What is next week looking like for you?

[fedup21]

Are you on a rota to childminder key workers’ children, in full time or teaching from home?

We are all in from Monday-seem to have a lot of key workers at our school!

@Redlocks30 you’re right - it’s not fair for part-timers who are, after all, paid less than full-timers on the assumption they work fewer hours.

Interestingly a couple of full-timers at my school were very keen we all did 2 days a week each, regardless of usual hours 🤨

Thankfully the final timetable accounts for part timers so we are all now working half our usual hours in school (& the rest from home of course).

In your situation, I’d expect anyone in a jobshare to be treated as one person so say a 2/3 day split - the week ‘on’ is covered between those 2 people in their usual split.

Part time not job share is slightly trickier but still, if full-timers are doing 1 week in 3, part-timers should do one of their weeks every 3 weeks as well.

I'm 0.7 and doing the same as full timers and full timers with a TLR. Will see how it goes...

I'm in Victoria and an hour ago it was announced that all schools will shut down completely from Tuesday onwards. They won't be open for anyone. It will give students and staff a day to make sure they've taken all vital texts, documents, etc. home.

While I can do marking and feedback from home, the new interactive platform was only launched last week so that will be fun...

We'll see. I don't envy the lot of UK teachers one bit, having to do two jobs at once.

We are doing teams in one day a fortnight (secondary) after a full staff meeting monday. I'm part time but doing the same as full time but in the end this is an unprecedented time. I'm just happy to pitch in and incredibly lucky that both my and DH are teachers so getting paid. Lots of friends not in the same position. We should also be able to keep our kids at home too as much as possible.

I teach in a special school. We'll be open for as long as we have enough staff to safety cover classes.

If there's anyone whose HT are insisting that all staff have to be in, contact your union and they will contact the HT. NEU will anyway.

I’m Admin, not a teacher, but will be in next week and for as long as I am needed.

I’m getting really frustrated with our school/MAT though. We’ve got around 40 coming in split 30/10 to key workers/vulnerable. I would pare that list by at least 10; children with another parent at home/not a key worker and children whose parent is a key worker only by seriously stretching the definition (runs an OAP cafe, works in HR etc).

There’s a rota of about 10 teachers/TAs coming in over the week from a staff of 40. No kitchen staff, no cleaners. I think those 10 will burn out very quickly and the MAT is talking of keeping us open over Easter as well. I’m also worried about cleaning and isolation if one of the kids starts to show symptoms. We can ‘shut down’ areas of the school but our HT is already asking the caretaker if we can ‘use the IT room on X day’ ‘use the art room on Y day’ etc. He has asked us to stick to 3 rooms and one set of toilets, but 2 members of staff are already kicking off about how they MUST be allowed to use their offices.

I’m worried, DH is pissed off that I’m going in. DD is alternating between boredom and fear. The whole thing is a shit show.

My school is joining with another primary and all staff who are available have been put in one of three teams. We will work one week on two weeks off. I only work one afternoon a week as I'm retired, but was surprised to see myself down for week 2 full time!

Re: HTs demanding all staff be in, that could be them just removing the expectation (from some staff) that they can bugger off on full pay until September. So, we've all been told to turn up first thing Monday morning but I think that's to see how the land lies, set up a rota, and then actually, a lot of people will be sent home to work from there as necessary.

So, we've all been told to turn up first thing Monday morning but I think that's to see how the land lies, set up a rota, and then actually, a lot of people will be sent home to work from there as necessary.

Perhaps your head knows that viruses can’t be transmitted on Monday mornings then.

It’s interesting to see the different ways that schools in the U.K. are handling this.

I’m a TA in a primary school. We have the list of key workers children who need to be in, and it’s only about 15-20 children. Yet all staff are expected to be in next week doing normal hours. HT has given us a list of jobs we can be doing when not rota’d to be with the children. I’m frustrated about this, as it defeats the purpose of social distancing.

Same another

That’s really irresponsible. Those children who need to be in school should not be exposed to more risk than absolutely necessary. Having extra staff mulling around and filling time is not sensible in a pandemic.

Agree. It's one thing supervising children of ESSENTIAL workers, but I don't see the need for going in to a germ-ridden building just to tidy up the fucking library.
It's presentee-ism gone mad.

I’ve just seen this from the NEU:

“It’s not sensible for heads to require all staff to be in school at the same time. A rota of alternating teams reduces the risk of spreading the virus.”

Present-eeism gone mad indeed.

I think the key worker list needs shrinking.

Medical
Food chain
Emergency services.
Waste removal

They are the key things. That would make that list much shorter and cause less hassle

Agree the key worker list could do with some pruning. Also think that this provision should only be for children who have both parents as key workers.

I'm admin in a small rural school. All staff from all primaries in our area have been told to report to the one nominated school on Monday morning. So we have gone from being in contact with 4 or 5 staff & 20 children, to approx 50 staff & unknown number of pupils - in one small school building. I am really hoping this is just to organise rotas etc & we can then either work from home or go back to our own schools.

I dunno, I think one of the most key jobs right now is keeping the internet and mobile network up.

I think the sectors included in the key worker list are all essential.

The problem is how some employers and employees are interpreting it.

So, food for example. If you are directly involved in food production, distribution or retail then you're a key worker. If you are working for a company that is involved in essential food production but your role is something like human resources or marketing then you aren't a key worker, especially if you can wfh.

Staying at home, not being paid, waiting for a phone call to ask if I'm available for work. I'm a supply teacher.

Yeah, internet is key job as well

Im an STF TA, im in Monday, Tuesday, Wed, then on a rota when thats worked out. Already volunteered for Easter holidays....highly vulnerable area, luckily we have a caring HT. My husband has accepted my role but is worried about me being exposed. I just want to support kids thru this difficult time. I will just have to try and keep my kids safe when I get home.

curly, unfortunately it seems (in my school at least) that it is teachers who are the biggest problem for sending their kids in unnecessarily. One explained to my face that she's bringing her yr 9 DD in because she'll get bored at home as her dad will be in their home office working. I was so stunned I said nothing at the time, but I've been replaying in my head all the things I should have said!

Admin here - expecting about 200 kids in. All teachers trying to continue teaching remotely and have been asked if prepared to volunteer to do supervision. Some planning to come in anyway as don’t have good internet access and most on a steep learning curve with the technology so going to take a while to get it all sorted. All support staff - technicians, admin, caretakers, catering etc told required to come in unless able to work at home, are vulnerable or have vulnerable partners etc and also additionally asked if prepared to do some supervision. Going to be interesting. Worse thing so far has been lack of communication but nothing new there!