Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Covid-19

Bon courage.

FWIW, I think the sniping at the teaching profession that's been going on in certain sectors of the media is a disgrace. It's not unreasonable for teachers to want to be sure that it is safe to go back, for the kids, for the staff and for the parents.

If nothing else, one might hope that the experience of home schooling has enabled some to have a greater appreciation of the job that teachers do.

I'm a third (possibly more) generation Windsorian so grew up around the College and often played sports against them when the chinless wonders would routinely hand us our arses. The College would let our school use their facilities and would also lend us kit on occasion. The kids would often be seen around town but it was not recommended that you mess with them as most of the chinless wonders were as tough as nuts, possibly as a by-product of having to wear that uniform! A good number of them were local kids on bursaries also the first time I saw non-white kids.

Not too sure why it OK to call a group of kids chinless wonders because their parents are well of. Maybe it would kinder not to.

You're absolutely right, it was unforgivably crass of me to imply that students at Eton are not absolutely normal young people, despite the wealth and privilege their position brings. I have very little to base the prejudice on either, in my life I have only known two old Etonians, one was an arrogant thug of whom I was (as an adult) genuinely frightened, the other was a psychological mess, deeply disturbed by the treatment he received at the school (he was gay). But I'm sure these two were exceptions and all the others were fine. Please accept my apologies.

Don't forget Boris, Cameron and Rees Mogg to name but a few. But again, probably all the others were fine.

It must be nice to have the luxury of being able to pick and choose if you feel like going into work or not while the tax payer is picking up 100% of your salary for months on end - they get part of July and all August off as it is.

Is there 100% guarantee of safety? - No, but millions of far less privileged workers are having to get on with it.

The public appreciate teachers and will cut them a lot of slack until they start taking the mickey a bit too much.

Who's picking and chosing?

Despite what the Daily Mail will tell you, the Government made the decsision to close the schools to all but the kids of keyworkers, and the Government will decide when the schools are to re-open. And who sets the school holidays? I certainly don't get any say it in. I think you'll find that's the Government too.

Once the decision is made to fully/partially open schools, we,as individual teachers, then have the exact same rights as any other employee and have to decide whether we think that the working environment is going to be safe or not. No different to any other profession.

And do you really think teachers are just sitting around doing 'eff all' at the moment?

And as I often say, if teaching is such a cushy job, why are we crying out for teachers? It's such a privileged position, and after paying for your own training for 4 years, and 12 years on the job, you're almost guaranteed to get slightly less than the national average wage.........

I would like to know what is meant by “safe”, which can only ever be a relative term because nothing is 100% safe and the world is full of risks. Safer than what, or as safe as last year, or probability of contracting Covid-19 less than 1 in a million or ? How and who would measure it anyway?

Unions have a raft of H&SW staff and schools are risk assessment crazy so where is the hard(ish) evidence to demonstrate that schools are not going to be safe enough should they return in a controlled manner from June. Too much speculative angst from unions, journalists and opposition politicians for my liking and not enough proper debate about what to do next and thereafter.

I think the general consensus at the moment (according to all the government guidelines) is to keep at least 2 metres apart, meet outdoors and if that is not possible, then wear PPE to maintain safety.

In shops and the like, it's a bit easier to enforce a 2m distance, and to stagger entry into the premises to avoid overcrowding. Staff can wear PPE and are shielded (in certain locations) behind perspex screens.

The big issue is how we try and replicate that in schools. My school management team are currently meeting on a daily basis (they're doing in in a double classroom now, as remotely just wasn't working) to try and work through possible scenarios/workarounds so that we can keep staff, students and parents as safe as possible.

We've recently contacted all parents in my year group (yr10 - 280kids) about returning to school. About 35% are saying that they will not be allowing their children back due to safety concerns, or that they have compromised immunity themselves and don't want to risk their child spreading COVID to them. We then have the issue of staff who have had the 'self isolating letter' from the NHS due to their own health/immunity issues. My 'oppo' on the pastoral team has been told that she is not allowed back in until September at the very earliest.

We also have the logistics of getting the kids into school - the vast majority of our kids use public transport and we have about 10 double deckers arrive each day. It's impossible to impose social distancing on a 'standing room' only bus.

At the moment, all we have to go on is the Government information, that is coming through sporadically, and is rather vague and ambiguous. What we need is clear guidance and direction, but there's not much hope of that.

And to be honest, if there is not 'hardish' evidence to show that 32 kids and two to three adults in a room is not safe, then what are we all doing in frigging lockdown. My pub on a Friday night is twice the size of my classroom, and we're lucky if there's 20 people in there.

Seriously, I can't wait to get back into school, see all my kids and get on with my job. This 'remote teaching' thing is doing my head in. I'm getting 200 emails a day (honestly) and it's really hard not being able to support the kids in the usual manner. As you'll appreciate, school is so much more than learning stuff.

This is a really good point, we have a situation where the risks aren't really known or easily quantifiable, and the impacts on individual people seem to vary wildly. Some people only have minor symptoms, others are laid low for weeks on end - and for children who develop Kawasaki disease it can be extremely concerning.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31129-6/fulltext

There is a big challenge trying to set an acceptable risk level that most people would see as reasonable. Each of us have a different perspective on risk, and may even be a variance between the risk we are prepared to accept for ourselves and those that we think others should accept.

The way through this has to be through discussion and negotiation rather than simple oppositional posturing, but I do think it would be unreasonable to expect teachers, parents, and children to take on a degree of risk that we would find unacceptable for ourselves.