Safe space for school staff to talk about how they are feeling for next term…

[OnceuponaRainbow18]

I’m quite anxious about going back, although luckily managed to get the booster jab before Christmas. Lots of our families live hand to mouth so won’t regular test and can’t miss a week of work, which I do understand.

I’m also worried about exam classes having to sit exams as if nothing has happened.

I’m worried about lack of staff, week before Christmas hols our whole learning support team were off, with no cover.

I’m worried about getting ill and the hospitals are full.

I worry about having to send my kids into nursery where there’s a huge outbreak, but don’t have the option to keep them home.

I worry about bad behaviour as the SLT aren’t ‘policing’ the corridors at lesson change around sl behaviour is going to pot.

I also worry about school closures and kids mental health.

Wow whyarewe, you sound great but you work too hard. A supportive and clear leadership from SLT makes such a difference to kids, parents and staff. I have a weak SLT really, and it increases stress tenfold.

Hope your DP is OK.

when children go from cover lesson to cover lesson it really affects whole school behaviour.

This. So much. This is what parents don't get.

My year 10s last term were getting 3-5 covered lessons per day . Sixth form lessons were cancelled left, right and centre.

Yes- I am worrying about the groups missing work. So much to do- but yet attendance will be so poor.
How do we play that with the kids? How to motivate, when they are having chunks of time taken away- it's such a difficult balance.

I work as an invigilator and mock exams are first three weeks back. I’m not keen on being in a room with 230 kids with no masks on, even if I increase my mask standards. It also risks my other job if I catch covid and if I don’t work I don’t get paid.
I don’t want to let them down though.

Most of my colleagues are retired and older which is a concern too.

I'm not relishing the start of term to say the least. It's difficult enough in normal times, and all the normal stuff will still be there but with loads of cover so even more stress than usual. We're expecting Ofsted so I'm worried about that. Why Ofsted are still coming in atm is beyond me, Ofsted inspectors should be covering lessons not inspecting. Whoever makes those decisions hates teachers.

Meh. Not bothered about it in terms of me catching covid. I had it in march before a vaccine and was very mildly poorly. Since had 3 jabs so I am not concerned. We had a big outbreak in my class in November and I avoided catching it again. However I know one or two of the children who had it in November now have it again. Tbh I expect to catch it pretty soon. The only thing I worry about it is my parents catching it as they look after my little girl.
Somebody mentioned Ofsted ^^ we had ofsted in september and they didn't look at any past data or even want to talk about Covid. All they cared about was how we are moving forwards.

@OnceuponaRainbow18

I know it's not much consolidation but just being exposed doesn't mean you will catch it, I've been exposed several times this autumn in more confined space than a classroom plus at a choir concert and have never tested positive on twice weekly lfts or 3 pcrs I've had when I caught colds. I have to deal with vulnerable elderly adults daily so I'm always worried I'll pass it on.

I did have covid in March 20 but didn't get at all ill (had antibodies so definitely was covid) plus 2 az vaccine and recently a moderna booster.

I know it's worrying but I think everyone is thankful for teachers.

Agree with others, I'm more worried about ensuring my class catch up and get some semblance of normality back than covid. I've had 3 jabs, delta and omicron though so at this point not overly arsed.

I'm not worried about catching covid. I too am blasé about it.

My major concerns about the next term are

• the massive disruption with staff and children being off at different times. We were covering every lunchtime, no break during the day, trying to support children who are behind or struggling when there is no time, no staff and masses of children who need support.
• ofsted. We are due and the thought of a deep dive in my subject scares me witless.
• sats. The children I teach are nowhere near where they should be. The word from the government is that there are no excuses for this.
• meeting the needs of the children. I desperately am trying to but I have no time, no staff and tons of differing needs.
• trying to teach in class and provide suitable remote learning for those at home.

@OnceuponaRainbow18

My biggest fear is not knowing I have it and passing it to my vulnerable mum, who’s now 14 weeks post booster so it’s barely effective, so I miss seeing her as ill avoid her again now

I don't work in a school but have nursery and primary age DC and dreading the start of term. There's no back-to-school testing for this age group so I'm considering keeping DCs off the first week and see how it goes. By then we'll have a better idea about hospitalisations and severity, effect on kids etc. It seems bonkers to take such a massive gamble with our health for the sake of an extra week off. As a single parent, I rely on DM for afterschool pick up and childcare and we're now less confident about her post booster protection. We've not had covid yet so it's still a worry for us where others can relax, we can't.

I think the fact that Ofsted inspections have continued is outrageous. I'm a head and am expecting 'the call' next term. Schools in my area who've be 'done' report that Ofsted have no care for recognising the disruption. One school had a head off with COVID and Ofsted still came. We are being hit by staff absence (like every school) and when children go from cover lesson to cover lesson it really affects whole school behaviour.

Ofsted is the biggest failing of our schooling system and they didn’t take the pandemic ‘break’ they had to reevaluate how they carry out inspections to ensure they really look at the children and the progress they make. They only thought about how to make it harder for teachers and try to catch us out. I’m not SLT and my subjects are very unlikely to be chosen for Ofsted to do a deep dive so I’m just the pleb at the bottom expected to know everyone else’s curriculum and understand exactly what the progression is in each year group.

It’s like being in a classroom surrounded by the worst of the MN teacher bashers all watching me and waiting for me to fail.

I want to get in and get going, but…

Our students are terrible at social distancing, especially the older boys. Why must they constantly climb all over each other?

Mask wearing in corridors is almost non existent. Some lovely kids do wear them in class. Whereas previously we have had boxes of masks to give them, we don’t seem to have them now.

I hate that we’re not allowed to know who has been in contact with a positive case (in England so they don’t have to isolate), but understand why in terms of GDPR. We are told about positive students as they have to have work set for them (which only a few complete) but not those who are contacts of someone else at home and are still coming to school.

I haven’t seen one of those air monitors, and wouldn’t know what to do if it went red as there is nowhere to move to. I have my windows open but the students complain about the cold and we are told to tell students to take their coats off in lessons.

I can’t see how it is fair that my year 11s have had 100% of their face to face teaching time, but schools down the road have had a good few weeks of remote learning. It doesn’t make an equal playing field for exams. I know my own remote teaching was really good, for those that engaged (and that’s the key) but there is no substitute for face to face. I actually don’t mind if it goes to TAG - we had a really robust system with lots of evidence and students got fair grades.

We are also expecting the call. We’re well overdue. And I hate the stress of planning what I will do in my non contact time (am a middle leader) and finding I don’t have it because cover is unavoidably needed.

But… my head is brilliant. I trust them to do the right things to keep us as safe as they can. We’re testing all students (those that agree and turn up) before returning to lessons, and the head has been really accommodating to vulnerable staff.

I have been doing my bit by avoiding some of the things I would normally do in terms of crowd/socialising. I will be quite annoyed if I get covid from school again (had it last year and it made my partner really ill), especially as it’s now more than 12 weeks since my mum had her booster.

We’ve also got ofsted looming over our heads as should have been inspected last year as we got requires improvement about 5 years ago…! So most our SLT spend their days in their offices emailing us extra work to prepare for ofsted.

@containsnuts

This is my other worry, just having to send my own kids in and have no option to keep them home for an extra week to test the waters

Slightly off topic but last term our school route was badly impacted by the absence of crossing patrol/lollipop persons making the journey to school quite dangerous at some points. Anyone else's school had similar problem?

I'm another one who's a bit blasé about it. In my SEN department there are plenty who are CEV out who have CEV people at home. It means if there's a class with an outbreak, I'm usually the one volunteering to be with the SEN child in that class as everyone else is reluctant. Primary, so no masks and SEN so close contact - but nothing I can do!

I'm more worried for my DH, who has mental health issues and worries about me falling ill and not being there for him. That's probably my biggest worry; getting ill and not being able to support him. So if I could avoid it this term that would be nice.

@containsnuts

Slightly off topic but last term our school route was badly impacted by the absence of crossing patrol/lollipop persons making the journey to school quite dangerous at some points. Anyone else's school had similar problem?

Because of Covid absence

@Sherrystrull

I'm not worried about catching covid. I too am blasé about it.

My major concerns about the next term are

• the massive disruption with staff and children being off at different times. We were covering every lunchtime, no break during the day, trying to support children who are behind or struggling when there is no time, no staff and masses of children who need support.
• ofsted. We are due and the thought of a deep dive in my subject scares me witless.
• sats. The children I teach are nowhere near where they should be. The word from the government is that there are no excuses for this.
• meeting the needs of the children. I desperately am trying to but I have no time, no staff and tons of differing needs.
• trying to teach in class and provide suitable remote learning for those at home.

All of this. I had covid in November. It was shit and I don't want it again, but I assume I'll have it again in the next few weeks. I've been skiing this holiday and done loads of stuff to try an enjoy the break, but I'm not sleeping well. I know it's anxiety about this coming term. Will probably be easier to be off ill than in school dealing with logistic and behaviour hell. I don't want schools to close.

I've dodged so many Covid bullets it's unreal. I'm fairly sure that I'll catch it at some point, though.

And as PP have said, knowing you're exposed day in and day out at work does make you much more blasé about public spaces.

[quote OnceuponaRainbow18]@containsnuts

This is my other worry, just having to send my own kids in and have no option to keep them home for an extra week to test the waters[/quote]
I think people forget that teachers aren't just wheeled out and plugged in every morning. They have lives, responsibilities and vulnerabilities too. I really feel for everyone.

I'm a TA and am dreading it. We were thrown under the bus last Xmas with teachers all teaching from home and we TAs running the key worker hubs.

I'm not rested in the slightest - our school is rife with other bugs which has led to us l being ill and testing. My Christmas was ruined because of parents putting in obviously sick kids.

We are run into the ground because our authority has cut numbers to the bone, pre covid. I've nothing left, so am planning my exit.

Working in a SEN school means at least we don't have the large classes so my worry of contracting Covid is low. It's the struggle with staffing. We have 8 children in our class, with their needs we have 1 teacher plus 5 TAs. But since September we have had only 3 days fully staffed, we have constant supply staff changing daily. And if we don't get supply we have spent some days down to only 3 staff. Its scary and so stressful on us

We had no days fully staffed last term. Not one.

@EddieVeddersfoxymop - totally agree re TAs. And the pay simply isn’t worth it!