Safe space for school staff to talk about how they are feeling for next term…

[OnceuponaRainbow18]

I’m quite anxious about going back, although luckily managed to get the booster jab before Christmas. Lots of our families live hand to mouth so won’t regular test and can’t miss a week of work, which I do understand.

I’m also worried about exam classes having to sit exams as if nothing has happened.

I’m worried about lack of staff, week before Christmas hols our whole learning support team were off, with no cover.

I’m worried about getting ill and the hospitals are full.

I worry about having to send my kids into nursery where there’s a huge outbreak, but don’t have the option to keep them home.

I worry about bad behaviour as the SLT aren’t ‘policing’ the corridors at lesson change around sl behaviour is going to pot.

I also worry about school closures and kids mental health.

Tbh the biggest problem we'll have in January is with our boarders- all sorts of different types of quarantine needed, some parents won't feel comfortable sending their kids back to the UK at all right now, so that's a whole raft trying to learn at home, some with a 12 hr time difference. And I worry for the international students who do come back- some of them are absolutely terrified by our complete lack of restrictions, which has had a significant impact on their mental health.

Saw this from further up thread:

They also said that any child who was teacher assessed to be a different grade to what they achieved on the actual sat paper, would trigger a conversation between the class teacher, the head and the LA.

But…surely this happens ALL THE TIME? Because if students were routinely getting exactly the same grade as the teacher assessment, there would be no need for a costly and time-consuming set of external exams, surely?

@Pinkflask

Saw this from further up thread:

They also said that any child who was teacher assessed to be a different grade to what they achieved on the actual sat paper, would trigger a conversation between the class teacher, the head and the LA.

But…surely this happens ALL THE TIME? Because if students were routinely getting exactly the same grade as the teacher assessment, there would be no need for a costly and time-consuming set of external exams, surely?

This refers to y2 SATs by the way.

Just to say, teachers you are amazing. I understand your fear. I am so sorry. Thank you for everything you are doing for our children.

I'm worried about contracting covid as someone who is CEV but whose risk assessment says that it's a safe environment as my desk is near an open window. The fact that for 2 hours a day, I am in a room which seats 200 students and is classed as a learning space, so they don't have to wear masks, is also featured on my risk assessment. It's fine, because I have a screen on my desk. The screen is 75cm tall and 1m 50 cm wide.

My year 12 Form don't care about wearing masks or keeping distance and the Friday we broke up, 2 of them tested positive so the first week of my Christmas holiday was me waiting for my own pcr test result.

The behaviour has plummeted and I don't want to go back and have to deal with it. Due to costs needing to be cut in my academy chain, my hours were reduced (although the workload is the same) and I am struggling financially. It is no longer a job I love and it's not worth the health anxiety.
I have updated my CV and am applying for as many jobs as are suitable.
I want to leave. My classroom doesn't feel safe and as part of my job is student welfare I (selfishly) don't want to listen to the increased anxieties of students any more, when I can do absolutely nothing to help them.

I work in a school , medium sized . I’m late 30’s healthy and triple jabbed not at all worried about going back. If I had health conditions or were older maybe I would feel differently

I'm less worried about catching covid (I have had 4 vaccines!) than I am about last minute decisions, kids being off and needing to catch up, staff being off and needing to have cover, losing my management time to cover, ofsted, three y13 and a y11 class and staff morale being through the floor.
I'm looking forward to seeing my kids again.

Yeah, catching covid isn’t really something I worry about, but the general shit attendance, possibly of staff absences (we’ve been fairly lucky so far but I worry it’s just going to hit later!) and the accumulated effect of two years of CAGs/TAGs on sixth form pupils is all stressful. Preparing vocational y12 students for a January exam when they’ve never sat externally marked exams is…interesting! Some of them don’t really grasp what an exam is (in that, I won’t see the paper, won’t be in the room, won’t mark them, examiners won’t give you a mark if they “get the jist”, you have to be on time and so on!).

Health wise I'm not worried at all. I had Covid last year at 32 weeks pregnant when no vaccines were available. Thankfully I was very lucky and all was ok. I'm also double jabbed. I was supposed to have my booster this week, but needed a PCR (which thankfully came back today negative). I'll now take the first appt available! I realise I'm very privileged to not be worried about the impact of Covid on my own health.
What I am concerned about, however, is staff absence, vulnerable members of staff (thankfully every single member of staff in our school is vaccinated!) and the impact of Covid absences on children's education (which has been affected from previous lockdowns).
I am also concerned about childcare. It's not easy to drop everything during the day when teaching to pick up ill children (both mine are at nursery), then try and work out time off with DH while waiting for PCR results. Neither of us WFH, and we don't have family nearby for childcare, so I can see myself taking time off for numerous PCR tests that nursery kids are prone to having!

KeepGoing I don't think many of us are bothered about catching Covid. We are bothered about some combination of:
Restrictions
Disruption
Closures
Educational outcomes
Vulnerable colleagues

Doesn't any of that scare you either? If not, how do you stay so calm?!

Some of them don’t really grasp what an exam is (in that, I won’t see the paper, won’t be in the room, won’t mark them, examiners won’t give you a mark if they “get the jist”, you have to be on time and so on!).
God, yes. In class assessments where they say "hang on" as you collect the papers or are surprised that they're not allowed their books... really are not good prep for actual exams

I'm past caring about Covid but I'm very worried for children entering their 3rd year without proper education or safeguarding.

@MrsHamlet

And in mocks when they put their hands up and innocently ask what does this word mean, or can we read them the extract!

I’m on maternity leave so not back until after Easter, but I really really feel for all my colleagues. Like me, they are very blasé about socialising etc because the only place with no mitigations are schools right now anyway.

However, it’s the myriad of other problems that are keeping them up at night - risk of returning to bubbles/online learning and the insane workload it brings, risk to their vulnerable relatives, childcare issues brought about by their children being sent home from other settings etc.

Ofsted is clearly the biggest threat to teacher retention, and biggest driver of unmanageable workload though. How in a small school a non specialist primary teacher is expected to design, implement and assess the effectiveness of a curriculum in three or more subjects while also teaching full time AND be subjected to a deep dive in those subjects is utterly beyond me. I’d love to know how much the designers of the 2014 curriculum were paid to create woolly and confusing statements that then have to be interpreted by lesser mortals, who are then essentially held responsible for the outcome of their school’s inspection if chosen for a deep dive when NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE NON CORE CURRICULUM ACTUALLY MEANS ANYWAY.

God, yes. In class assessments where they say "hang on" as you collect the papers or are surprised that they're not allowed their books... really are not good prep for actual exams

I just admit I’ve had times of wondering what GCSEs are good for, but now I’ve had two years of students who never did them properly I can see why they’re sorely needed for sixth form preparation (if sixth form is going to be externally assessed). The revision, the physical sitting and writing in silence, dealing with nerves and anticipation…I know they’ve had some of that but some students never engaged properly and no amount of school assessment can match the anxious, heart-pounding feeling of a “real” exam. And it’s bloody hard to go into A levels without ever having had that.

(Definitely not implying that y11 teachers didn’t assess properly etc, I know you all did! It just can’t match a full exam season for so many reasons).

@JohnSmithDrive

I'm past caring about Covid but I'm very worried for children entering their 3rd year without proper education or safeguarding.

I hope you are addressing this in your school @JohnSmithDrive

I hope you are addressing this in your school @JohnSmithDrive**

There are systems in place but frequent periods when children haven't attended. We have a lot of children with no support at home. There's only so much school can do when they're not in school.

The revision, the physical sitting and writing in silence, dealing with nerves and anticipation…I know they’ve had some of that but some students never engaged properly and no amount of school assessment can match the anxious, heart-pounding feeling of a “real” exam. And it’s bloody hard to go into A levels without ever having had that.
The student in y13 I most worry about is because he was given a very generous grade 6 at GCSE with no evidence for it.
He can't write essays
He has no ability to pace himself in assessments
He had no clue about revision
He thinks he's going to just be given a grade B and go to uni

Just popped back here to read this. Thanks to those who have taken the time to post positive comments supporting school staff it really does help

And for those who are saying if ofsted paused inspections and sats were scrapped a million times yea this could help alleviate a lot of stress. I am sick of being told how ofsted won’t take into account covid when inspecting. It’s just another stick with which to beat us.

I sincerely hope we can manage to keep schools open for all children as that’s where staff and children need to be but goodwill alone doesn’t make that happen no matter how hard we try

@PoorMegHopkins

This time last year I was so scared. I’m numb now- just waiting to get it myself and surprised I haven’t so far! My class are making progress but they won’t be really SATS ready, for obvious reasons. I’m trying to focus on making sure they can all at least read properly before secondary. Ofsted is causing so much stress- apparently they are not interested in the effect of the pandemic, it’s business as usual. Insane. Like many schools we cover internally - supply is too expensive- so this term will be interesting. I’ve planned but made sure it could all be done remotely if needed. The kids really need to be in though.

Interested that schools had TAs in last lockdown and teachers at home- we didn’t and I don’t know any schools locally that did that. Very unfair. We had a rota.

This happened in my school and a lot of others I know in the Midlands. It was pretty awful, we ended up with all the SEN children, a lot of kids with difficult family backgrounds and those who didn’t take to home learning in school - as well as a few keyworker pupils. In other words the most challenging pupils. None of us are experienced in classroom management, it was really challenging. Seemed very unfair that teachers with their much higher wages were safely at home.

@Didiusfalco no teacher bashing here please.

I'm dreading going back and can feel the anxiety welling up in my chest. Got the same feeling in September too. The get out plan is in action, fingers crossed it works.

I'm dreading the inevitable ofsted visit which we are preparing for with endless drop ins and work scrutinies. As a middle leader I have to set an example so I am in a position to judge them so the pressure to be on top of things is huge. We're now being questioned about how we are addressing the gaps of each student who is off. How do we answer that when the absence rate is huge in every year group and every class. I'm also tired of covering for all the staff who are off including my HOD who is off with long COVID.

I'm not worried about catching it but am worried about covering enough of the content before feb when topic lists come out.

@Didiusfalco

Sounds touch, but please can we keep this as a supportive thread which is a safe space to all school staff.

doorornottodoor - didius isn't teacher bashing. They are stating the facts of what happened in a huge number of schools this time last year. Many TAs left over their treatment. If there's a profession that has been treated worse than teachers over the last 18 months, it's definitely TAs. They're entitled to moan. It doesn't make it the teachers' fault. Not the ordinary classroom teachers anyway.

@blameitonthecaffeine I am not doubting that. It was the wording “ teachers with their much higher wages safely at home” not much solidarity there.