ADs picnic in the park with Twinkle the Tortoise

[ISaySteadyOn]

Thought it was my turn to start a thread.

@Ohnomoreno that's the rule where I work, but not where my children attend, although we do still have to wear masks. They held off on that for quite a while before I suspect their hand was forced by the local authority "advice".

I really don't see how a school can insist that you wear face masks on the street outside, while you're not on school property

I'm so glad that my DS are past the primary school age now - no more crappy playground politics and rules.

@BogRollBOGOFYeah but how do you get away with not wearing a mask? I just don't quite have the balls to do it, and now that I've acquiesced to it since last term, I can't really now say I'm exempt. I don't really know on what basis the school can mandate something that isn't law, but I guess they can just stick it in the school rules. If all the parents are happy about it then that's the way it'll be. Just don't really understand what happened, I thought I was a totally average person, never been particularly rebellious, but this stuff just sends me into a rage, mainly because it's UTTERLY POINTLESS!! It's a different argument entirely from the risk of infection in schools - which I think is quite possible.

Yes, that was my thought when our school pulled that. Most people don't wear masks unless their scarf blows up.

Regarding the police, it's good to know the law.

You don't have to stop. You don't have to tell them what you're doing and you don't have to tell them where you are going.

Government website.

I assume this is if you're on foot.

It's generally wise to be calm and polite, however.

@RockaLock

I really don't see how a school can insist that you wear face masks on the street outside, while you're not on school property

I'm so glad that my DS are past the primary school age now - no more crappy playground politics and rules.

Quite. As mine are juniors now, I think if school were too arsey about it, I'd just wait 100m away from the school site and crack on. It's nearly halfway home

School haven't accommodated in trying to support the education of a child with multiple SENs who has an EHCP application in the pipeline, nor his deeply miserable sibling. I'm not in the mood for playing nice for the sake of it.

This point last year I was spending 8+ hours a week supporting in school with a SEN intervention and swimming. I'm not feeling very generous in supporting their short-staffing issues at present. They might get lucky by September and I decide to help out of nepotism when I'm feeling less bitter. It will be nepotism though, not enthusiasm.

[quote Ohnomoreno]@BogRollBOGOFYeah but how do you get away with not wearing a mask? I just don't quite have the balls to do it, and now that I've acquiesced to it since last term, I can't really now say I'm exempt. I don't really know on what basis the school can mandate something that isn't law, but I guess they can just stick it in the school rules. If all the parents are happy about it then that's the way it'll be. Just don't really understand what happened, I thought I was a totally average person, never been particularly rebellious, but this stuff just sends me into a rage, mainly because it's UTTERLY POINTLESS!! It's a different argument entirely from the risk of infection in schools - which I think is quite possible.[/quote]
I just didn't wear one. No staff had said anything. I keep distance which is the more valuable measure anyway. On the few mornings that I have had to talk to staff, they probably have registered that I don't make face contact if they are wearing one. If they did say anything I'd just say that I'm exempt and remind them of DS1's SNs and DS2's asthma and let them join the dots.
I don't have any diagnoses, but there is definitely a sensory overwhelm. I now also have marks on my face from the last time I went to the supermarket in a visor and scratched the skin off my face to the point of bleeding.

The one place I cope is the Osteopath, where I'm lying quiet and calm (and half naked 😆 ) and can zone out even though it's a longer period. As it's 1:1 with close contact, there is more point in trying to conform too, rather than suffering for something of limited efficacy as a token gesture.

A couple of parents sneak theirs off when certain others aren't around and are pretty jealous of the rebellious streak. I see it as a decent arsehole filter

We now aren't allowed on the school premises without a mask or an exemption notification (like a lanyard) and staff are instructed to ask you why you aren't wearing a mask. Bearing in mind that my children attend a 3 form per year school, it's just so many of us that pretty much everyone complies. If you don't have a valid exemption you have to wait and then the teachers will bring your child out to the gate - that's what's supposed to happen but I have never seen that so don't know if it has actually happened. It all seems so pointless to me but I hate confrontation and don't want my children unfairly treated in case the teachers get annoyed. (To be fair I doubt the teachers are delighted about this either)

@ISaySteadyOn

You are allowed in the playground?!! We have to wait outside the gates with staggered start times and end times. Or I did before schools shut and I will if the school opens again.

The police thing is also scary. I feel as though all the people who I was taught to trust to help me are now people to be really wary of. I can't be the only one.

No, I'm scared of them too now. They should have spoken out against this.

wanderings I saw your question on the other thread
Sadly, I think people are happily walking into a police state for the same pathetic reasons they like to chuck out their privacy.

OK, just to inject a bit of humour for us cat servants. I saw this and it made me laugh and want to share newsthump.com/2021/03/02/natures-perfectly-designed-killing-machine-is-a-floofy-floofy-snookums-oh-yes-he-is/

Back in the 80s me and other kids/teens would have been flicking the masks at each other and using them as catapults.
Have they never met a kid.

ISaySteadyOn that reminds me of the Mafia Cats poem by Roger McGough clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poems/mafia-cats

@MercyBooth

Back in the 80s me and other kids/teens would have been flicking the masks at each other and using them as catapults. Have they never met a kid.

And humming. Do these teenagers not hum?

Although years of teaching and supplying in some very. err... interesting schools taught me the way to quench humming.

Don'tget mad... get even

[quote TabbyStar]ISaySteadyOn that reminds me of the Mafia Cats poem by Roger McGough clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poems/mafia-cats[/quote]
I like that one
DS1 is no connesseur of poetry, but he likes a bit of Roger McGough. I won him over with Icarus Allsorts. Nuclear war is always a winner in his book

We've now finished the first book of HHGTTG and are now ready for dinner at Milliways.

@ISaySteadyOn my perfect killing machine is feeling a bit under the weather today and is currently having snuggles.

I suddenly find myself on the side of the Great Aunt (I think at least @ISaySteadyOn will know what I mean).

' "I am not, so far as I know," said the Great Aunt, "under any obligation to keep the police informed of my whereabouts. Nor, if you will allow me to say so, have I any reason to suppose them other than disgracefully incompetent." '

Humming? Do they all hum to drown out the teacher?

@110APiccadilly, the GA was no duffer!

She certainly wasn't. I loved that. I really liked that book too. It was nice to see the Amazons and Ds have their own friendship apart from the Swallows.

Wow thought everyone had to wear masks outside school. Ours have enforced it for months now. The police turned up one day to watch us, was a bit intimidating

@AcornAutumn

Humming? Do they all hum to drown out the teacher?

It's bloody annoying and strategically done in turns to make it hard to pin down who does it as you get close and they stop, so the noise moves around the room.

Like I say, don't get mad, get even
Soon loses its fun

Bog, so how do you stop it or is it a secret?

Oh my goodness, humming! We used to do that to our maths teacher in year 8. He was an NQT and used to get so flustered. What horrid little shitbags we were.

@justasking111 it’s trickery of language. No one has to wear masks outside anywhere. The police being intimidating is awful behaviour.

Masks are still not mandatory for students either. It’s that pesky difference between ‘should’ and ‘must’.

I cannot believe how much teachers really really really hate their jobs and the students they teach. Why go into teaching? It’s nit exactly a secret that many schools are filled with troubled students is it?