How are teachers feeling now?

[ssd]

I've got an awful lot of sympathy for teachers in all this, I feel they've been hung out to dry. But hopefully the vaccine news and cases coming down will make them feel a bit better.
My kids have left school so I've got a general interest. .no bone to grind.

@StaffRepFeistyClub

I have reported the thread as it will become unpleasant

And the OP has vanished

@Welovetoboogie

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

You know what, same shit different day. We broke for holidays on the 22nd of December. I was back in school on the 6th of January with a class of key worker children. Have been in school teaching everyday, just like pre COVID. Alongside that I have had full responsibility for my online classroom. That means setting the work, marking the work, answering queries, supporting parents who could not cope any longer, recording lessons to introduce and teach new content and then three online live sessions a week. None of this could be done when I was in school with my class so I did that part at home at night and weekends.

So yes, I am exhausted. Have had my class back for a number of weeks and they are struggling and there has been a lot of regression. There’s behavioural issues which weren’t there before. Working my usual job hours now though so that’s around 50 hours a week so it feels like less work than January and February did. I have to work those hours because I have a massive rebate of abilities and needs in my room and they all deserve to have access to the curriculum.
I’m mid 40s so a long way away from being vaccinated yet I need to have close contact and often am involved in personal care. So yes I’m pretty done in.

Now let’s start a thread asking how other professions are managing and how tired they are. Probably pretty knackered as most people are right now. That would be a thread I have no personal experience I can meaningfully add but I may just go and piss all over because I once spoke to someone who worked in a finance company and they had no idea how tough working in an underfunded public service role is. And of course I may add some sneery remarks because they add so much to a discussion. Or maybe I won’t as that would show me up to be a complete arse.

I'm really happy to have all the children back in class, and they are overjoyed to be back. I feel quite emotional about this Class, as they have been through a lot and, through lockdown learning, I learnt a lot about their home life, families, pets etc. We all feel really close now, and I dread the bubble bursting or another lockdown. Also, I've had my first vaccine, so I feel much safer at work. All our parents have been so appreciative of the way staff have worked above and beyond throughout the pandemic, so I'm not going to let one anonymous poster on MN rain on my parade!

@napody

Ssd hadn’t seen that, thanks that is good news!

I literally just heard it on the BBC Scotland news this morning from Linda Baird, she knows her stuff.

@StaffRepFeistyClub

I have reported the thread as it will become unpleasant

Bit OTT isn't it 😂

Reporting for something that hasn't happened yet.

I'm a secondary teacher. How do I feel?

Delighted to be back to face-to-face teaching rather than sitting in front of a computer screen for 6 hours a day.

Relieved that most of my pupils are settling reasonably well back into the school routines.

Worried about those who are not.

Extremely pissed off that I am now having to set, mark and moderate exams in order to produce grades for my GCSE classes when I can easily make an appropriate grade prediction for these pupils that I have taught for 2+ years and am fully aware of their ability, but for whom I must have 'robust' evidence.

And, yes, utterly exhausted. Genuinely feel 'burnt out' by the relentless demands of the last year. I have worked well beyond my contracted hours in order to provide the best education and support I could for my pupils, but that has been to the detriment of my own family life, mental health and well-being.

I’m not a troll, just someone with a different opinion.
It’s a sad fact that anyone who disagrees is termed a troll and has that differing opinion removed.
Whatever happened to free speech?

@Chocolateoatmilk

To be honest ssd you must have known this would happen.

Well you live in hope the arseholes are busy.

Sadly the world must be full of arseholes if not deeming teachers the saints and saviours of the pandemic is a qualifying factor.

@Welovetoboogie

Sadly the world must be full of arseholes if not deeming teachers the saints and saviours of the pandemic is a qualifying factor.

You are clearly looking for a fight that's not there. I asked how teachers are feeling. I didn't say "how is saints and saviours of the pandemic feeling ". Trying to start a fight on a thread is sad really. Its a nice day, get out a walk and clear your head.

@Welovetoboogie - what’s wrong with appreciating the efforts teachers have done to throughout the pandemic?

I’ve worked full time but it’s been nothing like as difficult as teaching. I realise how difficult it has been for them.

Scared. 2 bubbles popped in my school already, cases now over 250 rolling rate and rising. I'm 49, asthmatic, and unvaccinated now having to wait even longer. I'm primary, year 6, and have no ppe or social distancing.

I too know very many younger homeworking people in spurious health or social care roles that are vaccinated. My social care meeting on Friday was me, (unvaccinated) the family (drug dealers, horrible, vaccinated) and the child in a small room with a remote ed psych, social worker and family worker, all of whom are vaccinated. I'm exhausted, close to the edge and just feel like i'm worthless in the eyes of the government.

@Welovetoboogie you do realise those 4 days are 4 days of free labour, out of 11 days they aren’t paid for? How much of your holiday do you work for free just out of interest?

@Welovetoboogie

You keep answering Fence.

Do you own Mumsnet ssd?

No, MNHQ own MN, and judging from the number of deletions they'd really love it if you fucked off too

I'm a headteacher , glad kids are back it's gone well , staff have vaccines now , but honestly I'm tired , tired putting on a brave face , am sick to death of the constant changes, I feel like I'm in Jumanji ! I think we all feel a bit like that though, my job is hard but can be amazing like many others.
Looking forward to the Easter hols though !!

I am delighted to be back. Don't have time to be worried about Covid, however, as I'm too bus trying to get out from underneath the enormous bus the DfE and the exam boards have chucked us under with TAGs.

Teachers are tired. A lot has happened in a short time. They expected to be doing school teaching in Jan and planned for that. Then a day or so before starting or often starting they had tos witch instantly to online teaching. There were 7 weeks of that, including the last 2 which also involved getting ready to return. Now 3 weeks if that return.

I agree they are glad to be in and glad to see the children and see the difference it makes for them to be in. Some are very worried about catching the virus, especially in areas where year groups have already shut down. The fact the roll-out to 40s is now delayed to May, when many hoped to be jabbed around now or certainly before returning aftter Easter makes them feel more worried.

Today, I heard 3 different groups of very pleasant parents say, they felt a bit miffed and cheated that the Easter hols were coming and the children would be off so soon after returning. Of course, they are purely thinking of it from their point of view and I understand that. Yes, they have had just 3 weeks with the kids out of their hair (and less in some secondaries which have only just got all back in after testing) and now they have another 2 of the kids at home.

They haven’t got much sense that teachers worked all the way through, often working more than the usual long weeks to deliver online live lessons, plus to do the switch from in-person to online and then back again across a pretty short period.

Let’s hope teachers do get some rest over the holiday. Lots of people will imagine somehow they’ve only worked the 3 weeks up to Easter when schools have been running in person again, but that’s not the reality at all.

Thanks for asking OP.

In direct response to your OP, yes I am pleased that so many people have been vaccinated and that my secondary pupils have been regularly tested since being back. I am also pleased that I am now allowed to wear masks in the classroom as are the pupils.

I am absolutely dog tired because I have,

a) had to cover for 4 different colleagues this past fortnight as they are off with Covid-teachers as a profession have not been vaccinated and it’s a huge issue that so many just want to brush under the carpet because ‘schools are now open’ and they can get on with their lives. I am in my 40s with Psoriasis and was crushingly disappointed that under 50s vaccines would be put on hold this week after a long day including a parents evening that nearly sent me over the edge, yet if I was a lollipop lady or life coach, I would have been vaccinated over a month ago...

b) marked two sets of 2hr30 min A Level papers this week, sat under full mock exam conditions (the Nov 2020 papers in full) and although they have done fantastically well (no ‘being behind for them) I am stressed beyond belief that the exam boards won’t accept this, as it is too high, people in these kids’ futures will just write off these grades as ‘not counting’ and that I will inevitably be blamed by U.K. society and MSM for over inflated grades (rather than praised for the hard work my students have put in in 2 years as have I)

C) been battling kids wearing masks over their chins and being all over their fellow pupils and that my windows either don’t open or the two that do, open an inch only.

D) I have had 8 weeks of back to back parents evenings on school cloud - 4 hours straight of 5 min meetings with just one 10 min break. I still have one more parents evening this Tuesday this week, meeting with 46 parents and emailing the 20 more who haven’t been able to book appointments. Tired doesn’t even begin to cover it.

E) this past week, I have had to do tracking reports for 6 classes..

F) I have had to re-plan all my lessons from being remote (last half term, we didn’t know we were going back on the 8th until the end, so I had planned for remote lessons)

G) I am so stressed that the DforE and Ofqual Still haven’t said exactly how the A Level and GCSE marks will be done and we won’t be told until the end of the month. We only have leaked snippets to go by. I in the meantime, have stressed young people to calm down.

I have barely seen my own child. I am enjoying sitting on the sofa now with her, but have 24 A Level coursework sections to mark this evening looming over me.

Yep. It’s all such a picnic at the moment. But actually, thank you for letting me rant OP and get this off my chest. It has actually helped to be heard.

I'm glad it helped. I wish I could make it better for you

My daughter has been working non stop the whole weekend. It looks unrelenting to me. She keeps having to re plan around changes.

She looks utterly exhausted.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon I didn't say that the difficulties with masks and social distancing are unique to teaching though. I was sharing my feelings and experiences as a teacher in a thread about the feelings and experiences of teachers

And actually yes, some of the issues in classrooms and early years settings are pretty unique. We work in very busy, noisy settings with large numbers of individuals with no distancing, no screens and no vaccinations. The individuals we work with often need us to be extremely close to them to care for them, help them and teach them but often lack the listening and communication skills to be able to follow simple instructions when they're muffled through a mask.

Have we got it worse than everyone else? No. Are we still allowed to feel a bit frustrated and worried? Yes. And would I be petty enough to stick my nose into the thread of another profession who were sharing their feelings just to make the point that they're not unique? Absolutely not.

Are teachers allowed to wear their own masks?
Boots sell ffp2 masks. I wear them working in a supermarket. I'm not sure what the protocol in schools is.

DS (25) is a teacher. He's exhausted but feeling better than December. Covid rates still very high, and rising, where he lives but at least the kids all wearing masks now. He's doing lots of extra after school catch ups, lots of extra marking of practice exam papers for y11 and 13. I know exams are cancelled but the school is determined to keep standards up and these children will be going to uni to study the subject in September.
It seems unlikely he'll get the vaccine before the summer holidays.

Yes in my daughters school. Her poor face is suffering.