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.

Sorry you are feeling so anxious newbie

I’m really hoping January goes better than we all expect.

I'm concerned about lack of proper support and direction from the slt, who is don't police anything, eg lunch rooms it corridors but expect teaching staff to magically make them keep them on when not with the them.

I'm fed up of being cold trumping windows open and again no support from slt over windows open facilities to keep heating on.

I'm frustrated by the staff room where the again staff mostly diligently wash their hands thoroughly with alcohol gel whilst simultaneously slamming the one tiny window shut on 20+ staff in one small space.

I'm concerned by the ever changing information/mis understanding of information and mistrust of a students symptoms over the actual reality they could be ill offering them lateral flow tests instead of sending them straight home.
Pupils who feel hot and cough etc should be sent straight home and reminders sent out, don't send your child to school ill.

Imagine fed up with grumpy students who don't wear warm clothes and then complain they are cold.

I'm worried that I will get great glug fulls of covid and a hospital won't be available to me.

I'm concerned my youngest will contact it again and be more sick this time.

I find it quite stressful being surrounded by the 'meh, it's only a cold' brigade at school (mostly the kids not the staff)- and on MN- but also staff who are a bit gung ho (mainly males) and themselves aren't really wearing masks in corridors, keeping distance, avoiding F2F meetings etc. I think the school got a bit of a shock when it ripped round the healthy PE dept leaving one person off for weeks, then took out MFL and large parts of science.

Because I have had Covid, I think it panics me more because I expend a lot of anxiety on worrying that other people are going to get as ill as I was, or worse . Silly really.

I'm anxious - KS2 primary. We are due Ofsted and that's all SLT can focus on: our packed-out monitoring schedule reflects this. Covid is very much the elephant in the room, and there are no mitigations whatsoever.

I could have written this, except I do have a CO2 monitor so there's nothing to worry about!
We were hit by staff absence at the end of last term but just got through. This involved all teachers (voluntarily) doing extra playground and lunch duties. None of us want schools to close so if that means supervising lunch a couple of times a week then I'll do it. A few of us didn't get PPA In the last week of term (those that did only got it because we were able to double up some classes due to low numbers of children). However that is not sustainable even in the medium term. We know from local schools that have had Ofsted last half term that they are not interested. Time spent on additional duties / uploading remote learning for isolating children / prepping work for absent teachers has to come from somewhere - we can't just magic it up.
I am so cross with our government for not addressing any of the issues in school, we are 2 years into this pandemic and they have no plan for how to support schools, they just know that Ofsted need to be cracking the whip.

Interested that schools had TAs in last lockdown and teachers at home- we didn’t and I don’t know any schools locally that did that. Very unfair. We had a rota.

We had a rota in lockdown 1 but then we didn’t do live lessons at that point, we set our work, then went in on rota and supervised and supported the keyworker / vulnerable students in front of us in whatever subject they were doing.

In lockdown ‘3’ i.e January, all Secondary teachers (bar PE) in my school had to do a full timetable of live lessons plus form times, so it was deemed that all TA and support staff such as art or science technicians would sit at the front of a computer room and have one class (never full) to watch whilst the pupils had headphones and followed their respective live lessons from us at home.

It was unfair because it meant those staff couldn’t be at home safe but we were doing all the teaching and marking, which I found very hard with a little one at home.

I desperately don’t want to go back to that and would prefer to teach face to face but I wish we could have proper ventilation etc rather than freezing cold rooms with blinds that bash around noisily and sometimes bump into children!

I'm anxious. The pressure on me to catch up my year 6 is immense. My performance targets are impossible- I simply cannot make students whose last full year was year 4 catch up and hit SATS standards. I'm doing before school, lunch and after school catch ups but I still won't hit the target the trust has set me. And it's just so wrong! It's already killing me coping with all the behaviour and emotional fall out from lockdowns (with no additional support or even a class Ta).

I was left with long covid in October and i'm expecting to get it again. I was left on steroids with scarred lungs and autoimmune issues. It was rife in school before xmas- the whole of ks1 was out as every single staff member was positive. No supply anywhere. My co2 monitor goes red by 9.30 every day. My open window does sod all. Kids are coughing and spluttering everywhere, parents are not testing. I feel utterly fatalistic about it. Every other place I go is safer than my workplace.

Apprehensive about going back. Goodness knows what we'll be dealing with. Have started to look for other roles back in the private sector.

Reading with interest as I have a year 11
I feel for all of you. Thank you

My dds teachers have been great but we did have to get science and maths tutor for her to not fail. Fingers crossed she can get through mock results mid jan

It's enlightening to read about the distruption from all of you and no year is left unaffected. So sad

newbietoanxiety how awful and traumatic for you. Please do go and speak to a doctor

@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

Is it really barely effective after 14 weeks?? I thought I read immunity starts to wane after 4 months but gradually.

Feel anxious about disruption. Even if you don't catch covid yourself, many other staff members will be absent at one time and it puts pressure on everyone. Trying to cover lunch etc is a nightmare.

I need to put a strategy in place, which is fine but not if pupils/staff are absent.

Yep - yesterday I sat down and sorted out my response to assessments at the end of last term. Worked out who and what I'd be doing for intervention and so on. I've probably wasted my time.

Lots of areas we are working on as a school as Ofsted are due. All good things but again, very difficult when you're firefighting with cover every day.

I will struggle to bite my tongue if Ofsted come this term to be honest.

I put on a smile and positive attitude for my team to try to keep them going but it's tough at times. I sometimes just want to close my office door and hide

I don't have an office, but my classroom yes. I did get a lot of thanks from my team last Easter for keeping them going through Jan - March lockdown last year, but I was nearly broken myself.

Worried. I had covid in the summer so far less concerned than I was about survival - I don’t feel particularly worried for myself getting it again (which feels inevitable). However, Imhave a CV 12 year old and it is hard knowing what to do for the best with him - he didn’t get it in the summer when the rest of us had it so that’s still a wait and see situation.

I work in a through school with my timetable 50/50 in the primary/senior school, including me doing a couple of hours a week in the nursery where I am slobbered all over. I am worried about being ‘patient zero’ when the school closures inevitably happens. I am somewhat amused but worried about my potential to single-handedly close both schools overnight with omicron!

I am lucky that I don’t have a year 11 class this year which makes things easier on me personally but I can see the stress in my colleagues and am trying to help out where I can - I am running a revision class, for example. What will happen with exam classes is a worry but whatever it is, I just can’t see how exams will be fair with even the broadest interpretation of that word.

So overall, it could be better, could be worse. I guess we’ll see what happens.

I think working in a school has made me a bit blasé about it. I have suggested to a few friends we meet up this holiday and many of them have said they want to avoid covid. I think for me, sitting in a coffee shop with three other people is just nothing since every day I’ve been in a classroom with thirty!

I feel exactly the same. And I'm also appalled at the thought of closing again as I know how damaging it was last time. I've managed to swerve it so far despite being exposed to SO many positive cases amongst students, colleagues and having primary aged dc. I'm fairly resigned to catching omicron at some point and agree it could be a rocky term but we'll get through it like we always do.

Temporary agency workers accrue holiday pay like any other worker. This is the same for temp teaching agencies

@Piggywaspushed

I am wondering what will trigger TAGs. I once read that if one group of schools shut, then all schools will get TAGs but I'd be willing to bet that will be conveniently forgotten.

There will be massive inequity.

This was in the consultation

@AnxiousHeffalump

My school had run out of hand soap in the last week of term and I’ll bet that there is none at the start of the new term.

Is is possible to ask parents for donations for this? It seems like such a straightforward thing that would be easy for many to contribute to

Thanks for starting this today, OP. I'd say I'm apprehensive rather than anxious, as I start my training. I'm concerned for my liaison who will already be stretched paper thin, and am worried that I won't be at all useful and will drain rather than add to resources.

I'm worried about ongoing mental health and anxiety issues within the school environment for staff and pupils alike. And I feel sad that my husband is worried about me, as I'm CEV. We've minimised our contacts over the past few weeks; I'm double jabbed and boosted and full of vitamins, all of which were on my "I can do something about this" list.

You have my utmost respect for all you have done over the past two years in schools. You've inspired me to join you.

I work in nursery in a school. We have never worn masks, no social distancing with kids, no regular testing of kids. I’m not worried in the slightest. Not even got around to having my booster yet. You can’t avoid catching it now.

The salary that supply staff are being offered is in no way attractive (£95/day). If they doubled that, I think they'd be able to keep most schools open.

Is that it? No wonder they can’t find supply teachers!!

Crikey I get £90 a day in a low responsibility hospitality job.

That's shit!!

@CrepuscularCritter

Welcome to the amazing world of teaching, where you can truly make differences to lives. Each day the kids will make you laugh and smile, and question your own beliefs. You’ll look forward to the holidays and then you’ll miss some of the kids during them, I’ve got one student who emails me most days during the holidays for a check in! You’ll meet some of the most wonderful people who you’ll stay friends with forever! Enjoy

So many differences in situation but everyone feeling the pressure one way of another.
I know that so many people have just had to carry on and take horrible risks - NHS, retail, transport workers. I know so many have it worse. But sometimes we need to let the anxiety and anger out.

It makes me furious that the DFE make decisions with so little thought and Ofsted have done nothing to help (sat at home nice and safe) but now they can come and criticise.

In some schools you could beg for some, but in others with high levels of families struggling it just isn't possible.

Can I just say. I’m another one who isn’t a teacher but I have two dcs in 6th form. Since this pandemic started, each year has been an exam year for one of my dc (GCSE, GCSE, A level).

Please, if you are ill and need time to recover, take the time. Just as much as I really want my dcs to succeed with their exam (one lower 6, the other one is upper 6), I don’t want that to happen at the detriment of the health of their teachers.

Since the start, I’ve been appalled by the lack of support given to teachers. I’ve been appalled by the very high level of risk you’ve worked under. And by how much you have managed to achieve with the dcs despite the circumstances in the last two years.

So THANK YOU.