Thirteenth Republic - School’s out for summer, no more pencils no more books!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. 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.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom

A few of them who disagree with ClimbDad argue rationally and unpick the science :no problem at all with that. it's the people who make sneering comments, accuse him of hyperbole (they need a definition) and just clearly don't like him because he's male.

I do wonder who he is , and what his agenda is , exactly. But closing down alternative voices just isn't on.

I took myself off for a large glass of wine last night as was getting so irritated by that person on other thread. No way are they anything to do with the medical or scientific communities as their knowledge is so lacking. I think there are some very weird people about on here at the moment.

Well when we are all back at school they will have no one to argue with and will just have to bicker between themselves 😂

mumsneedwine the comment about ‘some scientists’ drove me to drink too!

@noblegiraffe my DD had just got home after a 13.5 hour shift and came in to tell me she'd been looking after a lovely old man who had just tested positive for COVID - for a 2nd time. She had the basic PPE and ensures me this is fine so I just smiled. What I really wanted to do was tell her she can never go there again. I really wish she'd chosen a different career than medicine as my grey hairs are multiplying daily.
I don't understand any parent not wanting me to wear a mask while she is doing this, to protect their children.
I do think masks will be in place by Sept as cases are rising. And MPs have kids too.

@motherrunner

And on BBC news today:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53588275

How does he get away with it????

Because words no longer mean anything. You can say whatever you like and then say something completely different the next day and none of it has to be true.

@StaffAssociationRepresentative Ha ha! I wonder what the school threads will look like come late Sept/Oct?

Have heard my DC’s teacher is in hospital, AIBU to expect their work to be set before or after they are placed in an induced coma?

I think it’s pure fear with a lot of the mask naysayers. They don’t want to believe this is happening. With things opening up more and more, encouragement from the govt to get out and about, go to work etc, they just can’t rationalise that a deadly disease with no cure or vaccine is circulating.
So they play the risk numbers game in their heads and say ‘masks don’t work/my child will not be muzzled’ as a sort of spell against it all.
Everything happens to Someone Else Not Me is their mindset.

‘Us For Them’ is the perfect slogan for mask wearing, really, but the irony is lost on them.
Getting through to people that my mask is for other people, other people’s masks are for me doesn’t compute. It’s deeply selfish.

Judging by some of the posts on here Isuspect there’s going to be a number of threads where people are surprised that education is disrupted and they are having to take time off work.

I think the penny is starting to drop.

Saucery I agree to some extent, however there have been some extreme comments made by the pro mask crowd. Statements like "the government wants all teachers to die" doesn't help or add much to the debate. I don't want masks in my classroom, personal preference on risk benefit analysis made by me. I respect others who don't share that view, and know that the risks are much higher for certain groups.

True, Herc, although I think it’s fair to say the government don’t really care if some teachers die, just like they didn’t care that some old people and health workers died
It’s tricky, because I wouldn’t feel safe in a classroom with no masks and you would. However, we can both state our opinions on that without being dicks, which is fine.
Maybe it’s a control thing? If I’m taking a class I can control the distance, ventilation and cleaning. Masks would be a good addition but not as essential. If I’m a TA in a class where the teacher’s risk assessment means I’m closer than the guidance states is appropriate then I’m not going to feel remotely safe. Or a teacher in secondary navigating crowded corridors etc.
Bottom line is that SLT are paid a fuck of a lot more than me and part of that is ensuring my safety while their own safety is easily upgraded (bar the mythical SLts that are cleaning toilets and supervising lunches in packed classrooms - few and far between). So I’m not happy they are being given the leeway to play fast and loose with my long term health and life. I wouldn’t put up with that when I worked in factories and I’m not going to put up with it now.

Hercwasonaroll

I agree that the government doesn't want teachers to die.

But I do think that they want to old guard pushing out, I also think that the government knows that teachers and schools are a very easy scapegoat to use to hide either their own incompetence or any issues that they want to hide.

Come September and onwards, it is fairly clear that any school closures will be made out to be the fault of those damn teachers and if only they had followed the guidance.

As for masks, it should at very least be an option, especially if they are implementing the fines for missing schools.

I think it’s pure fear with a lot of the mask naysayers. They don’t want to believe this is happening. With things opening up more and more, encouragement from the govt to get out and about, go to work etc, they just can’t rationalise that a deadly disease with no cure or vaccine is circulating.

I think this is true of a lot of Covid denialism, isn’t it? It’s where all the ‘it only kills the elderly / people with underlying conditions’ stuff comes from. And probably the ‘bad flu’ season stuff as well.

Weirdly where I’ve noticed this falls down, both in RL and on MN is with asthma. Even in a denialist’s head they don’t seem to be able to square the idea of it being a risk to people with underlying conditions with the % of the population that has asthma.

I cantbeven control the ventilation :(

Us for Them have a teacher section - for some reason Fb thought I’d be interested! It had 26 members yesterday.

‘You are not allowed to post anything that has not been formally approved by Us for Them.’

This is true on their Facebook page, making it tricky to argue with them.

But some of the points moderators have allowed make me wonder if they even understand what they're reading!

Come September and onwards, it is fairly clear that any school closures will be made out to be the fault of those damn teachers and if only they had followed the guidance.

100%

Guidance that is impossible to implement in many cases. Teachers cannot be 2m away from students in our classrooms. They're too small.

I can't control ventilation either. No opening windows!

Windows open in my classroom - 2 inches. Woo! And they’re those windows that open diagonally if you know what I mean?

Quite furious about notification to DofE only being “if the school wants to”

What’s that bit?

I have raised ventilation in my school. Fingers go in ears.

It is worrying because it is something the DfE seem to put an emphasis on in their own literature. It is easy for them to say 'well ventilated' when various H and S measures over the years (not just in schools) have introduced limiters to window openings and windows that don't even open more than a crack in many schools (putting aside my windowless room which is at least large). I don't think anyone has considered at my school the windowless hall with its ventilation system which I think is one of those 'unsafe' ones.

I don't think my union rep has given this issue much thought.

I don't mind Us For Them being on MN (if they are honest they are members). At least people can argue with them. the actual organisation is a total echo chamber. Yet they seem to make it to various committees in parliament. They are worryingly educated in political lobbying.

Trotting out MH concerns over lack of schooling is lazy, too. Those researchers look for what they want to find to prove a hypothesis (they are social scientists after all) so there is no consideration of nay improved mental health, for some who might be reassured by part time school, or safety measures, or even the inconvenient truth that some young people's mental health and safety from harm improved whilst they weren't in a school building!

Obviously it is terribly important that some children became more unsafe by being at home al this time but that is a society wide issue and the anxiety about that in terms of school just goes to show how much schools are expected to deal with complex familial issues.

@Appuskidu

Quite furious about notification to DofE only being “if the school wants to”

What’s that bit?

It’s not compulsory for a school to notify a staff member’s Covid death to the DofE, although it is recommended. So a perfect opportunity for the DofE to deny any knowledge of comprehensive figures. I’m not sure how frequent and at what depth the HSE figures would be available to the DofE, so it’s yet another attempt to justify official dragging of feet and delaying meaningful action.

[quote motherrunner]@StaffAssociationRepresentative Ha ha! I wonder what the school threads will look like come late Sept/Oct?

Have heard my DC’s teacher is in hospital, AIBU to expect their work to be set before or after they are placed in an induced coma?[/quote]
Yep-‘the bloody TA has been taking the class since it reopened after two bloody inconvenient weeks off and she and hasn’t changed my DC’s book once since the teacher died of Covid on Monday-shall I go and give it to the school with both barrels!? I’ll do it by phone though as I don’t want to go into school and catch anything!’

I would imagine the family of any school staff member dying will be very sympathetically told it was sad but it was their own fault as they didn’t follow the risk assessment and stay far enough away. I can see it being reframed as ‘clueless teacher died not following the guidelines because they clearly didn’t understand them’.

It’ll be reported that they had underlying health conditions anyway-even if that’s asthma or diabetes, which we’ve all been told doesn’t won’t warrant shielding because you’re just fine!

It makes you want to put something signed in writing saying you are going back into a workplace that is not covid Secure, you cannot socially distance due to space and numbers, it is not ventilated due to the windows not opening and you are forbidden from wearing masks and that you are doing it because you have no other option. Then I’d want that published in the paper when I died. No doubt though, the Times would report an spokesperson from the DfE said, in response to my letter, -‘this is not a situation we recognise. There has never been a better time to be a teacher!’

It makes you want to put something signed in writing saying you are going back into a workplace that is not covid Secure, you cannot socially distance due to space and numbers, it is not ventilated due to the windows not opening and you are forbidden from wearing masks and that you are doing it because you have no other option. Then I’d want that published in the paper when I died. No doubt though, the Times would report an spokesperson from the DfE said, in response to my letter, -‘this is not a situation we recognise. There has never been a better time to be a teacher!’

I’ve made DH promise to do just that!