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

@Piggywaspushed

In The Times yesterday it was reported that quite a lot of parents are now considering a career change to teaching after having spent more time with their DCs and their learning ! They are in for a shock went they have to wrangle 30 of them, in an actual classroom, with no screens providing the learning!

Quite sweet, though really...(unless tis is the armchair I could do it better posse)

It's the same with many of the parents who say they're probably going to "continue to" home school after this. They may not realise that what they're currently doing isn't reality home school and that without a teacher on hand it's a bit different!

I wonder how the numbers may go up for teaching, though, after all this.

I checked my emails for the first time in half-term yesterday but no emails saying our council have decided schools shouldn't reopen. Instead, one for a link to the 9am back-to-school training tomorrow. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Does anyone else have a school that isn't replacing teachers who leave?

We are going to be massively understaffed come September , if we are all herded back.

On another note and neurotrash will have seen this too, on the graphs and charts thread, a poster has uploaded data about infections by age group. This suggests the second most inflected age group is aged 2- 11. This particular poster is very pro schools reopening (she doesn't live in UK) but generally a very reasonable person. She expressed surprise herself at this stat, which seems to have ben kept rather quiet.

Health wise, the world runs a huge risk if they don't properly investigate why children don't exhibit the symptoms in the same way. If another coronavirus comes along which behaves differently, they need to have done some research! If anyone has read Invisible Women you will know they overlook pockets of the population at their peril. This time round , it will be women, pregnant women, children and , probably gender full stop. They do at least seem to be being forced into looking at BAME susceptibility.

Does she even know what feral means !?

The fuss that was made when Mary Bousted said children were 'mucky'.

You only need to see some posts by some(alleged) governors on MN to know they aren't always on our side.. (I was one for some time : they were mostly very nice but some had no concerns whatsoever about workload and none of the non teachers knew even a little bit about pedagogy : in fact they asked me what it meant...)

We've had a short time of trying to not replace people as they leave a year or so ago; unfortunately numbers forced hands. I don't think anyone is leaving at the mo. Sen is a bit different though. I suppose we had more staff for a while and then had to cut back so didn't replace.

Yes I saw that piggy. Also putting this here as there's a few in the NE. It's interesting reading the council discussions.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/30/london-doesnt-always-know-best-how-the-north-is-choosing-its-own-pace-out-of-lockdown

Staffing - The head has gone very quiet on the fact that we are understaffed by 2x full time TAs for September. I’m worried he will say “get agency staff until half term” when there will be no agency staff to be had. I have four full time equivalent EHCPs incoming and one outgoing, thankfully I managed to recruit for one TA just before the 23rd... but no word since... this will make September very stressful.

piggy staffing is interesting. We're either going to be a whole teacher down in our dept or have massive classes. Can't see how that's going to work.

Post been massively quickly taken down by MNHQ of an alleged teacher . Did anyone see it? I have no idea what was going on there but it seemed deliberately exaggerated.

Is that the one saying I'm not teaching your child?

No, didn’t see it. Obvs now I have FOMO 😂

Yes, that one neuro : was definitely a teacher, as I recognise the user name, but it was asking fro the bashers to descend. They hadn't yet, as it goes. Not sure why it was taken down. They had repots and are investigating. But it doesn't look like a troll to me. Just a flouncer!

Woke up in a complete panic this morning that I had forgotten my break duty and there were 120 children on the playground doing their own thing 😮

Saw the Guardian on Twitter saying that it's very doubtful that schools will be back to 'normal' for September. Now starting to stress about it all and the impact on my children's wellbeing.

I had the dream last night, you know the one where the kids are horrible and won't listen to you and just do what they want and I get more and more frustrated/ depressed that I actually quit. It was horrible and I'm not even back in till 15th at the earliest! I am going to spend a few hours in the garden to try and relax !

I wonder how the numbers may go up for teaching, though, after all this.

They will, in the face of job losses, but it won't last in the face of the horror that is the ridiculous admin and surveillance of UK teaching.

Does anyone else have a school that isn't replacing teachers who leave?

We are going to be massively understaffed come September , if we are all herded back.

We have had 7 staff resign but have been appointing through MS Teams interviews (some I have been a part of) only.

It’s going to be very strange supporting new staff this September in such unknown circumstances but I am also very uneasy appointing someone I have never even see teach, let alone in person.

We are just desperate to have those places filled to ease pressure. It’s been very hard doing a job meant for two people, for example, with more children than I should have responsibility for (another reason why live video lessons wouldn’t work for me as I can’t be in ‘two places at once’!)

Strange strange times.

It’s rare in Scotland (although getting more common) to have any teaching at interview. Every teaching job I’ve ever had has been awarded on the basis of a 20 minute interview. In fact, my new HoD has started since lockdown and nobody from my school has seen him teach yet. How fun.

Some of us were wondering about the year 6s in middle schools and bus travel. According to the ST, my authority is reimbursing parents who drive kids at 36 p per mile. However, my estate is in one authority and the school is in the other so not sure how that works! Half the estate send kids to a middle school in the authority we live in.. messy.

I have a colleague who 'went' for an interview and had to teach a remote lesson! This does worry me slightly that the teachers with the best IT skills will get posts. These may well be wonderful teachers; they may well not be, equally. Recruitment has never been fair, that said.

chloe , we have been told live lessons are ideal for a group lecture and that we can expect, when we commence them, to have 60-90 students on occasion.

Please can I pick brains - and secondary teachers who have done some kind of ‘live’ lessons or support - what has worked well and what doesn’t? Don’t think we’ll be going down the full timetable approach but would like to get something going in last half term.

I’ve found Google Classroom really good. I set all the weeks work but tell my class I will be “online” to answer queries immediately at X Y Z times depending on when DS can be amused with the TV or patented by DH. Times won’t work for all, but I respond to emails as I can too. Easier for me as I only teach .4 so can spread my availability out for classes through the week. I have absolutely no intention of being “live” on screen. My DS is going through the clothes are optional phase!

I'm SEN. We've had staffing reduced this year, especially TAs , but also how PPA was covered. It is still teachers but means there is less manoeuvring room. I also have a particular gripe about how TA apprentices are used but that's another story. They've ended up relying on agency staff a lot which started becoming unavailable before lockdown. Despite very reduced numbers of kids coming back next week and only part time, most of us F/T staff are in 2 bubbles. Goodness knows about September.

I wonder if teaching at interviews is going out of fashion due the number of people employed on the basis of show lessons, who can't actually sustain it. One of the best teachers I knew couldn't do a show lesson.to save her life.

We have schools direct from Sept. That's going to be an.unusual start.

And yes, I think teaching and nursing will get an upsurge because they're perceived as secure and there are multiple ways in. But not many will.stay.

Thanks @cheesecurdsandgravy

@Asuitablecat I'm due to start SCITT in September, and have no idea what it will now look like. It's all going ahead yet I'm still very reluctant to hand in my notice.... just worried in case it all falls through and I'm left without a job

I think there will be an exodus of existing school staff if there are still virus issues after Christmas. It will make teaching very much NOT fun.