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.

CallmeA I pray for snow a lot in winter.

Ha! Exactly what I thought! I do keep bewailing this but it SUCH a hard subject to teach remotely!!

We could have a cinema tent like the Lumiere Brothers. We could have projector and popcorn?

Might be better than saying 'watch this film clip and then pretend you understand it.. oh? I Player removed it? It's not an Netflix? You don't have Prime? youTube blocked it? Oh well, just pretend you watched it, then...'

Clearly none of them have taken Reception to the extreme far edge of the universe (that is the Big Playground).

It takes twenty minutes to send them all to the loo, put on sun hats, find Susie’s sunglasses and calm down Zoe because she left her sunglasses at home.

Half an hour later, you get to the nice spot with the tree. Joey doesn’t like sitting on the grass.

Everyone sits down apart from Joey, you are just about to start reading aaaand ‘MrsMoss, I need the toilet’.

Then there’s inevitably a wasp, fire engine or spider. Possibly a helicopter.

Forty minutes later and you’ve accomplished nothing!

Callme i had that wish many times when I was full time.

I was feeling broken as all this started after many viruses all winter in me and the kids. Personally, and I'm in a lucky position, I feel like I've started to physically heal from that (I have a couple of chronic illnesses and my asthma is shit in winter) but also mentally heal from years and years of work related anxiety.

A number of things that had crept into primary (highlighters, endless success criteria etc) that had caused a lot of stress simply as it was a pain to constantly print and manage them, won't be doable when we go back and I'm bloody delighted.

A number of my son's mums (most hcps) have commented that they are enjoying the slower pace of life even though it's also stressful in other ways.

🤣 moss so true.

I'm not even going to attempt to describe a day in the life of my school.

wtf are BBC Bitesize going to do for the maths as I thought they were using it?

They have worksheet links on there too. Twinkl and something else, can't remember.

To be fair to my school, they'll probably buy it at some point. I've just paid for it, it's STILL cheaper in just one day than using the rest of my afternoon making stuff for it.

I buy all sorts of things - best ones are Twinkl for PE and MFL, Classroom Secrets for maths and grammar specific stuff, literacy shed for interesting writing stimulus stuff. White Rose will now be useful going forwards. I like Power Maths as a text book support, and use comprehension and vocab ninja books for support too. Used to like Hamilton Trust for its great maths resources - but lots of those are available free now. Thinks like blank number lines etc.

We also share our memberships between two people in the same year group - I don't have my own classroom secrets log in for example.

I'm not a total div, I know how to make these resources suit my class, I hardly ever use them straight out of the box unless it's an emergency (when I used to cover other classes for example). I like them, long may they and their lettering sets live!

If we go back you primary staff can fully expect, given the emphasis on outside, the sun cream and hat application threads to start up again! With an added twist of social distancing debate.

going down is almost impossible cos I'm expensive

I thought the same, but I had two job offers in two years, both of which put me straight on UPS3 in the job offer without me asking. I'd been on L7 before the first offer, the head there said that because I'd been on L scales for more than 4 years or something, I should go straight to UPS3. I didn't take that job for various reasons, but then handed in my notice with nothing to go to and started scouting around. Didn't get a job (on purpose) for 2 terms, then failed to get any supply for 2 terms, then found a job. Now I'm UPS3 with a TLR, and have much less hassle than I used to. I still work almost every evening on 'stuff', but it's not stuff that stops me sleeping or makes me cry in cupboards anymore. I still have a bit of autonomy too, I can make small decisions for my phase.

If we go back you primary staff can fully expect, given the emphasis on outside, the sun cream and hat application threads to start up again! With an added twist of social distancing debate

And access to water bottles; god forbid anyone were to go without a sip of water for longer than 5 minutes.

What if someone coughs on Someone else’s water bottle-what’s the protocol there, I wonder?!

The random BBC day I looked at had a MyMaths online activity and a Collins worksheet attached to it. They must be doing mix and match.

I teach autistic children and they really need good visual support. I pay for a Math Antics login and have just paid for Classroom Monkey (new thing) for the videos. I've paid up for Pobble as well.

A lot of this remote learning stuff that has sprung up would be good for them going forward if it continued to be produced. They really don't like listening to me talk. For whatever reason, if some bot on a screen says it instead of me, it's less of a demand.

if some bot on a screen says it instead of me, it's less of a demand

Yep.

I've also found that for teaching history, really good narrative videos are the best things for making children remember facts and events. When I do quizes at the end of units, the stuff they've remembered, even the boring facts and figures, have come from videos, not from anything I've told them/they've worked with.

Obviously we don't show a video as the lesson, so there is always some discussion around it, drama, an activity, whatever, but it just 'gets' them. For example, the BBC life stories of historical characters are amazing.

I've just paid for it, it's STILL cheaper in just one day than using the rest of my afternoon making stuff for it

If I were still teaching maths I would absolutely do this!

Have to say, horrible histories is genius!

I concur re the bot on a screen. Universal truth innit!

Just seen the latest post from Boris. “Stay Home” has been replaced by “Stay alert” which is dangerous enough but we are also now being told to “stay 2m apart if possible” and that right there will be their get put clause to send us back to class...and watch the second peak go up...and teachers die.

Maybe not universal Neurotrash, but definitely in our line of work!

Ah but someone has assured us that children cannot transmit the virus. At all.

@pfrench what year groups are you making work for? BBC I think have links to my maths and something else which links to the white rose. We use it at secondary and I’ve paid for subscription personally for the years my own kids are in!

I'm a bit late with this but I'm another one that was on UPS with a TLR, and ended up dropping to part time, then quit totally for a couple of years, returned to supply, then was persuaded to stay buy current school. But I have to be part part time or my mental health crashes.
And this current crisis along with all the teacher bashing has me seriously reconsidering continuing, despite being in a lovely supportive albeit tough area intake bog standard comp.

I was invited to apply for threshold and dubious given I’m non specialist but told that won’t stand in the way look at all the brilliant resources you’ve developed for lower ability and look at all the work you’ve done with year 7 transition etc. So wrote the application and unsurprisingly got turned down on the basis of subject knowledge. Err yes I’m a non specialist.

Bit of a waste of time and getting my hopes up but then 0.4 of about £1200 minus pension, tax and ni wouldn’t have really been life changing. It did confirm I’m in a dead end position working my arse off acquiring what will be totally in-transferable skills though.

Where's the next thread?

Fourth Republic coming up

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/3905003-The-Fourth-Republic-Rises-solidarity-comrades