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/

@Toomanymuslins

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.

I think the point she's making is that the guidance from DFE before you went on maternity leave was NO masks in classrooms. We only got masks in classrooms in March when we went back. So your school was making up its own rules - which is fine, but many are sticking to the DFE party line.

@noblegiraffe

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?

Giraffe why are you so determined to start a row with me?

Seriously?

But anyway.

1. Infections were going up. I hated them but I obviously didn’t want to contribute towards people getting ill!

1. As you know, making your own rules doesn’t go as far as overriding a school policy. In this case, asking for masks on due to worries about illness is reasonable, I think. Asking for masks off because it’s really hard teaching in them isn’t. Besides, it wasn’t just the masks as explained in the post above.

1. Quite honestly I wanted to work my notice with as little hassle as possible.

I am saying I support you in wearing a mask if you want to. Why the arsey attitude? Seriously, why?

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

No masks don't equal unmitigated spread if other measures are in place.

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

Don't like you? You're a random on the internet. Your comments on this thread make it quite obvious who you care about.

What I really like is that it just demonstrates how little a clue you have

Mmm, no. It shows that based on this thread you've made yourself look pretty uncaring towards anyone who doesn't agree with you.

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

Presumably people don't go looking for your threads? Personally that hasn't appeared on the main page for me and that's the only place I look, not because of a lack of care for disadvantaged children.

Your condescension doesn't make you seem any more caring btw.

More than happy to provide proof of where I worked. My name is still on the website and details about masks there too. But to MNHQ, not to people trying to troll hunt.

No masks don't equal unmitigated spread if other measures are in place.

And what other measures would you have preferred to masks in classrooms?

I am saying I support you in wearing a mask if you want to. Why the arsey attitude?

Because you've been patronisingly telling teachers that they can do what they like in their classroom, and now you're admitting that actually they can't.

@Toomanymuslins

More than happy to provide proof of where I worked. My name is still on the website and details about masks there too. But to MNHQ, not to people trying to troll hunt.

No one is asking you to do that. That would be bloody weird.

@noblegiraffe

No masks don't equal unmitigated spread if other measures are in place.

And what other measures would you have preferred to masks in classrooms?

Hand sanitising / washing, ventilation, both better than dirty masks not being warn properly in my opinion. People getting paid when they have to stay home with their kids would have been the most effective measure though. Shame they never bothered to do that.

No, you’ve decided to put that interpretation on it because you want a row.

It would wouldn’t it MrsHamlet

So perhaps we could knock it off with the ‘home since October’ comments.

Hand sanitising / washing ffs - covid is airborne, we now know washing hands is very very limited in impact aganst covid.

Best things to do:

1. stay outside
2. ventilate if indoors
3. distance, especially indoors
4. wear masks - especially where you can't distance and are indoors - like in school

Hand sanitising / washing, ventilation, both better than dirty masks not being warn properly in my opinion

How would you have changed hand sanitising/washing and ventilation from what was in schools from Sept-Dec?

I really hope this is true. I can’t stand teaching in a mask all day. I’m shouting to be heard and I keep getting a sore throat. Also I can’t hear the kids properly. It’s having a huge impact on teaching and learning. The sooner they’re gone the better.

@noblegiraffe

Hand sanitising / washing, ventilation, both better than dirty masks not being warn properly in my opinion

How would you have changed hand sanitising/washing and ventilation from what was in schools from Sept-Dec?

What?

You said it was masks or unmitigated spread. But now these were in place in September? Which was it?

@Volcanoexplorer

I really hope this is true. I can’t stand teaching in a mask all day. I’m shouting to be heard and I keep getting a sore throat. Also I can’t hear the kids properly. It’s having a huge impact on teaching and learning. The sooner they’re gone the better.

This was my experience too.

@picturesandpickles

Hand sanitising / washing ffs - covid is airborne, we now know washing hands is very very limited in impact aganst covid.

Best things to do:

1. stay outside
2. ventilate if indoors
3. distance, especially indoors
4. wear masks - especially where you can't distance and are indoors - like in school

We also know that the levels are much lower and millions of people are vaccinated.

An unwashed mask not worn properly is more of a hindrance than a help surely. And that's what kids do because they're kids.

Luckily Dd is 16 so has had the vaccine (not fully protected yet) but she is really not well from catching an unidentified virus requiring multiple hospital stays. The masks made her safer and feel safer too. The problem she has is that her A Level assessments require close contact group work. She’s not alone in wanting masks as several pupils have family members with cancer, including younger siblings. Others have fathers nearing their 70s in ill health. Unfortunately pupils have had family deaths too from covid.

By the time pupils are sixth formers they have developed the critical thinking skills to have formed an opinion on others wearing masks playing a part in protecting them and their families. So there’s the anxiety of work now for assessments without masks.

So OP it’s not ‘hurray’ for these pupils. It’s a source of anxiety and a constant cost-benefit analysis whether to risk school that day for them and their families.

So far Dd has had at least 2 known cases in her classes and many more in her year but these were before masks were introduced. None in her year since masks have been worn.

If the posters not wanting masks are really teachers, please be aware of these pupils in your classes who may not be as fortunate as you healthwise.

You said it was masks or unmitigated spread. But now these were in place in September?

Point out the bit of the red line of this graph where hand sanitiser made a real impact? So suggesting that we didn't need anything new to actually mitigate covid spread in classrooms seems to go against the previous data which looks very much uncontrolled.

Pointless things when there are so many exempts Just get rid

I agree. I'm done with masks and holding off shopping for a bit in a hope they'll be ditched everywhere apart from healthcare settings very soon.

@noblegiraffe

You said it was masks or unmitigated spread. But now these were in place in September?

Point out the bit of the red line of this graph where hand sanitiser made a real impact? So suggesting that we didn't need anything new to actually mitigate covid spread in classrooms seems to go against the previous data which looks very much uncontrolled.

And it was masks that made it go right down again? Nothing to do with a lockdown and vaccinations?

Righty ho.

And it was masks that made it go right down again?

No, it was closing schools. Duh. But reopening schools when infection levels were higher than now and vulnerable people were still waiting on vaccines without any additional mitigation measures on top of what we had (and didn't work) from Sept-Dec would have been mad.

@noblegiraffe

And it was masks that made it go right down again?

No, it was closing schools. Duh. But reopening schools when infection levels were higher than now and vulnerable people were still waiting on vaccines without any additional mitigation measures on top of what we had (and didn't work) from Sept-Dec would have been mad.

And lockdown and vaccines. Duh.

Would it have been mad? Nobody knows. We don't have a control to know if masks actually helped at all whatsoever.

And lockdown and vaccines. Duh.

School kids aren't vaccinated...lockdown didn't have very much of an impact on infection rates in school kids when they kept them open in November, it's why we schools in such an awful position by Christmas.

My understanding is that the first large school outbreak (one that ended up with 3 year groups all at home, but a week or so earlier than the most publicised recent one) was in fact because of spread at an after school / weekend activity that did not require masks. The activity knew about the close contacts, and told parents, who sent their children into school regardless without telling the school. Then once the information did come out, there were too many contacts not to send all year groups home

So not an example of 'masks not working in schools'. More an example of 'masks not working when not worn' and the problem then coming into school.