I would like to start this letter by sharing my disappointment in the reporting stands of the UK press in all forms - written, radio and TV. The levels of misreporting, clickbait headlines and twisting of stories to paint a picture is downright embarrassing. As a profession, I believe teachers have been unfairly treated for years by the press, and this has intensified over the course of this pandemic. We are classed as lazy, work shy, cowardly, lefties... the list could go on. This has not been helped by the constant undermining and drip feeding of information from the Department for Education, who seem to belittle us at every turn. The Unions have not helped in this either - they either take too firm a line (NEU) and say silly things to the press which is then reported as fact and something all teachers want, even if it has not been consulted on, or they do not take a strong enough line (NAHT). The dressing up of yesterday's announcement as a success is nothing short of embarrassing.
What has particularly annoyed me, is the way yesterday's announcement has been reported in the press. The Daily Mail's Headline of "Schools are allowed to have December 18 off so 'stressed' teachers get a 'proper break - after unions called for last two days of term to be 'work from home' so staff can spend Christmas with Granny without worrying about Covid" is nothing short of defamatory and embarrassing. I have heard a similar headline on LBC this morning and seen other elements of this story in other press releases.
I would like to do the journalist's job for them, as they clearly have not done any research prior to writing these reports or headlines.
We did not ask for this. This is possibly one of the worst solutions to the problem. It does not do anything to mitigate against us taking the disease home, we will still need to Track and Trace for 6 days and not many schools have the flexibility to change Inset days with such short notice. It is a Department for Education decision, so please report it that way.
The first we heard of this was when Nick Gibb spoke. This was not something that we were even aware of as an action. The last we heard is that schools must stay open to the end.
This is not to give teachers a break. It is an Inset day, and as such, school staff will be expected to work.
This is to reduce Track and Trace times. Schools have been doing Track and Trace's job for months now. Your time would be better spent looking at where the £12 billion has been spent, because it clearly has not been on a working Track and Trace system. Is it really a school's job to be doing that work, with no extra money, up to Christmas Eve?
Your story should be:
Schools, who have been conducting Test and Trace for months, with no recognition or additional funding, have been asked to continue this work over the Christmas period. The Department for Education, without consultation of school staff, made an unworkable proposal for schools to change their INSET days so that Friday 18th December is a day children do not need to attend, although school staff will still be working. This decision was made by the DfE so that schools can stop the Test and Trace process on December 23rd, instead of 24th. However, most schools will not be able to do this, as their INSET days have already been set in advance and they do not want to cause stress to parents and families by asking them to find child care at the last moment.
A DfE spokesperson mentioned some bullshit about record levels of funding and caring about the school staff. When we called them out on this, they just regurgitated the same rubbish. When challenged on why schools are having to do test and trace, when we have a 'World-Beating system', the spokesperson mentioned something about the £12billion was being put to good use as unnamed companies needed some money to increase their profits, which can only be good for the UK.
So my plea to the press - please do your jobs properly, ask the right questions and stop having a go. We are not making these ludicrous decisions - we are having to work with them.
Yours sincerely,
Censored Head