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'd be happy to be back. We had one case before Christmas and none since, staff are rota'd week on week off at the moment but I'd like to get back to my regular class etc.

In theory, I agree it would be great if heads had autonomy. We never needed to close at all as we weren't affected. Yet other schools were destroyed by it by October and not allowed to close.

But in reality it would a) open heads up to a loaf (more) abuse, pressure, blame and potential lawsuits and b) create even more inequality among children than there already is.

Heads shouldn't have autonomy. I work in different schools and the variations in safety measures was crazy. In some schools staff were required to wear masks on communal areas whereas in another no one was allowed to wear masks in the school!

I’d love to go back. I didn’t hand in section 44 last time because I knew the media would twist it into lazy teachers headlines again.

However, I am pregnant. I teach primary and there isn’t enough space for 1m gap between the board and the first row of desks. Four or five children have to get up and move each time another needs to go to the loo/sink/bin. One Velux window in my classroom that opens a few inches.

Why does it have to be schools open or closed that people are campaigning for? Can’t it be schools open with mitigations in place (like every other workplace) to reduce constant bubble bursting and transmission? My school’s cleaning and supply budget for the entire year had been decimated by October. The PTA were buying us soap and paper towels by December.

It is shit at the moment, for everyone. I am working till midnight every night to keep up with remote workload. My toddler has latched onto her daddy because I see her for half an hour in the morning and half an hour at bedtime - ‘Mummy work on ‘pooter’. So clearly I don’t want schools to be partially closed for a moment longer than necessary - but until actual thought goes into how to make schools safer so they can stay fully open, there’s no point.

Re TAs, believe me, I’d love to do more days in school than I currently am and they WFH in my place. Trouble is, they - understandably - don’t want to be teaching live lessons in front of judgemental parents/Zooming children/dealing with everyone else’s tech issues all day, so they choose to come into school instead. TAs are bloody heroes in my opinion, even in non-pandemic times.