The Teachers’s Republic Refuge - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

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

^^That's what it states at the very end of the article.

The Telegraph article

Just posted on the thread about Telegraph article. This sort of shit, lazy, irresponsible journalism absolutely enrages me! We've got teens who are stressed to the eyeballs about when schools will return and what will happen. This kind of utter rubbish just fuels their anxiety and I'll now have 5000 fucking emails on Monday asking why the school hasn't told them this.

The Telegraph should be ashamed. It's the type of Daily mail gutter reporting.

This I in The Observer:

Fewer than one in five of the British public believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.
The poll by Opinium, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week, found 17% of people think the conditions have been met to consider reopening schools, against 67% who say they have not been, and that they should stay closed

UGH I’m glad you are all here already saying the things I want to about that article! I feel sick at the thought of “All primary” children being back (and I’m secondary with a nursery aged child!)

Yes yes yes to the adding to teenagers stress too. I am also getting desperate messages from students (and their parents). On Wednesday I did my allotted calls all in one day as I had to do it when DH was available for toddler. It took me until yesterday afternoon to calm down fully after listening to all the stress and worry coming from the parents and kids.

That article this morning has me feeling sick again. I couldn’t read all of it.

My HoF has allocated us all jobs to do in the summer term, too. I do hope she abandons these if we do go back.

Do we think heads will be flexible about working hours too and suggest staff can work from home of they have free afternoons? Or will presenteeism come back with a vengeance?

The idea that all primary go back just shows how all this is driven by the belief that WFH is inefficient (untested) and that schools are the only viable childcare. This government being so much by the economy above public health really does show exactly how Tory they are.

If it is all true...

So, when they talked about phased returns and we assumed it would be small groups and staggered times to comply with social distancing, they just mean-‘primary first’?

600 primary kids in a building
600 parents on the playground
Hundreds of staff

??

Piggy, I was wondering about being allowed to WFH in frees more often too - it would make a big difference to my life if we were allowed (I work 9-4, and we have 4 90-minute lessons a day - if I had first or last period free that’s a real boon to be able to go home at 2.30 or get in at 10.30). After all, if we’re expected to be as productive at home now, why then argue we won’t be in the future?

My greatest fear in all of this is that when we return we’re held to account and judged against a metric we didn’t know existed and haven’t prepared for, and I guarantee you we’ll be found wanting.

Sorry to hear about your DP pink. extra challenges facing this alone for you.

Had a bit of a meltdown on Friday night. I'd written some curriculum docs (hard as we are sen so everything is adapted and most ideas are from scratch) but I'm struggling to match the output full time child free colleagues are doing.

But the worst was the overwhelming feeling that most of it wouldn't be used in sept. I can't see how school will be normal until there's a vaccine and especially going into winter. Aibu? There's personal anxiety there regarding asthma and the winter; viruses are my nemesis.

Also school budgets; my subjects are resource heavy. I've not considered financial implications. Budgets had reduced to a quarter of what they were 5 years ago and I'd struggled this year to meet what we needed. (Though I'm a good hoarder and squirreler.)

I just overwhelmingly felt my work and efforts are utterly futile. (As they've been several times over the last 6/7 years as approaches changed and the curriculum was overhauled.)

Im writing content for an imaginary alternative universe, where things are normal. Possibly affected by reading ideas about how the curriculum will need to change again to ensure cohesion. But I imagine in sen we are a bit different as its individualised.

Hormones too I expect.

I noticed that a twinkl fb group I'm in had a few young things merrily saying they've not seen much in the way of kids or staff being ill and they reckon full opening will be fine luckily the contrast to an SLT fb group is v stark; I'm glad I know who is in charge!

I truly believe any school or HoF asking for extra stuff on top of teaching right now are ridiculous. (my school is asking for stuff 🙈)

Curriculum plans won't be used. Schemes of work won't be used.

We don't know what new world we are heading for. Wait for more information and then react. Our time would be better spent sorting a decent transition or planning topics to teach for a phased return.

SLT are hell bent on planning for all possible eventualities. Calm down and see what happens. Normally I'd advocate being proactive. In this climate proactive is a waste of time.

Herc I'm not teaching. I'm part time ppa cover. But v young children and Dh is full time still. Other staff are in on a rota every 2/3 weeks and we have small classes so it's different to mainstream. We do have a lot of very vulnerable children though so a lot of home contacting going on.

I'll carry on writing them as I've nothing else to usefully do and maybe one day they'll be useful.

To clarify, that's the task I've been set and deadlines given. They're understanding though.

I agree that it I pointless to plan SOWs. One of my colleagues is hell bent on redesigning our curriculum to 'catch up' and , yet, we don't even know whether the exams will be changed! It just seems lots of my colleagues don't even read the news.

Where my SLT and yours diverge herc I that they don't seem to be doing any planning at all at their level. Not anything they share : but they have always had a vow of secrecy, so it isn't new!

We’re starting a new spec in September so I have to do some planning for that! Luckily it’s very similar content so I’m just moving stuff around but as I have a very good idea that I’ll be the only one teaching the SoW I’m writing, at least for now, I’m future-proofing it a bit by basing it around homeworks and making PowerPoints now so that if need be I’ll have remote learning work ready to go if needed. And if not I’ll have all my planning done. Different if you’re writing stuff for other people to use though.

We were asked to writes learning journeys and plan everything for terms 5 and 6, then terms 1 and 2. I didn't do that, and still haven't - it feels meaningless, just filling my time. So I decided to focus on making a couple of lessons a week for the kids at home, reading a book via video, and my own CPD. Started with PE, because that's my weakest subject. I felt loads better when I did that.

Logged on and already about 4 threads.

In the words of staff. Solidarity!

We are we writing GCSE lessons. It won't be a waste unless they change the spec again.

We aren't doing live lessons though. Thank goodness.

I know and I got told off on an HE thread for trying the no one knows line on someone who was using her uni DD as evidence. People are feeling v sensitive this AM!

I know, @RigaBalsam it’s making me feel quite on edge.

I know it’s not ‘true’ as in there’s been no government announcement, but I can well believe that the government have agreed for the Times/Telegraph etc to throw this one out there to see the public response.

Yep Cue speakers on BBC and the evidence children 5-13 spread it. No mention of the adults.

I think what is most likely is that we, the adults in schools, will be told we have to keep apart from each other...

The media’s playing of our ‘Coronaphobia’ is disgusting.

I would like someone to ask Boris, Chris Witty and Patrick Vallance how they feel about that word at tonight’s briefing? How does that fit with the ‘stay home, save lives’ policy?

I also find the constant mention of MH lazy. There are those whose MH is badly affected by lockdown . but we all know there are lots of children, sadly, whose MH is adversely affected by school, education, peer group etc.

Sending everyone back is not a 'save our MH' magic bullet. It will be stressful at school and then DCs and workers will all have to go straight home : no pub/ restaurant, no gym, no extra curricular sports and clubs for kids, no golf course, no football on telly, no new dramas to watch, no theatre, no cinema, no holidays abroad or in the UK. The is existence does not sound anything less than depressing to me.

It sounds awful Piggy. Really does.

I am also getting jittery about Gav's proclamation about years 10 and 12 rushing back. It makes me feel like the exams will not be altered at all to account for lost time.