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.

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.

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

MN is also London centred. It's a concern
I am not far from London but the R here is probably 1.

I was at school in one of those areas last week. 🙄

I'm N Wales and in the next Authority area to Wrexham. We are peaking now, or still approaching. I await with interest Drakeford's announcement and what it means to school return in Wales.

Fabulous dig from Drakeford then re opening things inc schools. Along the lines of 'What we do in Wales is to give notice and prepare to make things safe THEN we change the law, not the other way around'.

The trouble is with Drakeford though, there's no recognition for how closely allied to England places in Wales are. Especially in the north.The differences between English and Welsh school openings are going to be a nightmare for me.

Our area hasn't hit peak yet. It's on the way though. My gp surgery posted about it. And yet we are still opening up.

It's very rural - that's why. Schools take kids from a huge radius, all on tiny buses crammed to the hilt. Once it does hit, it will love the school buses.

It's interesting as a dr in my local area working in the hospital told us they all thought the peak here would be mid May, which it looks like it may have been. He told us that way back though, at the end of March.

There's definitely some local knowledge in councils and they're making the decisions themselves.

Hells bells people are trying to rewrite history. I am sure there were calls for us to be sacked / furloughed in the early republic era.

@FrippEnos - we are in trouble 😂

I have an anaesthetist friend in Bristol - she has always said that they were heading for mid July. Bristol so far seems to have ridden things out quite well, so maybe it WILL be mid July.

My work email was surprisingly empty. I think we were all done in and needed the half term.

You can't get blood from a stone pfrench. I think teachers and slt have shown massively willing tbh in working over holidays and bank holidays and finding ways to accommodate keyworker and vulnerable kids and turning into distance learning facilitators overnight etc. Good will may have run dry now.

@StaffAssociationRepresentative

the rewriting of history is certainly interesting as is the request to stop being personal.

Although the request is pretty comical.

There will be a mass surge of being nice to teachers ‘we didn’t mean it so can you swing it so that my kid is on the list to be in school all of the time’.

And what a pile of doggy do-do about teachers being so middle class that we suffer from siege mentality. We no longer understand the areas we work in 😂😂

Is that how that thread panned out? I didn't go and look again. The OP was a twit.

I'm in an area that hasn't peaked yet. We are starting wider opening on the 8th.....

And now term time holidays - it’s so terribly wearing and exasperating

Looks like my school are having problems with parents who are key workers - who haven’t had a place before now and haven’t secured one - are planning on rocking up on Monday morning. Email to tell parents they will be turned away. They must request key worker places (with evidence) and have confirmation before bringing the children. It sounds like we will have so many we won’t be opening to other years

My child is on the key worker list, although we've not used a place (and won't now because her year group is going back), and I've been asked to confirm today. More info about not using the car park, not being allowed to bring bikes or scooters etc. I think the key worker kids who have been in school all along are going to find it all very weird.

The area where I live and work is in one of those 'not yet hit the peak' areas. We have 23 in on Monday and 70 in from Tuesday. These are just KW and vulnerable children. We can't open wider to N, R, Y1 and Y6 yet as we don't have the space.

It's bloody scary.

Middle class lol. They haven't caught on that middle class now means 6 figure salaries have they? It's one of the few professions that the working classes can afford to qualify in and the middle class would turn their noses up at the salary.

How's the view from the handbasket? Full steam ahead.

I was intrigued to learn today that we were in an area which apparently hasn't reached peak, especially as at the beginning with DH's work we know there were lots of people off who were told 'probably covid' and in the first couple of weeks staff and residents at his place were dropping like flies with symptoms. They moved quickly to contain it though and the resident's coming down with covid symptoms dropped sharply. Staff continued to contract the virus from elsewhere or maybe asymptomatic residents but in much, much lower numbers and they are now back to more or less normal staffing levels. Until this week, DH and I didn't know anyone else who had it although then learned family (who we haven't seen for some time) had contracted it and one has now passed away.

Anyway, there has been all change at my school and while they are ready, they have pushed back the year 10 and 12's return to the 15th but are still taking key-worker children.

My DC's primary I assume is still opening on Monday as nothing has been sent out to say otherwise, but I suspect for them it's about making sure a lot of their vulnerable pupils start coming in.

I think people forget that groups need to be staffed and need rooms. With yr, yr1, preschool, Yr6 and key workers in we literally have no space left for any others and will have a cap on key workers to keep them safe.

Rishi just said something along the lines of nurses have worked hard... and now in the final few weeks teachers will be working. I shouted at my screen. How dare he, and I find it hard to believe it was accidental, feed into the lie that teachers and schools haven't been working.

TheHoneyBadger

Its just them pushing the blame on other people again.

Can I ask - especially those of you who know what the R is in your area - how many positive cases are you getting daily and what's the population size?
The area my DC's school is in is getting one positive case reported most days in a population of about 150,000