In Defence of Our Teachers and Children.

As I write this I am aware of several things: Firstly, I’m by no means a politician and I have no idea of what is involved in running a country effectively. I certainly don’t envy the job of the Prime Minister during these times. Secondly, I realise that this post is very much an emotional response to a newspaper front page which made me incredibly angry this morning. I’ll probably look back at this in a few hours and wonder at my acute irrationality of thought. Thirdly, I’m also aware that the topic of closing schools is a controversial one that affects practically everyone in the country. I’m not blind to this. Trust me, as a mother I have been affected by education centres closing and last minute childcare arrangements in recent times too. However…

However, for most of us, we are living through the biggest disruption and threat to life since the Second World War. There is no black and white in these times. There is going to have to be some extraordinary sacrifice if we’re going to reduce the infection numbers and death rates. What I am going to say next is from the point of view of a secondary school teacher – I’m not speaking as a “work-shy,” union-supporting, lefty teacher as the Mail would have me stereotyped – I accept that it’s a point of view with, perhaps, not an entirely clear understanding of what it takes to run a country. But it’s a valid point of view held by many that seems to be falling on the deaf ears of society and the politicians who are charged with running this country. It’s a point of view that is being ignored, dismissed and ridiculed. It is, unfortunately, ideologically-driven, manipulative newspaper front covers such as the one above that are exacerbating this problem.

The area I live in is currently in Tier 4. The infection rate is through the roof. My daughter is currently self-isolating because one of her friends tested positive for Covid. Prior to being in Tier 4, my husband and I made the decision that we would not see family over the Christmas period because, as keyworkers, we wanted to protect them from infection. My mother is clinically vulnerable and both sets of parents are over 70. If it meant them being safe, and us being able to see them at other points during next year, it was worth the sacrifice, we told ourselves. It was worth sacrificing my 40th birthday celebrations, my children seeing their grandparents, us seeing our elderly parents. As it was, the decision was (rightly) taken out of our hands with Tier 4 measures. We couldn’t have gone to see them anyway. It’s currently unsafe for households of approximately 6-8 people to mix during a national holiday. There’s scientific and statistical proof that this is fact. It’s undeniable. Lots of people have had unenjoyable or “different” Christmases as a result. Sacrifice. Concern for our loved ones.

How, then, is it safe for schools to return normally in January? If it’s unsafe to mix in households of between 6 and 8 people over a national holiday, how is there any logic in thousands of children mixing in close proximity every day for seven weeks at a time without a break? How will this curb an already out- of-control pandemic? How is asking these questions a ‘betrayal of our children?’ We may as well have gone to see our parents, because the same level of risk to life is involved here. Politicians will argue for the mental wellbeing and safety of children; of how they were affected during the last lockdown. I get this. They were affected. My daughter was depressed and had nightmares. My baby son thought my parents lived in my computer – he still doesn’t really know them. It was awful. It still is. Normally, the best place for children is ‘in the classroom’ as the Department for Education likes to spout on their Facebook page at least once a day. However, this is still a weak and misguided argument in my mind because these are not normal times with black and white solutions. The mental health and wellbeing of children is being affected in schools as well. Some year group bubbles spent large chunks of the last term in isolation whilst their peers received face to face lessons. How is that parity in education?

Speaking as a teacher who has recently had the delightful experience of “blended teaching,” surely schools, in order to be fair to children, need to either teach completely online or completely in the classroom. A mixture of the two is untenable and unfair for all concerned. As it is clearly unsafe for teaching to be completely in the classroom right now (and therefore not the best place for children), it surely needs to be completely online, at least for January whilst schools get ready for the mass-testing that they were only informed about a couple of days prior to the holidays. They are expected to do this with little government support by the way- side point. As with last year, it makes sense for exams to be cancelled to compensate for lost time. It’s not ideal but what, in any of this mess, actually is? Teachers need to be trusted to assess the students they know better than any examination board or league table.

Controversial opinion alert coming up: I don’t buy this “not all kids have access to technology” rhetoric being fed to the public. Yes there are children and families in poverty; this breaks my heart in normal times as well as now – I’m not sure it breaks The Mail’s heart. This is even more of a reason why the government needs to step up and flipping well pay for technology access for these families rather than wasting money giving contracts to their failed billionaire friends with stupid names (I’ll definitely look back at that comment in an hour and despair). The Mail talks big about “patriotic sacrifice for our loved ones” over the Christmas period. We all need to make some sacrifices to enable schools to be safe once again. Put bluntly, if we don’t support schools in this endeavour, the Coronavirus pandemic will be around for much longer than is necessary and cause more economic hardship (that we apparently seem to be more frightened of than loss of life). I’m not pretending it would be easy. It would be inconvenient and uncomfortable for a while. In a situation where lives are in danger and everyday life is disrupted, even the Mail agrees that sacrifices have to be made. What they printed today was irresponsible propaganda. If you want to truly protect our children and support our teachers; if you truly don’t want to ‘betray’ them, please don’t buy in to this paper’s hateful agenda. The true traitors are the ones who choose to spend money in the name of public-school cronyism rather than in the interests of the general public they are elected to serve.

On a side note, if anyone from the government or SAGE can tell me how my point of view is ridiculous and so easily dismissable; if anyone can explain to me a good reason why schools and teaching staff are being so vilified and slandered in the press, I am happy to listen. So far, I have received no satisfactory explanations to merit this constant vitriol and spite.