I miss lockdown

[colourofblue]

Seven months pregnant, waddling around the school to different classrooms and out to the yard and back again and back and back and back. Everything hurts. Everything aches. Draconian system of teaching where we all have to teach exactly the same lessons at the same time and woe betide if it doesn’t work out that way. Two hour meeting after school on Thursday where we will ‘discuss’ things. We won’t discuss them, we will be told. Nowhere to work, nowhere to collapse and veg in private for a bit, I had lunch in my car. Kids stupid with masks. Hate my visor. TiredtiredTIRED.

Sorry. As you were my fellow teachers ...

*that

Well yes but now I’m signed off so I’m not sure what they will do now!

Are you signed off for the rest of your pregnancy? If not - ask for risk assessment to be done, it opens up discussion around adaptations to mitigate health and safety risks to you.

They won't penalise you or not give you a reference for asking for a risk assessment to be done.

No, but OH thinks I should be, and to be honest so do most people - medical and non medical. But I am going to wait and see what happens. We are relocating - house is all ready, the only reason we are still here is because of my job. So I don’t want to be a pisstaker! But I am throwing up, gassy and heartburn, have awful sciatic pain and am exhausted with anaemia. I was desperately trying to keep going, taking each day as it came, until last week when things came to a head a bit.

As things stand I’m signed off until 2 October and I have grave misgivings about going back, but I’m also worried about staying away!

I'm really surprised if you're in your 3rd trimester that you are back working on site. You're not being a piss taker for putting your health and that of your unborn child's health first. Get rid of that teacher guilt! I'd still ask for a risk assessment, you seem reluctant to though?

Have you looked at the RCOG guidance for occupational health www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/guidelines/coronavirus-pregnancy/covid-19-virus-infection-and-pregnancy/#occupational

"If you are unable to work from home, you can work in a public-facing role provided your employer conducts the risk assessment and is able to make appropriate arrangements to sufficiently minimise your exposure to the virus.

If you have concerns about your risk assessment and the resulting recommendations, you should speak to your employer in the first instance. If you are still not satisfied, consider contacting your trade union representative or, if you do not have a trade union representative, Maternity Action has published lots of helpful information... "

Use that to help as a starting point, or you could try going back to your GP and getting signed off again based on stress, anxiety and mental health. That would be mentioned for future employment I'd imagine in any reference from your current school (not entirely sure).

How can I get a RA if I’m not there, though? I’m not being an arse asking, I’ve never been signed off before (or been pregnant!) so I genuinely don’t know.

I think I just feel bad because I hadn’t been there long before lockdown. I realise it wasn’t my fault a global pandemic came along but it means I could potentially have been employed there for nine months and yet only spent six weeks physically there! I suppose I’m worried about any reference I might get and I know they can’t use pregnancy related sickness against you but nothing to stop them having digs in other ways. I was heavily criticised last week which is largely why I’m so stressed about everything now.

How did you communicate with them during lockdown when schools were 'closed'?

I had a RA done from when I told them I was pregnant at 10/11w (which your school should have also done whenever you told them). It was then reviewed and updated by email and phone conversations in early May and again early July.

I am just over 39w and was WFH since the very first announcement about pregnant women in March, my 1 year contract wasn't renewed (discrimination in pregnancy, and they breeched my contract, another story for another day that one!) so took Mat leave on 1.9 but left amicably and with reference in tact.

It was so tough to carry on WFH with teacher guilt knowing my colleagues are on site while I'm not, but I was working hard to support them. Yes, I'm sure some colleagues were critical, but the people that write the references I was in regular comms with so knew what I was working on throughout and were happy with my contribution which impacted and benefited the whole team.

I was only there on a one year contract so half that time was pre covid and pretty much half WFH. Not great but couldn't be helped as you say, blooming pandemic!

Try not to stress yourself about it, easier said than done I full well know and appreciate.

Meant to add as an aside - if they had renewed my contract then I would still be WFH now in line with third trimester risk assessment (another colleague is in this position there now)!

I was in once a week until I told them I was pregnant, which I did after my 12 week scan. Then I had weekly zoom meetings (that was a joy!)

Yes, mine was a one year contract which was subsequently altered from feb-feb to feb-nov! Mine was always intended to be just one year though, I just ended up taking it to act as a stop-gap after moving. (It sounds like all I do is move house, it isn’t that honestly! ) So I know I’ll have one good reference from my previous employers. It’s just I would like another job for September 2021 and will probably be hard enough competing with NQTs as it is!

I know what you mean about expecting job hunting to be hard next year, multiple unis churning out NQTs in my area so fully anticipate job hunting against all the NQTs from this year that got caught without jobs because of covid, all the staff that would have ordinarily moved on this year but stayed because of covid, and all the NQTs from next year too, it's not going to be fun for sure. There are usually pages and pages of vacancies advertised in my area during Summer 1 & 2 but this year just ended there were only 5 jobs. Arghh!