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 :)

@KHR1 sorry to hear that :(

Thanks @Peaplant20 I've asked if I can have space outside to teach out of the classroom as much as the weather allows which the head seemed happy with (it's not her that has made the decision) but just don't understand how they can say I can distance inside when they know it doesn't happen

@KHR1 totally agree. It’s not fair that some schools are doing it and some aren’t either. There’s another teacher at my school who is due to go off after half term and they’ve allowed her to aswell. Think my school will carry on with it until September x

It's sounds like your school are being careful which is great @Peaplant20.

Hope your meeting goes well tomorrow @Senorasurf

Thanks @Peaplant20 and @EdithGrantham .

I'm nervous as hell knowing It'll all be out onto me and they'll definitely think I'm overreacting. Nervous!!

So the meeting was a fail as the person doing it didn't even turn up. Apparently something urgent came up and the couldn't even email me to let me know.
Round 2 tomorrow morning...

Oh no!! That's awful when you've got yourself all psyched up for it as well! Hope it goes ahead and goes well tomorrow

@Senorasurf sorry that they didn't turn up! When do you turn 28 weeks?

@KHR1 not until the first week of July (currently 23 weeks).
The school aren't even aware that wfh from 28 weeks is even a thing so I very much doubt it'll be something they'd consider, particularly as I'm in an area with very low case numbers currently.

Lovely ladies in my phone ... any advice?

I have been signed off since Easter with depression and anxiety triggered by pregnancy complications. I dont have enough full sick pay to go through to the summer and as the medication was beginning to help I agreed to go back Monday (currently half term). It was agreed in my risk assessment with HR and the DH that I could work from home as now 28 weeks and that I’d have a phased return. Fine - decided to say yes I’ll give it a go. Phased return sounded helpful and wfh was what I’d wanted.

Had an email from my HoD 2 days ago with info about what classes I would be taking and where they were at in the curriculum. The email sounded like she was expecting me physically in school and to teach the whole timetable from Monday. I emailed back (after spending all evening crying and a sleepless night) asking how this would work as it had been agreed I’d be WFH and if the expectation was I was teaching the full timetable and the reply was that that was what she’d been led to believe and that she’d discuss it with the DH on Monday. No mention of anything else, assuming I will turn up and teach 5 out of 5 in the classroom. DH has been copied into all emails, but obviously half term so who knows if/when she will look at them.

I don’t know what to do now. Massive anxiety about returning. I can’t social distance in the classroom and have a high risk pregnancy and am CV (when not pregnant) and the news all weekend is the Indian/delta variant is spreading in schools and maybe more likely to hospitalise you. I’m full of anxiety, my mood has plummeted, sleeping is awful.

Not sure what to do. Union advice line isn’t open weekends.

@Senorasurf sorry I've only just seen your reply. That's bad they don't know about the wfh advice! Did they turn up for the rearranged meeting?

@Keyboard91 I'm so sorry that your return to work has been causing so much additional anxiety. I really hope your HoD has got the wrong end of the stick and that the DH sorts it for you, as soon as possible. You'd think they might have been in touch to get you set up for Monday or just quickly check in before you start back (even with it being the holidays). Do you have anything in writing, like a copy of the risk assessment, explaining you working from home and how your phased return will work? If so, I'd send it to the HoD and explain your timetable needs to reflect the phased return and check they have someone in place to be in the room with the class while you are wfh. You shouldn't have to go in if it's been agreed you are working from home. Sorry I don't have much advice but I really do hope you get it sorted

@KHR1 I looked through my emails but that risk assessment wasn’t sent to me after the teams meeting (my first one was) so I don’t have anything to send to my HoD to support. I’m at the point where I just want to send an email saying I won’t be coming back as it’s too stressful. I know my GP will support this with notes, and I’ll just take the half pay hit for 3 weeks. It’s not worth the toll on my mental health.

I have been told that, if vaccinated, it's back to work as normal. It does make me so nervous, what with the Indian variant spreading in schools. I guess gotta just have faith in the vaccines, but still. Secondary schools are not safe places, or haven't felt like that to me throughout this pandemic. It's impossible to social distance.

@ImmyMc I think that is incorrect, I'll find the info and post it if I can

eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcog.org.uk%2Fglobalassets%2Fdocuments%2Fguidelines%2F2021-02-24-combined-info-sheet-and-decision-aid.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Ccdwrugby%40warwickshire.gov.uk%7Cffc5b90827424f61a34108d90643fc48%7C88b0aa0659274bbba89389cc2713ac82%7C0%7C1%7C637547711342263079%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=jHhbf%2FXVatN6CFDh5FYNlX1NzI%2BtOsKra3%2FsCygkjzA%3D&reserved=0 not sure if this link will work

Ok, sorry for spamming but that leaflet has a section on page 5 about whether having the vaccine will change your work and it says that it won't change your risk assessment so even if you've had it you should still be following the same advice as if you hadn't

@Keyboard91 ah that's a pain that they haven't sent it. Could you take Monday as sick to try and get things clarified, then take it from there? Once the DH has got back to you can make more of an informed decision based on whether their plan is what you agreed or not.

@ImmyMc most unions are advising that vaccination shouldn't change the risk assessment at the moment

I've been signed up for a voluntary moderation with other staff from different schools in a few weeks (booked a while ago), is it unreasonable to question whether I should actually be going? I'll be 31 weeks at the time.
I'm anxious enough already being in the classroom in an area where cases are higher than average.

Also, does anyone have any tips on how to politely approach people getting too close? We have a lady who comes in to do forest school and she's forever coming over the yellow line around my area, getting right up to me and leaning all over my desk after being very close to the kids and handling equipment they have touched. I had to back myself into the wall to make a bit of space yeaterday and felt so uncomfortable.

@KHR1 is it in person!? Ridiculous if it is, surely common sense dictates that things like that should be virtual as if one person tests positive afterwards it effects so many schools!!
Maybe make a show of putting a mask on if you're not wearing one already or say "Can we have this discussion outside where we can properly socially distance?"

@EdithGrantham yup! Think there are about 10 - 12 people per session and I'm the third session if the day so there will already have been been so many bubbles mixing before I get there. Not supposed to be handling the children's books either, which I know I can work round with gloves but it's just another thing to worry about.

Thank you, the outdoor suggestion is great, leads her away from the desk and to where I feel more comfortable!

@KHR1 yeah when so many other things are cancelled or online that definitely shouldn’t be happening 😕 I would ask if your risk assessment covers you for that! Very awkward with other people (especially people who have now been vaccinated) just thinking they don’t need to bother social distancing now! So many people at my work would come up and pull their mask down to talk to me and I was so uncomfortable with it (before I stopped). I’m now 31 weeks and I think I’d just be refusing to go to that, you’re already pushing yourself to the limit as it is. Cases where I am have doubled in the last couple of weeks and every local pub/restaurant etc has been shut down one after another after so many cases! A lot of cases in schools too and there seems to be a lot more children testing positive than there were before

@sarah13xx I've found people keep telling me "it's fine I've had the vaccine" (usually family) when I say I'm not comfortable doing something or to just be cautious around my DD but they seem to miss that pregnant women are vulnerable and that I might be worried about myself and my unborn child.
I already feel like I'm risking more than I should be by being in and I don't want to increase that risk more.
Sounds like cases are pretty bad where you are too. I was told part of te reason I was staying in work was because primary aged children don't transmit the virus as much as adults so interesting that your area has seen a rise in children testing positive

@KHR1 yeah I think the fact they think they’re fine now means they think covid is over for everyone else too. I had a supply girl taking over my class when I was finishing up and she was saying she wouldn’t wear a mask but ‘don’t worry I’m double jagged so I’m fine’ 🙈 Even the argument of ‘there’s a rise in cases but not deaths so it’s fine’.. yeah but if we caught it we/our unborn babies are likely to be really unwell or potentially dead.. don’t think people understand that 🤦🏼‍♀️ People like my head teacher even said to me ‘aw pregnancy is such an anxious time, I remember it well with my two’, as if I’m just being over the top. Don’t think there was a global pandemic 10 years ago though was there? 🙈 No one else advocates for you/your unborn baby because no one else at your work truly cares the way you do! They don’t want you to get it but wouldn’t be the ones who would have to live with the consequences every day for the rest of their lives if you did 🙄 I felt constantly anxious every day when I was in and felt that I was being forced to put the needs of the children in my class ahead of my own child, which should never be the case. Yip it was mainly staff cases before and they kept blaming it on staff sharing biscuits in the staff room or ‘community transmission’ but there’s been a lot of schools near me now with multiple cases in one class and local clubs (brownies etc) having outbreaks!

@sarah13xx you'd think by now they would get that a mask is there for everyone else, not the person wearing it! Even my DH has joined the bandwagon of it all being fine as he got his first jab two weeks ago. If I'd had to wfh he might get it a little bit more but he just doesn't see the problem. I'm quite an anxious person anyway and I also have OCD but I think when I say things about the risks in pregnancy people just think I'm going OTT. We've been very lucky that we haven't had a case in our primary that we know of yet (although another teacher swears a load of them probably had it at the start when only certain people were tested) but we've had tons of cases in the high school from both staff and pupils. I've found there's no keeping the children apart anymore, it was hard trying to get them to stop touching before but it's impossible now that they are allowed to do so much more outside of school, which is probably contributing to it passing round more - like the clubs and the bubbles.