Teachers, how do you feel about no masks?

[Dontwantsummertoend]

I'm not teaching in the UK anymore, but I start back on Monday and they are removing the mask mandate. I am double vaccinated, but it was more than six months ago, and I am so worried about there being no masks. It just seems to me to be such an easy way to make things safer, but now work will involve being in close contact with 150 different 16 - 18 year-olds all day, every day without even masks to protect us. I am so worried for the baby, as I know Covid, even milder cases, can increase the risk of preterm labour and stillbirth.

I am entitled to a risk assessment at work, but I don't really know what that will involve. Who deems what a "risk"? For me, not wearing masks is a risk, but they might just say that I am double vaccinated so it is no longer a risk?

Is anybody else worried or have any thoughts/ideas about this?

@underneaththeash

I’m not a teacher / an optometrist. You cannot communicate effectively with someone in a mask.

I can. I wear a head mic (I have a loud voice anyway).

@Dontwantsummertoend sadly everyone had the same enhanced exam results this year.
You really cannot communicate with people properly in a mask, maybe it’s different in a classroom? But in a consulting room it doesn’t work,

@underneaththeash the exams were actual exams, not like the exams in English, if you read the post.

Are you in a country where teenagers are being offered the vaccine? Most of our sixth formers have had at least one dose.

I've managed to deliver effective support in my field (mental health) while wearing a mask, apron and gloves

Hubby has been teaching with a mask. He doesn’t enjoy it, but they’ve been using a webcam on their laptop to project onto the board so they don’t have to walk around the classroom and it makes their voices louder etc.
He is looking forward to teaching without a mask… but says he will only take it off at his desk, will wear it to walk around the classroom etc.

@Dontwantsummertoend

But the thing is that wearing a mask doesn't really protect you. You need the students to be wearing masks for that to happen!

A (teenage) member of my family was double vaccinated with Pfizer more than six months ago and now has Covid. She is struggling to breathe, hence why I am worrying.

You can wear FFP2 or FFP3 masks that will protect you, its what I wore going in to ventilated covid positive patients in the hospital for months during the 1st and 2nd waves and I never caught covid myself so I do believe they work.

I had to wear them on 13 hour shifts throughout my 1st and 2nd trimesters and honestly I struggled, I'd start off okay but by 5-6pm everyday I found them almost suffocating. I left work before my 3rd trimester but I'm sure they'd be even harder to wear now. Still though, they hopefully would be manageable for you for short periods in high risk situations like busy corridors or cramped staff rooms. Then you could take a break and swap to a regular mask when you can social distance.

FFP2 and FFP3 masks need to be fitted. Personally, I have searched and search and I cannot find one that does not have gaps at the sides. If they have gaps, they are no different to a normal mask.

Social distancing also doesn't really matter as much anymore, not since they realised that this is airborne. It hangs around in the air that circulates, so being 2m away from someone probably won't protect you.

Face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors either in classrooms or in communal areas," the DfE says, in line with the rules on face masks across the country. However, the government still recommends face masks be worn on public transport, including dedicated school or college transport.

This is bizarre; they are advised to wear a face mask on a school bus to school but then not when in school

Blows my mind