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.

@ssd

Yes noblegiraffe, all those things must be very hard to deal with. And the communicating through masks is hellish. I personally feel teachers have had it as bad if not worse than nurses. And there's not the same recognition. I don't know why. Maybe the media is to blame. I know nurses have had it awful ,but teaching sounds the same.

I feel for teachers as I do for any other keyworker that has had to work hard during the pandemic - but come off it...sorry but seeing nurses with their faces almost bleeding through wearing PPE, suffering from PTSD, somehow still managing to work even though theyre overstretched and dealing with people dying on them shift in, shift out? Please.

Coming back this time has been much harder than coming back in September.
In September it was all soft and gentle easing the children into it. This time it's been "find the gap, close the gap" barked at us from the second the kids set foot in the playground.

Plus OFTSED will be holding us accountable for what work was done over lockdown so there's been big, time-consuming pieces of work gathering evidence for this.

On the whole, I'm feeling relatively ok, always enjoyed being in school more than being at home (even when the risks are quite high) but it's tiring just now, which is fine except when we then get repeatedly told that we've "just had a year off work"

Thats not happening for all nurses though.

Anyway, this thread was never a competition between nurses and teachers

From a parent's point of view I think it has all gone brilliantly, so thankyou and well done teachers. I didn't think it was going to be the disaster some on mn predicted. The much worried about testing arrangements? All gone smoothly the dc just getting on with it. Masks in the classrooms ditto. 'Readjusting' to classrooms rather than live lessons, again anecdotally not one issue, although there will be some problems of course but my point is it isn’t widespread chaos.

I know plenty of people with dc at secondary school and the only persistent problem seems to be lack of information regarding grading y11 and y13 but that's the DfE's fault, not schools.

I personally feel teachers have had it as bad if not worse than nurses

No, sorry, this year has been tough, particularly for school leaders, but you can't honestly say we've had it worse than nurses.

It's not a contest though, lots of people have the right to have their feelings recognised and validated.

@ssd

Thats not happening for all nurses though.

Anyway, this thread was never a competition between nurses and teachers

And not all teachers have been in school. Not entirely sure what your point is. You seem to just be stirring up trouble tbh. It's been shit for everyone.

@ssd

And its in no way denigrating nurses. Both have had an awful time of it.

Some people need to actually read the thread before posting shite.

I said it was an awful time for both earlier.

And I also said it wasn't a competition.

Keep up folks.

I think lots of professions have had it worse tbh- nurses in particular. I cannot imagine how awful it must have been. But I really feel for retail staff, taxi and bus drivers, postal workers and many more who I think have had to stagger on pretty much unrecognised.

But by far the worst thing for me has been the utter disdain I’ve felt from the media and from much of the public. The DFE have also been a complete waste of space. The way we’ve been represented in the media untruthfully as unionised work shy layabouts has been vile.

But I get to laugh way more each day than most people do. Once I’m in class only the kids matter.

I'm so glad to have my class back, they are a lovely bunch. They have, for the most part, settled back in well.
The main difficulty is the vast gaps that some children now have and knowing how to plan to meet all the children's needs.
There have been a lot more accidents at playtime and arguments but I think that's to be expected. Lots of circle time on how to play nicely and be around so many other children!

Pastoral/safeguarding lead here. Non teaching but dh is a HOD in secondary. Also have dcs in years 11 and 13. Regularly seeing health and social care staff in school but remain unvaccinated (age 49) Pupils have returned having had a variety of traumatic experiences over lockdown. They are constantly in and out of my small office. I also worked all over lockdown trying to check on student wellbeing and offer support (often door knocking for pupils we couldn't contact) I was just about holding everything together but something relatively small made me FURIOUS. School were offered excess vaccines from a local pharmacy. Before the news was shared all of SLT booked themselves in for the jab. Now there are no more available. Considering who is most at risk would have been nice. Ironically SLT have fewer teaching responsibilities so less time with pupils. Also, all have large offices rather than busy classrooms. I felt really let down 😔

Thank you teachers. I see your hard work and dedication at school, in my dh and from my dc's GCSE and A-level teachers. It's a relentless, demanding job at the best of times but this last year has taken things to another level.

@ssd I read the whole thread thanks. I was replying to the bit where you said "teachers have had a harder time than nurses". Your words. Try and keep up!

We've had four positive tests in the last two weeks, staff and pupils. Given there's only 50 children attending at the moment, that's a high percentage. I'm exhausted and fed up of all the rules which are so important until they're inconvenient for management. I don't know what I'll do if, when we return after the summer, masks and SD are still in place. It's not what I signed up for, I'm already one foot out of the door given how much hatred the general public seem to have for teaching staff.

Tell you what has ruined my Sunday. Child after child, clearly quite upset, emailing me telling me they are contacts of cases - in and out of school. They have just come back and now they have to SI. This will also ruin the first week of their holiday. (at the very best : hopefully, they won't get ill; hopefully their family members stay relatively well)

It is stressful for me and hard on them. These are exam year students.

This is far worse than it was in September to November.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

It feels like this year has gone on for five years.

I am angry at how my safety is regarded by a lot of the public and the government. This has affected my mental health and how I view my responsibilities to the rest of society.

This.

@Piggywaspushed

Tell you what has ruined my Sunday. Child after child, clearly quite upset, emailing me telling me they are contacts of cases - in and out of school. They have just come back and now they have to SI. This will also ruin the first week of their holiday. (at the very best : hopefully, they won't get ill; hopefully their family members stay relatively well)

It is stressful for me and hard on them. These are exam year students.

This is far worse than it was in September to November.

Do you mind me asking in what way it is worse than sept-nov last year? Do you mean more cases or the effects on the kids (or you?)

“This is far worse than it was in September to November.”

Why?

Way more cases , way more isolations. Way more stress for students whose assessments are after Easter.

Quite happy here.

@Chocolateoatmilk

“This is far worse than it was in September to November.”

Why?

IIRC, in Sep to Nov they weren't testing much in schools - only symptomatic people were being tested AND as children rarely show the symptoms specified on the NHS site.... it was a case of there's no data, then we can pretend schools are safe and kids don't catch covid..

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

It feels like this year has gone on for five years.

I am angry at how my safety is regarded by a lot of the public and the government. This has affected my mental health and how I view my responsibilities to the rest of society.

Same...it has even led to resentment in our TA team (teaching assistants) when we were a very supportive team before. Now there is a lot of underlying tension about how some people were given safe roles by management and others weren't - and those that were safe did not support the ones who weren't.

They’ve only been back for two weeks.are you saying you think they should close again?

I'm always curious about the way the press and some parents talk about teachers.

Why? Who benefits? It's a shortage industry, especially in some subjects. It's like shooting your own feet.

@Piggywaspushed

Way more cases , way more isolations. Way more stress for students whose assessments are after Easter.

Are there actually way more cases though? as opposed to more positive tests because thats not the same thing. Testing asymptomatic children was always going to lead to more cases. We are trying to find them now whereas last Nov they would have been going undetected. Countrywide cases are lower week on week, patients being hospitalised down, deaths down and patients in hospital dramatically down. We are at no way at the end, but I think the figures suggest its certainly better than the end of last year, when nearly 1 million were vaccinated just yesterday we are surely in a better position.

also @Piggywaspushed when you say "way more isolations" isnt that just because 1 positive case can mean 90 kids plus staff etc need to stay at home. That situation needs looking at. There should be an option that whilst testing negative contacts can remain in school.