The Fifth Republic - safe space? Solidarity Comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. 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.

In the other staffroom, there is rhubarb & ginger gin, along with tea and coffee.

So many schools have spent the last 3 or 4 days working flat out on plans that involve rotas. Such a waste of time. Although I've also seen that the DfE have said in small print elsewhere that it is 'guidance' and schools can choose to implement the whole thing, or just parts, however they wish.

I wish they'd just said to slowly increase numbers from 1st June and focus KW and on those year groups. That would have made more sense.

Honestly, it's like a pgce student wrote it and everyone's gone off and interpreted it differently and you've come back in to mop up and pick up the chaos. (Sorry to students but we've all been there!)

From the latest guidance:
You may also wish to consider your plans for:

the availability of soap and hot water in every toilet (and if possible in classrooms)

the location of hand sanitiser stations, for example at the school entrance for pupils and any other person passing into the school to use, and their replenishment

the location of lidded bins in classrooms and in other key locations around the site for the disposal of tissues and any other waste, their double bagging and emptying

ensuring you have a good supply of disposable tissues to implement the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach in each classroom and enough to top up regularly

Especially in light of Sadiq Khan’s latest funding injection, will the government pay for any or all of the above?

Well, this is just charming :

*I know dailymail but still,
Am I the only one getting tired of this 'Hero' nurses thing going on?
If you choose to be an intensive care nurse surely you go for the job knowing death is something you will witness?

Maybe it's just me*

Oh that' s hilarious about double bagging and lidded bins!!

Our bin bags are like tissue paper.

So, the new guidance is just primary??

I am reading it now : it does still refer to years 10 and 12 on 1st June. FFS.

We are planning for year 10, but on a rota. Guidance for primaries is no rota, full time places only. Document says AP (us!) might like to consider that guidance too. Hmm. And in Monday evening's document, it said that because we don't have year 12s we should get year 11s back too. So basically the whole of our school. We have a high staff to student ratio. What we don't have is space.

So how many schools have just wasted the best part of a week planning for rotas? No doubt it will be all the fault of schools for not foreseeing the drip feed. Or doubling the amount of space overnight.

It’s like we’ve got bored of bending all the safety rules so we’re having a pop at the actual laws of physics instead.

@Piggywaspushed I've just read that bit too:
'From 1 June at the earliest, secondary schools will also be asked to provide some face-to-face support for pupils in year 10 and year 12 facing exams next year to supplement their remote education. We will be working with sector representatives over the coming week to develop models of how this could operate, and this will be published along with further guidance for secondary schools shortly.'

Why can't they just release guidance at the same time as the announcement?

HOLD EVERYTHING have you seen this? With collusion with Mumsnet????? That's not gonna be biased?!?!?
twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1261023623059574785?s=19

Wow, that is shocking.

No mention of staff breaks at all. Assume no breaks....

And supervising toilet flushing...

And no wrap around care...

And Oak Academy gets their plug.

That guidance very does much prepare secondary teachers for the idea that older children will obediently SD

It's coming across like they don't have a plan and are making it up as they go along. Surely someone in the DfE could have foreseen that schools would be reopening at some point and that would need staggering, they then could have written a document weeks ago, tweaked it at the weekend ready to release Monday morning after Boris' announcement on Sunday. Not this ridiculous drip-feed, secondary don't even have one yet - just says soon. Even assuming the plan was good and safe we'd need notice to actually plan lessons to teach, can't just turn up after half-term and magic up a lesson.

Quite right : on other threads teacher have been scolded for not planning this fro at least years.

I've just watched half of a lovely school's explanation to parents of how they're organising their early years, they've worked so hard on the video and measures. Children in eyfs were to go in one day a week. I wonder if they'll have to change it?

All this Reminds me of how I was told of the EBACC being scribbled/ planned on a napkin by Gove...

The year 2 etc parents are really going to howl now if all they get is Oak...

How can they expect Secondary schools plan what they need to do without even a basic summary of what they are expecting them to do, potentially from 1 June? It's not like Y10 and Y12 are a small number of pupils!

The year 6 bit sounds depressing.

The Oak academy bit was one bit that did at least make sense, teachers will be at school teaching so children at home can use this.

Y6 bit about it being all maths and English cramming pre secondary makes me even more certain it's not the right thing for DS to go in.

Indeed ineed. In my school that is 800 kids!!

Brian Moore is a GOD to me. Author of the best graphic novels ever - saviour of reading and narrative to so many boys I have taught. "I Don't read," they would say but they would do a whole series of Moore. Likewise Pullman - except I love him for his strong and perceptive girls.

Think our Primary Schools will be taking advantage of this paragraph in the guidance:
Schools are not required to use this guide, and may choose to follow alternative approaches to preparing for wider opening, or to use some sections of this guidance alongside other approaches. We hope that some of these suggestions will be helpful to headteachers who are leading this important work, to support their own decision-making.