The Sixth Republic - Will we or won’t we? That is the question! #solidarity

[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.

Just to cheer some of us up (if we need it) my colleagues and I have organised the delivery of flowers (and some other stuff) for our Head and deputy as a token of our appreciation and the lovely florist said she would waive the delivery fees as it's for school staff!!

gravity, given we teach the same subject that is most interesting!

I don't think it has occurred to my school to survey students or parents!

I just need to share this with you, I did actually laugh out loud.
You know I teach a very specific subject, well for the past however many weeks I've set different FT tasks and stuff for KS2&3. My DS goes to a different school to the one I work in....and all my stuff has just appeared on their website! I don't mind in the slightest, I think it's funny!

I am planning on nicking stuff form out local sixth form college.

I've just done it as an form in Teams - it's for my own interest rather than anything else.

I honestly don't see what good live lessons would do for my subject and I don't want to do them at all, but I'm glad to see students don't want them either! We're working on NEA stuff and we were going to do a written task instead of practical anyway (as my HoD doesn't like A level students using the equipment...I think I could have talked her round this year but this is working out better now!) so I'm just baby-stepping them through it with lots of links and little activities. It's quite good but I wish I was in the classroom doing it with them and seeing their ideas!

some parents at the school my son goes to has asked for live lessons today...!!

Funnily enough it's mostly my mum mates. So me and another teacher are tactfully trying to point out various issues, plus the staff are in school on a rota and the dfe and union guidance... it's only ks1 ffs!

That is funny pink. I'd definitely take it as a compliment that they think your stuff is good. Do you teach a child of one of their staff?

Same here gravity !

Live lessons a waste of time in our subject!

so many threads starting stating 'well. secondary pupils aren't back til September anyway' (usually with reference to Eton). Boy are the year 10 and 12 parents up for a shock any time soon!

Are the DfE ever going to bother to tell us what provision we need to put in place for y10 and 12? SLT are in planing with the academy trust as we speak yet have had no guidance at all. Some schools planning almost full timetables, some planning a day or two, it's madness!

WRT live lessons; how on earth will that work for primary pupils if all the staff are with their bubbles and cleaning loos? Vulnerable Staff wfh might be able to do a bit but at the same time they might have young children, be part time etc.

Maybe they can give a live lesson on how to clean a toilet!

I’m so grateful to be signed off currently (though not being ill and unable to start treatment because I can’t see my consultant would be nice).

In my subject specialism I’d be totally confident to adapt delivery and create resources etc for online learning and would possibly therefore have more time and confidence to master new IT skills.

As a non specialist I would be totally out of my depth and crazy with anxiety that what I was doing wasn’t good enough and someone saying now learn how to use new software etc would probably have me hysterical due to already being overwhelmed.

Have a meeting about returning to work this week and accommodations. Thing is I don’t even know what work is going to look like for the foreseeable future. Am stressing

Any slt on here who’ve dealt with accommodations requests and staff asking for changes to role? I have no idea if I’m going to be seen as reasonable or asking for the moon on a stick?

Are the DfE ever going to bother to tell us what provision we need to put in place for y10 and 12? SLT are in planing with the academy trust as we speak yet have had no guidance at all. Some schools planning almost full timetables, some planning a day or two, it's madness!

This is a real problem, I think. I know my school is looking at a half-day a week for Y10, and probably not starting on 1st June, whereas others are looking at almost a full timetable from 1st June which (IMO) is definitely not what the advice says!

Hope everyone is well. Information about "return" seems to be coming in from my school in dribs and drabs, and it's very much "this is what we might do"- however, it's all completely dependent on LA transport being up and running which I don't think is a given.

In my county (we are mostly pretty rural) the LA could pretty much keep secondary schools closed if they don't put transport on.

Have the unions said anything today? I am not comfortable with the media narrative not one bit.

Anyone watched loose women , Jane Moore saying how she thinks kids should go back to school as “private schools have done really good online education so there is an argument for them not going back but 700,00 state school children have had no education whatsoever”

Yeah our school couldn’t open without transport. Massive catchment. Those coming from town use public buses, from everywhere else there are 20+ coaches. Playground full of different bus queues after school with teachers taking them out to the bus bays as coaches are able to take a slot and park.

Private schools have teachers spinning plates as they need paying customers

I'm waiting for the first report of complaints from parents that their child isn't with their best friend or their usual teacher.

I’m presuming our year 10s and 12s would have to find their own transport because I doubt the coaches could afford to run, or be flexible to different start/end times and days of attendance for just a few kids from each village for example.

Full disclosure I’m pretty ignorant as to how that transport is funded as ds has never had to take school transport as I opted for schools you can walk to.

Private schools have been (mostly) well resourced for the last decade. The state sector has had drastic budget cuts for 10 years.
And people wonder why private schools are more agile.
Lack of IT equipment and IT support, lower staff pupil ratio, smaller admin teams, lack of books all limit what I can offer to children at the moment.
The comparison infuriates me and needs to be challenged.

My school couldn't open without transport either. So the bus companies could be the people who scupper any plans for reopening if they want to. They sometimes just announce "these 3 buses will be leaving at 1:30, any children on those buses need to miss afternoon lessons to go home", obviously due to some weather or road situation that they are aware of that we might not realise makes it unsafe. They have to risk assess the safety of their drivers when they decide which routes will run/not.

And they can fuck off with saying state school students haven't had any education. The pupils (who engage) at my state school have had an excellent (not as good as being at school, but significantly better than "none") mathematical education, and I assume they are getting a similar standard of education in their other subjects.

did ANYONE call Jane Moore out on that??

Bet she's on MN.