The Seventh Republic - the debate rages on but for some it is half term!

[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.

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If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

He's been angling to walk.home for a while, but he'd be at home for nearly 3 hours without adults, which seems a bit too.long yet. But then I.remind myself how many yr 7s are only just 11 when they start high school and do it.

Then I think about how painful it was watching him to to hold a knife to butter bread today

Wow riga!

Ds is 13 and watching him attempt to spread butter is still painful! I think he got a cack handed gene from somewhere

The dfe have opened a post to questions on their Facebook page. It has not gone well. They shut it down already.

My DD is 14 and has that key on a long string in her bag too!! DS is 12 and also has this, I ring them at 8.20 & say time to brush teeth and get oot the hoose, they lock the door, tootle off to school and let themselves back in at 3.50, I get in at 5.30ish and they've usually sat chilled out til then. Crisps may have been eaten...
I expect they'll chill all day when I'm back in school, without me there to tell them to get on with their schoolwork (DS especially)
But mine both know: no schoolwork completed = no iPad or phone for the evening. And I'll check!

Dd is 10 and will be walking to school by herself from September when she starts year 6. She's been asking to do this for a while, but now the cm is retiring this summer it will be happening. My older dd walked to and from school in year 5, but I was on maternity leave then, so was in the house. She started locking up behind her at the start of year 6, and coped with it really well, so I'm sure dd2 will manage. We'll do the long string in her bag as well lol.

Every September when I meet my new y7 form I advise them to tie their house keys and bus pass into their bags, or into their blazer pockets. They pretty much all follow that advice and mine are often the only form where nobody has lost their bus pass within the first week lol. mine lose other things like pencil cases, pe kits and musical instruments!!

If/when I'm back at school dd will be going to work with dh on the one day a week he goes into the office. His office is just down the road from my school so we'll all go in my car, then dd can sit in dh's office til we're both finished.

In middle school areas lots of middle schools encourage walking from year 5 . No mishaps that I know of.

@Piggywaspushed yes we do that too. I also encouraged mine to walk to school alone in the summer term of Y4 to practise! There was only one little road to cross to their first school which I watched them do.
Do all your kids hand in their mobiles to the school secretary? I wonder if that will happen when we go back next week, or will parents wish their kids to keep them?

I'm upper school so am not sure. I do know they get very excited about phones when they come to us!

Our local primary schools basically put out a box and they all put the phones in them. At pick up time they just lift it from the teacher as they walk out. This being 10/11 year olds.

I think it's cos both of us work a fair distance away. And ds is spectacularly dozy. His little sister, however, is like my PA and a sheep dog rolled into one. Legitimately getting to boss her brother would be a dream come true.

I went to school in a 3 tier school system, and I had to walk to school by myself from year 5 because my dad was walking my sister to her first school and mum was at work. We all survived, in fact we loved it. There were 4 of us on my street who all walked together, picking up another 5 on the way.

Apparently lots of local year 6s not returning to middle schools on June 1st because of concerns about travel plans and safety on buses. Well done responding to that one DfE.

Apparently my school's plan to bring in half of year 10 at a time is perfectly acceptable because fewer than half of parents will send them (he sent out a survey) so there will be fewer than a quarter actually in school at any one time. Each child will get the opportunity to have 1 week in school (he really wanted 2 weeks each, but there aren't enough weeks). What fabulous teaching I will be able to provide to those pupils in 4 lessons face to face! It's ridiculous, but what can I do? I'm not in charge.

I am just seeing random kids from their tutor groups in groups of 8 for half an hour each group. Some I may teach others I won't even know their name.

This is grandstanding at best.

I've not opened the laptop.since Friday, which is v unlike me but is the only way I could be sure it was Bank Holiday. God only knows what plans are in store.

So, do you only do one of the weeks awesome?

Are all your returning children expected to attend every single day, if they've signed up?

That is definitely not 'some face to face contact to supplement remote learning' and is not what it says in the guidelines.

Although guidelines appear to be ' you can do whatever you want because Dominic Cummings says so!'

According to "the plan" teachers will be in for the lessons they teach year 10 (or year 12 on their week). So I will be seeing different groups of children for their normal lessons. There is still no talk of bubbles. Just fewer pupils in their normal lessons. So I'll have one week with 2 kids in set 5, plus I'll see a different 6 kids from set 2. And since year 10 have 4 lessons a week I'll be in school every day. The following week I'll have a different couple of kids from set 5 and a different group from set 2. So before the end of term I'll have had contact with every year 10 and 12 kid that I normally teach, if their parents have agreed to send them in.

There's also no discussion of what will happen if the initial uptake is less than half the yeargroup but then more families choose to opt in later, taking us over the quarter of the year allowed to be in at any time.

I really don't think "the plan" follows the guidelines very closely. And I would far rather limit my contact with kids to the same ones all the time rather than each teacher seeing all the kids over a few weeks.

Sorry, my question was for Primary kids.

Ah, OK, Angelina, of course it was! Silly me...

And are you supposed to carry on setting online work with all that awesome!?

I honestly can't get my head round what you would be able to actually do with that time!

Awesome that sounds rather silly not logical at all.