Pregnant teachers - 28 weeks+

[Willowfalls]

Hi ladies,

Sorry if I have missed a thread here.

With the return of schools over the next few weeks, I just wondered if there was any updated guidance/advice for pregnant teachers past 28 weeks?

Thank you :)

@Peaplant20 I agree with you but somewhere along the line people are getting confused and this is the only explanation I can find as to why.

@EdithGrantham definitely! Not fair that it’s open to so much interpretation :(

Very frustrating, I'm still going backwards and forwards to various people trying to get the decision overturned. I just feel that headteachers feel that it's okay to take advantage of the unclear wording of the policy which is completely unfair and putting unborn babies at risk for no reason

Really unfair on some people. I’m now past 28 weeks so working from home because it is deemed safer for me/my baby but it makes no sense that it can be acceptable for some people to risk all of that by coming in to work when others don’t have to 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hiya,

I think I'd rather be on full pay suspension come 28 weeks (July 2nd for me) than WFH and teaching online - this is what one of my colleagues is currently doing.

Has anyone heard of plans to possibly change this guidance?

Some schools in my area were considering letting people come in after 28 weeks following a risk assessment (which was very swiftly voted down by teachers).

What are you thinking, and what are your schools planning?

There are no suggestions that the guidance might change any time soon, it’s still up to individual schools but I think unfortunately as restrictions loosen up some schools think it is now ok to have pregnant teachers who are 28w + stay in school. So it’s the schools’ interpretation that’s changed not the guidance x

I'm 31 weeks and in school but in a separate room with small groups where possible. My class is being covered by a series of different supply teachers and HLTAs. It is awful because I can hear my classroom and the behaviour expectations aren't being upheld (and I'm responsible for making phonecalls home when there are more serious incidents) and delivery of some stuff isn't to the standard I would be doing it. I rang the GP about how stressful I'm finding things but they said there doesn't seem much point signing me off as it won't be long until I'm going on maternity leave, I'm hoping to go until at least 37 weeks so another 6 weeks to go

@EdithGrantham I feel your pain, my class are being covered by a supply teacher. She came in to shadow me last week for a few days and I was to gradually phase out and let her take over. There is a child in my class who had major behaviour issues last year and I have taken so long to build a great relationship with him this year. Out of every class I’ve ever had I feel like this is the one child I have made such a difference with. He assaulted so many staff last year, would swear, wreck the room etc but now he follows the class rules most of the time and the only thing he has the odd issue with is when other children fall out with him. He has a reward chart and myself and my TA are on the same page (given we saw him at the start of the year) so we agree every day on how many smiley faces he gets. He only gets a sad face if he’s done something major. If you were to mark him down for every small misbehaviour throughout the day he would end up with no smiley faces and would completely flip. His reward is at the end of the week so if he loses smiley faces on the first day, he will go home in a bad mood, come in even worse the next day and the entire week will be awful. I really emphasised this to her and said he has responded quite badly to teachers in the past who have been on at him a lot and it’s best just to praise and deal with small issues as they occur rather than escalate it further. After day 1 she came in and said she didn’t think his behaviour was acceptable to have received the smiley faces he had done. I once again explained it to her and compared his behaviour now to the start of the year, as well as mentioning his really sad home life. Over the next few days she slowly took over and was on his case every 2 minutes, taking smiley faces off him for the most minor things. My TA is lovely but she also commented on it to me and how this was making him react. He was being really disrespectful to her and said he’ll only listen to me. I’m so glad I’m no longer at work to see what is happening but it was just so frustrating when you’ve worked so hard all year with a child to see it all falling apart in front of your eyes when someone won’t trust that you know what is best! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hi Cutie18327.

Sorry to hear your situation is making you anxious; you are not alone.

My school this week have told students they do not need to wear face masks in classrooms and as of next half term, not at all anywhere in communal areas. They plan to revert to a normal non-staggered timetable as of June 21st.
Pregant staff like myself in the third trimester are still working as normal in classrooms. I’ve started a petition for parliament to request it is made mandatory for all third trimester women working in public-facing roles to be shielded on full pay, and that it not be left down to individual employers discretion. It will be too late to help me, but hopefully, if successful, would protect other vulnerable pregnant workers.

As a teacher I don’t have a social media presence but if anyone is able to support by signing and sharing it’d be most appreciated

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/586094?fbclid=IwAR17bc-cIa2Bx4Rv-g5se_njfgnrQuL4MJ31y66xB2wQrYhY7vYoug16hvg

@sarah13xx yep, same here! I had a socially distanced talk with my class about the importance of being kind etc etc, all the stuff we do at the beginning of the year but that only goes so far then it's down to how staff are reinforcing expectations and supporting challenging behaviour which they're just generally not skilled at and the children don't know who's going to be with them each day so are pushing boundaries. I really feel sorry for them and just hope they don't get labelled as a 'difficult' class because of this.

@kitty0801 signed

Thanks @sarah13xx it’s much appreciated.

I agree; it’s confusing for children to know what’s expected of them when rules are constantly changing. Let’s hope things settle down soon for everyone moving forward.

@kitty0801 signed and shared on Facebook :)

Amazing; thank you @Keyboard91

Still not sure what I'm going to be doing after half term but apparently these is a risk assessment somewhere... Guessing based on that and snippets that have been said I'll be working as normal

*there's

@KHR1 I think they need you to sign off on a risk assessment so you should see it before any if the measures come in place. Are you in a union?
As far as I know I'm being covered until the 21st June and then my head teacher is assuming that all will go back to normal.

@EdithGrantham so do you have to go back in on the 21st June?

Thanks @EdithGrantham hopefully that'll give me chance to ask any questions then before signing it. Yeah I'm in the NASUWT. I bet a few are thinking the same

How far along will you be 21st June? Seems silly changing things for individuals at that point if they are relatively close to their leave

After weeks of wrangling people, I've finally got my RA meeting on Thursday to get one done. Any advice as to what I should be insisting on? I'm secondary science and my school have made it rather clear they've no idea what's going on and have already been saying it's down to me what I do regardless of giran e

*guidance

@KHR1 I got in touch with my union (NEU) and they said they were advising that pregnant teachers and TAs shouldn't be in but it was essentially up to me to present that info (we don't have a rep at my school) I think I could potentially use the local rep to push back if needed but I've felt like for the majority of the time the setup I've now got is working in regards to me being safe.
I'll be 36 weeks by then, was hoping to go to at least 37 so might stay until the end of that week then start maternity and just make sure that I'm in the outside area that week and encourage the children to keep a distance as much as possible.

@Senorasurf I think you should be insisting on national guidelines on social distancing being followed as that's what advised, so I believe for workplaces that is still 2m+ or 1m+ with additional measures such as very good ventilation and both parties wearing face coverings. If those measures can't be met then your duties should be changed.

@Senorasurf I agree with @EdithGrantham . Are you definitely going to still be in school after 28 weeks? I’m secondary science too.’Before 28 weeks I also had screens around my desk, didn’t walk around the classroom much or tried to wear my visor with my mask if I did. I also asked to be switched onto outdoor duties as I had some inside ones. I got students to hand work out and collect it in so I didn’t have to. Depends how strict you want to be there’s a lot you can do but most people would think I went OTT!

It's been confirmed today that I'll be in carrying on in class with no changes other than what we've already being doing. I've two open windows (like 5-10cm opening at the bottom) and a yellow line around my desk and other than cleaning my area/hand sanitizer that's about it