The Fifteenth Republic - A Level and GCSE Results storm coming!

[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

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

Well following on from Scotland's results we need to braces ourselves for Thursday.

[tadjennyp]

Thanks staff . 👏
It was my old school's first A Level MFL in donkeys' years. I wonder if they will wave those results through as there is nothing to base them on?

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

I dread to think what will happen. Some of our Scottish colleagues feel pupils have genuinely been let down. I wonder if Big Gav has told the exam boards to give all students a grade higher.

[FrippEnos]

Thanks staff for the new thread.

It rankles that all they seem to want was the rank order so that they would fit better into their algorithm.

but at least they can fit it to the best three year of an exam that for my subject only has one years data.

[FrippEnos]

Front page of the times today (before they change it probably)

[noblegiraffe]

Is the Times pissed off that the government has been giving the stories to the Telegraph? I’m surprised at them going off-piste with that front page.

[RigaBalsam]

Thanks staff

[NeurotrashWarrior]

I took a zoomed in pic of it helps. Still fuzzy!

It's the gaslighting that's pissing me off. I'm teaching a lot of y6.

[motherrunner]

Be interesting to see if it’s picked up by BBC as I know plenty of people who have their family dose of news just by reading the headlines on the main site.

Hope guidance is changed to differentiate between lower primary and upper and definitely secondary. Funnily I’m not too concerned about my own children (9 and 6) returning. They’ll be just with their own class, teacher, TA and a designated lunchtime supervisor. (Mine will be in wraparound though - if it goes ahead, still don’t know). Me, teaching all years 7-13 apart from 12.

I think what’s angers me more is the way different workplaces are tested. Yesterday took the kids to a trampoline park. I had to wear a mask throughout although supervising. Employees had masks and visors despite being 2m away from jumpers (guess it’s incase they fell). Strict extra safety talk. If someone was in a trampoline they had to stand on spots to queue. Staff members controlled flow of queues. Limited jumpers. I was designated a seat in the gallery, could pick off the map but I had to sit there. On a positive note for me there were teens there and they maintained distancing amongst themselves and everyone else

[minisoksmakehardwork]

It makes sense that they're saying secondary pupils can catch covid and spread it. Otherwise why would we be saying 11+ years for masks. It feels like they've been sitting on this info until schools return. U4T must be having a field day with that headline.

Concerning that it's silent infection though. How does that work with testing if they don't know they're symptomatic?

Good luck for today Our Scottish friends.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

I was trying to think about whether the researchers would continue to monitor pupils for 2 weeks after the holidays started or not, which would mean the info has only recently been completed and so will be being written up etc at the mo? I imagine that's complicated though as you then don't know who has picked up what from where.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

The researchers divided it into 10 and over though.

Admittedly, 11 plus would make masks in secondary more straightforward.

Unless you're a middle school!

[minisoksmakehardwork]

Oh you have to love U4T sometimes!

They're touting a study which shows that masks of any description (from n95 down to face coverings) don't prevent viruses from being spread, yet they do cause loss in volume of oxygen consumption. But I've had a quick google and their assertion is that a 0.00005 micron oxygen particle is prevented from entering a face covering, but the 0.125 micron corona virus escapes. Now, maths is not my strong point I will admit, but I have recently done decimal placing with my 10yo so I am fairly confident in my maths on this.

[minisoksmakehardwork]

Sorry @NeurotrashWarrior - I wasn't thinking of middle schools. We're a primary/secondary divide only in my area. Except for the independent Grammar school which is 3-18yrs.

[minisoksmakehardwork]

0.0005 oxygen (sorry, 1 too many zeros).

[Piggywaspushed]

Morning . I but The Times so I'll have a proper read. I hate The Times but DH reads the sport.

I think they think the science will produce blended learning for older students and are actually listening to Longfield and Bartonn. They have been very critical of the testing regime and the care home stuff and may be anti union etc but they don't rate the PM at all, so that may be whwre this all comes from.

At the end of the day, all the right wingers only think about the economy, so they want small children back at all costs.

A few things I have notice about teacher bashers who are - or claime to be - teachers:

often private schools, if not primary
nearly always London based
claim to teach science ( I reckon that makes them sound like they must be right about medical things!)
usually claim to have worked in the 'real world' (although one last night claimed had been teaching since 1998
AS often shows them to be ant maskers or to have some vested interest in SEN (sometimes it's their own child)
Vocally anti union
This is a weird one: often divorced


I used to work with a woman (who bullied me) and I'd be willing to bet she spouts similar bile.

It actually makes me really sad that fellow teachers could have such a desire to be unpleasant and unsupportive about their profession. God help us all if they are SLT,although most appear not to be.

[Hercwasonaroll]

What do we predict for today's big announcement from the DfE?

Personally I predict it will happen about 4.55pm.

[MrsHamlet]

That it'll make me want to go rage cycling. I've done a lot of rage cycling since late March!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Hello! At the beach for a few days with the kids.... literally burying my head in the sand about it all 🤣

[MrsHerculePoirot]

And by 🤣 I mean 😥

[NeurotrashWarrior]

The thing is the body adapts to any long term loss of oxygen by making more blood cells. Hence why Olympic runners go and train at higher altitudes. But that's 24 hours a day!

I had slightly lower Oxygen for sometime as asthma firstly wasn't diagnosed (I cough) and secondly it wasn't well managed for a while. That did cause issues but we are talking 24 hours a day, about 20% reduction in lung capacity or more.

Even if these people are sleeping in a mask (not) it's not going to have any impact imo. And from what I understand, it doesn't anyway.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

How have they done this research when it was mostly r and y1 and y6 who returned? What about y4 and 5? Unless it was key workers?

[Saucery]

@Hercwasonaroll

What do we predict for today's big announcement from the DfE?

Personally I predict it will happen about 4.55pm.

That they will insert the 🤷‍♀️ emoji after every ‘where possible’ and strongly suggest school staff go nowhere, see no one and do nothing apart from breathe in Coronavirus for 6 hours a day.

[Frlrlrubert]

I'm planning to pop in today and make sure my room is ready.

Can't go in in the last week as they are fogging the school, which I'm actually a little annoyed about. It's a pointless waste of money I'm sure - just having no one go in for 10 days would do the job, it's not going to get all the surfaces anyway. I used to fog in a previous life and we used to strip the room bare, clean with disinfectant, then fog, then take swabs.

Good luck to the Scots again today.

[Hercwasonaroll]

Fogging the school when it's barely been used over the summer seems absolutely pointless.