No more masks in classrooms - hurray!

[TeddingtonTrashbag]

Hurray!
I am a secondary teacher and just hope it really happens.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/06/exclusive-end-masks-classroom-boris-johnson-defies-unions/

I wasn’t moaning - I haven’t been in school since October!

@Toomanymuslins

Sigh.

giraffe, if mask wearing in schools is scrapped by the government but I was vulnerable or lived with someone who was and said to my HT ‘I’d prefer children to continue wearing masks in my classroom’ I cannot for the life of me see that it would be a problem.

Why you think that’s such a stupid point I really do not know.

If you work in a school where the Head isn’t reasonable then I sympathise. But there are other issues tied up with that then aren’t there?

Hypothetically, if masks are scrapped, this is a possibility.

I don’t make the rules. I’m not even HOD any more, just a bog standard teacher. So it’s pointless arguing with me about it. All I know is that I disliked teaching with masks and I’m glad they’ve gone. I’m sorry we differ in our views on this.

How much power do you think an individual classroom teacher has?

If DfE mandates no masks, then it’s just masks. We can’t just ignore our bosses - we’d be sacked!

*no masks

@noblegiraffe

Levels are massively different now than they were in January though aren't they? And quite literally millions more people have been vaccinated. It's like comparing apples and pears.

Schools were closed completely in January, not just required to wear masks.

Masks were introduced in March when schools re-opened, infection levels were higher and the vaccination program wasn’t as advanced.

There’s an argument to be made for whether they should be required from the 17th but moaning about them having been in schools from March is a non-starter.

People can moan about whatever they like frankly.

It's not a non starter because they have quite obviously caused some people issues. You may not give two shits about those people, but it doesn't mean their issues don't exist.

If I said to my headteacher ‘I know masks are no longer required in classrooms but look, I haven’t been vaccinated yet and I have - I’d like the students to’ he wouldn’t have a problem with that.

If the D of E do then that is wrong.

But it doesn’t make it a stupid argument.

@Toomanymuslins

If I said to my headteacher ‘I know masks are no longer required in classrooms but look, I haven’t been vaccinated yet and I have - I’d like the students to’ he wouldn’t have a problem with that.

If the D of E do then that is wrong.

But it doesn’t make it a stupid argument.

But Gavin Williamson - Ed minister - IS mandating no masks from next step of relaxations (17th May) so how can individual teachers say to their classes ‘we haven’t be vaccinated so please still wear a mask despite what our head of Education orders?’.

Or is your head willing to defy the DfE?

Sorry, do you think the D of E are right?

@mrshoho we did try various different types but essentially all the same problem - but thank you for the suggestion

Usual pile-on from usual suspects
Where I teach, our priority is teaching, and the faux fear which seems so prevalent on here is far from what experienced teachers express in RL.
Masks are pointless signalling ‘There’s a ‘pandemic’!!!!! Let’s panic!!!!’
Whereas most of us just.... teach...

It's not a non starter because they have quite obviously caused some people issues. You may not give two shits about those people, but it doesn't mean their issues don't exist.

I never said the issues didn’t exist. But it wasn’t a choice between masks and happy effective teaching, it was a choice between masks and closed schools/unmitigated covid spread which really should be a non-starter shouldn’t it?

Besides one of those claiming they can’t teach in a mask is now saying they haven’t been in a classroom since October.

@Toomanymuslins

Sorry, do you think the D of E are right?

It doesn't matter whether I think they're right. It matters whether I'm following policy or not.

Given that we have some extremely litigious parents, I wouldn't want to be the one going against school policy (which would be whatever the DFE says about masks)

I’ve been on maternity leave, is that allowed?

I believe I said it was extremely difficult to teach in a mask. It is. If you don’t find this to be the case and you wish to wear one I support you in this. But I don’t like them myself and look forward to returning to school in September without masks.

That wasn't really the choice at all, was it.

The thing is you're only bothered when it causes you a problem. When you percieve yourself to be unsafe. You don't care about anyone elses welfare, but you expect everyone else to care about yours.

But it does matter mrsH because we are agreeing.

One side are saying ‘we want masks.’

The other side are saying ‘no thanks.’

If it’s up to the individual then there’s no problem.

If the D of E block this that’s a different matter.

@Toomanymuslins

If I said to my headteacher ‘I know masks are no longer required in classrooms but look, I haven’t been vaccinated yet and I have - I’d like the students to’ he wouldn’t have a problem with that.

If the D of E do then that is wrong.

But it doesn’t make it a stupid argument.

Quite frankly it doesn't really matter what your headteacher thinks, if the rule to wear masks has been relaxed its the parents and pupils you need to convince to still wear them in your specific classroom no one else 🤷‍♀️

This is straying too far into hypothetical but anyway, I’m glad to see the back of masks.

However, if you wanted children to wear them in your classroom I’d support you in that.

And that’s not the amazingly controversial point it’s been painted as.

I certainly have no problem with a teenager choosing to wear a mask in class as long as everyone else is free not to wear one. It is the other way round that is the big issue - a school choosing to have a stand off with the state in saying you must wear a mask even if the state says you have a right not to do so and the pupils are very much disadvantaged by the masks (as many are).

@Toomanymuslins

I’m pleased. I can’t teach in them!

This is what you said. Despite being at home since October.

They are but I can understand individual teachers having reasons why they might feel safer with masks on so don’t have a problem with that.

But seriously, I found teaching September / October in a mask a fucking nightmare.

Lessons ended ten minutes early so kids could go and line up in the yard and then go to next lesson (they stayed in the same classroom but had to go out in between lessons.)

Couldn’t leave books or resources anywhere - charging around the school pregnant with books. Not fun!

No sense of ownership with seating plans and so on.

I really did struggle to hear what children said to me. Especially in bigger classrooms like science labs.

Children struggled to follow what I was saying - lots of ‘sorry / what / pardon / could you say that again please / sorry, try again.’

It was utterly hideous!

What’s the issue with ‘being home’ since October? I don’t understand why you keep saying that as if I’ve done something wrong in having a baby

@Toomanymuslins

They are but I can understand individual teachers having reasons why they might feel safer with masks on so don’t have a problem with that.

But seriously, I found teaching September / October in a mask a fucking nightmare.

Lessons ended ten minutes early so kids could go and line up in the yard and then go to next lesson (they stayed in the same classroom but had to go out in between lessons.)

Couldn’t leave books or resources anywhere - charging around the school pregnant with books. Not fun!

No sense of ownership with seating plans and so on.

I really did struggle to hear what children said to me. Especially in bigger classrooms like science labs.

Children struggled to follow what I was saying - lots of ‘sorry / what / pardon / could you say that again please / sorry, try again.’

It was utterly hideous!

Your HT/MAT must have made their own rules up back in Sep/Oct - we didn’t have masks in classrooms then and we only had masks in corridors because the local PHE insisted due to infection rates they were needed.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro

That wasn't really the choice at all, was it.

The thing is you're only bothered when it causes you a problem. When you percieve yourself to be unsafe. You don't care about anyone elses welfare, but you expect everyone else to care about yours.

It was the choice though. We tried no masks Sept-Dec and had unmitigated covid spread followed by closed schools.

And I'm going to file that crap attempt at an insult alongside 'overly anxious' 'hates kids' 'hates teaching' etc that have been thrown at me by people who don't like me but can't formulate a proper argument.
What I really like is that it just demonstrates how little a clue you have.

Incidentally, I didn't notice any of those really concerned about the disadvantaged kids posters who have been so prolific on covid threads on my recent thread about the latest appalling government cuts to free school meals funding.

Yes, they did. Is that what giraffe is driving at - that I’m lying because I have been ‘home since October’

Happy to provide MNHQ with proof giraffe.

Well why didn't you allow children to remove masks in your classroom, toomany if that was your preference?

You said would be straightforward to make your own rules in your own classroom, yes?