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Any Other School Staff Going On Strike?

lawe toppa said:
Mate have tried getting hold of anyone from the council after 3pm on a Sunday afternoon??
I emailed in to the school and the head rang me at 9pm tonight to which I was grateful.
He could not say too much but is hoping for a solution tomorrow to get the school opened this week and totally understood where I was coming from.
It did seem to me that the tail is wagging the dog and he seemed genuinely upset about the situation but that still didnt help us

No isn't the idea to get the rapid tests and the kids in bubbles to minimise the impact of potential outbreaks
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Theyve been talking about rapid tests since the summer. I won't hold my breath on it ever happening.

Schools bubbles are generally 30 kids or more iirc. Very hard to avoid isolation there if you get a positive test. Its a nightmare situation for everybody.
 

lawe toppa said:
Well my daughters school tomorrow does not, we found out via a txt message today at 3pm...disgusting.
The school is closed tomorrow to all children so how many key workers will be missing from work and so on?
I'm not saying there is an easy solution but as I've stated if all other key workers did this then we would be in a mess
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You need to point fingers at the government, not the school.
 
Many primary schools in and around Carlisle not opening due to insufficient staff. Unions are leaning on the health and safety at work act.
 
MonkeyLove said:
Everything on this thread is bollocks. Random people making assessments about safety in schools compared to supermarkets etc... without data or expertise.

The only thing worth looking at is that SAGE told the government on the 22nd December to close schools due to the risk. They do have the data and expertise so that’s good enough for me
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sage don’t even know what it is or how it is transmitted.
 
Hansel said:
To those saying why should teachers be prioritised for vaccination the reason is quite straightforward. They are the only profession expected to work without any mitigation against this virus. No social distancing, no masks, no perspex panels etc. If you go into a supermarket the lass behind the till is almost certain to be sat behind a screen. Most of the customers she deals with will be in contact with her for only a few minutes and will be wearing a mask. Compare that to a teacher sat in a classroom with no distancing for hours on end or corridors which are absolutely rammed.
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A lot of Trusts and GPs have vaccinated their vaccinators first to ensure they are protected. Has she not had hers yet?
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Emma Chisset said:
Here is the letter he sent to the school for those who have interest in the reasons.

Dear Head Teacher,

Re: Health & Safety

I am writing to you following the increase in transmission and infection rates currently recorded across England. I am very concerned about this and the dangers it presents to me and my family. I am of an ethnic group which the government and the Department for Education has identified as being at disproportionately higher risk from COVID-19 (
You must be logged on to see external links
). I also suffer from mild asthma and am in an age category more at risk from the disease. I am concerned that I do not know whether the school's risk assessments related to the virus pandemic have taken these vulnerabilities into account and whether they have sufficiently identified the unique threats that BAME workers face. Has it been considered whether the risks to health are too great for workers to be in those roles?

You are, I am sure, aware that you have legal duties to protect the health, safety and welfare of your staff and pupils. Those duties arise under the following legislation: -

  • Sections 2 and 3 of the Health & Safety Act 1974

  • Regulations 3 and 8 of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999

  • Regulation 4 of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

  • Regulation 4 of the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992

  • Regulation 7 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
The most recent advice from SAGE is that schools should not open in January other than for children of key workers and vulnerable children. This is because the scientific advice is that it is not safe for schools to open. There are new variants of Covid-19 that are highly infectious and infection rates have increased significantly since schools closed.

I appreciate that measures have been in place since September to allow the school to open but according to SAGE those measures may no longer be sufficient. They state in their most recent report: -

The introduction of Tier 4 measures in England combined with the school holidays will be informative of the strength of measures required to control the new variant but analysis of this will not be possible until mid-January.

Based on the above I do not believe that it is safe for me to return to Gasworks Lane Primary School after it has reopened to all pupils.

If I do attend Gasworks Lane Primary School after it has reopened to all pupils, I believe that this will present a serious and imminent danger to my health and safety.

I am therefore writing to inform you that I am exercising my contractual right not to attend an unsafe place of work. I believe that not attending work in the current circumstances is an appropriate step for me to take for the following reasons:
  1. The dangers that are preventing me from attending work are the risk of contracting coronavirus and or spreading coronavirus to others. As detailed above, I am a black worker with other vulnerabilities who is disproportionately at risk from the virus.


  2. The person(s) I am seeking to protect are myself, my family, our pupils, their families, my colleagues, their families and members of the public.

  3. I believe that this danger is serious because coronavirus infection is potentially fatal and has already resulted in more than 73,512 deaths in the UK with a significant up surge in recent weeks.

  4. I believe that, if I were to attend work, the danger would be imminent because before Christmas the highest infection rates were in children of school age, and the new variant may be more transmissible amongst students than previously.

  5. I will be happy to return to the workplace once SAGE is satisfied that the R rate has decreased, scientific advice has been produced on safety measures required to make schools more “Covid secure”, risk assessments have been updated (particularly with regard to my vulnerabilities as detailed above) and any necessary further safety measures implemented.
In the meantime, I am willing to attend school to work as scheduled tomorrow morning (Mon 4th January 2020) as the school will not have opened to all pupils. Additionally, I am of course willing to carry out any of my duties or alternative agreed duties at my grade that can be undertaken from my home, and to be in school supporting provision and the learning of key worker and vulnerable children where necessary.

Yours sincerely,
Click to expand...

No offence but that letter is a load of bollocks. Sounds like nothing other than trying to justify a couple of weeks off work
 
I'm so glad I don't work in a school anyone, I'd hate to imagine the mess behind the scenes trying to get communication from this joke of a government to then make plans as to what they need to do in the school and then somehow get the message out to parents in time.
The whole school thing has been massively messed up through no fault of the schools.

It's been blatantly obvious schools going back in the first place was not safe, it's not the kids that are going to get sick or die for the most part, it's their parents, grand parents, teachers, support staff, everyone who need to be fit and well to keep the school running, they are the ones who can get ill and or die. There are a lot of older teachers and if I were them I'd be very scared to go to work, knowing it's a question if when, not if, they get infected and they just need to hope they don't fall ill.

I'm also glad my son is too young for school as I imagine this is just as stressful on the parents too.
 
Sat and read through the rest of the thread when I got up, got to say 90% of posters on the side of teachers is nice to see. To anyone who has to go in to work at a school today, thankyou for the work you do and as this thread shows the general public do care, you always have a few who want the free childcare to look after their little cherebs.
FWIW my 5 year old daughter will not be going in, Boris and chums can feck off with his one rule for London, one rule for the rest of us, I've lined up a weeks worth of quality home schooling on top of anything she may be provided, stay strong folk and do what feels right for you and your own.
 
Kenna said:
I'm so glad I don't work in a school anyone, I'd hate to imagine the mess behind the scenes trying to get communication from this joke of a government to then make plans as to what they need to do in the school and then somehow get the message out to parents in time.
The whole school thing has been massively messed up through no fault of the schools.

It's been blatantly obvious schools going back in the first place was not safe, it's not the kids that are going to get sick or die for the most part, it's their parents, grand parents, teachers, support staff, everyone who need to be fit and well to keep the school running, they are the ones who can get ill and or die. There are a lot of older teachers and if I were them I'd be very scared to go to work, knowing it's a question if when, not if, they get infected and they just need to hope they don't fall ill.

I'm also glad my son is too young for school as I imagine this is just as stressful on the parents too.
Click to expand...

My lass has been worried sick about it since the last day of term before Xmas, and still at 11pm last night didn't know what to do, or what was going to happen. Teachers in her school in their 50s and 60s absolutely stressed to the point it's making them ill as they don't know what to do for the best, don't want to let anyone down, but if they make a stand united it will be more effective. Some of the posts on here just amplify things
 
Emma Chisset said:
Here is the letter he sent to the school for those who have interest in the reasons.

Dear Head Teacher,

Re: Health & Safety

I am writing to you following the increase in transmission and infection rates currently recorded across England. I am very concerned about this and the dangers it presents to me and my family. I am of an ethnic group which the government and the Department for Education has identified as being at disproportionately higher risk from COVID-19 (
You must be logged on to see external links
). I also suffer from mild asthma and am in an age category more at risk from the disease. I am concerned that I do not know whether the school's risk assessments related to the virus pandemic have taken these vulnerabilities into account and whether they have sufficiently identified the unique threats that BAME workers face. Has it been considered whether the risks to health are too great for workers to be in those roles?

You are, I am sure, aware that you have legal duties to protect the health, safety and welfare of your staff and pupils. Those duties arise under the following legislation: -

  • Sections 2 and 3 of the Health & Safety Act 1974

  • Regulations 3 and 8 of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999

  • Regulation 4 of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

  • Regulation 4 of the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992

  • Regulation 7 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
The most recent advice from SAGE is that schools should not open in January other than for children of key workers and vulnerable children. This is because the scientific advice is that it is not safe for schools to open. There are new variants of Covid-19 that are highly infectious and infection rates have increased significantly since schools closed.

I appreciate that measures have been in place since September to allow the school to open but according to SAGE those measures may no longer be sufficient. They state in their most recent report: -

The introduction of Tier 4 measures in England combined with the school holidays will be informative of the strength of measures required to control the new variant but analysis of this will not be possible until mid-January.

Based on the above I do not believe that it is safe for me to return to Gasworks Lane Primary School after it has reopened to all pupils.

If I do attend Gasworks Lane Primary School after it has reopened to all pupils, I believe that this will present a serious and imminent danger to my health and safety.

I am therefore writing to inform you that I am exercising my contractual right not to attend an unsafe place of work. I believe that not attending work in the current circumstances is an appropriate step for me to take for the following reasons:
  1. The dangers that are preventing me from attending work are the risk of contracting coronavirus and or spreading coronavirus to others. As detailed above, I am a black worker with other vulnerabilities who is disproportionately at risk from the virus.


  2. The person(s) I am seeking to protect are myself, my family, our pupils, their families, my colleagues, their families and members of the public.

  3. I believe that this danger is serious because coronavirus infection is potentially fatal and has already resulted in more than 73,512 deaths in the UK with a significant up surge in recent weeks.

  4. I believe that, if I were to attend work, the danger would be imminent because before Christmas the highest infection rates were in children of school age, and the new variant may be more transmissible amongst students than previously.

  5. I will be happy to return to the workplace once SAGE is satisfied that the R rate has decreased, scientific advice has been produced on safety measures required to make schools more “Covid secure”, risk assessments have been updated (particularly with regard to my vulnerabilities as detailed above) and any necessary further safety measures implemented.
In the meantime, I am willing to attend school to work as scheduled tomorrow morning (Mon 4th January 2020) as the school will not have opened to all pupils. Additionally, I am of course willing to carry out any of my duties or alternative agreed duties at my grade that can be undertaken from my home, and to be in school supporting provision and the learning of key worker and vulnerable children where necessary.

Yours sincerely,
Click to expand...

duff_man said:
No offence but that letter is a load of bollocks. Sounds like nothing other than trying to justify a couple of weeks off work
Click to expand...
It’s also really weird that there’s apparently a bloke on a Watford forum sending exactly the same email for his wife.

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Baloo said:
It’s also really weird that there’s apparently a bloke on a Watford forum sending exactly the same email for his wife.

You must be logged on to see external links
Click to expand...

No 'weird' or 'apparently' about it. It's a generic email drafted by the Union.

It'll be going to head teachers up and down the country.
 
AC Mack said:
There will be bits that can be amended for personal circumstances, I imagine.

It's been downloaded over 5,000 times according to the BBC.
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I'm surprised it's only 5000 times considering how many teachers aren't in today at my kids' primary.
 
Baloo said:
Ok. I mean the oddest thing about it is that they both have the same avatar, but that could just be a coincidence as well.
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Most of the stuff the poster in question puts on here seem really odd, claims to come from Cuba etc.... It’s like they are an agitator of sorts trying to influence others
 
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