A London school teacher has said that she would rather return to ‘lockdown home-schooling’ measures rather than have her pupils wear masks in class.
The secondary school maths teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, explained how she believed that mask wearing in class ‘disrupts’ education and might even lead to ‘worse grades’.
The teacher spoke on how the new government restrictions would impact her West London school and that when children were working at home teaching was easier.
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She said: “The new mask wearing rules that are being put in place for secondary school children will impact their learning and definitely disrupt my classes. They annoy the children and make it hard to gauge whether they are engaged.
A London teacher says masks in class will disrupt lessons
“To be honest it was much easier when the pupils were at home during the lockdown periods and we were actually able to teach with minimal disruption. I definitely found it easier and I’m sure that the pupils will feel more comfortable.”
She went on to explain that the teachers within her school were already stressed with the ever changing restrictions and didn’t want to become “school police officers”.
It comes as all secondary school and college pupils in England will now be told to wear face masks in classrooms, the Department for Education (DfE) announced.
The wearing of face coverings was previously advised in communal areas for pupils in Year 7 and above, but the new advice extends this to lessons.
The West London based Maths teacher continued and said: “We (schoolteachers) and pupils have been through a lot. From lockdown to year group bubbles and now the restrictions which mean pupils have to cover up during all of their lessons.
“The pupils are in class for up to six hours a day. Not many people across the country have to wear masks this long so you can imagine how hard it is for students to follow these rules.
“They are annoying. Most people are working from home now so it confuses me that schools, where most teachers don’t even care about masks, are being forced to wear them.
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“It should be the teacher’s choice. As the children are low risk so the only person it really impacts is us.”
She explained that if students have coronavirus this will be spread as they are in close proximity all day and meet up after school without masks.
The transmission of Covid between pupils, she claimed, would not be helped by the instruction for pupils to mask up.
Until this point, England was the only one of the four UK nations which didn’t recommend masks in classrooms. New rules change this.
Additionally, a further 7,000 new air purifiers are also being distributed to schools where good ventilation is difficult.
The Department of Education said the new rules, which apply only to children in Year 7 and above, would remain in place until at least January 26.
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