The Seventh Republic - the debate rages on but for some it is half term!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

Just popping out to get cheese for the cheeseboard. Plus grapes and maybe some pate. I refuse to get celery because it is the devil's food.

#happyfriday

[Cookiecrisps]

I don’t know if this had been shared already but it made me smile this morning. Highlights how ridiculous the DfE guidance is.

[Appuskidu]

Half term here-I’m part time anyway and don’t work Fridays.

Feeling utterly depressed about June 1st and also about the scientific advice today as I suspect it will be shit.

Do we know what time it’s due out? 7pm, like most of the guidance??

[RigaBalsam]

Thanks staff. Mmmm cheese.

[RigaBalsam]

Mee too Appu after hearing what Barton said and another guy in the radio saying the evidence is not great but primary schools are the place to start. I think it was John Edwards or something like that. Not helpful I know.

[RigaBalsam]

Me! Honestly I have sausage fingers recently.

[MsAwesomeDragon]

Cheese sounds great! I'll provide some nice crusty bread for it to be slathered on. Mmmmm.

I do like that question @Cookiecrisps. I particularly like the information that it's raining, and I'm not allowed to use the word magic in my answer :)

I'm almost done for today (well,v until enough of my year 10 and 12 submit their work to make it worth marking it)

I'm so glad it's half term. I've almost lost the will to teach after sending a million emails about pupils not submitting work, recording lessons, and setting up questionnaires for my classes about what they've found helpful and what they haven't, and how they would prefer me to set work next half term.
I've now just got to watch a webinar about Microsoft Teams, and then it might be time for lunch 😁

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Love that reasoning paper!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Anyone else watching the independent sage meeting?

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Oh gosh where?!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

m.youtube.com/channel/UCqqwC56XTP8F9zeEUCOttPQ/featured?fbclid=IwAR3CzuePsViGg8Flm2aMxAKIsY6mxbqmsOv8HnL2s1KOL2irb4LSmvAoGBw

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Independent sage YouTube channel.

[CallmeAngelina]

Nice bit of shade thrown, yet again, by the fucking Daily Mail (yes, I KNOW. I'm sorry!!) who refer to Prince William warning about the effect on mental health as pupils are "kept away" (their phrase, not his) from class.

[MrsHerculePoirot]

So far national modelling shows that waiting for two more weeks would reduce risk to kids by half.

They haven’t yet modelled risk to staff and adults involved but are going to.

They want track, trace and isolate in place for safety and that is why they are suggesting two week delay.

They are saying modelling should now move to local modelling - looking at community and situations there etc... then each school/area could make own decisions.

Children with asthma are low risk. Children are less susceptible to getting it/symptoms being ill with it think they said but they don’t yet have evidence about transmission at population level so they don’t know about how it will change risk to communities just yet.

[TheHoneyBadger]

Just marking place. Absence management meeting soon so pretty anxious. Had come up with Solutions that would enable me to get back to work once my treatment is resolved then realised they were based on Ways of working and timetable etc that may actually exist anymore. Not sure how to plan a return to work when we don’t know what work will look like

[SansaSnark]

My school sends out a weekly wellbeing email. It's sent by someone who is not a member of teaching staff. There was a note in the email about Monday being a bank holiday and to enjoy our "day off", the rest of the paragraph had a very strong implication we should be working over half term. I know some people are going in for one day to supervise key worker children, but honestly the tone felt really off in a "wellbeing" email.

Other than that, feeling pretty zen today!

[TheHoneyBadger]

No idea what random capitalisation is about.

Thanks for summary mrshp

[CallmeAngelina]

We're not opening next week!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Really interesting about how gov need to support with food/education/pastoral care not necessarily in schools but to support by expanding school workforce to meet needs to children.

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

We have reached a stage where schools are not just about education. The teaching staff can only do so much. There needs to be additional strands focusing on citizenship and life skills.

#solidarity

[MrsHerculePoirot]

There seems to have been quite a lot of thought out into how to provide best support for all children eg looking at ways of getting children who live in flats to do some play based stuff outside in groups etc... looking at communities particularly outside of schools and how we can utilise communities to support this. Then looking at some kind of blended learning.

Very big focus on summer schemes etc outside seems to be considered much safer.

[MrsHerculePoirot]

They are saying then when track and trace is robustly in place then we might not need to worry about social distancing in schools.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Thanks so much Hercule. I came in just at the asthma comment and couldn't tell if they meant adults or children.

My Gp told me recently my son, who is only on a brown and actually not too bad in summer, would be absolutely fine at school.

(What I'm not clear about is me, mid 40s, on the high Fostair, with a particular weak spot for viruses. But for death, but a tough illness and lots of fatigue.)

[MrsHerculePoirot]

They have asked about if children have adults at home with diabete/asthma etc... they said not enough is known about transmission at population level. They said difficult decisions at moment and that is why they want specific modelling for families/areas as so many different things at play... basically they said it has to be a family decision but acknowledged this was difficult decision at moment.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

It's clear there's still are so many factors to weigh up and I'm glad these things are being discussed. It's sounding like there will need to be radical thinking for September.

Bless Lucas. Good on him.

Someone I know has developed an device that beeps when you come into contact with someone else. It collects data on a dash board too so shows how well you're managing to avoid others bit also which areas of the environment are most tricky to travel through. He said it was being trialled in various places including schools.

I did think of those particular kids who would spend all day deliberately setting it off...

Mask question coming up. I know a school who will be using visors when they go back.