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.

OP is young (flatshare) and in primary (one class only) - surely? So not really in the same boat as many posters who express concerns for their health based on being in a 2000 strong school with unmasked teenagers and poorly ventilated rooms.

I don’t want to stop in person teaching BUT I am a pregnant teacher and I am scared. I am entitled to be scared. I am offered no protection other than being told to wash me hands more often. This isn’t safe or reasonable! I need to be able to social distance. I need a smaller class. I need to be allowed to wear a mask. I need to be allowed to keep my windows open and not be told it’s too cold for that. Or I need to not be in class.

@CarrieBlue

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.

If we could make it work, I’m sure our headteacher would let us teach through the window whilst wearing a full hazmat suit! Some school staff wear gloves, mask and visor at school and use Perspex screens in their classroom others just wear masks in the corridors.

There has to be some flexibility in settings.

A small school with small class sizes is very different from a big secondary school with large class sizes that is squished onto a small site.

There are even differences in layouts of sixth form colleges which may make some easier to teach in than others.

As teaching staff we should all be able to recognise the differences and not denigrate each other’s choices. It is tragic that teachers have died, are suffering from long COVID and continue to be put at risk. Granted many others are as well. But there is no point pretending that at secondary & sixth form level we are squished in class rooms with other ‘adults’ some have been told that as they are young and healthy it will not impact upon them and so rules do not matter by their parents.

Perhaps flexibility in settings is the best idea. I do teach in a small specialist setting (not Head of 6th form in a tiny school as suggested upthread - I actually run a specialist Performing Arts college) and we have 35 students in total. I am the only full time teacher though, our building is not large, and the 35 students are basically adults (aged 16-19). I taught my full timetable via zoom in the last lockdown and it was exhausting. I absolutely do not want to go back to that. If the government were to decree that all schools had to close, I would be pretty angry.

That is a huge difference from most teachers then Evil, I like many other secondary teachers teach 375 different kids every week. Of those 74 are aged between 16-19, our class sizes even at KS5 look to be much larger than yours. We have more than 2000 Students on site, and around 200 staff. I am also in the North. The difference in exposure and risks between our 2 settings is huge. ( I also know several teachers who have been really unwell with covid, including a previously very fit and healthy 40 isn who is still off months later),

Eviltwins you honestly have a fucking nerve posting as if you have any comprehension of what life is currently like for the average teacher given the situation you describe. 35 teenagers ffs.

I realise how rude that sounds but honestly, non-teachers see posts from someone saying they teach teenagers and imagine that means the same as other teachers in secondary - it could hardly be more different. Where's the solidarity?

I did teach in mainstream for over 20 years and last time I checked, this was a public forum where anyone could post their opinion. Your experiences are not more valid than mine. And if I have no say because my current setup is different to yours, then you have no right to expect a say in what happens either.

And I am in no way a “non teacher”

You misunderstand, I mean non-teachers would read a post from you saying you are happy for schools to open, and a post from me saying I am concerned, and conclude that we face the same risk each day and you are just more resilient then me. When that isn't the case at all is it. By break time tomorrow I will have taught more teenagers than you have in your whole school. It's pretty clear I am at more risk of catching and spreading the virus.

Ah, I see. I’m still entitled to my opinion though. As a parent of KS4 kids, I also want schools to stay open. And I don’t actually think my view would change if I was at a mainstream school. My current experience is similar to primary, surely - same 35 kids every day (except that they are 6th form so they go out, have part time jobs, get the bus etc) Would you be similarly scathing of a yr 3 teacher’s views?

If the y3 teacher claimed to have the same level of risk as most secondary teachers, yes. But I think people are pretty good at realising the different scenarios in primary and secondary. Which is not to say primary is without risk - children who touch you and adults coming to pick them up and drop them off - but it from different sources.
I return to school next week to teach in a mask (mandated) will see how that goes and whether it impacts on our numbers isolating.

I think you are entitled to say you want to keep teaching face to face, of course : and ceratinly performing arts are so so hard to reach any other way - but early on in the thread you were very critical of worried teachers fears and appeared to minimise deaths, whilst also using very old data ( pretty much contradicted by Prof Calum Semple yesterday) to state teachers aren't at risk and doing the thing that, actually, non teachers do in lots of threads, of suggesting there can be no proof of where teachers caught Covid as if that means schools are not a place where Covid transmits. That's a bit demeaning and shows a certain lack of solidarity and understanding evil, so you lost me there.

If the y3 teacher claimed to have the same level of risk as most secondary teachers, yes.

WOW

So when you said Where's the solidarity?, you meant “why doesn’t everyone else realise that I have it worse?”

Eh? Not at all!

I meant, why don't you show some understanding or sympathy for your fellow teachers who may be very concerned. We are all in it together.

Sorry to hear that @monkeytennis97

Lets' face t, though, most scientist feel that secondaries either should close or are heading that way so this is where the transmission is occurring. that isn't even being denied any more. Your risk is, therefore, actually quite high.

No, and you're just being silly now. The point is that most secondary teachers are facing a similar level of risk (depending on location of course) and you are not

Because 35 is a smaller number than 360 (my personal weekly total - and I'm part time!)

Piggy I think the vast majority of teachers (the ones I know in RL) would rather be in school. Lockdown teaching was hard, but let’s not pretend that a substantial number of teachers didn’t work less hard than they otherwise would have. One ex-colleague was constantly on social media posting about what she was doing - she’s young, married with no children and she and her DH did up their garden and house during that time. She did the last two weeks of term whilst on holiday in another country. And she’s not alone. My own kids had a very disjointed approach, and actually I thought their school did a lot better than lots round here. I don’t want to go back to that, and I don’t know any teachers who do. I genuinely don’t think that we do ourselves any favours as a profession when we try to make out that we have it worse than others. We simply don’t at the moment.

@Piggywaspushed

Eh? Not at all!

I meant, why don't you show some understanding or sympathy for your fellow teachers who may be very concerned. We are all in it together.

That was not aimed at you Piggy!

@Slightlybrwnbanana

Because 35 is a smaller number than 360 (my personal weekly total - and I'm part time!)

I don’t think it’s as simple as that....

Oh, OK, I see. It was just solidarity was my word.

Btw , I have DS1 at uni and DS2 in eyar 12 (we have met on education boards) so I do understand that anxiety. I ahve that sort of terrible paradox I am living with at the moment of wanting and expecting DS's teachers to carry on regardless,and not wanting him to have to SI, and feeling like I am not safe in my workplace. That said his school only has two year groups, kept entirely separate and open plan classrooms, and separate toilets and lots of other measures so I think they are doing quite well.