Email from DfE to Headteachers. Schools prepped to shut again?

[AntiMaskersAreTwats]

Do you think this means it likely schools will shut again?

@cantkeepawayforever

Yes I agree with that. The respect for the profession has gone downhill and people generally don’t care if their children are being taught by under qualified staff, but that was an issue even before covid. That is a real shame.

in my opinion not all staff are directly afraid of this virus.

I know no school staff who are 'directly afraid' of the virus.

All know they will get it, all have had to face this and come to terms with it - on the effect on themselves, on the effect on their colleagues, on the effect on the elderly relatives and other vulnerable people they care for. They carry the mental scars of this 'coming to terms', in terms of mental and physical health, but they keep doing their jobs.

All worry about the effect on those they teach - the effects of bereavement; poverty; lost learning; mental, physical and learning needs that are unmet through the total absence of support services from outside schools.

All do this in a climate in which it is absolutely clear that those in power, and many others in the population, genuinely do not care about what school staff do, as long as the doors of the school are open.

Myself, I care 'immensely about my kids' education and the quality of the teaching and I think my kids' teachers (who are generally very good, we're very lucky) are aware of that.

Haribo,

Being 'scared of Covid' - or at least worried about its effects and wanting sensible mitigations to prevent them -is a reasonable and rational response. It's a nasty disease that can and does kill or cause long term illness.

'Not being scared of Covid and its effects' is not something to be proud of. It's a sign of worrying desensitisation.

@cantkeepawayforever beautifully put. I've already had Covid (now have asthma for the first time in my 54 years), but resigned to getting it again. I've had my booster and will keep getting any jab they offer. My younger colleagues have not had that opportunity and many are now ill.
It's possible to keep schools safer and therefore open. But no one cares. We are worthless lives who just need to suck it up. You're right, that's what sucks.

Stop fucking telling teachers who are not happy with the situation in schools (which is awful) to resign. We are critically short of teachers as it is.

FIX the problems in schools instead.

Fucking hell.

@noblegiraffe 😂 I'm so used to it now I do find it ridiculous. I love my job, love the kids and my colleagues, love that I can make a difference. But I quite like my health too.
My students get it - they hate when I have to use my inhaler as they know why. They tell me that it's mad schools have no safety measures. Some of them are 11, they get it.

@noblegiraffe

If a teacher is unhappy about the covid situation that is understandable, and no one is denying that.

If a teacher is “scared” about their own personal safety in respect of catching a covid infection, then yes they should resign. Their MH would be better for it.

If a teacher is “scared” about their own personal safety in respect of catching a covid infection, then yes they should resign. Their MH would be better for it.

Has anyone on here said that?

Every person working in a school KNOWS they will catch Covid, as no measures have been taken that can reasonably prevented it Every person in school is, completely reasonably, a bit worried about this.

If every person who was 'worried about the impact of Covid ' - a totally rational, understandable and sensible thing to be - resigned, then there would be nobody in school at all.

Everyone will catch Covid though. Not just teachers. Everyone. I caught it at work, that's just how it is now.

Telling teachers who are not happy with their working conditions to resign is trotted out regularly on MN. It is such a thought-ending trite response that it deserves derision.

Wax, I would rather that my elderly and frail parents - triple vaccinated but likely to have mounted a relatively low immune response - didn't catch Covid.

Their probable healthy life expectancy is another decade or so, if familial patterns are followed, so I would rather that wasn't cut short, and therefore am very willing to consider measures that enable them to avoid Covid at this point, while hospitals are so overwhelmed and unhealthy.

Yes, that includes me not visiting them, as i'm clearly a vector of transmission.

'Inevitable' doesn't mean 'we have to rush to actively encourage it', after all.

Why is it such a big thing to tell someone who is unhappy with their working conditions to resign?

My sister resigned as a nurse as she was unhappy with her working conditions. She was a bloody good nurse. My brother in law resigned as an officer over personal safety concerns.

Why are teacher immune from that? Everyone has resigned to the fact they will catch covid. Everyone.

@mumsneedwine

If you want schools open please petition government to put some, any safety measures in. Windows that open, masks in rooms, screens, the things other work places have. Because staff are getting sick and schools can't open without staff. Get teachers boosted now (had mine as I'm old). Bleating about schools staying open won't stop them closing. Putting some mitigation measures in will.

PS I believe staff have been saying this for over a year now. But still no one listens. No staff = no school.

The voice of reason. Thank you.

Why is it such a big thing to tell someone who is unhappy with their working conditions to resign?

Telling teachers who are unhappy with their working conditions to resign is trotted out with tedious monotony on MN. Teachers are resigning. We haven't got enough by far. We need people on MN to refrain from typing 'resign if you're not happy' to a teacher and instead pen an email to their MP saying 'what the fuck is going on in schools and what are you going to do to sort it?'

That would be way more helpful.

Well I work in adult education. Our centre is an old victorian building. None of the classrooms have windows that open or in fact any ventilation. We wear masks in corridors but not in classrooms and we have been back to face to face learning since March.

What I am trying to say, like waxon is that other people work in environments with few or no mitigations. I don't feel we can say at this stage that school teachers are uniquely exposed to a greater extent than anybody else, as we all have multiple exposures and equal access to vaccines. Also, let me say before I get bashed as a teacher-hater, that my DCs school and their teachers are fantastic.

Of course in an acute teacher shortage, a school may need to close briefly but there shouldn't be any policy to revert to home learning at any stage. This is bad for the vast majority of kids and families.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment it is PIE in the sky. They wouldn’t listen.

You will not achieve what you (so rightfully) want to achieve under these absolute Tory numpties.

Resigning is often a sign of self respect.

When NHS staff, last year, were raising concerns about lack of, and out of date, PPE and other issues with their working conditions, was the cry 'resign if you aren't happy'?

Or did the public respond with outrage and force things to change?

Why is it different for education? Is it a measure of the different regard people have for health and education staff?

I don't feel we can say at this stage that school teachers are uniquely exposed to a greater extent than anybody else, as we all have multiple exposures and equal access to vaccines

School kids don't have equal access to vaccines (and have the highest infection rates by far), and that is who teachers spend the vast majority of their time with. Have you factored that into your thinking?

@noblegiraffe

Why is it such a big thing to tell someone who is unhappy with their working conditions to resign?

Telling teachers who are unhappy with their working conditions to resign is trotted out with tedious monotony on MN. Teachers are resigning. We haven't got enough by far. We need people on MN to refrain from typing 'resign if you're not happy' to a teacher and instead pen an email to their MP saying 'what the fuck is going on in schools and what are you going to do to sort it?'

That would be way more helpful.

Would it though? This government listen to no one, otherwise it would be sorted by now.

@cantkeepawayforever

It was actually yes, certainly amongst my circles. I was working in a supported living unit initially and because we were not NHS we were at the bottom of the pile for PPE. All of my friends and family suggested I resign. I think your deeper issue here is the societal value placed on teachers, which does appear to have dropped, for which society will pay the price for eventually. Currently though I do not forsee any change so rather than just spitting your dummy out and being outraged you’re not held in the same value as NHS nurses for example, take some personal responsibility for the way things currently are. That’s not me being offensive, that’s being realistic.

I wish society did nurture our teachers but pie in the sky comes to mind again.

Would it though? This government listen to no one, otherwise it would be sorted by now.

I don't think parents have complained in any appreciable numbers so far. It would be premature to say that it doesn't work.

Would it though? This government listen to no one, otherwise it would be sorted by now.

I disagree. This government has a track record for leaking information and watching people’s reaction to decide if they will move forward (or backwards!) on a lot if subject, including covid which really should have even based in evidence instead.
If the government was faced with a proper backlash from people they would do something about it.

But there is no backlash at all. Just the old ‘just resign if you’re not happy’ trotted around instead. That’s nit going to encourage people to grumble and demand change.

Found it at last : this form three weeks ago

*People working in the education sector are more likely to test positive for Covid than any other sector due to high infection levels among school children, according to new official data.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey, published yesterday, states this is the “first time we have seen statistical evidence of a difference in recent fortnights for the educational sector”.*

@noblegiraffe

Stop fucking telling teachers who are not happy with the situation in schools (which is awful) to resign. We are critically short of teachers as it is.

FIX the problems in schools instead.

Fucking hell.

THIS!!!! In spades.

How many more times are people going to come out with this "Resign then" shit?!