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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

The Teachers’s Republic Refuge - solidarity comrades!

983 replies

StaffAssociationRepresentative · 28/04/2020 13:34

So continuing on from our boycott/flowers we need to continue to defend our profession. This is teacher/school staff chat - if you do not fall into that category please start you own thread elsewhere.

#solidarity

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Asuitablecat · 29/04/2020 19:42

I'm fed up with the 'we're doing their jobs' stuff. As you may have gathered, what I am.doing with my primary dc is definitely not what their real teachers do. I am.supervising my biological kids from behind my own.laptop and occasionally helping. But the secondary teacher in me is dominating, so most of my 'help' is trying to make them work it out.not fucking guess dc1

NeurotrashWarrior · 29/04/2020 19:43

This is SO insightful.

Please share.

Especially: Safeguarding training to ensure that all adults are ready and able to listen to children’s experiences during the lock down and respond appropriately to disclosures and indicators of abuse.

www.seainclusion.co.uk/post/the-many-problems-of-returning-to-school

BlessYourCottonSocks · 29/04/2020 19:43

@Appuskidu Yep, I've got a bad feeling. However they do it, as Piggy says you just can't make kids social distance. You can't teach part/half classes, you can't only teach some kids..

It's going to be a nightmare.

It just feels like a way of getting parents and the media off their backs, rather than any kind of solution to the issues we are ALL worried about with the kids.

Appuskidu · 29/04/2020 19:45

It just feels like a way of getting parents and the media off their backs

Yep-whatever happens then, they can wash their hands of it as it’ll be the fault of the teachers, not the government.

Lazy, work shy, part time, overpaid teachers who both (some) parents and the media seem to love giving a good kicking.

Angry
NeurotrashWarrior · 29/04/2020 19:53

Ooh sorry phleb, cross post and great minds!

Sorry I've not pmd yet. Need more brain cells and going to sleep now!!

IgnoranceIsStrength · 29/04/2020 19:53

To PP also BTEC teacher here and yes a complete nightmare. I also have the delights of city and guilds and ABC who ate equally saying nothing . Plus safeguarding responsibilities so a huge ramp up in work. Plus my own DC and a DH who is working full time out of the home. Have had a few tears to say thr least

TheHoneyBadger · 29/04/2020 20:00

Thanks Fripp. I just seem to rant a little more than most.

The Teachers’s Republic Refuge - solidarity comrades!
SallyLovesCheese · 29/04/2020 20:01

I definitely still have one, Betty, and I know exactly where it is! I really liked the NNS, it made so much sense. sigh The videos for the NLS were hilarious, though!

And yes, Appu, I thoroughly agree that whenever we go back is going to be a tough time. We're never going to get it right for every parent. Plus, I bet there'll be no fines for keeping your kids off, so I can see us getting up to speed in the classroom AND having to still send work home (obviously for shielding pupils there'll have to be something in place).

And the head of Ofsted says we won't have inspections in summer 2? So kind...

SallyLovesCheese · 29/04/2020 20:02

I need one odd those candles, Honey!!

MsAwesomeDragon · 29/04/2020 20:30

Wow there's been a lot of chatting going on in here today. You must all have been skiving while I was hard at work Wink

I spent most of my afternoon trying to agree A Level grades with the other teacher I share the class with. The phone call took over an hour and we'd both come up with our own version of the grades beforehand, and there were only 10 kids in that class! I am so incredibly glad I don't have a year 11 class this year (I've been moaning all year about that because I usually like teaching year 11). And that's in maths with mocks done only a couple of weeks before the schools shut, so we should be in the best position to decide these grades. It's just such a huge responsibility and I don't want to mess it up!! I hadn't even been stressed about it until yesterday, and I don't know why it suddenly hit me then 🤷

CanICelebrate · 29/04/2020 20:44

So pleased to have found this thread earlier when I was breaking. I’ve finally stopped crying and my dh is having a couple of days off so I can go into my huge comfy office at school to work and escape my fighting and unmotivated dc! I’ve hidden some threads on here too which has helped.
Also emailed my psychologist to tell her my MH concerns and she didn’t seem too worried but I’ll chat with her next week. I know work related stress and my ptsd are completely different things, but I feel so fragile having only just ‘recovered’ from a trauma and don’t want work to tip me over.
Thanks all Daffodil Flowers

MsAwesomeDragon · 29/04/2020 20:46

My own dd is in year 5 and is constantly grumpy 🙄. She cried over maths today, not because it was too hard (it really wasn't!), But because I was sitting with her but didn't immediately and psychically know she was stuck on a question she hadn't tried yet. I snapped at her in a way I would never snap at the kids at school Blush poor kid.

She's become an amazing interior designer/architect as she's spending so much time playing Roblox and building houses on there. That's the positive I'm taking from her "unschooling" experience.

The head emailed us all an article (I don't know where he found it or I'd share it with you), that basically said, primary kids are adaptable, don't stress about a temporary blip of a few months in the grand scheme of their education, practice some reading, writing and basic arithmetic for a couple of hours a day and let them be. So that's now my new philosophy for the rest of lockdown. If we do a bit of English and a bit of maths each day I'm happy.

The article also said that secondary kids are more adaptable than we give them credit for. Remote learning, whatever that looks like in your school, will be ok. You can't change the fact that some kids aren't engaging at all, or the fact that it's impossible to be at school, just keep providing some work for the kids to do while they're off and pick up the pieces when we get back. So I'm following that advice too.

And I've stopped coming on Mumsnet quite so often 😁 it's done wonders for my stress levels. Now in the evening I listen to a nice audiobook (from the library) and do a bit of crochet or a diamond painting. It's lovely.

StaffAssociationRepresentative · 29/04/2020 20:51

@MsAwesomeDragon - I think it is our stress levels that have caused the chat (and maybe a bit of the toffee vodka that was in the cupboard). Far better we chat here than on one of those awful AIBU threads which turn into a teacher/education bash bingo thread eg my second cousin three times removed failed her teacher training qualification but I know enough .....

@EvilTwins - I feel so sorry for Year 13 students. I have a number saying what has it all be for? They don't know how they will be assessed, what does it mean for uni entry or whether or not it will be worth going to uni this September. Some wanted to take a gap year and travel ....

#solidarity #supportingourstudents

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StaffAssociationRepresentative · 29/04/2020 20:54

@MossWalk - I am jealous. What is in the World's Best Teacher gift bag booze collection?

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Piggywaspushed · 29/04/2020 20:55

Everyone is stressed. On my usually very lovely GCSE support thread they are having meltdowns about lack of bridging work and their fears about the teacher grading are writ large. It's difficult to reassure. Crochet, audiobooks, real books, playing games, watching films etc all better than constant work, work, work.

I think people don't know how to fill time and also are frightened so we all snipe, gripe, argue, sulk and drink toffee vodka

StaffAssociationRepresentative · 29/04/2020 21:00

@TubereuseNordlys @TheHoneyBadger @LolaSmiles- precisely MN need us in a free advisory capacity! On the other hand they can tweet that horrible thread from today in order to attract more users which in turn attracts more advertisers. Most areas of MN operate at a snail's pace.

If we don't engage in those sorts of threads then the baiters turn elsewhere

#solidarity

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PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg · 29/04/2020 21:10

Oh just found this thread! SmileDaffodilGin

RigaBalsam · 29/04/2020 21:22

Agree Appu!
My daughter has already asked me if I can sort it so she is in on the same day as her friends. Like I will have a say.

I can see kids getting upset and parents phoning in to swap days. In this way one year would be better but that would be just lip service. Y7 for childcare? Y10 for exams?

If its y10 then I could leave my dd all day but y7 is still young possible though.

I honestly don't see it working. There will be tears, heightened stress. A nightmare!

Piggywaspushed · 29/04/2020 21:30

Can I just rant that someone on another thread a teacher just suggested my DH is some kind of dinosaur who deserves extinction in the great new world of teaching post lockdown? How rude.

Even Clavinova thought it amusing and faintly humorous that he doesn't know how to switch a computer on. Where is Clav? I miss her old school silly prodding, copying and pasting and baiting. It seems innocent Not an invitation!!

He is not bloody Boxer the horse FFS. Angry

PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg · 29/04/2020 21:31

Oh & just saw the thing about being asked to provide a Zoom recording or invite to SLT for performance management. Us too!

Although I'm in the ME. My dept of 8 needs 3 new teachers & a maternity cover to actually get on a plane & turn up in September. So...not fretting too much.

PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg · 29/04/2020 21:32

Saw that Piggy. Ffs. Our strongest teacher for subject knowledge is utterly resistant to IT too. Really doesn't stop her being quietly brilliant.

WhyNotMe40 · 29/04/2020 21:33

Piggy I saw that. Very rude

MsAwesomeDragon · 29/04/2020 21:34

@StaffAssociationRepresentative this thread is lovely and definitely doing wonders for stress levels too. I hugely appreciate it, and shall avoid venturing into the scary wilds of aibu for a while.

@Piggywaspushed you are absolutely correct that everyone is stressed. It's so difficult to reassure anyone about anything at the minute.

MsAwesomeDragon · 29/04/2020 21:40

@Piggywaspushed I just saw that, and it was very rude and uncalled for. I hope you and he are ok.

My friend/colleague at school is one of the best teachers I know and is struggling so much with the technology aspect of remote teaching. In the last week before schools shut our department taught her how to send emails to classes 7 times. Each time she had to be taught from scratch again because she's just not very confident with computers. She's coping with sending each class one email per lesson, including an attachment to a worksheet and a link to a video someone else has made. That has stretched her beyond her limit. Attempting anything further would kill her off I think. She was already threatening early retirement, and I think this might be it for her.

Piggywaspushed · 29/04/2020 21:42

Oh, he's fine. He doesn't know!

he would agree with her that it's time for him to go! He hates teaching really! Grin

He still gets good results, though.

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