anybody know if Higher Ed teaching staff count as key workers?

[PlumbNormal]

It's term time this time, surely we do? Just like other teachers in schools and FE

@WaxOnFeckOff - i m aware of mostly courses with "wet" labs or professional skills not teachable or assessable online

My course is also run in Scotland- Napier and UWS - and they are also teaching part of the course f2f.

Good to hear there is stuff going on here as well then but as I say, it's not been our experience at all. Both my DSs are doing very well so I'm not trying to diss anyone. DS2 (2nd year) has paid rent and all the rest up in Aberdeen and hasn't set foot on the campus since last March with 1hr per week offered live on-line. DS1 (3rd year) travels normally to Strathclyde and as I say, hasn't had anything f2F or live though he has had a live on-line hour per week available had he needed it. I'm not saying that the lecturers/staff haven't been working and busy and haven't provided any content though. I'm sure that is equally hard to produce if you are looking after/trying to educate young children at home at the same time.

I am teaching hour after hour on two days of the week, all day - that's online 'live' seminars. Then there are lectures (recorded) and pastoral duties (live), all of which are online. I feel I'm doing so much live online work with students, mostly normal teaching but also linked to administrative roles. As with everybody, work is so much more intense : we've lost any teaching support so workload has increased by crazy amounts. The idea that I have to manage this with toddlers at home sinks me into despair. And I want to be able to provide teaching to students: I'm aware how much students need it. What are we meant to do? Why is it so hard just to get a go ahead for a status that will enable us to have childcare? We don't want it just for fun! Surely we are providing an essential service?

DD2 Glasgow uni is all online. DD3 Dundee one f2f per week, though she spent so much isolating as flatmate after flatmate had Covid she missed lots. Cannot fault the lecturers though as they checked in with her individually and were genuinely concerned about her welfare.

I teach dentistry and we are doing a lot of face to face. Lectures and tutorials are online but all students except first years have a few sessions face to face a week.

Following. How can we not be keyworker?!? I’m struggling to enjoy the holidays knowing the shitstorm that will await us next term, trying to deliver online and face to face content whilst looking after three small ones. FML.

Last time in most areas there were no school places whatever your occupation if you were wfh. Not sure if that criteria has changed

@PlumbNormal

Also if schools are closed teachers will also be working from home

This is incorrect, we have been told (secondary) that we will be in school teaching in the classrooms through Zoom/Teach stream/teams etc.

But we can't work from home flexibly: we are literally teaching live - in real time, in person, face to virtual face! There are grey areas - why can't the supposed new flexibility in definitions take these clearly into account?

@FrippEnos as will we, that's what I mean (sorry, I didn't make it clear)

We will be teaching online from home and then face to face on campus when the crisis lessens. We also have to accommodate both f2f and online preferences from the student side so, again, our workload is increased

Place marking. My uni is keen for us too deliver more F2F this term, despite new Covid variant and absence of childcare. I don't know how staff are meant to square the circle, esp lone parents, parents with a partner who is a keyworker, parents with babies, very small children, or children with disabilities/SN who can't just be left to crack on with it.

TBF I think my uni is intent on squeezing any bit of juice left out of us, placate us with a couple extra day holidays (that ll sure help with the marking!) and a crappy anxiety management app - waiting for us lot to resign. There is an eager contingent of postdocs desperate for jobs - we re totally replaceable

Most people wfh are answering calls/ consulting with clients/ in meetings/ speaking to suppliers/ providing remote technical support etc. I don’t know anyone who is working ‘flexibly’, that’s why many parents don’t want school/ childcare to close to working parents!

@BungleandGeorge, I’m guessing you’re not an academic; and that you’ve never delivered a lecture to hundreds of students with a baby on your lap, or tried to calm down a student having a mental health crisis and whilst overseeing the homeschooling.

Most people I know who are not academics can actually work reasonably flexibly from home (bar meetings). Academic workload and has pretty much doubled because of the pandemic, quite unlike other professions (except of course teachers and NHS workers).

Thank you @PurpleFeather - I didn't have the energy to point out it's not the same

There is a difference - all teachers have been told to attend schools in person as they start back. Whether they stay teaching from school rather than home is a bit of a grey area...

You have my enormous sympathy but I think based on the last lockdown (which this is when they're closing schools and ELC) the councils will push back as hard as they can on who qualifies for keyworker status and if you are working from home then you won't qualify. does your OH definitely qualify/are you a single parent because if there's another parent that isn't a keyworker then that would automatically knock you out of consideration. I know a hospital dr who tried REALLY hard to get her kids into the hub last time but her husband wasn't a key worker so she was refused.

The joys of an announcement on the Saturday before Christmas when lots of the council staff/teachers who should be preparing for this had already finished up for the holidays!!

@PlumbNormal

Thank you *@PurpleFeather* - I didn't have the energy to point out it's not the same

What about HCP consulting with patients, administering physio, speaking to patients with mental health issues? Health education programmes? School teachers teaching from home? I’m surprised you think that nobody else had the same issues from March to July, people have been on here saying the whole thing made them suicidal and that they can’t do it again...

That isn't what we're saying, we're talking about something very specific and you compared it very generally to non-specific wfh so it just didn't help

I think we need to be clear that many HE institutions delivering online are providing a lot of live content. And F2F has required smaller classes so duplicate sessions. The hours have been insane. It’s even worse when students turn off their cameras and bugger off. And then we have to invent a whole new scheme of work to address their absenteeism And then more for those who don’t want to attend on-campus classes because ‘it’s not worth it’ for 6-8hrs per week (!). This is really not a moan - but I am dreading yet another tuition fee petition in the NY. It makes me want to cry.

We have taught about 50% on campus so far - all subjects.

Absolutely agree @IggysPop

I teach nurses in HE and don't class myself as a key worker as I teach from home!

@BungleandGeorge if you read my post I did say - except teachers and NHS workers! As a lecturer I by no means think I have the hardest job in the world😂, but when I look around me and compare myself to others (also highly educated people with challenging jobs working from home) I can clearly see academics have been affected much, much worse by the pandemic than many others. This is because of a lethal combination of 1) already ludicrous workloads before pandemic, 2) hiring freeze during the beginning of pandemic, 3) being forced to plan over summer for both online AND face to face delivery, 4) huge increased pressure on those delivering pastoral care to students (senior tutors and such).

My husband who also has a very challenging career is doing the same job he was before, from home. I’ve been doing my old job x 2 from home. I am not usually a person at all who compares herself to others and thinks she is hard done by, not at all. I’m aware there are many more people in much tougher situations than me. Maybe I was badly hit as I have a large admin role, but I know there were others worse hit still in a way that I have not seen in my friends and family. My sister works as a junior doctor on a COVID ward, I take my hat off to her but at least she’s had bloody childcare over the last few months.

I love my job I really do but I am worried that I cannot provide my students with the education and pastoral care they have dearly paid for and they desperately need in these challenging times. I am not a victim or a martyr, but I do think I am a key worker.

@lovelemoncurd well I’ve had to go in and teach from time to time, I’m surprised you’ve been able to do it all from home.

@IggysPop moan away, big hug!

I’m certainly not denying what you do or suggesting you can work from home with children there, I have a lot of sympathy for you and think it’s ridiculous. However, I think what many of us are saying is that last time it didn’t matter what your job role was, if you were working from home there was no school place. We received a letter from school saying that if they were aware that you were at home or saw your car there etc you would instantly lose your place, even if you were sleeping after a night shift or on call. That was only school though, I haven’t heard of any nurseries doing that, so hopefully would be able to get a place for a baby/toddler.