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Original poster

There is no army of volunteers waiting to be called to keep schools open

145 replies

noblegiraffe · 13/12/2021 00:21

FYI.

So if you see anyone putting this forward as a serious suggestion, they're an idiot and anything they say about schools should be disregarded.

We can't even pay people to do it right now.

OP posts:
Whitefire · 14/12/2021 00:08

We have a CO2 tester at work. It is currently on top of the water machine, so today when I was filling my bottle it was merrily shooting up, I know I'm full of a lot of hot air but it didn't seem particularly reliable.

Nevertime · 14/12/2021 00:51

@Whitefire

We have a CO2 tester at work. It is currently on top of the water machine, so today when I was filling my bottle it was merrily shooting up, I know I'm full of a lot of hot air but it didn't seem particularly reliable.
If you (or anyone) was standing close of course it would shoot up. They're measuring the co2 you're breathing out. What they've shown for us is that rooms where windows are closed need a window open if people are in them. Opening a window, even a crack, improves things really quickly.
gherdl · 14/12/2021 04:45

Ha Ha ha, everyone get out and volunteer, it's the new way of working, don't get paid, run everything like an Oxfam shop.

borntobequiet · 14/12/2021 05:47

What they've shown for us is that rooms where windows are closed need a window open if people are in them.

Such a useful explanation.

EvilPea · 14/12/2021 09:43

@gherdl

Ha Ha ha, everyone get out and volunteer, it's the new way of working, don't get paid, run everything like an Oxfam shop.
Brilliant. When can I expect the government to pay my rent and bills?
EvilPea · 14/12/2021 09:44

Would be dyson wouldn’t it!!
No other filters would do the job?

Jobseeker19 · 14/12/2021 09:46

I received an email from my children's school yesterday. 3 members of staff are not coming back in January. That includes the PE teacher and one of my children's class teacher.

This is a weeks notice for us.
I wonder what has gone down for it to happen like this. I am scared for my children's education

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/12/2021 10:49

They will have had to have handed in their notice by 31st October so the school will have had more than a week's notice.

But yes, teacher are leaving and in some cases schools are unable to replace them. There is a critical shortage in some subjects and some areas.

OP posts:
Angelton · 14/12/2021 11:41

It’s not all to do with Covid though. Teaching has had a dreadful attrition rate for years. Workload keeps going up and salaries are being held down. Covid was just the straw that broke the camel’s back and pushed a lot of unhappy teachers to finally quit.

theelephantinthegroup · 14/12/2021 13:36

I can't see this ever happening (for so many reasons) but isn't it interesting which services seem to be outsourced (at great cost) and which are expected to be covered by normal people on a voluntary basis.

Appuskidu · 15/12/2021 20:44

@LaurieFairyCake

Dh (deputy head) said that when they were calling for testing volunteers

The only ones that volunteered you 'don't want near your children'

Literally people on sex offenders register and a couple of drug dealers

He's laughing a lot at that idea

I can imagine.

The point at which a school would need to be using volunteers in order to stay open, is a desperate one. A time when they are so thinly stretched that they already have every member of teaching and non-teaching staff dotted around the school with 30 children in front of each of them.

The thought of letting random volunteers be in charge of a whole class of children entirely unchecked for a whole day would be extremely concerning.

CallmeHendricksGingleBells · 15/12/2021 21:51

I know quite a few ex-teachers. I can guarantee that not one single one of them would countenance this idea for a second.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 15/12/2021 22:44

Having just seen a thread about civil servants being drafted in to be vaccinators, perhaps they could redeploy the DfE to work as teachers.

They’re certainly not doing much at the DfE.

OP posts:
GiveMeNovocain · 15/12/2021 22:52

I'd absolutely have volunteered if it had been an option while I was a sahm. I assumed we'd get called up. Instead the schools shut and I was told some worksheets and banana bread was plenty for dd. Now I've been redeployed and am working on the booster rollout. We all need to step up and do our bit. Schools are essential just like health, social care food, water and electricity. They are not an optional extra, even during a pandemic.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 15/12/2021 23:12

If you're free, trained and keen to keep schools open, why aren't you working as a supply teacher?

OP posts:
SleepyMathematician · 16/12/2021 07:19

Haha no way.

I’m a qualified teacher with experience in primary (many years back) and secondary maths (much more recent). I currently tutor maths at home so my curriculum knowledge is current. I could help in school easily and my job has a shortage at the best of times. I've done supply in the past. No way would I do it now. Firstly, supply is paying less than it was 20 years ago and that’s not even in real terms. Secondly, I can earn almost double by sitting and tutoring at home. With much less Covid risk and none of the stress. Thirdly, the government have fucked up the handling of Covid in schools so badly that only someone with a death wish would voluntarily go into one.

If the government think I’m going to go and do for free what they are not currently paying enough for me to do they can jog on. I’ve considered going back into school many times as I do miss it, but the pay and conditions are way too poor. Instead of trying to guilt people into doing it for free (as a PP said, are they going to start paying my bills?), they need to start looking at why teachers leave in droves and rectify that. They won’t, of course.

SleepyMathematician · 16/12/2021 07:21

@GiveMeNovocain

I'd absolutely have volunteered if it had been an option while I was a sahm. I assumed we'd get called up. Instead the schools shut and I was told some worksheets and banana bread was plenty for dd. Now I've been redeployed and am working on the booster rollout. We all need to step up and do our bit. Schools are essential just like health, social care food, water and electricity. They are not an optional extra, even during a pandemic.
Yes, why aren’t you working as a supply teacher then? Schools are desperate.
Appuskidu · 16/12/2021 08:43

Someone I used to teach with put a link to this up on their Facebook page last night-every single retired teacher ‘friend’ they had posted on it saying absolutely not!

It’s one thing a retired nurse going to volunteer in a vaccine clinic in a mask, dealing with one masked person at a time who has already been asked 5 times if they have any symptoms and turned away if so, to teaching classes of 30 unmasked unvaccinated children who nobody is testing for covid no matter what symptoms they have.

Icecreaminwinter · 16/12/2021 09:23

I have tried to get into supply teaching via agencies but have been told my references aren’t current enough. I have more than 20 years experience but it wasn’t enough.

Would ‘volunteers’ still need references and dbs checks? Presumably as they can’t just have random people with unknown backgrounds turning up to work with children. I think the logistics are tricky.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 16/12/2021 09:33

Another recent retiree here. Would l volunteer?

No fucking way.

It was destroying everyone’s mental health before Covid. It must be insane now🤷🏼‍♀️

Nuffaluff · 16/12/2021 09:40

Thing is, with those CO2 monitors, they don’t mean much.
We had one in my classroom. We have the doors and windows open all the time. It was always on green! Therefore safe right?
I caught Covid at school, my teacher colleague caught Covid from school, so have half of both our classes.
I expect I’ll get it again. Parents are sending their children in with symptoms all the time.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 17/12/2021 10:56

I meant proper ventilation and masks in classrooms.

My friend is a HoD. Her entire department are off. She’s losing her mind!

MabelsApron · 17/12/2021 14:06

One of my colleagues keeps saying she's fine if they bring the army in as long as the schools don't shut. For some parents the quality of the education really isn't important, as long as the building is literally open and there's an adult in it.

I don't know what to say about it, other than parents should be grateful people are actually willing to be teachers. God knows why.

Megan1992xx · 17/12/2021 14:12

Retired teachers expected to go back to a Covid hot spot to help out, retired and serving MPs expect to take huge fees from lobbying and non-executive directorships.

Tells you everything you need to know about this issue. Goodwill is something other people have apparently!

shouldistop · 17/12/2021 14:28

I don't think it's worth keeping schools open if kids would be being taught by retired ofsted inspectors anyway.

Really? What about the children who's parents have to work so they don't starve? Children who will be beaten and not fed at home? Children who will become depressed an anxious. It's worth keeping the schools open at almost any cost IMO.

FYI my Gran was an retired school inspector and advisor on education. Prior to that she was a primary school teacher then head teacher and taught all over the world. What would be wrong with kids being taught by someone like her?

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