Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

lulublue22

CruelSummer wrote: »

The points you’ve made there are all fair enough, thanks. If you’ve genuine concerns re the level of teaching support you got while schools were closed - I suggest you should take it up with the teacher / principal. Signing off isn’t what was required & should definitely be followed up on, considering everyone else was working day and night for all of the latest lockdown. There were guidelines issued from the Department and while purposely vague to allow teachers adapt between pre recorded videos, live videos, online apps - ‘signing off’ wasn’t listed as an option.
The media have also played a role - Fran McNulty and others on Prime Time in January suggesting teachers just couldn’t be bothered going in when cases were at 8,000 a day was sickening. As if schools wouldn’t contribute to spread with rates that high & teachers / schools then held accountable once again by Joe public.
Most teachers I know worked very hard during lockdown - but struggled to get feedback / work uploaded from parents/pupils as time went on.

There seems to be an acceptance in Ireland that teachers are fair game to be ridiculed, criticised and their profession belittled. The media & government have only fuelled this since Christmas in particular. It will be hard to maintain the best educators in the profession if this is the kind of abuse that they’ll have to put up with on top of all of the other challenges on a daily basis in the classroom. At the end of the day, most teachers are just trying to protect the children as much as possible during this time & help them continue with their education and development as best they can.

Any parent I have dealings with are appreciative of what teachers and the schools have done over the lockdowns. Most and I say most not all have done their best in challenging circumstances. There is however a cohort including the media and those in gov who feed into the divisive language around teaching / teachers which in my opinion has gotten worse / more accepted over the last year. Boards itself has a well established history of teacher bashing - any thread that discusses anything related to teaching and or schools will inevitably be derailed with snide comments on pay , holidays, pup, sense of entitlement etc etc . It seems perfectly acceptable to mods to allow that to continue. I don’t think there is another profession that experiences the vitriol expressed on this site as teachers do. Personally it’s baffling - teaching is open to every one if the conditions are that great go and train. There has always been a certain level of anti - teacher sentiment in Ireland but it has escalated hugely since the pandemic.

seamus

Hellrazer wrote: »

It has me baffled aswell. What I think it means is basically get stuffed all 18-64 year old are being treated the same.

It's been clarified that "crowded settings" basically refers to travellers, Roma and the homeless; people for whom it would be difficult to get them to attend vaccination centres.

They'll be done "in parallel" by sending vaccination teams to them. It's about 50,000 people in total, but it could take a few weeks to identify them all.

JDD

seamus wrote: »

It's been clarified that "crowded settings" basically refers to travellers, Roma and the homeless; people for whom it would be difficult to get them to attend vaccination centres.

They'll be done "in parallel" by sending vaccination teams to them. It's about 50,000 people in total, but it could take a few weeks to identify them all.

Ohhhh. Hmmm. They should have just said "live in crowded settings" rather than "live and work in crowded settings".

I still don't agree with the new list. I'd be happy enough if 50-65 year olds were vaccinated first, and then below that people who work in exposed settings in priority to people working from home. Clearly if you work in an exposed setting you are both more likely to catch the virus and more likely to spread it. Vaccinating those workers first makes more sense to me than vaccinating by age with no regard to whether one person is vastly more likely to catch and spread the virus over another who can limit their contacts.

thebronze14

lulublue22 wrote: »

Any parent I have dealings with are appreciative of what teachers and the schools have done over the lockdowns. Most and I say most not all have done their best in challenging circumstances. There is however a cohort including the media and those in gov who feed into the divisive language around teaching / teachers which in my opinion has gotten worse / more accepted over the last year. Boards itself has a well established history of teacher bashing - any thread that discusses anything related to teaching and or schools will inevitably be derailed with snide comments on pay , holidays, pup, sense of entitlement etc etc . It seems perfectly acceptable to mods to allow that to continue. I don’t think there is another profession that experiences the vitriol expressed on this site as teachers do. Personally it’s baffling - teaching is open to every one if the conditions are that great go and train. There has always been a certain level of anti - teacher sentiment in Ireland but it has escalated hugely since the pandemic.

I qualified in 2008 and to be honest until the last 5 years I hadn't really noticed it. I got abuse from a taxi driver once about my job but I feel that he was on the wind up more than being nasty! Recently online it has been toxic regarding teachers. People don't seem to realise that the holidays are for the benefit of the kids as they can only work so long without needing a break. I think it's pretty bad in society in general as people think they have the right to say what they want about whoever they want eg racism, refugees, anti lgbt rhetoric etc. Teachers are just another one to add to the list. Generally people who have nothing much happening in their lives and feel the need to belittle others

seamus

JDD wrote: »

Ohhhh. Hmmm. They should have just said "live in crowded settings" rather than "live and work in crowded settings".

They might expand it to fruit pickers and meat factory workers too.

"Crowded settings" is just a polite way of saying, "Everyone who may not be capable of booking their own vaccination due to educational, language, legal or social barriers".

SusanC10

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/covid-19-european-court-backs-mandatory-child-vaccinations-1.4532166

Interesting ruling from the ECHR today.

"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has backed rules in the Czech Republic banning unvaccinated children from schools in a judgment that may have broader implications for the debate about mandatory jabs against Covid-19."

deiseindublin

Jesus, meanwhile in Ireland, teachers that got the vaccine only did so by jumping the queue, you couldn't make it up.

jimmytwotimes 2013

https://twitter.com/NaAmadan/status/1380052748855607296?s=19

lulublue22

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/NaAmadan/status/1380052748855607296?s=19

Love that a/c it’s great craic.

vid36

Good luck to everyone back in school today. Let's hope any increase in cases in within manageable levels.

SusanC10

Both our kids back today for the first time since Dec 18th. Hoping they are having good days.

Tokyo

Mod: khalessi - threadban lifted.

JDD

We haven't actually seen much of an increase from having the primary school/leaving cert kids back have we? We seemed to be hovering at the 500 a day for about a month, and now we're hovering at the 450 a day level. Unless of course having the primary schools open has resulted in us stagnating our infection rate, whereas it would have gone down quicker had the schools remained closed.

What say you teachers? Was it the right decision after all to open the primary schools? And I don't mean that as a finger pointing or anything, I'm genuinely interested in whether anxiety levels in primary school teachers has reduced over the past six weeks or whether there is still significant stress in teaching face to face every day?

KerryConnor

I feel hopeful this week. Everyone delighted to be back. Cases low and very few schools cases so far. Too early to be saying it i know but I don't have the same snowballing feeling as before Easter.

It's been a strange experience watching the teacher bashing the last few weeks. We really are like the bankers during the recession.
Someone posted above that it's grating on parents having to do teachers job. And I think that's the crux of it. I know a couple of my friends were literally loosing their minds with the kids home. And the only group they could blame was the teachers. Even tho teachers have feck all to do with schools being closed. The only time they refused to go in was mid Jan when we had highest case numbers in the world.
I personally don't care where i am on vaccine rollout and was embarrassed by unions last week. But the lack of empathy towards people who are anxious about working in a crowded room with others not wearing masks was a bit sickening. If it had been the SNAs or factory workers i think they'd have got support but teachers are so disliked there was a pile on.

Jinglejangle69

KerryConnor wrote: »

I feel hopeful this week. Everyone delighted to be back. Cases low and very few schools cases so far. Too early to be saying it i know but I don't have the same snowballing feeling as before Easter.

It's been a strange experience watching the teacher bashing the last few weeks. We really are like the bankers during the recession.
Someone posted above that it's grating on parents having to do teachers job. And I think that's the crux of it. I know a couple of my friends were literally loosing their minds with the kids home. And the only group they could blame was the teachers. Even tho teachers have feck all to do with schools being closed. The only time they refused to go in was mid Jan when we had highest case numbers in the world.
I personally don't care where i am on vaccine rollout and was embarrassed by unions last week. But the lack of empathy towards people who are anxious about working in a crowded room with others not wearing masks was a bit sickening. If it had been the SNAs or factory workers i think they'd have got support but teachers are so disliked there was a pile on.

When has factory workers, meat plant workers, food production workers, car garage workers, Gardai etc etc got support during the pandemic?

And once again I see the usual it's parents who are sick of their kids and need to send them to school mantra been peddled again by a teacher.

I'm sorry but when teachers constantly come on here saying parents don't want to mind their kids and thats why they give out about teachers and the schools been closed don't be surprised when parents give a little pushback.

Fair is fair.

KerryConnor

I have kids myself and would HATE schools to close again. It was long hard few months for kids and parents having schools closed. It actually brought tears to my eyes seeing my teens heading up the road Monday morning. But my point it i think teachers were getting blamed in the absence of anyone else to blame.

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

When has factory workers, meat plant workers, food production workers, car garage workers, Gardai etc etc got support?

And once again I see the usual it's parents who are sick of their kids and need to send them to school mantra been peddled again by a teacher.

I'm sorry but when teachers constantly come on here saying parents don't want to mind their kids and thats why they give out about teachers and the schools been closed don't be surprised when parents give a little pushback.

Fair is fair.

Jinglejangle69

KerryConnor wrote: »

I have kids myself and would HATE schools to close again. It was long hard few months for kids and parents having schools closed. It actually brought tears to my eyes seeing my teens heading up the road Monday morning. But my point it i think teachers were getting blamed in the absence of anyone else to blame.

Well yes obviously parents were loosing their minds with kids at home while trying to hold down a job and homeschool.

Teachers need to point the finger at the source.

Their unions.

You can give out about parents all day long but your unions put your heads on the chopping block with that stunt last week.

And there was SOME teachers happy to go along with it.

So as I said don't be surprised if parents pushback a little.

Anyway everyone is happy again now with schools back so nothing more to discuss.

KerryConnor

Im not giving out about parents as i totally understand, i think i was mildly depressed all winter , i'm just trying to figure out why teachers have been getting so much hate since the start of the pandemic.
I was sorry the unions did that about the vaccine queue last week i agree i didn't see the point. But they have a difficult job they were trying to keep their members happy, some of whom are really anxious about picking it up. Im in north dublin where local rates are high and several teachers i know have caught it in school.
Anyhow personally, a year on im numb to worrying about covid. Once my parents and the vulnerable i know are vaccinated the anxiety of passing it on will go away and i just want to get on with it.
Fingers crossed the whole tension over vaccines will go away with all these new ones getting delivered and things will be looking up a lot in a few months. So encouraging to see the UK literally opening up again - fingers crossed all goes well.

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

Well yes obviously parents were loosing their minds with kids at home while trying to hold down a job and homeschool.

Teachers need to point the finger at the source.

Their unions.

You can give out about parents all day long but your unions put your heads on the chopping block with that stunt last week.

And there was SOME teachers happy to go along with it.

So as I said don't be surprised if parents pushback a little.

Anyway everyone is happy again now with schools back so nothing more to discuss.

TTLF

I'm back to give an update on how the 6th year life has been.

I successfully did my Oral work over Easter, sadly it didn't feel like much of a break, but I'm so happy I never have to think of those orals again, and I feel I did quite well in them overall. There was issues with the Masks and it can be hard to hear the person examining you, I just feel bad for the examiners trying to listen to be speak poor German over the tape in a mask

Anyway I'm doing project work now and It's going okay, hopefully I can finish them all up by next weeks deadline. Real shame for the Geog project, it's certainly a lot harder to understand a river study when you didn't actually go on it.

Anyway, cheers.

Sammy2012

I just seen an article in the Indo that churches will be reopening on a phased basis from May. And today I got a date for confession and communion. Being pressured by the priest to do it early May.

wirelessdude01

Sammy2012 wrote: »

I just seen an article in the Indo that churches will be reopening on a phased basis from May. And today I got a date for confession and communion. Being pressured by the priest to do it early May.

Are the church aware of something that we aren't?

wirelessdude01

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Are the church aware of something that we aren't?

That eternal damnation in hell is worse than covid?

combat14

lots of news about the new indian variant today with 2 serious mutations

pfizer are laughing all the way to the bank as well with talk of a Third Pfizer dose likely needed within 12 months - CEO &
vaccinations quite likely being an annual affair going forward ...


https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0416/1210203-coronavirus-global/

good to see schools reopen will have to see how long lasts if eu cancels the new hotel quarantine system here

Jinglejangle69

combat14 wrote: »

lots of news about the new indian variant today with 2 serious mutations

pfizer are laughing all the way to the bank as well with talk of a Third Pfizer dose likely needed within 12 months - CEO &
vaccinations quite likely being an annual affair going forward ...


https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0416/1210203-coronavirus-global/

good to see schools reopen will have to see how long lasts if eu cancels the new hotel quarantine system here

What point are you actually trying to make here???

Sammy2012

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Are the church aware of something that we aren't?

I was just told that the church is open now and will be open for the ceremonies. So I don't know. The priest has obviously decided to come up with his own rules.

wirelessdude01

Sammy2012 wrote: »

I was just told that the church is open now and will be open for the ceremonies. So I don't know. The priest has obviously decided to come up with his own rules.

What does your principal think of this?

Sammy2012

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What does your principal think of this?

Went behind my back and picked the days. Very cosy with the PP.

wirelessdude01

Sammy2012 wrote: »

Went behind my back and picked the days. Very cosy with the PP.

So they have ceremonies arranged for early May in clear contradiction of health restrictions.

SusanC10

If the Principal and the Priest have picked the dates, then just make sure to call them provisional dates when telling the Parents.

Sammy2012

Yes. They are not provisional. I asked yesterday if the dates would have to change due to restrictions and was told that the church has always been open and would be open for this. There are people attending Mass there and the principal is one of these people.