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.

Saw your Q on middle schools pink!

Dreaming I have every one up to Ponyo on DVD. Dd loves Ponyo and The Cat Returns best. Ds loves Totoro and Castle in the Sky tied with Princess Monoke. What I love about them is that they stand repeat viewing and the narrative is excellent. As a teacher there are tons of places you could "pause" and do inferency stuff, but they're just great stories!
They do beautiful films for adults too. God knows we all need a bit of escapism now.

Stuart Lock, head of the very in favour Bedford Free School's Trust is FUMING! That will help.

Oh I love that Stuart Lock is cross! I grew up in Bedford.

@Piggywaspushed I just had to! I almost tweeted it too, but that would have been outing!
I'm watching QT now, waiting for the elephant in the room..
Just seen on Twitter that Gav won't be meeting with the Ed unions as he doesn't want to politicise the difficulty.

Asuitablecat my dd loved the Reina Telgemeier graphic novels.

@phlebasconsidered I've been googling Brian Moore frantically, can find an author but not any graphic novels by him...
Not that I think any book would win over bloody ds but I keep trying

I was fuming with the guidance but then saw this and I am now calm:

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.

Thanks but NO THANKS!

This is interesting for us secondary folks, and is not what our school was going to do, so that's another 5 days planning useless?

www.sec-ed.co.uk/news/clarity-face-to-face-support-years-10-and-12-examinations-secondary-schools-coronavirus-re-opening-teachers

Morning all!

Hot chocolate today.

I was annoyed that sir Dan said it was "some of the larger unions" who had protested about opening guidance yesterday. It's all isn't it?! Certainly 9; that's it isn't it?!

I notice they're meeting with the chief advisors today.

Coronavirus: Academy trust to open schools on 1 June www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52669441

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.

But with any guidance telling you that you can’t do something-if you decide to do the opposite anyway, there will be criticism. And if things go wrong-the HT will be liable and have to justify why they failed to follow the guidelines.

They want people back at work-if some schools only offer 6 children one day a week on a rota-I suspect parents/DfE/LEA/academy trusts are going to object.

I’m starting to suspect schools won’t be opening on June 1st at all...

Just seen on Twitter that Gav won't be meeting with the Ed unions as he doesn't want to politicise the difficulty.

Did he actually say that?! His can he say he works with the unions and then just refuse?!

Oops

I've just read that article Bea. Not sure what I think. I can see the point in a way but was discussing something similar with my head earlier in the week and he said he couldn't see the point in days like that as kids would have to see so many teachers for it t be worthwhile. Otherwise it would just be : Kid: I'm struggling with art. Teacher: Ah, email your art teacher.

That could be done from home. Or it's lots of movement between rooms, which is a no, or it's coming in for lots of different days which is a faff and lots of necessary travel, especially for schools in rural areas.

Barton talks about identifying gaps in learning and putting a plan in place but that's going to be very hard to do in large numbers and presumably most kids who haven't been engaging with home learning won't turn up or won't act on the advice given.

Seems to me it's just a way of avoiding the reality that adjustments are going to have to be made to exams next year.

Mistress, I meant Alan Moore. I had had gin.

If he's a teen, Alan Moore is great. Some sexual content. Otherwise I always recommend the graphic versions of Gaimans "Graveyard Book".

In my defence I rarely drink in the week but I am so pissed off right now.

Just coming to placemark my anger at the Daily Mail headline

Morning all

Have we touched on what schools will be like in September yet?

Lots of froth on twitter from parents not sending their child in because 2m apart school will damage them. But they somehow think September will return to school as normal?!

Really feel for the parents who have no choice in their child returning. Key workers and people who need to work. Reading all this makes it feel so much worse.

Surely 'identifying gaps in learning' is really only done through assessments/tests? I know it can be done in class as well but only with a class you know and are routinely teaching.

This is why they guidance hasn't come out for secondary yet : the DfE doesn't know.

I like my year 12 but I definitely do not need to meet them to identify gaps!

Just read that Daily Mail article.

Gavin Williamson is a twat.

I could rant for hours about the bullshit in there. I love teaching, absolutely love my students, my school, even my SLT but Ive had enough.

I didnt become a teacher to become public enemy #1. I earnt a damn sight more for working less hours before, and Im almost ready to quit at this point.

duchess your last sentence, I think, hits the nail on the head. Same with the (possibly) proposed summer schools.

STEP AWAY FROM THE FAIL!

2m apart will not damage children it will be all the harping on they get from parents etc saying ‘you poor thing it is not fair that you can’t / didn’t xyz like older sibling / cousin etc etc

#solidarity

Excellent advice Piggy

Who has proposed clapping for teachers next week? It sounds an idea timed to allow papers to have pictures of nobody clapping because they all hate lazy teachers (in contrast to clapping for the nurses who are angels) next to Gav’s headlines of us all refusing to go back to work.

Probably next to pictures of a sad child missing his school and a teacher drowning a puppy or something.

Have we touched on what schools will be like in September yet?

I’ve been talking to SLT when I have been in this week and even I hadn’t fully realised all the things they are currently having plan at the moment:

For example, our PGCE students often have an area in the staff study room to work from (extension of Staffroom with computers basically) and there is not enough space for them to SD and have existing staff as well, so they have had to reduce the number of PGCE trainees from Sept.

That and they will be taking out some of the computers anyway so it is not as crowded so fewer for us (and we have absolutely no spare laptops to hand out)

I have been pre-warned that Computing might not go ahead or at least, not practical Computing and I’ve been asked to plan more paper based lessons - eek!

They are considering what to do with photocopiers and printers

They are struggling to plan one way routes and blocking off staircases etc because we are in old building that doesn’t have many corridors apart from the ground floor, just staircases with classrooms off them (it’s hard to describe!) so one way routes are impossible and the staircases are already very narrow-certainly not the size of new Academy buildings. Think size of house staircases.

We have had a lot of staff resign (7 or 8 I think) and SLT recently been doing lots of MS Teams interviews-apparently the amount of new NQTs is staggering because they are desperate for jobs but haven’t technically finished placements etc so schools are nervous employing because Sept has to try to be as ‘seamless’ as possible for the students, if you see what I mean.

Very difficult times.

staff I wonder what the correlation is between anxious parents and anxious kids. I definitely have friends who are projecting.

Thanks for all book suggestions. I'm on it!