‘It feels dangerous’ says teacher on reopening schools

Kate Taylor, a teacher at Wheelers Lane primary in Kings Heath and executive member of the National Education Union (NEU) in Birmingham, says that teachers across the country are eager to return to work.

But she says that government proposals to reopen schools to certain pupils in June seems like "too much too soon", and has called for the government to get a better handle on the pandemic before sending children back to school.

Kate’s school, Wheelers Lane, made headlines last week after the headteacher gave a tour of socially distant classroom, showing the difficulties involved with keeping small children two metres apart at all times.

And Kate believes that it is impossible to get small children to adhere to social distancing guidelines, adding that it could be "dangerous" to send them back so soon.

“The announcement to bring back set year groups from the first of June has just created total panic in schools and in the general public I believe,” she says.

“Teachers are panicking and parents are panicking, and it feels dangerous, it doesn’t feel safe. It feels too much too soon.

“The government have talked about gradually easing the measures, but this doesn’t feel like a gradual easing of measures as far as education is concerned. Most schools have got 20-30 children and as of the first of June the potential would be there for hundreds of children in. And that is terrifying.

“In terms of observing how the children have been so far in school, even up to Year 6, those children cannot socially distance. And as a teacher, the thought of making them socially distance is deeply upsetting. They need to play, they need to socialise while they are in a room with their friends. The idea of them coming back to school and sitting at spaced out desks and not being able to play, and not being able to use their toys is heartbreaking.

“As schools, we can’t do anything else but enforce that, because otherwise we will be risking them spreading the virus to each other, potentially spreading it to us, and potentially taking it home and spreading it to their families. And I think school will look incredibly different.

“There are some parents who want their children to come back to school because they want them to see their friends and play, and experience school as they’ve known it for years and years and years. But I’m afraid they’re going to have a very different experience.”

Last week the NEU, backed by the British Medical Association (BMA), published a list of five tests that needed to be passed before they felt it was safe for schools to reopen. These include much lower numbers of Covid-19 cases, a national plan for social distancing, additional testing, a ‘whole school’ strategy and protection for the vulnerable.

And Kate says that the majority of teachers want these issues dealt with before a return to school, as there are too many questions about how the proposed return in June would work in practice.

“We can talk to children, we can explain to them what’s expected of them, and they will wash their hands, they will use a tissue. But teachers are concerned about having to enforce social distancing.” she says.

“They’re concerned about that affecting the children’s mental health and their well-being. That’s a big problem for lots of teachers, how do I tell them that they can’t play with their friends?

“How do we comfort children who have fallen over, how do we administer first aid, how do we look after the children who are sad, who want a cuddle? Those things are a real worry.

“And obviously we worry about our own safety too – how do teachers stay safe, how do we know that we are not going to pick up the virus in school and take it home to our families?

“It feels that at the moment the figures are too high and too uncertain. We haven’t got effective track and trace, there seems to be a lot of disparity between studies and figures, and it creates a feeling of panic and fear. And that’s not how you want to be feeling going into work.

“We want to be confident that we’re doing the right thing for the children, and we want to be confident that we’re doing the right thing for ourselves and our families.

“Schools want to have children back in, and teachers want to teach. We miss our children, we miss teaching, that’s what we do.

“What I suppose we would like is to be consulted, and we’d like to be able to make our own way in a way that’s right for our communities.

“Schools need to be trusted to do the right thing for their community, and this feels like a very broad diktat that just isn’t right for all schools.”