Teachers - Anyone else worried?

[foundlingfar]

Any teachers on here concerned about the current covid stats? I am surrounded by kids in my class who's families are isolating, they clearly have symptoms but have tested negative so are able to attend school. I feel like I can't do anything to protect myself and my family 😕. I work with very little children so I'm constantly tying shoe laces, helping to zip up coats, comforting children etc. I'm just so anxious and feel like other workers have been told to 'work from home' or 'limit contact' whereas teachers have been largely expected to get on with it. I know we're not the only ones but in primary, we aren't even allowed to wear masks as children need to see us speak etc. I know this is an awful thing to say as I love my job and children, but it's like we are putting the kids before our own health?! And come of us have families and our own children too!

Nor enforced offrolling, nor prosecutions, nor pretending there's a balance of mitigations.

So fining for unauthorised absence of CEV kids shouldn’t be happening then.

If a doctor thinks that a CEV child should be protected from omicron then no, the school shouldn't consider the absence unauthorised. Don't schools consider doctor's letters when deciding whether an absence is unauthorised or authorised?

I was only really worried about staffing levels, chaos plus my own kids having to isolate and taking time off, plus the fact that Ofsted are due, but after several members of staff had Covid before or over Xmas (and we've many off too) I'm concerned at the numbers dealing with ongoing breathlessness and exhaustion. Including healthy young fit staff and triple jabbed.

Rates of long Covid among caring, nhs and education professions are going to be huge. (I believe they're already the highest rates.)

Burnout rates will also be high.

Surely you can send any child coughing etc home

Few children cough.

Most have colds or asymptomatic. We can't send all kids home who have a cold.

Some parents refuse and send them back in.

@Fritilleries

So bored of these threads. As a teacher, I am triple jabbed, fit and healthy. Stop whipping up endless hysteria and get on with it!

Lucky you. We aren’t all young, fit and healthy though - I would have been less concerned when I was 25 or 35. And if there wasn’t a problem, why have the government recommended that other workers WFH and other industries kept mitigations like screens, social distancing and so on? If we are doing it to reduce the strain on the NHS, the government are obviously expecting high numbers of hospitalisations (and it explains why a number of authorities have declared critical incidents).

I will stop being concerned when every workplace is operating as they were in January 2020. It’s not health anxiety or paranoia, it’s looking at facts and remaining sceptical of a policy which is founded on a need to keep schools open and not keeping staff as safe as other workers.

I think the restrictions recommended currently such as wfh and extra screens are more about reducing spread generally through the population than it is about protecting individuals that work in these places. They are reducing spread wherever they can do that with minimal impact society

Are you American? Do you have family there? Because that isn't the experience of any of my family.

It's also not the experience of all of my American friends. It is the experience of some of them.

I literally explained this in my post: there is no "American" education system and no "American" response to covid. American education consists of school districts, all of which have very different approaches to things, and the central govt has very little control over them. You have schools which were open with zero mitigations right from early in 2020 (mostly in red states and rural/exurb type areas), you have schools that were shut for a year and half (mostly in deeply Democratic voting urban areas), and then you have those which are in between---though not so many inbetweeners as I might hope, because everything in the US, including covid, is becoming ever more polarized, with both sides becoming increasingly extreme. As the shouting and screaming about covid in the States becomes more shrill, sensible debate and solutions are getting drowned out as a result.

You don't seem to be American then which has answered my question!

Since I am , you really don't need to explain America to me!

This is your post I was talking about btw

In some parts of the US, they've been steadily strapping ever-more-cumbersome devices onto ever-younger kids' faces (N95 masks mandatory for kindergarden and preschool in some Democratic cities!?), shouting at kids for not wearing masks perfectly at all times, making kids eat outside when it's absolutely freezing, and making the vaccine mandatory for school. And yet, it seems like none of this is enough, because many schools are still closing in Democratic-voting cities--precisely in the areas where the most mitigations have been put in place. It's as though the existence of more mitigations has just encouraged the schools to develop an ever-more sensitive panic trigger about any cases whatsoever.

This sounds - much of it- like hearsay to me. And the emotive language is pretty telling. Your beef seems to be with Democrats.

Of course death generally gets rid of health anxiety.

Well this was just precisely my point. Unless you're CEV (and even if you are there is far less chance now with vaccines), you are not likely to die from Covid. Such a dramatic response.

Given they're preparing for 1 out of 4 teachers to be absent, anyone with school age kids should be concerned about this term.

Was reported on the bbc app earlier, has been swiftly relegated so I can't find the link.

Reducing to 5 days as now reporting wouldn't necessarily help as most of the people I know are still feeling unfit to work after 10 and longer; some have been off for a month or more.

There's an occasional person with no symptoms but seems to be rare in my
setting with delta an omnicron. We had more of that with the earlier variants.

It persistently annoys me that the press never clarify that the 5 days' isolation in the US, which we may copy, starts form receipt of positive PCR result. This, in effect is the same as our 7-10 days.

It persistently annoys me that the press never clarify that the 5 days' isolation in the US, which we may copy, starts form receipt of positive PCR result. This, in effect is the same as our 7-10 days

I’m very jealous of people having few Omicron symptoms. Of the 6 adults I know who had it, we all felt like shit and tested positive until at least day 9. Dh was still testing positive on lateral flows on day 13.

Unless you're CEV (and even if you are there is far less chance now with vaccines), you are not likely to die from Covid. Such a dramatic response

There are more vulnerability factors, however, aren't there? And the statistics are now showing that infections in the education setting are very high, as is long covid. So...we are allowed to be fearful. Because we are people who have others who rely on us - we are carers, single parents, and have disabled children - just like non-education staff. Because like everyone else, we can't afford to be ill because SSP isn't enough. Because our lives are based around being able to do stuff and like everyone else, not being ill or disabled because when shit happens, we lose our homes, and our relationships fail. It's OK that we are concerned, whether we are aged 21 and healthy or CEV/CV or something else because lives are being ruined and like others, we are at the front line of that.

@Sowhatifiam

Unless you're CEV (and even if you are there is far less chance now with vaccines), you are not likely to die from Covid. Such a dramatic response

There are more vulnerability factors, however, aren't there? And the statistics are now showing that infections in the education setting are very high, as is long covid. So...we are allowed to be fearful. Because we are people who have others who rely on us - we are carers, single parents, and have disabled children - just like non-education staff. Because like everyone else, we can't afford to be ill because SSP isn't enough. Because our lives are based around being able to do stuff and like everyone else, not being ill or disabled because when shit happens, we lose our homes, and our relationships fail. It's OK that we are concerned, whether we are aged 21 and healthy or CEV/CV or something else because lives are being ruined and like others, we are at the front line of that.

I think one has to be reasonable and not catastrophise to the extent of losing homes and relationships. That can happen but it’s unlikely and misses the point which is that schools are not given adequate measures to mitigate risks to staff and children. I agree with the principles of what you are saying. It’s valid to be concerned about post Covid complications. Even if staff are not CV, you may interact with CV people in your personal lives whom you want to protect. School staff should not be expected to be put at additional risk and deserve to be protected in the work place with mitigations such as; improved ventilation.

My DD's primary went back last Wednesday. One covid case reported in one year on Friday, there are now 5 kids testing positive in that class, the class teacher is out too and one more member of staff off sick with covid. So the kids in that class have had 3 days of schooling before getting covid or their teacher going off sick.

There were about 3 members of staff (two TAs and one other support staff) who didn't come back at start of term due to having covid. It's clearly ripping through the one year and I expect other years to follow.

I feel so bad for my daughter and disruption, she loves school.

It's worth trying air filtration, ventilation and even masks in older primary years surely? So we can at least say we did all we could? Not just let it rip without any effort at all to prevent the massive disruption which is already hitting her school (and presumably many others) 4 days in.

And the 0-5 year old hospital admission data is shooting up, it seems a minimal effort to try and protect our littlest kids might just be a decent thing to do?

My DD's primary went back last Wednesday. One covid case reported in one year on Friday, there are now 5 kids testing positive in that class,

Are they actually sick or asymptomatic and/or well enough to continue to go to school?

I think that's the question we will need to start thinking about. Whether people continue to have to isolate for 7-10 days regardless of how they feel?

@Blubells where does that leave vulnerable people? I’m a teacher and currently pregnant and teaching classes of multiple positive covid cases in my third trimester won’t be an option. Many of my colleagues also live with vulnerable people. One of my colleagues has a terminally ill, CEV child.

First day back today. High school. 6 period day. 2 students wearing masks in class.

So nursery are so short staffed they've closed some classes, obviously I can't work from home. Luckily Dh can this week but otherwise I'd have to take time off to be at home with him.

Two positive cases on my sons table at school today. Not feeling confident at all.

First day back today. High school. 6 period day. 2 students wearing masks in class.

Sorry to ask but does your school have behaviour problems more generally? Most of our students are very very compliant and I just can't imagine this level of defiance of the rules.

There was a thread today about people finding wfh difficult. It was grim reading. Isolation, depression, obesity. Actually made me feel grateful that I get to go to school every day even though I will probably get covid.

Blubells where does that leave vulnerable people?

That's a question we need to ask as a society. How can we balance the needs of the 'vulnerable' with the needs of society overall? What are the costs and benefits of the various restrictions and how effective are they even?

I sympathise with teachers, they have family too, possibly elderly and CEV. It must be very worrying, I don’t have any answers…