New Fred. It nearly ended in tiers.

[Cismyfatarse]

Sorry. Lost track of what was proposed. Hope this will do.

You can hire goats to join Zoom calls. I'd rather have a (real) kitten or puppy instead! Or a koala bear. Bloody love Koalas.

BJs press briefing today was all "wait and see". Wonder if he's trying not to let NS get in there first this time

Yeh, my question wasn’t so much “when” but more, “how”. As in will they return to LA based tiers, national restrictions or something totally new. It felt a bit like the LA based tier thing was problematic due to people working across areas.

I saw a couple of people trying to cross country ski in the city park - gutting is right. We need big hills!

@jabbathebutt

You can hire goats to join Zoom calls. I'd rather have a (real) kitten or puppy instead! Or a koala bear. Bloody love Koalas.

BJs press briefing today was all "wait and see". Wonder if he's trying not to let NS get in there first this time

The llama farm near us does Zoom calls too. They're adorable.

We're doing a zoom virtual wine tasting tonight. Should be quite fun, £10 a ticket and then bought listed wines from Aldi. Friend forgot to buy ticket for it, so we're then going to do unofficial tasting with her after.
Hate zoom things normally but I should be ok with drinking wine.

Wine helps most things. Especially this year and last!

How many wines? My neighbour did that and has no memories at all of it. 9 bottles I think

As much wine as you need. Sometimes 9 bottles isn't even enough

@museumum I read comments from Jason Leitch earlier. He was saying we are likely to return to levels but no actual indication of when. The article also suggested there won’t be any changes for the first three weeks after the schools return.

Offs

I’m feeling a bit woozy today after my vaccine yesterday all our school got it the past few days. We are taking it to mean the full school will be back on the 22nd (we’re ASN severe and complex needs).

Still waiting to see what this 5-8% of senior stage of pupils in will look like. DD1 is struggling a bit S5, her Nat 5s were messed up last year she had to appeal to have her grades levelled up, then she was doing exams, then she wasn’t, then she was doing prelims in January then she wasn’t. School have sent out an email saying the minute they are back it will be formal assessments she’s so stressed about it, it’s been tough for her, I’m just hoping S6 is a bit more normal for her.

One think I've been thinking about is all their chat about how schools didn't open first last time, and they're going to do things differently this time (with the implication of better). The schools were on holiday when things opened up last time. Play parks didn't open until the end of June and pubs and shopping centres were a good bit later. So I don't know why they're pretending they would be treating schools differently. Unless they'd have brought schools back mid July the point is moot.

@sweetkitty That's crap on the part of the school. Firstly, the SQA are consciously avoiding any suggestion that schools will be expected to do 'formal' assessments and at our school we've been advised not to use the word 'assessment' to the pupils at all, as some of them are so stressed. Yes, evidence will have to be gathered but I think a gentler approach will work best for everyone.

I kind of if wish my DD was at your school icanboogie She's doing Nat5s and was supposed to have 3 assessment periods. First before Christmas, second one was to be January. She's so stressed and hates online schooling. She's getting no pressure from me, puts it all on herself.

There were good numbers skiing Leckett Hill in the Campsies this morning, looked like a proper ski resort except no lift! So everyone was walking up and either coming down or touring onwards to other hills. Tried to walk up another hill (Holehead - aka Golf Ball Hill) but was not possible on foot - the snow was as deep as the fence and the bridge over the ditch was impossible to locate, so we relocated to Leckett which was more trampled at the bottom so at least you could cross the stream without getting wet feet.

Everyone skiing and boarding looked very competent. Would have loved to own skis, even non touring would have been worth the effort!

Out school's take on practical subjects is:

Art
Drama
Music
Graph Com
D&M
Practical Cookery
Admin
Sci Tech
Lab Science
PWW?
Computing

Senior pupils will be kept in their class ‘bubble’ for the time they are in school. They will not be allowed to leave the school building and will be required to purchase food on the school premises. If they would prefer, they are welcome to bring their own food with them. It is very important that everyone follows this request to minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19.

On the days that staff are in school teaching face to face, they will be unavailable to undertake online delivery. Staff will therefore be issuing work to their classes and all pupils are expected to continue attending their subject when they are timetabled to do so. Staff will not be able to answer any questions at that time. For the pupils that are attending school, they will be given time to complete work that they have missed on that day. The Practical departments are aware that they will need time back and will do their best to support this. Non-practical classes will also try where possible to set work for their own classes which is manageable for everyone.

Letter was sent out to all parents today.

@icanboogieboogiewoogie

One think I've been thinking about is all their chat about how schools didn't open first last time, and they're going to do things differently this time (with the implication of better). The schools were on holiday when things opened up last time. Play parks didn't open until the end of June and pubs and shopping centres were a good bit later. So I don't know why they're pretending they would be treating schools differently. Unless they'd have brought schools back mid July the point is moot.

Mid july is whrn childcare went back

So, as I feared, online learning might deteriorate for S1-3, if teachers are returning to f2f for senior pupils.

That does sound likely - the fact it's "on the days staff are in school ". Now maybe they'll rejig the timetable so that it's very few days but given the goal is to have a small proportion in at any given time that seems unlikely. Why can't they be available online when they are not f2f with the senior kids?

It was six wines bought online from Aldi. Did the official wine tasting then debrief with friends on zoom. Quite fun actually - through Scottish Wine events only £10 a ticket then the cost of the wine.

Just logged on to work computer for important go/no go decision - thankfully nothing requiring my input.

@randomsabreuse second hand skis have become the new inflatable hot tub - impossible to get hold of as everyone had the same idea. But too thick here for successful skiing - more like off piste which I always hated as I kept falling over.

@rookiemere

Definitely the wrong time to buy skis unless I wanted to pay £££ for past it junk. Will be looking over the summer though, or ex rentals if we get out of lockdown and the Scottish resorts are still open. Also snowshoes can't be had for sensible money either - would have improved our half term break as the snow on the Campsies is so deep.

Must be so frustrating for the resorts to have the best snow (and weather) in years and not be able to open!

If I won the lottery right now I would buy a boot drying machine. Some of the ski resorts have ones that are like a row of tubes blowing out hot air and you put your boots upside down on them and they get dried out and heated up. I know you get cheaper versions on amazon but I really want one of those top of the range ones, there's 5 of us so that's a lot of damp shoes on a snow day.

That's a brilliant idea @Rae36 . My ambitions are more modest. My rather expensive neoprene wellies are leaking after just over a year so I come back with wet feet after every walk, so I just need to buy a new pair, but am a crumbling heap of indecision.

Oooo I might try putting my ski boots onto ebay or Facebook. But they are brand new I skied in them for one day and decided they were too soft/easy.

I have several sets of skis in the loft including a "scottish ice" set which I don't mind about rocks for normal years!