Thinking of handing my notice in

[Jessie40]

Hello, I am a LSA in year 1 and after the Pm's latest statement regarding R, Y1/6 to be going back to school I am seriously thinking about handing my notice in.
It terrifies me the thought of having that many people in such a small area. The younger ones will not understand distancing.
I love my job so I feel torn.
I can't decide whether I'm overacting or not.

I thought vthere was some evidence to show that teens spread it more than adults. Can't remember where I saw it - possibly in that french school outbreak study?

his is something that no one appears to have considered. I genuinely don't know what the difference is between some of our boys and adults. They are already at their adult height, and tower over me. People saying, 'oh children don't get it' seem to think that every child is about 4ft 2" and somehow immune

I wonder who is at higher risk - my 6 foot 2 teenager or the 4 foot 8 adult teacher who I work with?

stairway There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to seek opinions/advice/comfort from people in a similar situation to them. People do it on here all the time, in the conception and pregnancy forums, SEN, weight loss etc. You've spoken your piece and MN has reminded everyone this is posted in an area where people in education seek opinions/advice/comfort from those in the same field of work. The OP wants a listening ear and thoughts on her situation. Please respect this.

If you would like to have this debate, please post in Coronavirus where there isn't an OP having her thread detailed.

@MNHQ I have no horse in this race but have noticed a lot of discourse recently on MN and in wider society with regards to educational provision/ teachers/schools going back.

This is obviously reflected on MN with lots of heightened emotions.

On MN, staff room threads come up in active threads. Many are currently as popular threads. Many posters don't see the topic 'staff room' and post and are then told they should not be posting as its a forum for teachers.

The argument about whether or not teachers in particular should have a space where others shouldn't comment on an open internet forum is a seperate one (I see both sides!) but given the level of argument about this currently, wouldn't it make sense for staff room threads to be removed from active so non-teachers are not prompted to give their views. Often without realising they shouldn't or that they're not welcomed on those threads?

And if posters DO search out staff room threads if they're not in active; then it would then be clearer that they may have an anti-teacher agenda?

@Stopmenow123

Excellent post.

This is most probably why Years 10 and 12, while needing to get back to a more normal education, are not being prioritised for returning to school. They are both more at risk of catching it than a primary-age child and likely to pass it on if they do have it.

It's a very difficult decision, OP. I will continue to go in as I have been but I am worried about the idea of viral load. Having schools with more than a handful of children to a classroom is just an unknown, really, that potentially there could be a big rise in deaths just a month or so away.

I think weigh up losing your salary against the benefit of preserving your mental health. If you can do without the money and will have a mental load taken off your shoulders, then perhaps it's not worth the worry to stay?

French school cluster study. Well worth reading www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.18.20071134v1

International team find children under 10 catch it at the same rate as adults
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/are-children-actually-as-likely-to-get-covid-19-as-adults

Thanks hiptight I’m afraid that was a bit of a soapbox. I was originally a religious studies teacher who started in schools straight after 9/11. I chose RS because it was the closest thing to social science and particularly anthropology (my first degree and something I did fieldwork in the Middle East for).

I saw my job as yes ticking all the right boxes and ensuring great grades (easy when you have passion for your subject and faith in even, or especially, those students who’ve been written off) but more importantly encouraging questioning, examination of one’s own, and others beliefs, assumptions and values and culture.

I did it really fucking well tbf. In my nqt year I got the highest exam results in the school-not just the a*s but the, to me magical, c grades from those not predicted to get any a-c grades.

In recent years I’ve taught a non specialist subject that is really challenging and it has been really tough but I’ve managed and student progress has been on track and appraisals glowing. I miss feeling passionate and deeply competent though. Kids deserve teachers with deep subject knowledge, passion and at least some retention of the mission they entered teaching with.

I’ve had two breakdowns and subsequent resign and retreat times during my teaching career. Both brought on by total mismanagement and outrageous treatment and disregard for teachers and students well being. Yet I’ve recuperated and ended up going back because actually I ‘am’ a teacher and even in a broken system it’s still my vocation.

I’m not nicey nice. My students know I can be sarcastic and have a dark sense of humour at times. I’m not going to sit here and say oh I love and miss my pupils I’d go back in a heartbeat even risking my life. Bollocks. I have some self respect, some healthy boundaries and integrity-qualities young people need to see role modelled.

I’ve put up with all manner of shit and pushing and pushing of my boundaries thanks to political agendas and mismanagement since i started. If society is now majority declaration that it just wants cheap disposable childcare that’s not me and I will bow out.

Fuck it. Britain doesn’t deserve good teachers if that’s all they value them as and they don’t think they deserve even the workers rights of a bus driver and no one respects their opinion on whether they can keep children safe.

This is an essay that I’m not going to read over. It’s a fuck it and post rant. Sorry

Maybe we just need to ignore the posters who are not in the teaching profession. If enough of us ignore the messages hopefully they will take the hint and go away to debate this somewhere else.

@Stopmenow123 - we have asked for a safe space but it has been ignored so far.

#solidaritycomrades

Yes hand your notice in, as long as your wage is just pocket money. If you need it to survive, then you can’t.

I know a couple of teachers who’ve handed their notice in. They’ll look for another job or do supply once this has all blown over.

Thank you, stop, you clearly see the reasons we have already asked @MNHQ to remove the staffroom from Active. Unfortunately, we are still waiting.

I'd like to add that I think it's not that we don't want to ban non-staff from ever posting; we've had some who've been on here to add thoughts to a debate or ask a genuine question about their child's education.

@Jessie40 - why don't you wait to see what the plan is at your school? In the next week or so there should be something outlined in a staff briefing. You can then make a decision.

Join the Republic!

@stairway - close the door quietly on your way out

#solidaritycomrades

It's such a difficult decision. I used to be an early years TA and if I were still in that role now, I'd be looking at leaving (currently doing a PhD in a related field which I can work on from home). I wouldn't want the dilemma of whether/how much to try to social distance from young children who won't really understand.

I don't think you're over-reacting at all. I think the government has an agenda in sending back the youngest children first, and, as others have said, in not differentiating between physiologically adult secondary school students and 'children' when discussing risk levels. It's important to assess the safety of your particular setting for yourself.

@Jessie40 & anyone else considering resigning.

I wouldn't blame you in the slightest!

I'm more surprised there are any decent teachers left.

However between the unions & the clusterfuck the government has made of things I really can't see the kids going back on the 1si of June, let alone the other years straight after.

Hold out until August - see how it looks by then for a Sept start.

You have to self isolate if you've got symptoms.

STAY SAFE your life is worth more than being the Govts guinea pigs 🌷

Maybe this overwhelming terror is not justified

50,000 excess deaths - EXCESS DEATHS over 6 weeks.

Nope - nothing to see here 🤷🏻‍♀️

FFS

*900 teachers won’t die. The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world and only around 120 healthcare workers have died.

Based on ONS stats released yesterday, Education staff deaths 361, nurses 127 deaths. It’s horrifically tragic on both sides but don’t you find it interesting that, those working with Covid19 patients, with some form of PPE, have lower stats than and those not? And during a lockdown. Once that is lifted...

I bet stairway that based on the media coverage, you had assumed more nurses had died. Plenty of other posters with your stance, have.

(Thank you to another poster for those stats)

OP, you have my utmost sympathy and support.

I have no choice other than to go back - have been lucky to shield with asthma and do lots of other stuff from home - and I really have been doing stuff (not complaining obviously!!) We have a switched on head.

When I go back I will no longer feel comfortable shopping for my 91 yo dad. That makes me so sad. He's on his own. Plus I am so prone to chest infections I really worry. I've seen 2 sets of friends suffer horribly with this. OK, it's my job and if I had a screen/PPE and social distancing I wouldn't even blink. I don't have that.

Mainly I'm sad it will mean not seeing my dad, even at his door. I just can't risk it.

Cherry before schools closed the advice was literally that we did not need to inform parents if there had been a confirmed case in school and there was no need to track their contacts. We’re not getting our information just from the news. These are literally our workplaces, this is our profession.

Teachers will have read the now released dfe guidance for returns rather than assumed things from the news. If a suspected case goes into isolation there is their teachers and classmates should remain in school until they develop symptoms then those individuals should go home and await a test whilst the rest of the class remains cross infecting each other and their households.

After they manage to have a test and receive a positive result (ie some days later after significant spread) then everyone else in that classroom is allowed to stay home for 7 days. By which time they’d all be infected and their households too.

No obligation to inform parents or staff up until that point. This is deliberate renewed community spread with teachers, children and their families as the target because not too many of us will need icu.

I’m not willing to gamble my, my students or my communities health like that.