The Third Republic - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are not staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

TheHoneyBadger

Mustn't forget that not all schools are singing from the same hymn sheet on this one.

And as I said I have no problems with it.

Thank you, Riga and piggy.

He says Sage is looking at different options. But they could not open all schools without a real risk of R going above 1, he says.

Let’s hope this doesn’t translate as, ‘we know we can’t open all schools, BUT we could try Primaries and see what happens...’

You might hope (carrot) that all the kids can access and use the necessary tech at home and be enthused by home learning but there’s no stick. It really is optional and for some impossible. No one should be assuming anything they’ve set is banked learning and be planning forward on that assumption.

Schools aren’t even legally obliged to offer online learning let alone kids obliged to engage with it.

Not trying to be negative but just to remind people of the facts. No matter how much work you’re putting in you can’t assume learning or equal effort from kids

Hi All, finally found the third thread! I have been busy with DIY and looking after a toddler, then I was in school today. So not around on here much, but I do enjoy the intellectual conversations you all have! I'm usually too tired to contribute but I like reading your views on the latest education tweets and updates

Appu, I hope it doesn't mean that either. There were fewer than 10 children in today and at home time one mum came to pick up her two children with both their gran and their older sister, one odd whom proceeded to give ALL the waiting children unwrapped sweets! I was like "Er, we're still social distancing you know".

So if I had a full school's-worth of kids and parents in, I can only imagine the chaos.

I’ve just read a comment on another thread (can’t do this until September) with a poster saying that all Raab said was schools won’t open in full now. So that would translate as opening primaries in June (which I guess is what all the paper leaks said anyway). I am feeling increasingly anxious over the last day or two.

I'm just imagining trying to sd in.the school my kids go to. A lot walk. A lot of parents park on.pavements. I'm envisioning parents and kids queuing like we do for the supermarket, all down the street and people complaining that they can't get out their driveways.

We have a generic letter that we send if kids haven't engaged with work for 4 consecutive lessons in your subject. It basically says "we know times are difficult, we'd just like you to know that X hasn't submitted any work for y subject. If they do not engage throughout lockdown they will be at a disadvantage when schools reopen. Please do let us know if school can offer any individual support for your family, as we are aware that many of you are going through stresses that we are unaware of". That's obviously paraphrased as the head is much better with words than I am (and thinks he's better with maths than me too, having done AS maths many years ago, lol).

It's fairly generic, let's them know that they certainly don't HAVE to do the work, but they will be the ones having to catch up if they don't. If they still don't engage for a further 2 lessons then their hoy or SLT "mentor" (only 20 of the most disaffected pupils have an SLT mentor, I think all of them have had several phone calls to check on them so far) gives them a welfare call and a bit of a pep talk over the phone. If it is subjects they have no intention of taking for GCSE that they aren't engaging with, the hoy pretty much doesn't care though 🤷

I can completely understand kids choosing to focus on core subjects for now. It's what I'm doing with dd2. We do maths and English every day, and pick the easiest/most fun options from the other work set. So we engaged in the art (colour in a union jack and display it in the window), technology (send us a photo of you doing some cooking/make a paper aeroplane that looks like a spitfire), French (label this person with these French words). That's year 5 though. By year 10 all their subjects are supposed to be important because they're actually going to sit exams in all of them

TheHoneyBadger

For what its worth.

It was a request, what I hoped was a pleasant one.

I was just asking because this thread was brought about because of a concern for teachers wellbeing, and I didn't need a mansplaining response.

I am not forgetting anything, nor is anyone else.

My gut feeling still reckoning on 'some' primary kids back at the beginning of June, see how it goes for 2 - 3 weeks then get more back in. Say, year 5. Would still give them a month of school before summer.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens over the summer holidays.

It’s tough isn’t it FrippEnos when trying to strike the right balance between not upsetting a parent/family but trying to politely request why no contact has been made/work done, even if it is a ‘just checking everything is okay’ message. So many of us are having to do it and it can be a bit of a blow whenever a response is ‘I’m not doing your work because it doesn’t matter/count’-it is more embarrassing than anything! Would be nice to know in advance I don’t need to message if everything is fine.

Still, every day is a new experience and I’m sure whatever we do, it won’t have been the right thing to do

ChloeDecker

The strange thing is that I can see that pupils are looking at some work through SMHW,

But I can't tell which work they are looking at.

I don't know if they are doing it on paper or just not doing it.

I would be happy if the pupils (or the parents) left a message saying that they are not going to do it as they are prioritising English, Maths and Science, or even if they just said that they are not taking the subject so won't be bothering.

The next thing will be parents complaining that the pupils are never chased for the work.

Thanks all. Feeling much calmer.

I hope the unions crack on with support. If the hubs are anything to go by, the emotional stress of a return to work is going to be enormous. I have never been the sort of person to say fuck it, I'll go off on stress, but I couldn't take that environment five days a week.

Parents complaining that there is no show, no hoodies, no signing shirts etc would tip staff over the edge.

I've had about 4 days off in 10 years since going back after my kids were born. But I will sign off in a heartbeat if I have to if I feel i'm not safe. I'm a mere 10mg away from shielding in dosage for asthma anyway - the stress of going back will tip me over the edge.

The stress of being off is bad enough. But i will cope better with the hugely passive aggressive emails designed to make me feel guilty from my slt than I will with some of the ebd kids in my class in a socially distant setting.

*I would be happy if the pupils (or the parents) left a message saying that they are not going to do it as they are prioritising English, Maths and Science, or even if they just said that they are not taking the subject so won't be bothering.^

Me too. I would hate to upset a parent but would also hate to miss a safeguarding issue.

The next thing will be parents complaining that the pupils are never chased for the work.
So true! At least on Mumsnet anyway

Also, do you think the problem is the understanding of what "vulnerable " means? We all know that includes a whole gamut of children but that very many of them are precisely the ones that cannot or will not be able to behave safely in school. Whereas I think the general public thinks of kids in the Barnardo's ads, who sit beautifully and be a bit like Little Nell, not ones that are likely to spit at you before calling you a c**t and bolting. Left to my own choice i'd have 4 kids that are in that bracket in my class but I would not be safe in any way with two of them. I'm not at the best of times, let alone now.

Ha, yes.

At one point I read a suggestion which was - vulnerable children in school being taught by the teacher, while the lesson is live streamed to other children at home.

Yes, that's exactly what I want parents seeing. Me trying to get 3 children out from under the desk, them shouting stuff out at me, one of them jumping up and down smacking the whiteboard randomly, one licking his hand then wiping it down my sleeve/picking his nose and wiping it down my sleeve, one of them storming out and slamming the door - then slamming the door again when I don't immediately respond, then another one throwing their glasses and books at my face....

All in a day's mainstream school work with the 'vulnerable' children.

Oh thank god it's not just me. Paper spitters, one that literally runs round the classroom walls like it's a wall of death, spitters, biters, and - my favourite- one who only barks at you and growls in your face and pushes over tables when you ask him to do anything he doesn't want to.

But they'd probably all sit nicely now we are socially distanced!

I've had that in all classes ever. For lots of them the learning is about learning how to be socially acceptable. This is primary!

And in my school, year 1 is the 'worst' for this challenging behaviour.

I have one coming back if we open as they won an appeal against exclusion, despite lobbing a computer screen at me, threatening to stab a pupil with scissors then vaulting the perimeter fence and running off. Because, you know, I probably wasn't doing enough quality first teaching. Nobody has spoken to me about how this can happen.

do you think the problem is the understanding of what "vulnerable " means?

Definitely. We run the gamut from the little ones who are in no way suitable for mainstream and are victims of enthusiastic ed pysch’s social experiments, to those who will deliberately now spit because they know exactly what they are doing.

I do think a lot of people are thinking of desks in rows and everyone writing from textbooks. If they’ve got their 80s tinted specs on, they likely do not understand the range of needs in a modern classroom nor the expectations of teaching nowadays.

Dh says spitting kids are health and safety 'controllable risk' during a pandemic and we should refuse to teach. He's known.me my whole career and STILL can't understand why we ignore h&s rules. He's had to spend hours risk assessing after someone he worked with poked themselves in the eye. With a piece of paper. He makes me feel like a warrior

It does make you wonder if we will have anymore "control" during this.

I personally can't see it, someone mentioned about licking the computer mice, I know that the response from my SLT will be lock the doors at lunch and break, don't let them in and you will have to wipe down the mice before the next class, and they will blame the teacher if its in the lesson.

Like a teacher can actually stop them from licking the mice if they want to.

I'm also thinking that this will be the time for the 'phlegm in a plastic spoon and flick' to return.

Oh my god Suitable, what on earth must he think of teachers? I once had to say "Don't lick his nose, he's got a cold" to a child. On residential once a (yr6!) child asked if they could nip to the woods to go to the loo. Yes, I said. We were miles from a toilet. Wee up a tree. Then they came back and asked for paper.... luckily I always have dog poo bags in my pocket!

Phlegm in a spoon!!!???!
That said, last years year 6 went through a phase of sticking their hands down their bum.cracks and then wiping it under friends/ enemies noses.