The Third Republic - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are not staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

In terms of staff returning, I think the unions will need to get involved here. But I suspect, in line with other employers, the shielded will stay at home and the wider vulnerable will be told to come back.

I think generalised advice is that employers are supposed to find a role for them to do that reduces interaction with others/eliminates it altogether, and if stringent social distancing can't be maintained then, if they can, they are to arrange for them to work in a a private office, or from home. Quite where that leaves teachers and TAs is anyone's guess : OK if you are a non teaching SLT.

The HNS workers on other threads will unsympathetically pipe up that nurses are working despite health conditions. The reality is a) they shouldn't be and most have been redeployed to 'safer' roles (my friend has had nurses redeployed as phone advisers in her cancer support unit) and b) their unions are very very pissed off about this c) non goady nurses are upset about this but daren't post on FB for fear of the backlash.

I'm diabetic, and I'm a bit concerned about going back tbh. Although it would help if we were given data about what type of diabetes is the most affected. I'm type 2, controlled by diet and medication, which is the safer type to have for other respiratory illnesses. My sister is type 1, and is seriously affected by all sorts of illnesses because it messes up her sugar levels. So in my head, I feel like I'm safer than she is, but in the data we're lumped together.

MsAwesomeDragon, My friend (who's a hospital consultant), has been very worried about her sister, who is Type 1 (mid-50s) and contracted Corona (since recovered, thankfully). Friend spoke to the Head Diabetes guy (not his official title!) at her hospital about it, and he said that Type 1s (particularly young, well-controlled ones) are less of a concern than older, overweight Type 2s.

I’m now wondering if the government are going to release (crap unworkable) ‘plans’ to open the schools on Sunday, but the trade union conglomerate will cause massive problems and delay reopening. Then, the public will stop blaming the government about schools (because after all, they have a brilliant plan to reopen!) and all the vitriol will be against the lazy lefty workshy teachers and their Marxist unions.

The government can say-‘we wanted to reopen sooner, but we couldn’t, and the economy was screwed because the lazy teachers refused to go back to work‘.

Then when we’re all back at work at some normal time in the future, they’ll pass a quiet law to ban trade unions, striking and the summer holidays, when nobody’s looking.

School=State sanctioned childcare, after all, as this has demonstrated!

Apologies for the cynicism so early in the day-I haven’t had any coffee yet!

You can definitely see the blame the unions rhetoric on other threads appu.

My fear exactly Appu, when I saw the headline in the Guardian yesterday about the unions wanting track and trace in place I thought ‘oh here we go’.
Are there any countries going back to school without T and T in place?

Oh bugger Angelina that means I'm more at risk than my sister . As I am older than her (but only just 41, today in fact!) So I'm not old, but I am also overweight. And my parents who are both older and overweight are even more at risk, which we knew.

I'm expecting a "blame the unions" approach too.

Dragon, but my friend also said that Diabetes generally is now quite a bit further down the list of worries than other conditions. Heart disease and COPD (I think) are way higher.

We've had 12-15 KW children in every day since lockdown started so I don't see how we would accommodate any extra children.

There's an especially suspicious thread in Coronavirus area regarding "how many schools open to KWs have had outbreaks" trying to prove the point there's no issues in schools.

Appu I'm starting to think that might be the case too

We've had 4 cases of it.

@Appuskidu
Your last post was absolutely bang on the money.

@MsAwesomeDragon happy birthday

The thread pfrench started in Coronavirus has descended horribly into blame the unions= blame the teachers.

If ever a thread needed flower-bombing..

Heart disease to me is the worry because, for reasons I have never had anyone explain, people with heart disease are not in the shielded group.

I guess those dying with heart disease may have advanced heart problems but it is not very reassuring for those with heart conditions.

Pregnant women, however, are shielded if they have heart problems.

That thread is insane now. Floaty trolling like fuck.

Quick buy buckets!

I've just posted on that thread. We've had cases and TA is currently hospitalized as a result. Plus my sister also teaches and she and my nephew both caught it at school. He was in icu with it and remains poorly. They had a local spike originating from.the school and had to close.

I can't get past using buckets of soap and water as part of a learning experience.

I feel that as a random teacher she wants me to now go bucket shopping, deliver than to SLT and say "Ta da! I've solved all problems, let's get the school open"

Some of those troll every coronavirus or politics threads They are on the VE threads at the moment telling people they are unpatriotic and traitors.

Ignore the ridiculous bar of soap posters . Follow our Greta Leaders advice and stay off those threads.

I am desperate to post the guidance that says do not use bars of soap but cannot be arsed as I will be told to look for solutions not problems.

Someone on that thread when discussing supermarkets (surprise!) stated that 1200 was a ridiculous number because that was an 'unusually large' school.

It doesn't matter what you say, that bunch would argue black is white and will not be happy unless a full reopening happens.

I loved this:
Oh sorry, am I being defeatist? Or just exhibiting a bit of fucking common sense

@phlebasconsidered hope your nephew is better soon

I have to keep dipping back in. Now it's gone th totally nuts, it's not winding me up.

I know I should come off that thread for the sake of my sanity, but I'm SO FUCKING FURIOUS with them, spouting their offensive and ridiculous "solutions."
Buckets. FFS.