on 8th March (in Norfolk). The way I see it is it's best to keep the majority of students home til after Easter and only send back the year 10, 12, reception and year 6 on 8th March. Rather keep my dc home longer now than lockdown again!!

As a TA, I'm in every single day supervising key worker children yet all our teachers are at home, and safe. I'm not sure why the lowest paid educators are bearing the highest risk to health. Are teachers lives more valuable than ours, that they need protecting and we don't? Might as well get everyone back in, the risk to me personally should drop even though there will be more children and adults present.

@EddieVeddersfoxymop

As a TA, I'm in every single day supervising key worker children yet all our teachers are at home, and safe. I'm not sure why the lowest paid educators are bearing the highest risk to health. Are teachers lives more valuable than ours, that they need protecting and we don't? Might as well get everyone back in, the risk to me personally should drop even though there will be more children and adults present.

I feel sorry for the TAs. Two friends of mine are the same. They don't moan and get on with it but I think it's a poor show personally.

In my school TAs are in now, but were home completely (without any work to do) from March - September while we did online learning and KW bubbles on a rota. It's their turn.

Salary irrelevant, it's your job and you can't do it from home.

the risk to me personally should drop even though there will be more children and adults present

Makes no sense.

I'm in group 6 for the vaccinations and getting the first dose on Tuesday. Ideally I'd like to have had both doses before going back in (secondary) but equally cases and now lower than they were in December so it seems reasonable to go back. I'm aware other asthmatics may not be so lucky with the government constantly moving the goal posts. I was borderline and can't be entirely sure I qualify or if the GP is making their own rules as they go along. I certainly wouldn't feel so good about going back in to school had I just missed out.

I was speaking to friends in Europe, in a country with high cases where the schools haven't closed but where pupils and teachers wear masks all day, and they think we're crazy. They have very, very low cases of transmission in school and can't understand why the British won't wear masks if it means getting the kids back to school.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

In my school TAs are in now, but were home completely (without any work to do) from March - September while we did online learning and KW bubbles on a rota. It's their turn.

Salary irrelevant, it's your job and you can't do it from home.

I hope you don't teach my kids.

OP, I work in a school and I want them back open ASAP

@EddieVeddersfoxymop

As a TA, I'm in every single day supervising key worker children yet all our teachers are at home, and safe. I'm not sure why the lowest paid educators are bearing the highest risk to health. Are teachers lives more valuable than ours, that they need protecting and we don't? Might as well get everyone back in, the risk to me personally should drop even though there will be more children and adults present.

So what is your union doing about it?

@EddieVeddersfoxymop

As a TA, I'm in every single day supervising key worker children yet all our teachers are at home, and safe. I'm not sure why the lowest paid educators are bearing the highest risk to health. Are teachers lives more valuable than ours, that they need protecting and we don't? Might as well get everyone back in, the risk to me personally should drop even though there will be more children and adults present.

Whilst I think TAs have every right to be aggrieved by this- they are the unsung heroes of this pandemic- I think teachers should be in at least on a rota too to prevent this perception of unfair treatment - but the simple truth is that teachers can work from home but other school staff can't. TAs cannot do their jobs from home in the same way teachers can and someone needs to be in school so it does make sense, albeit one which may not be easy to swallow for TAs. I'm a teacher but I'm in full time as normal and then doing the remote learning on top so workload is horrendous. I can completely understand why some schools are allowing their teachers to do this full time from home- because they can- and the remote learning is a full time job in itself. Doing both is utterly intolerable and those of us who are doing both are at complete breaking point.

I would be surprised if section 44 would stand up and hope the government throw their legal team at it.

A s 44 applies in "circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent"

It's not for teachers to chose not to do their job for the minute risk to the vast majority of working age people of becoming seriously ill with the virus. Add in additional measures such as face coverings, distancing of teachers (students it impossible) and regular testing not only is the danger not serious but is also not imminent.

Thank god the nurses and doctors didn't serve their employers with section 44 letters eh?

@HipTightOnions

Reactions will depend very much on individuals’ situations. A twenty-something with no health conditions will feel quite differently about it to a fifty-something who is “clinically vulnerable”, who still has a while to wait before being vaccinated.

Exactly. People should vote for their most vulnerable colleague, it could be them one day.

But @poblwcymru those would be the same doctors and nurses who will have been vaccinated by now, surely?

@poblwcymru

I would be surprised if section 44 would stand up and hope the government throw their legal team at it.

A s 44 applies in "circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent"

It's not for teachers to chose not to do their job for the minute risk to the vast majority of working age people of becoming seriously ill with the virus. Add in additional measures such as face coverings, distancing of teachers (students it impossible) and regular testing not only is the danger not serious but is also not imminent.

Thank god the nurses and doctors didn't serve their employers with section 44 letters eh?

Apparently their legal team are quite busy building Johnson’s defence regarding response to the pandemic.