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’m a primary school governor but part of a group of governors in our area for primary and secondary. We had a call on Friday. Most of the secondary schools are continuing with masks for teachers and students as the majority of teachers haven’t had their vaccinations yet.

exactly @cantkeepawayforever

What sort of teacher are you @TeddingtonTrashbag?

@TeddingtonTrashbag

I will be interested to see if any pupils on my classes choose to wear masks. Assuming only those whose parents brainwashed them into wearing them before they were mandated.

I hope you don’t use this language or convey this attitude in the classroom.

If pupils feel safer with masks what is the harm? I teach in a school that is predominantly BAME. I know most my pupils will still wear masks as they want to protect their families. ‘Brainwashed’ is a horrendous word to apply to young adults who are civic minded.

1.Masks weren't mandated. However, all the children at my DC's secondary chose to wear them.

1. Depends on the school, but my 12 year old DC, who is excellent at science, thinks it doesn't make sense to stop with the masks when we have the Indian variant, and know there is airborne transmission. Masks are compulsory on public transport anyhow, so he'll just keep wearing his when he gets to school. He also likes hiding behind it, I think,in some sort of teenage Keviny way. Entirely his choice.

In my view it ought to continue to be free choice and schools which force teenagers into masks should be cracked down on big time.

@Xenia

In my view it ought to continue to be free choice and schools which force teenagers into masks should be cracked down on big time.

Using what powers, Xenia?

It is an entirely logical position to say (as a pp's 12 year old has) that "it doesn't make sense to stop with the masks when we have the Indian variant, and know there is airborne transmission."

It is equally logical to say that if masks remain mandatory in all other indoor public spaces without social distancing, they should remain in schools.

To 'crack down on' schools acting logically, fulfilling their legal H&S responsibility, following the advice of SAGE and the BMA, in full knowledge of their local circumstances - and with no legal basis - seems dodgy in the extreme.

How many unvaccinated people do you spend your days in close contact with each day without any social distancing and little ventilation, anyway? It is very easy to make pronouncements from the safety of a home office.

@Xenia

In my view it ought to continue to be free choice and schools which force teenagers into masks should be cracked down on big time.

See, that kind of emotive language, "force" (along with "brainwashing" earlier) is just not helpful. No schools have "forced" pupils to do anything. If a student is exempt from mask-wearing, then that is fine.

@FrippEnos

UsedUpUsername and Hanidjed7

I'm not sure that you understand how these vaccines work.
They are only 95% effective, this means that you can still get the virus (mild cases, be asymptomatic etc.) and pass it on.

For teachers in schools were the majority are not vaccinated this could cause a major rise in infections and spread.

Thank you, I'm well aware how vaccines work. I was initially cautious before I took and have done my research before I had mine.

Yes, of course you can still pass it on its the chances of getting it seriously enough to hospitalise or kill you it reduces!

I was responding to the person who was worried about going back to normal. She's fully protected so chances of getting ill of this are too tiny, imo, to not get back to normal. The more people that get vaccinated and the quicker the better then.

About 2 3rds of adults have had 1st dose and 1 3rd fully dosed. Why are only a minority if teachers protected? Most of the teachers in my son's school are vaccinated than not - I've talked to them, I know them.

It's also becoming noticeable that those getting ill, who are not vaccinated, have been offered it but don't want it. Their choice, but don't force restrictions on children because of minority groups who refuse.

About 2 3rds of adults have had 1st dose and 1 3rd fully dosed. Why are only a minority if teachers protected? Most of the teachers in my son's school are vaccinated than not - I've talked to them, I know them.

In primary, at least, the age profile of teachers is quite skewed towards the younger end.

It would be quite normal for all class teachers to be under 40, for example. I am unusual, in that I qualified at 40 - and I was the oldest teacher in the school by 10 years when I was an NQT.

This ^ The average age of teachers atm is 33.

@Feenie

This ^ The average age of teachers atm is 33.

tbh, I think this is pretty much the ONLY thing that has kept the illness and death rates amongst teachers at a 'publicly acceptable' level during the pandemic. If teachers had an age profile more typical of working adults as a whole, I think the statistics, especially from the autumn / winter wave of the pandemic, would have been quite horrifying.

@Hanidjed7: "I was responding to the person who was worried about going back to normal. She's fully protected so chances of getting ill of this are too tiny, imo, to not get back to normal."

If you're referring to me, then I suggest you go back and read what I actually wrote, as well as the following post, when I explained further.
My life is pretty normal already, and has been for the last year insofar as I've been to work at school all along (apart from the few weeks when we provided Home Learning from a distance) and mixing socially as per the guidelines at any given time.

What I SAID was, that I still feel that I should be cautious in mixing widely with others, and I can't imagine feeling comfortable in a large crowd for a long, long time. By "large crowds," I mean concert halls and busy bars. I think that is only sensible.

What I SAID was, that I still feel that I should be cautious in mixing widely with others, and I can't imagine feeling comfortable in a large crowd for a long, long time. By "large crowds," I mean concert halls and busy bars. I think that is only sensible

Ok but it’s just a feeling, not reality. Trust the vaccine, it’s very effective, more effective than a lot of other vaccines we use.

It is an entirely logical position to say (as a pp's 12 year old has) that "it doesn't make sense to stop with the masks when we have the Indian variant, and know there is airborne transmission

Also, masks don’t work, especially now that we know it’s spread via aerosols. Unless you make your child wear a tightly fitting N95, those surgical masks are as good as useless so might as well bin them.

@UsedUpUsername

It is an entirely logical position to say (as a pp's 12 year old has) that "it doesn't make sense to stop with the masks when we have the Indian variant, and know there is airborne transmission

Also, masks don’t work, especially now that we know it’s spread via aerosols. Unless you make your child wear a tightly fitting N95, those surgical masks are as good as useless so might as well bin them.

Evidence please.

Trust the vaccine, it’s very effective, more effective than a lot of other vaccines we use.

However, the likelihood of becoming ill after vaccination is a function not only of the effectiveness of the vaccine, but also the amount of infection within the community.

Simplistically: if I meet 1 infected person every 100 days, under conditions perfectly suited to spreading the virus, and I have a vaccination that is 95% effective, my change of being infected is 100x less than if I meet 1 infected person every day (in which case my chance of catching the virus is 1 in 20).

@UsedUpUsername

It is an entirely logical position to say (as a pp's 12 year old has) that "it doesn't make sense to stop with the masks when we have the Indian variant, and know there is airborne transmission

Also, masks don’t work, especially now that we know it’s spread via aerosols. Unless you make your child wear a tightly fitting N95, those surgical masks are as good as useless so might as well bin them.

Could you point to the scientific study that says this, please? Obviously tight-fitting N95s would be BETTER, but that doesn't make the alternatives 'as good as useless'.

Exactly. The 'masks are useless' crowd are so frustrating with this attitude. Part of the point of wearing a mask is to protect other people, in case you are infected and don't know yet. And surely we have seen enough real life examples now to know that masks do help even if it's not 100%?

UsedUpUsername

Your response to me just shows that you do not understand.

I am not talking about people that have had covid. I am talking about the possibility of still getting covid and passing it on.

Maybe you should listen to the talk that the Dr gives you when you have the vaccine

Lol are we going from the vaccine isn’t 100% effective to think of the unvaxxed children?
Catching up with this thread, why is it 'lol' to bear in mind unvaccinated children (who may be vulnerable)

@TeddingtonTrashbag

I will be interested to see if any pupils on my classes choose to wear masks. Assuming only those whose parents brainwashed them into wearing them before they were mandated.

Also...sorry but what sort of teacher says something like this?!

Not one you want teaching a vulnerable child imo.

UsedUpUsername

Lol are we going from the vaccine isn’t 100% effective to think of the unvaxxed children?

The vaccine has never been 100% effective.

And its the continued spread of the virus, which has never changed.

@FrippEnos

UsedUpUsername

Your response to me just shows that you do not understand.

I am not talking about people that have had covid. I am talking about the possibility of still getting covid and passing it on.

Maybe you should listen to the talk that the Dr gives you when you have the vaccine

Please. You were talking as if the vaccine was ‘only’ 95 percent effective. I linked you to the article because people don’t understand that figure correctly—actually it is much more protective than that. I suggest you read the article I posted.