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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

My wife's school has 7 school years - reception to year 6. (210 Pupils) She will be in twice a week to support key worker children (they have 40 in school) They need 3 teachers in to cover that. On top of that she has to deliver online learning, 2 zoom lessons a day, she is Senco (Special Educational needs)1 day a week and schools direct leader, training new teachers who are in the cluster.

There is a difference between the best and worst but there always is. I will say she works way too hard and from today will be working even harder, like now at 7.20pm still working away. It's like 5 days a week until 10pm most nights and lots of work across the weekend. You now need live lessons, online lessons, key worker lessons, cover and support for those that are struggling or need additional support.

I really get that it is difficult for people to understand how hard most of them work but it is really frustrating to see all the negativity against them and accusations of lazy, skiving morons. Teaching has one of the highest turn overs of staff in the country and do you know why, because these bright eyed new staff join thinking it's 9-3 Monday to Friday with 13 weeks a year holiday when in fact it's 7.30am to 10pm 5 days a week plus 4 or more hours at the weekend and working during holidays, oh yeah lets start at £20k a yer as well. Most new teachers quit within 2 years. My wife is a schools direct leader and she says the reality behind the role and what people think is so far apart it's embarrassing.

What is interesting is the amount of parents when expected to teach their kids for more than 10 minutes even when on Furlough cannot do it but still accuse teachers of being useless, long holidays, waste of space, skivers etc. I do believe more and more people are starting to appreciate what it takes to be a teacher and a good one at that but there are lots of people out there with no idea.

Today my wife got some abuse on school chat because by 9.20am there was not a full suite of work on their for the kids, she had official confirmation at 8.45pm last night from the school of next steps and was in school all day today trying to cover as well as get a weeks worth of lesson up online having already done that for in person lessons which just do not work in an online situation. I mean my wife will have to put up with Me working from Home, both my boys working from home and her working from home. It's in no way easy for anyone.

While the current situation has shown the good in people it has also really highlighted a lot more people than I would have realised who are total arseholes with zero comprehension of what other people do or have to do.
 
fundy said:
The numbers reported each day cover a variety of testing dates as many tests results are delayed

The 80k is people who took the actual test on the 29th
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Ah right. When he said it I thought that that was the number of positives as that’s what’s usually given - not sure why the number tested would be significant enough to be the lead stat in respect of the decision to L/D. Anyway. Not quibbling.
 
road2ruin said:
my experience is not quite as bad as yours however I completely agree with this. Was the decision to close schools left too late? Yes, should have been made weeks before when it was pretty clear the direction this was going.

However any school blaming the government for the short notice is purely trying to gloss over their own short comings. Schools might have been closed at a moments notice at any point since September so surely should have had (or been working on) a robust remote learning system. This fiasco not only shows those in power in a bad light but also the schools scrabbling round claiming that they weren’t given enough time to prepare.
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See it's post like these that get my goat, you think, you assume, you guess, as I mention above she is already working 70 or 80 hours a week just trying to manage the work load on top of missing teachers due to isolation, covering classes and you think they should be prepared, ready and have work there just in case we shut down again when the government say all is well.

Being a school teacher is a bit like being a football manager, everyone is an expert but has never actually done the job themself...
 
Reemul said:
See it's post like these that get my goat, you think, you assume, you guess, as I mention above she is already working 70 or 80 hours a week just trying to manage the work load on top of missing teachers due to isolation, covering classes and you think they should be prepared, ready and have work there just in case we shut down again when the government say all is well.

Being a school teacher is a bit like being a football manager, everyone is an expert but has never actually done the job themself...
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The most under appreciated job in Britain.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Wife has been on a zoom call. Apparently they appear to have nearly 150 kids who parents are suddenly key workers coming in tomorrow. In the first lockdown they maxed out at 45. Simply parents passing responsibility (imo).

Only 2 Covid beds left in ICU again and deaths in the last few days up, even on the first wave. Staff knackered, morale low and it already feels a long slog.
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Couple we know with 9 yr old at school. She is deemed a key worker providing foot care services to care homes and getting involved in vaccinations; he’s a tradesman. They’ll claim their lad has to go to school as hubby can’t stay home for childcare. Truth is that as they are both self-employed either could take time away from work to do childcare. But they won’t and the school will be expected to do that.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Ah right. When he said it I thought that that was the number of positives as that’s what’s usually given - not sure why the number tested would be significant enough to be the lead stat in respect of the decision to L/D. Anyway. Not quibbling.
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In both cases its people who tested positive, the difference is one is day tests reported, the other is the day the tests were taken
 
Reemul said:
See it's post like these that get my goat, you think, you assume, you guess, as I mention above she is already working 70 or 80 hours a week just trying to manage the work load on top of missing teachers due to isolation, covering classes and you think they should be prepared, ready and have work there just in case we shut down again when the government say all is well.

Being a school teacher is a bit like being a football manager, everyone is an expert but has never actually done the job themself...
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One thing I’ve been wondering about the schools. Has the government provided additional funding to your wife’s school over the last four months say, to enable the school to recruit additional teachers, TAs and support assistants? As a mitigation for what has happened? Has the school had additional funding to increase accommodation - so to have built such a portacabins in the playground or for booking alternative accommodation such as halls or hotel conference rooms somthat classes could be split. Was anything of that sort done over the last few months?

I hope you get that I am supportive and you get where I’m coming from.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Couple we know with 9 yr old at school. She is deemed a key worker providing foot care services to care homes and getting involved in vaccinations; he’s a tradesman. They’ll claim their lad has to go to school as hubby can’t stay home for childcare. Truth is that as they are both self-employed either could take time away from work to do childcare. But they won’t and the school will be expected to do that.
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Can you really sit in judgement of this couple? Can they really take time away being self employed? What if the first Lockdown has left them penniless or caused issues in their relationship?

Unless they are breaking any rules, and going by their professions they aren’t then it’s not an issue.

Nice display of Christian Spirit! This forum is getting worse for curtain twitchers!
 
clubchamp98 said:
Definitely true when you look in the list of key workers for the vaccine.!
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My mum has been a teacher all my life and I've seen how hard she works during the "holidays" etc

Going into school for revision classes for her students

Lesson planning

Lots of other stuff

Even now she works 3 days a week semi retired and she working flat out as always
 
fundy said:
In both cases its people who tested positive, the difference is one is day tests reported, the other is the day the tests were taken
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So the 80,000 figure (bit too round to be accurate) was an estimate of total positives recorded on the 29th as a result of tests carried out over previous days?
 
pauljames87 said:
My mum has been a teacher all my life and I've seen how hard she works during the "holidays" etc

Going into school for revision classes for her students

Lesson planning

Lots of other stuff

Even now she works 3 days a week semi retired and she working flat out as always
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Has always been this way.
Dedicated staff are taken for granted far to often.
Some of the comments from parents on my daughters wats app group are really very poor.
 
pauldj42 said:
Can you really sit in judgement of this couple? Can they really take time away being self employed? What if the first Lockdown has left them penniless or caused issues in their relationship?

Unless they are breaking any rules, and going by their professions they aren’t then it’s not an issue.

Nice display of Christian Spirit! This forum is getting worse for curtain twitchers!
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Yes they could. Without any difficulty. Well most certainly she could. They are far from penniless and got multiple grants first time round. Just simply pointing out that I fear many parents will expect schools to do more than they should have to do. If we are all going to pull together we might all have to make some quite significant sacrifices. Am I being too judgemental - certainly yes - but we know them too well...?
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Yes they could. Without any difficulty. Well most certainly she could. They are far from penniless and got multiple grants first time round. Just simply pointing out that I fear many parents will expect schools to do more than they should have to do. If we are all going to pull together we might all have to make some quite significant sacrifices. Am I being too judgemental - certainly yes - but we know them too well...?
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Are they breaking any laws? The schools were yesterday expecting to teach every kid, They might have also made arrangements to work over the next few weeks. Sitting in judgement is poor.

Their kid is their responsibility not yours and just like it was wrong for people to question you a parent, it’s wrong for you to question them.
 
Reemul said:
See it's post like these that get my goat, you think, you assume, you guess, as I mention above she is already working 70 or 80 hours a week just trying to manage the work load on top of missing teachers due to isolation, covering classes and you think they should be prepared, ready and have work there just in case we shut down again when the government say all is well.

Being a school teacher is a bit like being a football manager, everyone is an expert but has never actually done the job themself...
Click to expand...

I know the school, it’s tiny, 90 pupils in total across 3 years. That means it’s very easy to see who is in and who isn’t. They’ve done very well on the number of Covid cases and none of the staff are isolating and so none are covering other classes. I could understand your comment based on some other, larger schools that have a large numbers of isolations but this simply isn’t the case with this particular school.

There should have been a plan for remote learning, there doesn’t seem to have been. The good news is that due to the number of parents complaining they are going to review their teaching practice for next week so hopefully things will improve.
 
pauldj42 said:
Are they breaking any laws? The schools were yesterday expecting to teach every kid, They might have also made arrangements to work over the next few weeks. Sitting in judgement is poor.

Their kid is their responsibility not yours and just like it was wrong for people to question you a parent, it’s wrong for you to question them.
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I’m not going to,go,into,it further other than comment that they could easily look after their own child thereby making it easier for the school to look after children who absolutely need to be at school. Nothing more than that.
 
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