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We as staff work in education because we care for children and want to see them succeed. Throughout this whole pandemic, school staff have been portrayed as though we are doing nothing and that we have let the pupils down. 1)
Primarily due to the lost learning that occurred during lockdown 1. Schools remained open for key-worker and vulnerable during this period, teachers still provided remote learning, so the claim that schools were shut, are wrong. 2)
Schools can only use what resources are made available to them. It is unfair for schools & staff to be held accountable for this - the govt are the ones that did not provide laptops for pupils who could not access the work. 3)
They were the ones that didn’t want FSM to the most vulnerable pupils - yet they claim to care for kids. Look at the UNICEF intervention, did the govt care for those kids too? 4)
It’s very easy for the govt to pin the blame on schools, then use that as a reasoning for keeping them fully open (to prevent future lost learning). This is a ploy to get public support and to pressure schools into falling in line. 5)
Also, the media utilise the perception that teaching is an easy profession, due to us having holidays to state that ‘lazy teachers want another break’. Leading to greater discontent from some parents and members of the public, if a teacher dares to ask for safer conditions. 6)
The most recent PR stunt is to claim that mass-testing will be available for secondary schools and colleges. The govt informed schools through a media leak (coincidental) and gave them 2 weeks to implement this (over their school holidays). 7)
When they did mass testing in Liverpool, it took months with army support. Yet schools can manage this in a fortnight? What they failed to mention was that school staff & volunteers would perform this medical treatment with minimal training. 40,000 volunteers going into the.. 8)
Petri-dishes that are schools, not likely. If schools dare to complain, after the govt have ‘tried to help us’ then we face backlash. Questions emerge as to the reliability of the lateral flow tests, reportedly it picks up 48.9% of asymptomatic cases, which pupils often are. 9)
So if a false-negative comes back, they will then return to class like normal and we are to be happy with this? The focus of the mass-testing is to keep kids in school, not to make them safe. Isolating only the positive cases (many will be missed). 10)
The govt have pressured parents into sending their kids in or be fined, or removing them from roll. This way, the attendance rate of the school does not decline massively, so we cannot argue any differently. So CV families have to face potential death or a huge fine. 11)
Why not make schools safer so pupils can come into school? The govt rhetoric that they are ‘keeping schools open at all costs’ is largely not for the benefit of pupils. It’s for the economy and enabling parents to continue working. 12)
I feel for the hospitality sector that has largely been ruined, they took all the precautions yet faced closure. The likelihood of Covid infection was a lot lower in those venues than in a school, yet schools where it evidently spreads remain open. 13)
Schools cannot do much more without support and are fundamentally being let down by the DfE and govt. Staff are being exposed unnecessarily, lives are being lost and nothing has been done for 4 months. 14)
Despite the way teachers are presented, we care for pupils, want them excel and enjoy teaching them. We are not after extra time off and would appreciate public support in our time of need. Thank you for reading. #makeeducationsafe End.
