I get locked down. Tiers go up again.

[Cismyfatarse]

New Fred.

We thankfully don't need to do live lessons. Can just imagine the carnage- zoom team meetings are bad enough!

It's hard. I have very young children so don't do too many. It would feel more worth it if the kids contributed/ participated more but I get it must be weird for them and they might have a noisier living space than me!

wouldbegood I agree on getting out and getting on. Walked to the supermarket at 9 this morning while the other lazies in the HH got up. Fair set me up for the day.

Even finally sorted out DD3's Christmas binoculars with her and went birdwatching this afternoon. Really difficult to teach a 9 year old how to use them when you can't see what they see and you never really got to grips with them even before you needed to alternate your glasses on your head all the time.

@kurtrussellsbeard

It's hard. I have very young children so don't do too many. It would feel more worth it if the kids contributed/ participated more but I get it must be weird for them and they might have a noisier living space than me!

I think everyone 's getting fed up with screens. Once we're back in school, I'm taking mine out all the time ( primary). You're doing well with having young kids at home.

Doing well would be a stretch. There have been many many tears and much soul searching. 🤣 getting a wee message saying 'thanks miss that really helped' keeps me going for a while but then I'm back to despair. We've been thrown under a bus this year with regards to workload in relation to estimating but that's a whole other thread!

This is why I laugh about often being accused on here of being an NS / Scot Gov fanatic. All I do is moan about them!

@StarryEyeSurprise The last time I worked in England was in 1998 and I was earning about 14k in Central London. I can't easily compare across decades that are most of my career. I also moved up to marry and started on patchy supply work.

One advantage of the system here is the 6 point scale is very simple. But, there are few ways to progress after the first 6 years and many are then stuck for years. But that is true of many, many jobs.

Not sure how to compare but the story above of my colleague and her Teach First son gives some idea of what you CAN earn there.

And I am not badly paid or grudging of pension changes. And I totally love my job and am absolutely desperate to get back to the classroom for more than a day a week.

What will happen on Tuesday? I am not sure if it is like waiting for Santa but he might turn out to have a cage to lock you in.

Please, please let there be a route out of all this. Even the smell of roast chicken is not cheering me up tonight.

Two weeks notice for early years and some primary children.

Secondary far dodgier so I'd give them another two weeks after that.

Total guesswork on my part though.

@kurtrussellsbeard

Doing well would be a stretch. There have been many many tears and much soul searching. 🤣 getting a wee message saying 'thanks miss that really helped' keeps me going for a while but then I'm back to despair. We've been thrown under a bus this year with regards to workload in relation to estimating but that's a whole other thread!

This is why I laugh about often being accused on here of being an NS / Scot Gov fanatic. All I do is moan about them!

As the parent of a Dx doing highers, just want to acknowledge the impossible job you have of being teachers and assessors. Honestly one of the most ludicrous decisions in this whole shitshow. Sending you and all your colleagues

I have a post it note on my desk that say, "Thanks Miss. You are so nice and kind." Which has kept me going at times. Seeing it weekly is such a tonic and I keep hoping there will be more kids in as the group I cover (S1) is usually only about 10-12 but I would love more.

Waiting for some sort of event that could be extremely good or extremely bad re Tuesday!

Texted friend that evidence per Devi was that again costs of being out of in person school higher than risk of covid transmission, evidence of damage for kids' mental health and she messaged that there was also evidence of damage to parents' mental health and we both laughed.

I won a lottery lucky dip this Saturday!

It is an absolutely ludicrous decision and I'm very appreciative that parents seem very understanding of that. It's the kids who will suffer and some will suffer more than others. It's appalling.

John Swinney will resign over this and there's no doubt of that. He's waiting until the whole sorry debacle is done so that his replacement's head doesn't need to roll when it all goes tits up in the summer.

Didn’t mean Dx, she’s a DD!

@kurtrussellsbeard

Doing well would be a stretch. There have been many many tears and much soul searching. 🤣 getting a wee message saying 'thanks miss that really helped' keeps me going for a while but then I'm back to despair. We've been thrown under a bus this year with regards to workload in relation to estimating but that's a whole other thread!

This is why I laugh about often being accused on here of being an NS / Scot Gov fanatic. All I do is moan about them!

I can only imagine the stress re estimating. As a primary teacher, we have our stresses re whether schools will open or not but nothing compared to the fall out / impact on you secondary teachers.

On a lighter note, I'd completely forgotten about the Feb long weekend until someone mentioned it last week in school!

Counting down the hours! How much did you win @anon444877 !?

[quote Cismyfatarse]@StarryEyeSurprise The last time I worked in England was in 1998 and I was earning about 14k in Central London. I can't easily compare across decades that are most of my career. I also moved up to marry and started on patchy supply work.

One advantage of the system here is the 6 point scale is very simple. But, there are few ways to progress after the first 6 years and many are then stuck for years. But that is true of many, many jobs.

Not sure how to compare but the story above of my colleague and her Teach First son gives some idea of what you CAN earn there.

And I am not badly paid or grudging of pension changes. And I totally love my job and am absolutely desperate to get back to the classroom for more than a day a week.

What will happen on Tuesday? I am not sure if it is like waiting for Santa but he might turn out to have a cage to lock you in.

Please, please let there be a route out of all this. Even the smell of roast chicken is not cheering me up tonight.

[/quote]
Oh yes of course, '98 would be a bit of a stretch for comparing!

I have a friend who teaches in London still and a few who have came back up.

I can't call Tuesday. Cases and deaths are the lowest in the UK but still relatively high for Scotland . Maybe the start of March for full return, middle of Feb for primary.

Matched 2 numbers so another lucky dip!
I hope whoever won the quadruple rollover is pleased.

@kurtrussellsbeard

Doing well would be a stretch. There have been many many tears and much soul searching. 🤣 getting a wee message saying 'thanks miss that really helped' keeps me going for a while but then I'm back to despair. We've been thrown under a bus this year with regards to workload in relation to estimating but that's a whole other thread!

This is why I laugh about often being accused on here of being an NS / Scot Gov fanatic. All I do is moan about them!

It’s also the digital transformation that teachers have just been expected to undertake. It’s a whole other discipline and expectations from parents is so high, with your teaching abilities being judged by your technical skills or your management of an online class. Teaching staff haven’t been given enough credit for the digital skills they’ve had to suddenly acquire and instead many have been criticised for ‘just uploading a worksheet’ which itself can be a headache of a task if you don’t have the right tech/equipment at home. I presume adapting your lesson to a digital platform takes so much longer than offline prep too? The full digital transformation in my industry took several years, even now we only have skills relative to our job. So much respect for any teacher who’s had to adapt overnight.

@Bytheloch that's been more tears if I'm being honest. It's been really hard. I just keep telling myself that lots of jobs have had to adapt and nobody is loving it.

I'm more concerned that the SQA and Scot Gov are pushing on like a juggernaut as of any of this is okay and the kids are actually learning anything. The brightest are, of course, but are the rest? Working from online lessons without the same level of teacher explanation and too scared to speak out in live lessons? People really underestimate all those wee moments in a classroom that clarify thinking for young people. Hey miss what was that can you explain that again? 'Here what did she just say?' and some wee soul explains it to their whole group. 'I don't think I'm doing this right, show me what you've got, awww I get it now!' Etc etc none of that is happening. It's awful. Most times when kids are being chatty in class they're not being disobedient they're sorting out the task amongst themselves.

Obviously I can only go by my school but if our engagement figures are representative of even half of the schools across the country then these children should be repeating the year. Controversial but definitely the best course of action in my very very lowly opinion.

We are falling even further behind on vaccinations, about 3.4% behind England now. The gap has been 3% for quite a few days but we are still not increasing our daily totals.

@anon444877 haha brilliant! Another chance to be in it to win it!

And a nice lottery win would do me, nowhere to spend it at the moment though. Gives more time to plan and not just splurge it.

Don't worry @WaxOnFeckOff I've seen some brilliant propaganda, sorry I mean adverts, on social media.

The British Army has been mobilised and sorted it all. We'll be zooming ahead by the end of the week!

Oooh 100 percent agreement here kurt, if online teaching was anywhere near as good it would have been done before, the personal relationship maters.

And I'd hate to be a teacher trying to pick up the pieces - my younger dc's teacher said last lockdown they saw a massive backslide in children's independence in early years. They are trying to get us to give worksheets and back off but often I'll find it crumpled or scribbled as they want to be off playing when at home.

The planning would be the best bit! I don't even know where I'd start. I'd hate to leave my house though. I do love it even though it's too small for us.

Buy a crash pad and campervan to mix it up a bit!