Quarantined Books And Confusion: Teachers Reveal What It’s Like Inside Schools Right Now
From cleaning and sanitising all equipment in between classes to quarantining books before they can mark them, teachers have admitted the demands of teaching in a coronavirus era has massively increased their workload.
“We are all just dazed,” one teacher admitted.
Another revealed: “Teaching is a very full-on job at the best of times, but now there is literally no breathing space.”
“Testing is a major issue,” Vic Goddard, principal at Passmores Academy in Essex who featured in the Channel 4 programme Educating Essex, told HuffPost UK.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that when you put 1,500 children and staff into the same building, they are going to catch things.”
Goddard said the usual germs that fly around after the summer break are hitting staff and pupils now, but the fear is they could be symptoms of coronavirus – so it is hitting staffing levels.
“I have staff who probably have colds,” explained Goddard. “But the guidance is if you have signs which could be coronavirus symptoms, isolate until you have a negative test.
“If too many teachers are off, staffing is affected and we’d have to get supply teachers in and the learning isn’t the same for the children. It is also going to lead to year groups closing down.”
Goddard says that parents view teachers as being in a position of authority in the community and look to them for advice surrounding the constantly changing coronavirus guidance.
“Parents are anxious and clueless about when they should or shouldn’t send their children into school. It is confusing and I constantly have to read the guidance to double-check."Vic Goddard, principal at Passmores Academy in Essex
But he admitted it is confusing even for them. “Parents are anxious and clueless about when they should or shouldn’t send their children into school,” he said.
“It is confusing and I constantly have to read the guidance to double-check.
“Parents want to do the right thing. But when they...
