Am I the only one who wants to stay in person teaching?

[Rachellow]

Obviously I'm aware those with health issues may be rightfully concerned but I'm quite disappointed with the NEU stance demanding all schools to be closed especially primary. I'm really concerned about the attainment gap of my class and after parent teacher interviews it's evident lots of the families couldn't really cope with home schooling and it really shows in behaviour and attainment who could and couldn't access home schooling. Some of my students' only internet access is 1 phone between 4 siblings and school is the only real calm space they're getting positive attention/vaguely healthy hot meals.
On another note there's 1000s of teachers in their 20s/30s living in tiny house shares who don't have the space to do live lessons or even video them. If all of my flat stay homeworking I'll have to teach in my tiny bedroom or my literal hallway whilst dealing with overloaded wifi.

I want to stay in-person, I really do! But I don’t think the virus will come under control with schools open and the agony nationally will continue. We at least need to spread classes out/go part time/be creative with space.

I do. I’m appalled by the scaremongering. I teach 6th form and have KS4 kids of my own and do not want a return to home schooling. My DDs are normally buoyant and positive and they suffered massively last time. The mental health of the kids I teach took a real battering and I was a mess too. I was talking to DH about it earlier on and he said he was really worried about me when we were in lockdown through the spring. Kids need to be in a school.

All this “we’re being thrown under the bus” stuff is nonsense. If otherwise fit and healthy teachers were catching covid at work and dying as a consequence, it would be all over the news. And it isn’t.

I'd prefer to be in school than be at home.

BUT, I want the power of excluding children who don't follow the risk assessment stuff, I want to have much smaller classes, I want no expectation of staff gatherings/meetings, I want parents in the playground to actually follow the rules too, I want testing on demand.

Teachers are dying and being very ill. It's not on the news because there is some sort of block on school/covid news. Everyone I show the graphs to is surprised, everyone who sees photos of secondary schools is surprised... the population has been gaslit on this, and it's irritating.

Oh and I also agree that the virus won't be under control while schools are open - especially secondary schools.

Teachers are dying and being very ill. It's not on the news because there is some sort of block on school/covid news.

I honestly don’t think this is true. I am a teacher, with friends who are teachers, from a family of teachers, and I do not know of a single school where teachers have died from catching covid at school.

Well, 126 died between March and May for a start.

When they weren’t actually in school...

Well I was in school then with keyworker kids, as I'm pretty sure we all were.

We weren’t though, were we? Not full time. Most (if not all) teachers were in sporadically at best. I hate the “schools never closed” rhetoric. Yes, we continued teaching, but many school buildings were closed, and those which were open just had the number of staff they needed. There is absolutely no way to ascertain whether education workers who had covid actually caught it at school. As a profession, we do ourselves no favours when we use overly emotive language like “they’re throwing us under the bus” ONS data shows that those of us who work in schools and colleges are not disproportionately affected.

Eviltwins - my sister who is also a teacher was hospitalized with covid, our UKS2 TA was, my good friend in secondary was and my neice who is also a teacher has just been. Is that enough for you?

Yes, we continued teaching, but many school buildings were closed, and those which were open just had the number of staff they needed

That's right. Needed to to do the work required. Do you want more than is needed? How does that work?

As a profession, we do ourselves no favours when we use overly emotive language like “they’re throwing us under the bus”

Teachers don't need to look good/ kiss the media/ parents'/ government's arse. As you should have noticed by now, doing the job, and teaching is way beyond 9-3, even on a good day, is not enough. Apparently.

ONS data shows that those of us who work in schools and colleges are not disproportionately affected

That is not the basis on which teachers are not being afforded the protection of, say, shelf stackers at B and Q. So yes, they are being thrown under the bus.

So, a quick search tells me you are head of sixth form in a tiny school in the south west? How many kids in your classes? And how many lessons do you teach a week? Probably 1-2 cases maximum at present?

Come work in my massive northern comprehensive, where I personally taught (and was under 3m from) 5 positive cases in my last 2 weeks before half term, had 1 colleague in hospital, a rate twenty times higher than the surrounding area and then tell me you're not being thrown under a bus.

I want to stay teaching in person because I am terrified at the prospect of actually teaching an overloaded full live timetable. In the summer we had a sensible approach - for both kids and teachers of 3 lessons a day with work set for the slack. It still meant that Eng and Maths did more than the rest of the school but at least there was a concession. I really can't do a 5 lesson day with a 20 minute pause for lunch. My wi fi is also not up to it.

My DH is a clinically vulnerable teacher who is just expected to crack on and can wear a mask 'if he wants'.

At the same time, I don't thinks chools are sfae and I dodn't think keeping them open (especiallys econdaries) will slwo spread much. We shall see.

The media isns't reaporting nay individual detahs at the moment, compared to alst lockdown where ther were often penportraits of victims, always sad to read.

A teacher died I Wales last week. I dodn't thinkw e shoudl start the ' who knwo whtehr they caught it in schools' stuff in the safe haven of staffroom, nor minimise coivd by only focusing n detahs.

The disruption to education without nay sort of planned rotas has been untenable in many areas and will get worse. Already press leaks about GCSEs going in Wales, and perhaps in England, with one 90 minute exam board mock per subject : that suggest DfE and Ofqual sense disruptions and rotas ahead.

Nature magazine reported last week that the spread is not down to schools. They used Italy as their case in point : look up the mitigations in Italy before you assume that is good news for us!

Should have checked that for typos: sorry.

I want my own child to have two alive and healthy parents. Am I a bad person for wanting this?

I'd like all cv and above staff to be sent home (that's my dh).
I'd like the children that live in a house with someone cv and above to be given the option to be at home and educated by the teachers above.
After that, I'd like some safety measures in place for the rest of us.

I’d rather schools were open, as both a teacher and a parent, but I think this is a really difficult issue. Neither option is ideal IMO and there are risks either way. I do wish that Ofsted and SATS were cancelled this year though. I already feel stressed and uncertain with everything going on, without those looming over me as well.

Evil you minimised the 126 deaths by pointing out they were during lockdown (they weren't all by the way, lots were just after it started) but then go on to trot out the ONS stats which are from the same period!

I keep reading with some incredulity that no one is gathering occupation data at the moment for hospital admissions. But Prof Semple was pretty clear yesterday that an alarming number of hospital admission are young women, many of whom work in care, hospitlaity and education.

I want to be in person - I did do live lessons for A-level during lockdown and it just isn't the same. Many kids need to be in school to learn and for a whole host of reasons. My own son loves school and has benefited massively from going back.

However I am fortunate enough to work in a fabulous school where the head has done everything she can to make things as safe as possible. Our kids have been amazing at wearing their masks and following the rules (we are a pretty standard comprehensive btw). Meetings/cpd are done by electronic briefing or on zoom/teams so no gathering in large groups. Even assemblies are virtual!

It's been bloody hard work as some kids have had to siolate because of contact outside school plus staff needing tests/having to isolate mean cover is... interesting! Luckily, despite being in a tier 3 area we have actually had very few cases in school, no spread from them and only a handful of kids needing to isolate because of the way we organise things.

I am under no illusions that this is not the case in all schools and I genuinely feel for colleagues in those schools

I want to teach in person as I don’t think online teaching is very effective at all. My school did a full remote timetable and and both my children also had full remote teaching but it was nothing like as good as real school.

I don’t think schools are particularly safe but lots of other work places are not safe. Police, supermarket workers, factory workers, health workers, transport workers all have to work in risky environments. I think education is too important to shut down. I can see why people are worried though.

Police, supermarket workers, factory workers, health workers, transport workers all have to work in risky environments.

Have any of those workers been specifically told that PPE is not required and shouldn’t be worn?

The big thing for me at the moment is that this lockdown won't be very effective unless schools are closed short term. The economy is getting screwed even more for a half arsed attempt at getting this under control.

I too would much rather be in school teaching in person but the week before half term we had one year group left! This is not working.

@CarrieBlue

Police, supermarket workers, factory workers, health workers, transport workers all have to work in risky environments.

Have any of those workers been specifically told that PPE is not required and shouldn’t be worn?

We can wear as much PPE as we like at my school and certainly more than most supermarket workers, police etc seem to be wearing.

@ohthegoats

I'd prefer to be in school than be at home.

BUT, I want the power of excluding children who don't follow the risk assessment stuff, I want to have much smaller classes, I want no expectation of staff gatherings/meetings, I want parents in the playground to actually follow the rules too, I want testing on demand.

Teachers are dying and being very ill. It's not on the news because there is some sort of block on school/covid news. Everyone I show the graphs to is surprised, everyone who sees photos of secondary schools is surprised... the population has been gaslit on this, and it's irritating.

This.

@EvilTwins

Teachers are dying and being very ill. It's not on the news because there is some sort of block on school/covid news.

I honestly don’t think this is true. I am a teacher, with friends who are teachers, from a family of teachers, and I do not know of a single school where teachers have died from catching covid at school.

I do.

We can wear as much PPE as we like at my school and certainly more than most supermarket workers, police etc seem to be wearing.

So your school is going directly against the guidance issued to schools. All the other jobs mentioned have not had guidance which specifically excludes wearing ppe and in most cases it is mandatory (particularly supermarkets). I would be reporting members of staff I saw not wearing masks in a supermarket.