Since lockdown began I have been working in school once a week, looking after the children of key workers, and the most vulnerable or disadvantaged children. This has usually meant a team of three to four staff “looking after” and trying to “teach” a group of 15 to 20 children, aged between three and 11. We have had the use of multiple classrooms, halls, computing suites and playgrounds. The day is totally unlike a normal teaching day. I have been left mentally and physically exhausted every day that I have done it, in a way I am not usually, and I have had crashing lows in energy, motivation and productivity in the days that follow. I volunteered for this role and will continue to do it willingly, as I believe this provision for these families is vital. What the government is asking us to do from 1 June is very different.
We educators have been thrust into the forefront of a terribly confusing and difficult situation. It is a political situation. It is an economic situation. It is a medical and scientific situation. And it is a life or death situation. On Thursday evening (14 May) I was asked by my headteacher to declare (by 4pm Monday) whether “there are any reasons why you cannot return to work on 1st June”. Interesting phrasing. Since receiving that email, I have tried to decipher, simplify and collate all the legitimate, relevant arguments I have read and reflected upon these past few weeks, and I have tried to do this as sympathetically and impartially as possible. This is the biggest moral dilemma of my professional life.
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