Can I say Thank You to all the Head Teachers and staff who are having to deal with this clusterfuck?

[Al1langdownthecleghole]

The emails from DD's secondary Head still have a grain of humour in them but how the poor woman has any hair left is beyond me. Along with the SLT and other Teachers she must have worked so hard to put plan after plan into place only for it to be changed at the last minute.

The emails from her since the week before the Xmas break have basically been

We thought we were doing A but now we are doing B. we have worked very hard to prepare for B and this is how it will work.

It seems now we are doing C. We have given this a lot of thought and put a lot of effort into a viable plan...

Whoops we are doing D

Oh actually it's E/F...Z

Today's message was about all the volunteers they had recruited for the testing, the training they had done and how it was all going to work.

What a waste of time and effort.

My headteacher friend is on her knees - they have been pushed to breaking point.

Yes I am appalled that they had to plan and be effectively on call over Christmas to change everything all over again. Totally unacceptable

Well done to all HT and school staff for dealing with this total and utter chaos once again.

I hope the government has some plans ready for when those HT who are in a position to do so, give up their posts. Whatever they are paid they have bloody well earned it this year. I strongly suspect many will decide it is no longer worth it

Was on the phone to my HT tonight and I am so impressed by how good humoured she is about the whole situation. The amount of time and effort that our staff have wasted over the holidays and today is ridiculous. Our poor exams officer sent me a mock exam timetable that she spent hours putting together today and within an hour Boris consigned it to the bin.

I completely agree.
They are doing an amazing job without the tools they need to do it and with ever moving goalposts.

I agree @Al1langdownthecleghole

Thank you teachers!

I agree.
In secondary - after the testing nonsense was pushed on them right at the end of term they must have spent all of Christmas trying to sort it out.
What a waste of time.

Really feel for the primary schools who were forced back in today for the sake of 1 day.

This is such a lovely thread and cheered me after today, thank you. Our head is also amazing and don’t envy him. Today I have gone in, volunteered to test, been given training and a lab coat (😂) and then had it all cancelled. Just seen another thread where parents are demanding to know what the expectations are for online learning- we’re all literally doing this minute by minute! If you want to be really kind, send a gushing email of thanks to your headteacher and mention staff- they get sent on to all staff and it really raises morale.

To all the head teachers/teachers and support staff, you are amazing and I (and my dc) appreciate all you are doing.

Yes, me too. Every single one of you are brilliant, and risking your own health.

If anyone can link to a petition (if there is one) to get school workers vaccinated as a top priority I'll be very glad to sign it.

Hear hear. Those poor teachers who worked through Xmas trying to sort out COVID testing only to have this entirely predictable lockdown dumped on them at 8pm.
Heads now having to scrabble round trying to work out what to do yet again.
What did Boris wait so long? He has thrown lives away. It was obviously coming.

I add another voice of agreement!

Here's the petition kendodd petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554316

Hear hear.

I agree. My DD's school have been amazing since the start of the pandemic and they've done nothing but make life as lovely and normal for the children as possible despite difficult circumstances. The staff were all in school today getting ready for the kids return tomorrow and now all their hard work has been wasted because Boris and co couldn't get their shit together earlier. The school are now spending tomorrow sorting out learning packs and getting their remote learning sorted ready to start on Wednesday. I know it will be great when it starts because it was fantastic last time, but I feel so sorry for all their wasted efforts today.

Well done to all teaching and school staff for your hard work during these difficult times.

Ditto

I agree. It has been u turn after u turn. In Kent the HT have also had to deal with the lorry drivers and Brexit. I honestly don’t know how they have done it. I think a lot will leave after this. The Govt expects too much from them but then doesn’t support them when they say they need more resources etc etc.

Thank you for saying so.
We know it's incredible hard for parents and students. This was not what we wanted.

I am massively impressed with both my DC schools communication. My younger DC schools head sent an email with plan A - school open and plan B online learning and what that will entail , at the weekend. Then an email tonight saying obviously look at plan B.

It would have made so much sense, if a decision was not made before xmas to at least have the balls to make the decision on Friday before schools went back and still at the weekend interviews saying schools are safe when they must be blind not to see they are the ideal conditions for germs to spread.

However I have to say, as well as school staff, there will be a load of employers/employees who have been waiting on the edge of their seat to hear whats happening with schools, to see which staff will be available for other jobs, if they have childcare issues and homeschooling to deal with.

Absolutely Agree 100 % thank you so much and yes you are and should be very appreciated, hats off to all teaching/school staff.❤

@MrsHamlet

Thank you for saying so. We know it's incredible hard for parents and students. This was not what we wanted.

Absolutely. Thank you everyone. This is definitely not what we wanted. Maybe when we reopen we will have mitigations in place you never know. Thank you everyone x

Both HTs at my dc's schools have been great. My dd's TA has, as always, been lovely.
I haven't emailed today because I know they are drowning in emails but yes I will send a message of support probably next week when it's all calmed down.
And thanks to every NEU and NAHT member who pushed this to the limit.

Headteachers and school leaders have been treated like absolute shit this whole time. Whenever DFE guidance has come out at the last possible minute it has been stressful just being a teacher reading it, but Heads have had to go through it with a fine tooth comb and try to implement it.

And then so many times have had to just bin their carefully laid plans.

Although I don't think any secondary Heads will be shedding a tear at having to abandon the attempts to create a mass testing centre out of toilet rolls, pipe cleaners and a can-do attitude.

Here's to at least a bit of stability over the next term and not having to wonder every time the phone rang if it was a positive test result meaning they had to put their Test and Trace hat on and ruin people's day/week/holiday/Christmas.

Hats off to Heads and Senior Leaders, I certainly couldn't do it.

I agree.
I did email both my dc's secondary schools after the December announcement to thank them for their hard work and how frustrating it must be that everything was just dumped on them.
They both have young teens themselves and said that even they struggle to home school which was reassuring.