68% of Isle of Wight teachers surveyed by the National Education Union say that they are unable to maintain a 2-metre social distance in schools.
The local district of the National Education Union (NEU) wanted to gauge how teachers and support staff were feeling at this time, so they asked members to fill in a survey between 28th-30th November 2020.
Well over 100 staff responded within this short time frame and they came from primary, secondary, special and independent schools across the Island, as well as the Isle of Wight College.
Responding t the question ‘are you able to maintain 2-metre social distancing from students/children in your teaching/learning environment’, 68 responded no, whilst 27% said mostly, but not always. In staff communal areas it’s a better picture, with 33% saying they can’t maintain social distancing and 50% saying mostly, but not always.
The pandemic is taking its toll on everyone, but 51% of those surveyed say they have never felt as tired as they do now.
Commenting on this local snapshot survey, Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union said:
“Government policy has generally focused on ‘social distancing’, cleaning and more recently on the wearing of masks to combat virus transmission in schools.
“This snapshot survey shows the ineffectiveness of government guidance to socially distance ‘wherever possible’. Nearly 19 in 20 staff said they were not able to maintain 2-metre social distancing from their pupils within school with over 7 in 10 staff saying it was impossible. A mere 1 in 6 saying they could maintain 2-metre social distancing in areas where only staff congregated.
Article continues below this advertisement “We should stop the “pretence” that social distancing in schools is possible. It is simply not viable – no matter whether 2 metres or 1 metre – survey after survey throughout this year makes this clear. (2)
“Government has advised reducing unnecessary contact with people in the two weeks before forming a Christmas bubble (23rd – 27th Dec), while at the same time, maintaining that schools have to be open until 18th December. In order to reduce unnecessary contact and a potential greater spike after Christmas, 60% of staff thought it would help lower virus transmission, if schools had greater flexibility to manage remote learning in the last week of term and support both pupils and staff, who are far more exhausted than usual.
“Indeed, as expected staff are feeling drained. Half report never ever feeling as tired in the whole of their education career as they presently do with over 87% feeling more anxious in work because of the pandemic. Nearly 1 in 6 staff say they are seriously considering leaving, because of the increased anxiety and impact Covid-19 has had on their working life.
“Despite personal anxiety, staff expressed their concerns about related educational issues, that need urgently addressing. Pandemic related issues such as exams, SATs and how the curriculum should recover is of concern, as is the need for greater government finance, in order to cope with rising Island SEND numbers and increasing numbers of schools showing budget deficits. Of most concern however is growing pupil poverty and the need to combat pupil hunger and provide greater digital access to learning at home.
“Although many individual staff are clearly struggling, there is an overwhelming appreciation of how everyone – pupils, families and staff are trying to cope”.
Tired how can they be tired they had 26 weeks holiday.
teachers deserve every minute of their holiday. They work incredibly hard to educate your kids.
9/10 of them work through the holidays from home as well.
Until youve done the job, with classes of 30 kids, dont criticise.
Teachers get paid less than babysitters when you do the maths, and they educate your kids too.
Half the time during the first lockdown many of them were out with their own children during school hours and didn’t answer their pupils emails when they had problems and I know that for a fact because I saw them. Also they do not work at home during holidays and I know that too because I know lots of teachers
so how come is it then, at the end of the last few summer terms, I have seen teachers walking past me and proudly announcing that “this is it – no more school for six weeks” – and I do not see them again until just prior to term starting in September.
they do absolutely nothing for at least a month – the rest of us do not get such a luxury of the whole summer off
tired, – yeah right
Oddly enough, teachers dont really want to see their students when they are not at work.
It doesnt mean they are doing nothing.
if only there were some sort of mobile telephonic device that they could answer emails with….
Quite how you saw them out and about during a lockdown where everyone was required to stay home apart from for exercise I’m not sure…
Plenty of teachers work during the holidays. If you think otherwise perhaps you should talk to more teachers.
I was out exercising walking my dog at between 10 and 11am so why were their children not doing schoolwork and why weren’t they at home with them ready to answer pupils problems. My Grandson was at home trying to do his work getting very frustrated when there was a problem with the work set which was a regular occurrence. As for working during their holidays I think you should wake up and join the real world
How come you’re tired every single night? You had a night’s sleep the night before.
[Also, you need to punctuate your sentence correctly:
Tired?! How can they be tired? They had 26 week’s holiday!]
There are many people that have lost jobs this year or may soon lose jobs because of COVID impacts. I’m sure their anxiety is pretty high without needing to carry out a survey, and my sympathies are with them.
I’d have thought shop workers with all the grief they’ve had to take across the counter would be first in line for our sympathy.
26 weeks payed holiday and full pay when off sick don’t know how they cope poor buggers give them a big pay rise
My teachers hardly contacted me over the entire lockdown don’t see how there tired? Maybe we should send a survey to the student instead were the ones who are suffering the worst
Shows how ignorant a lot of people are, probably those that struggled at school .
At our school the teacher was always ready to respond to questions from our children,
giving help and support all through the lock down. Teachers are under constant appraisals
to hit targets within their classes, at the same time dealing with scum parents and acting
as social workers.
Today in schools there are more LSA’s than there are teachers and teachers obviously can’t plan ahead like they used to
Teachers tired. If teachers spent less time trying to negotiate with children who are naughty and give them a bloody good hiding when they are rude and mouthy. Let teachers cane kids or slipper them. Kids need discipline.If this was allowed then they wouldn’t be so tired. Children would have respect.
if teachers focused on teaching instead of whining about pay, conditions, diversity, gender pronouns and other inane drivel, then we would have the best educated kids going.