Is it fair to say teachers need to be more committed?

[Ladytremain]

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/covid-schools-reopening-ofsted-teachers-b1807935.html

Seems a tad harsh I think

Yep people like Williamson, wilshaw, harries etc have sent staff morale to the floor

@phlebasconsidered agree.

They asked for volunteers to run a year 7 induction summer school in August. Paid. No one has offered. Usually there's a fight over this as it's a fun few days. Now we all seem to be so demoralised we just can't be bothered. It's so sad.

@phlebasconsidered

I was a very committed teacher. Unpaid residentials, before and after school clubs, extra revision sessions, after school interventions, directing plays, organising visitors

They can sod that now. I'll do my job but no more extras from now on. I am less committed now than I was because that's what happens when you treat people like shit.

I posted similar on another thread.

I feel done with it. I’ll do the bare minimum from now on. I’m putting myself and my work/life balance first.

@phlebasconsidered

I was a very committed teacher. Unpaid residentials, before and after school clubs, extra revision sessions, after school interventions, directing plays, organising visitors

They can sod that now. I'll do my job but no more extras from now on. I am less committed now than I was because that's what happens when you treat people like shit.

Yep, same here. It's quite liberating, should have done it 10 years ago.

On the Wilshaw thing though - he has been in class over the last year working as supply when staffing levels were low. Not to forgive him such a stupid comment, but he hasn't been sitting in his office throughout covid. I'm not sure we should be listening to him at all though.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

On the Wilshaw thing though - he has been in class over the last year working as supply when staffing levels were low. Not to forgive him such a stupid comment, but he hasn't been sitting in his office throughout covid. I'm not sure we should be listening to him at all though.

He did a couple of weeks at Thomas More Catholic School in London.

I’d love him to try a full term at my school, which caters for a very deprived area and a huge number of FSM and ALN pupils

Perhaps he could have shown us how wonderful and talented he is there? I bet he wouldn’t have set foot through the door.

He has no idea what some of these kids are dealing with and the extra mile staff go to day after day just to improve these kids life chances even slightly. He is incredibly out of touch.

Let’s get him working alongside staff in a special measures school, in a disadvantaged area. Then I’ll listen to what he has to say.

he has been in class over the last year working as supply when staffing levels were low

I’m not even sure that he did the two weeks mentioned above. I heard it was a couple of lessons.

Did you see him on Newsnight this week with Mary Bousted of the NEU? She was absolutely furious with him. Icily polite, but furious. It was great to see.

What an unpleasant man he sounds. BUT is this them recognising that in fact schools are not safe to work in? I thought we had to believe that they were safe and teachers and school staff are just workshy fusspots.

Agree @Viciouslybashed - if it’s so safe why the need to state that teachers must take huge risks!

@ChloeDecker

Teachers being in absolute outcry at the thought of going into a class of 30 kids and refusing to attend work on health and safety grounds need to get some perspective.

Well, seeing as all teachers will still be ‘going in’ to those classrooms of 32+ children anyway, shows that they do indeed have ‘perspective’ and yet they still have every right to speak how they feel if they wish.

Every right to ‘speak how they feel’ of course but disagree that them ‘going in’ shows a sense of perspective. A large number of teachers at my child’s school threw their section 44 notices in at the start of January meaning that even before a national order to close came out school was going to open only to keyworker/ vulnerable anyway. That was frankly a kick in the teeth for those parents who work frontline and have done so for the past year with no possibility whatsoever to cry off that they felt unsafe. Also for those parents who have worked for years in unsafe professions as I mentioned who again have never been allowed to take action regarding the unsafe conditions they work in. For teachers round here to suddenly decide they were unsafe with rates in January around 350 per 100,000 yet teach throughout the autumn term where rates were over 800 makes a bit of a mockery of the cause don’t you think. Especially when other teachers I know of used the same exact reasoning to tell their own unions to shove the sec 44 letter!

The same teachers at my child’s school are no doubt the same ones who have pressured the head to bend the rules regarding keyworker places putting a cap on numbers, which left me spending 2 hours last week having to fight to get a place for one day for my child this week after being refused so I didn’t have to cancel appointments with my patients!! I’d add that from the sounds of it children have been refused throughout this lockdown and their parents haven’t challenged it- wonder how much impact that has had on keyworkers and the services they run- the whole point of the keyworker system in the first place! So yes I think I will stick with that the teacher I have experienced at my child’s school could indeed do more and really do need to get some perspective!

That was frankly a kick in the teeth for those parents who work frontline and have done so for the past year with no possibility whatsoever to cry off that they felt unsafe. Also for those parents who have worked for years in unsafe professions as I mentioned who again have never been allowed to take action regarding the unsafe conditions they work in.

Which workplaces are exempt from Health and Safety legislation?

School staff putting in section 44 letters in January saved thousands of lives.

I think it's fair to say some need to re-evaluate that education is a human right and they're working with the most vulnerable in society so perhaps that isn't what they signed up for.

@ibizababyy agree with you, WFH as keyworkers for a whole year with no school place. It's been horrendous but we've managed to keep important services running. School have been a nightmare, no appeals and impossible to persuade otherwise.

The kids were educated remotely and the most vulnerable offered a place in school?

@Hellebored

I think it's fair to say some need to re-evaluate that education is a human right and they're working with the most vulnerable in society so perhaps that isn't what they signed up for.

But children have been educated, even if it was remotely and not ideal. Teachers and support staff have a right to safe working conditions, I wouldn't like to think that somebodys insistance that teaching had to be face to face, with no safety measures in place caused the pandemic to spread risking many lives, including those of vulnerable staff.

@noblegiraffe not in my school they weren't. My kids classed as vulnerable but not offered a place. My son hasn't had any English learning since December and the school completely happy with that. I'm not. Not offered a key worker place either despite a 2 key worker household. Some schools have been rubbish and some teachers, or maybe head teachers do need to take ownership.

Everyone has pretended education has been going on, but there's been absolutely nothing in place to make sure it definitely is.

In our case I think the fact that my son was working beyond his age meant that no one really worries about him. But there are other, genuinely vulnerable children in school without a place either and it's terrible.

@DIshedUp

NhS staff didn't sacrifice their lives. They died. They didn't want to die, they died because they didn't really have a choice and the government failed to protect them and failed to invest in the NHS for years. This is the problem with 'NHS heros', there wasn't really an option to say no.

Teaching is just a job, no child's education is worth the life of their teacher, especially when we have a vaccine ready and available.

This!

Headline, "Teachers should be prepared to sacrifice their lives"
Not for the salaries they pay. If I was a GP on £70-90k then I’d be a lot more inclined to give my all than if I was a teacher on £25k. Frankly they don’t pay enough for teachers to give a shit; at that salary it’s just a job not a vocation. I gave my notice back in Feb, no way was I taking any personal risk in exchange for peanuts.

Mike Wilshire wouldn’t know much about commitment and facing hard times. Even at Ofsted he was one of the highest paid public servants; he negotiated a very good deal for himself. Now he’s on a very nice consultancy number with frequent trips to the UAE and India giving the odd talk at supper and not much else.
He hasn’t been in a classroom in years.

Most of the teachers and headteachers I know are working incredibly hard. A couple are leaving in July because of the pressure of leadership and teaching. They are doing long days, juggling home and in school learning, supporting children in need, dealing with needy or manipulative parents and trying to plan for the future in a void of central decision making.

Their health needs have been dismissed and minimised by central government. Mary Bousted is more current and speaks more sense.

Not to mention the fact that medical staff might not have died in as large numbers if they had had better PPE 😡

Yes, medical staff have been let down horrendously (there are lawsuits about medics who died due to lack of PPE - there was one case of a doctor who wrote to his Trust saying he felt the lack of PPE was risking his life - he then went on to die). Saying that teachers should also accept what constitutes an unsafe workplace because other UK workers are being treated like utter shit and also have unsafe workplaces doesn't seem a great argument.

@phlebasconsidered - I'm glad to hear you won't do extras any more. There needs to be more of this. Too many goodhearted medics, teachers, social workers etc have put up with this ever worsening working conditions and have gone beyond what was reasonable in order to continue to care for patients / students etc The problem with this is that it just hides the underinvestment and government failures. In the longer term it's better for everyone if the full extent of government failures are laid bare.

@42isthemeaning "Teaching is just a job, no child's education is worth the life of their teacher"

Although this is true, the risk of death is minimal for younger age groups that working people generally fall into. The risk of death going into work is never nil. Don't want that to sound facetious but it's a risk many teachers and other workers have been happy to accept and surely we've all got to be grateful that hospital workers haven't had that attitude?

I was listening to a piece of the radio the other day about schools in Yemen in the midst of famine and warzone still teaching in bombed out unsafe schools hearing gunshots in the distance. They're doing it for the kids. I think that's bloody amazing and I'd wonder what they'd make of some of the debate that goes on here.

He's a total waste of space and his opinions are of no relevance. "You have no authority here Mr Wilshaw" 😁

I'll work hard for my students, I'll lose sleep worrying about them, I'll cry for some of them, I certainly wouldn't die for them.

A large number of teachers at my child’s school threw their section 44 notices in at the start of January meaning that even before a national order to close came out school was going to open only to keyworker/ vulnerable anyway. That was frankly a kick in the teeth for those parents who work frontline and have done so for the past year with no possibility whatsoever to cry off that they felt unsafe.

Rather simplifying what was actually very complex at the time, with a ‘national order’ to close most schools including a lot of primary schools at the time, with a scary new variant running riot.
Denying people a right to want a safer place to work does not show you in a good light. That day the government closed all schools anyway so they agreed that they were causing cases to rise, overwhelming the NHS.

A vast majority of teachers have already worked for free, in their holidays to look after keyworker children for free but as usual, it looks like this is quickly forgotten and dismissed.

And many parents who have worked ‘frontline’ all year have indeed shouted load and clear about their request for safer work places, including balloting to strike, yes, even those in the NHS. You can Google this and check webpages such as Unite and Unison for evidence.
And quite right too. It is shameful the conditions that they have had to work in.
It’s just not picked up by most people and in their radar because some people do like to have a good teacher bash.