Schools to close again.. Covid

Not a teacher but have a few kids in school. I am hearing that classrooms are ranging from 5-15 degrees depending on the time of year. My kids are wearing a extra fleece. The recommendation for a office temp from the HSA is 18-23 degrees depending on physical activity levels. We are nearing the 2nd year of these restrictions and by looking at the literature and listening to some experts it is looking like it will be with us indefinitely. What has me baffled is that the school community are accepting of kids sitting in a environment that is not conducive to learning and that teachers and unions are accepting of a working environment that is not healthy. Natural ventilation is a fallacy in Ireland for the winter months. It is a complete and utter cop out by the department of education and government that they are not addressing these issues long term by installing mechanical ventilation systems. We will be talking about this again next year. The whole school community should be agitating and on one side and the government won’t be long turning

It is parents who need to complain. We all know the government are not going to listen to teachers, they have no interest in our working conditions. Parents have more voting power and should use it.

Classrooms are freezing - highest ours has been this week is 14 - 15 degrees which is below the recommended level but conversely not the coldest our classes have been. I agree with you re ventilation but both History Queen and Random Sample are spot on - teachers have been raising this issue along with the miss use if SET in primary , the removal of bankable hours , the sub crises , the removal of contact tracing etc etc all of which effect educational provision since the outset with vitriol , media bashing , gaslighting and general teacher bashing being the response.

You can’t have a reasonable discussion re covid in schools and the knock on effects to educational provision with out this level of stupidity -

which incidentally was thanked - or a stock response of you want to close the schools / we can’t close the schools . Highlighting issues which are a concern does not equate to wanting the schools to close - contrary to public perception online teaching is a pain in the hole - takes hours of work , is very difficult to get proper engagement and no matter what you do **** is your thanks - you’ve uploaded too much work / not enough work , expecting children to be online all day is not feasible with working parents/ what is she doing all day she should be online , 3 zoom calls a day are not enough / 3 zoom calls are way too much etc etc

Perhaps if teachers concerns re mitigation measures and the call for HEAPA filters had been listened to we wouldn’t be in the position we are now - where the conversation is echoing last winter - should the schools close early for xmas , will they reopen in January. At this stage , two winters in , it’s up to parents to agitate for better mitigation measures for their children in schools.

I am a teacher in a DEIS band 1 school in one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country. Our school is riddled with covid. At any one time we have at least 25% of our staff out either with covid, isolating or waiting on some aspect of testing.

I am a learning support teacher and work primarily with the senior classes. About 60% of our senior students are out sick. We have CO2 alarms in every classroom and Air filtration devices in almost all of the smaller size support rooms. The dept of Education is practically throwing money at us. We have the heating on full blast but its pointless unless you are lying against a radiatior. Most of the radiators are underneath open windows so it doesn't take a genius to see the problem there.

Lately, the kids are freezing all the time, as are the teachers.

I firmly believe that the government are just hoping covid rips throught the school going population as quickly as possible. They know the vast vast majority of kids will not get very sick. They know any teacher who is of sane mind has been vaccinated and will most likely not become dangerously ill. The major worry is that the kids will spread it to older more vulnerable family members.

I feel sorry for some of my older colleagues who are close to retirement age. One or two of them have contracted covid and been very sick, despite being fully vaccinated.

Don't be fooled by government spin. Despite their claims that transmission is primarily happening in the community because Covid transmission is rife in schools right now. How could it not be?

I want our school to stay open for the following reasons:

• Selfish reason - I have 3 kids under 3 and my wife already works from home and cannot stand the thought of adding teaching from home to that pressure cooker. As other parents know only too well it is horrific.
• Our students have already fallen so far behind it is frightening. They need to be in school. In 6th class last year over 40% of the class fell below the 10th percentile in their Maths. Normally it is a fifth of this amount. Similar drops were observed at all other class levels.

IT's a really sh1tty situation, but I hope schools stay open.

Short shrift is a reference to two schools that closed about three weeks ago because of Covid outbreaks and were told the day after by the Dept of Ed to open up again. Like I said, under no circumstances (based on what we have seen so far anyway) will the circumstances within a school or schools cause closure. Of course schools will by local arrangement choose to send a class home but that is a long long way from what I am talking about. Try to close the school and they'll quickly get the aforementioned short shrift from the Dept of Ed.

Ah sorry, I picked you up wrong.

We are at the stage where we consider 14 - 15 degrees a good week. We’ve had days where it’s not gone over 10 🥶

Our designated H&S teachers complained to our principal with regards to the cold working conditions. They were told in no uncertain terms to shut up unless they had received any mandate from the union regarding this…

I think we are in a worse situation this year than we were this time last year in relation to schools - covid transmission, absenteeism, and cold classrooms is a disaster.

I think serious consideration should be given to closing schools for January - and by closing I mean holidays - no home schooling as it's a shambles for all concerned. The time could be made up in July and Summer holidays for August. I know this wouldn't be ideal for many but it's the best option we have in the circumstances. I don't think any of us would like to go back to home schooling.

I'm speaking as a parent though not a teacher.

July may not be best time to make up time for second level as correcting of state exams happening at that time. Would nearly have to be August, which realistically means starting next school year early.

Edit: a serious attempt at installing mechanical ventilation/hepa filters, reinstating track and trace in schools and an investigation in to other possible mitigations that could be introduced should all be done before even talking about closing schools in my opinion.

Yeah I know there are complications.

Your right regarding ventilation/HEPA filters but at this stage realistically this couldn't be done in every school by January. Dept of ed should have had this done last summer. Track and trace is a no brainer and should be bought back immediately. I really hope schools won't be closed but I fear that's where we are heading to again.

I really hope you're wrong about schools closing.

The ability of the Department of Education to avoid wholesale criticism is unbelievable. They are disgraceful, yet again and again and again they undermine the education system, students, parents and teachers and get away with it. They have gone out of their way to demonstrate their inability to react to the needs of the sector for years, even more so since covid, and still no calls for investigations or reforms of a Department that is, at best, incompetent. The mind boggles.

Dont worry your summer hols are safe as the unions would never allow summer teaching. I was just putting it forward as a solution to freezing classrooms in January - I know this is going to be difficult for both teachers and students.

People are very quick to find solutions that impact on others working conditions - it’s just a pity parents don’t / didn’t focus on better mitigation measures before now - it’s not like we weren't freezing last winter too 🤷‍♀️ I certainly won’t be giving up my hols and won’t be apologising for it either.

The teachers and unions are “accepting” it because we know from experience that if we try to protest it, it will immediately be painted as teachers looking for more money (because any time we protest anything, it’s always for more money) and longer holidays (because my neighbour’s aunt’s Godchild knows a school where one of the teachers only put work up once a week, so obviously no teacher does anything when working from home), and we’ll be told “look at the front line workers like nurses and doctors and shop assistants who put on the green jersey, only for teachers to go diving out because they’re not paid enough on their long holidays - they’re worse than anti-vaccination masks Joe!”

So we’ve learned to keep our traps shut when there’s nothing that can be done (because God forbid they spend money on ventilating schools properly when there’s a perfectly good breeze to do it for free if you open all of the windows and doors - you’d get great drying too if they’d just put a washing line up in the classroom).

Do you get paid for those summer activities ? Or is it done as part of your normal salary ?

They're both paid roles. Not sure why you'd think they wouldn't be?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that was a standard letter that goes out automatically when you reach a certain number of days. I would not expect the school to go through these absences and tell the parents they know what they were for. It's a factual document, plain and simple, certainly nothing to take offence to.

Jesus I'm done with this term since 9am this morning.