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

I think you can make your own rules in your own classroom giraffe

So the kids weren’t wearing masks in yours? You don’t think they’re effective and you found it difficult to teach in them so you got everyone to take them off?

Because if the policy is no masks in classrooms and I decide that's not okay and I'm going to insist, that's against the policy and that's going to get me disciplined.

I have only briefly taught this academic year (thank God.) Masks were mandatory in my school at that point. Kids were pretty rubbish at keeping them on which is largely why I do think it’s a bit pointless and I definitely prefer teaching without them.

However I think it’s perfectly reasonable for individual teachers to decide whether children wear masks or not.

They may not wear them ‘well’ but I’m not sure how to get round that, tbh. But I certainly think you should be able to decide whether or not you want masks on or off. I’m not sure why you’re annoyed with me for saying that.

@MrsHamlet

Because if the policy is no masks in classrooms and I decide that's not okay and I'm going to insist, that's against the policy and that's going to get me disciplined.

I know we’re talking hypothetically but I think a reasonable head would be happy to say it’s up to individual teachers.

I do know not all heads are reasonable, though!

I am a secondary teacher and I can't wait to see the back of the things. They aren't worn correctly and they are doing untold damage to communication.

It can't be though can it? Schools have policies for all kinds of things and you have to follow them even if they're patently stupid or pointless... the seven part lesson being one very good example.
If Bob is allowed not to wear a mask in Mrs Thing's class but I insist he does, he will kick off about it. And then chaos ensues.

However I think it’s perfectly reasonable for individual teachers to decide whether children wear masks or not.

Where will these masks come from? Given that the government guidance will have changed to say that they are not required so kids won’t be bringing them to school?

I can’t even require kids to wear masks in the classroom now when the guidance is that they should be worn.

Until they roll out the vaccine for 11+ it seems premature. I would prioritise them tbh

doing untold damage to communication.

The hyperbolists are back I see.

@noblegiraffe

Uncontrolled covid transmission really took the enjoyment out of teaching and learning. The isolation Hokey Cokey. Schools being closed from Jan to March.

That was really shit for the kids.

Well yes. My point about enjoyment was really about the whole shebang.

I'm excited to see the end of it all. There are some things i've learned about Google Classroom that i'll keep, but I miss so much of what we're prevented from doing at the moment.

Scratch my previous post about where they’ll come from, they will still be wearing them in corridors won’t they.

But I am still baffled by the assertion that government guidance can be happily overridden by teachers when individual schools have faced legal challenges about this.

It depends on the school mrshamlet

I wouldn’t work somewhere with nonsense like the seven part lesson.

Children are quite capable of understanding that things can and do differ between lessons.

Some teachers will feel unsafe without masks.

Some teachers will feel that masks are detrimental to learning.

Neither are wrong which is why blanket masks/no masks approaches don’t necessarily work well.

giraffe I’m not making the rules here I think it is reasonable for teachers to make their own minds up but personally I can’t say I’ve given it any thought beyond that. And if it is the rule that teachers decide for themselves then children bring a mask snd wear it when required and not if not required.

If your point is that they will forget their mask and if they don’t it will be mucky then I agree. Which is why it’s so hard to enforce in schools in the first place.

It isn’t an assertion, it’s a suggestion.

I think it is reasonable for teachers to make their own minds up but personally I can’t say I’ve given it any thought beyond that.

That much is clear.

Yes giraffe surprisingly with a young baby I don’t sit ruminating on whether or not thirty sweaty dirty masks will protect me from covid

I hate wearing a mask at school- it is a pain in so many ways like PPs have mentioned. HOWEVER- until all staff who want to be, are vaccinated I do not think removing the masks is a good idea. We have had some staff seriously ill from covid over the last year- one was in ICU and still not returned. In local area the vaccination programme is only just finishing 40yos- lots and lots of staff at my school are 25-39. Some with other factors/issues which could make covid serious for them e.g. overweight, pregnant etc. I wish the government had extended the key workers prioritised for the vaccines to shop workers, all emergency services staff and school staff. Then I feel we would be a lot closer to just being able to bin the masks!

Seemed quite happy to tell teachers what they can and can’t do in their own classrooms despite their own thoughts on the matter though, toomany

I didn’t.

As I’ve said, if other teachers wish to make mask wearing mandatory in their rooms that’s up to them

Except it’s not.

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.

@noblegiraffe

Uncontrolled covid transmission really took the enjoyment out of teaching and learning. The isolation Hokey Cokey. Schools being closed from Jan to March.

That was really shit for the kids.

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.

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

Because heads risk legal challenges if they do not follow the official government guidance on masks. My school had to take legal advice about how we implemented the mask policy because of this, and therefore my head would not allow individual teachers to continue to require them against government guidance. Not because the head isn’t reasonable but because the law isn’t onside and you cannot expect parents or students to be supportive.

In fact there have been legal challenges even where heads have followed the government guidance, but thankfully the batshit brigade lost that one.

That's good news, common sense at last! Hope it's true.

I think it’s the government guidance that’s stupid rather than my point then, giraffe.

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.