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

If you think they don't know, then pro Rata your hours upwards.

I do Teacher Tapp. I also can never answer the questions about year 8 they seem to love so much , given mine start at year 9!

Don’t Teacher Tapp ask about your setting/working hours when you sign up? I think they do take those things into account when they’re compiling their data.

I get loads I can’t answer, being in a sixth form college. I have no idea if we have a behaviour policy for example, or anything about PSHE as it has nothing to me! I don’t teach GCSE classes or get PPA time and our college has been completely shut to students since March 20th, so you can imagine how many questions I have to answer “none” or “I don’t know” to 😂

We’re never represented in the breakdown of answers either!

Appu can you not adjust your answers eg if 0.5 times your answers by two?

I know Chloe. Mind you I turned on my work laptop to find angry messages from a hoy as to why I hadn’t responded to a question they’d asked me. Wish we were allowed out of office/off sick etc settings on our emails

I have just seen the timetable re-jig for the rest of the school year and I think I may cry ...

Pre A-Level course for year 11 in order to give them something to do. Sod the pre-A Level crap I will just crack on with delivering the syllabus.

@TheHoneyBadger forward it to HR and ask them to inform the relevant people. My HR manager said she lets SLT/relevant people know when I was signed off. Also though we are allowed to have out of office reply though.

Anyone listen to the briefing? Jenny breezily explaining why a playground is not the best place to be, followed up by a constant reference to all the lifted measures being outside. Only Pippa Crear asked about schools to be told that groups of 15 indoors is all FINE. If children don't pose risks, why be so adamant playgrounds must remain closed...?

People will ignore that now.

If children don't pose risks, why be so adamant playgrounds must remain closed...?

It’s more about trying to stop people gathering where there is then a real risk of transmission. Same as ‘unnecessary journeys’ wasn’t really about whether or not you could bomb up the A1 to get your parents to babysit but more about avoiding traffic accidents which would take up valuable bed space.

That's not what Jenny actually said, though. She spoke of snotty noses and touching the equipment! School, let's face it , is gathering...

She did also speak about multiple households ... ermm... a junior school class with 15 children and two adults is 17 households...

hey ho.

Thinking about any primary staff going back tomorrow. I hope its ok.

I thought the exact same thing. She was clear playgrounds couldn’t be opened because of the mix of lots of different households and children touching things and not socially distancing, which they said children in school aren’t expected to do. I shouted at the screen at that point! But I guess we can clean surfaces more than can be done in a playground.

They'll still bring it in in their lungs, having been farting around in multiple households during the time they are not at school.

AAAAAAnyway.. I have a question about Oak National Academy. Primary section. I think it's a great thing by the way, before I launch into my aaaghness with it. Well done them and their £300,000 gov money.

If you're a primary teacher, do you speak in that HELLO CHILDREN sort of affected 'childrens' TV presenter sort of way? I keep wanting to use their lessons, particularly as links for children who are not working at ARE, but I just can't get through a whole one without wanting to throw the laptop out the window. It's SO TWEE. Maybe it's just the year groups I'm looking at (year 1 and 2 for my children at school, R for my own child). But when I worked in KS1 I didn't talk like that.

Ha pfrench, I certainly don't talk to my Yr 5s like that. I was watching one of those videos today and trying to see if you could speed it up, like you can on YouTube!

Ugh, just got myself all annoyed by a thread in education so coming here to sulk.

Perish the thought that anyone should enter teaching at 21 having chosen that as a career path from a young age. What could possibly make me worthy? Proper grinds my gears.

The whole OP was worded to allow the really annoying 'teachers don't understand the real world with their 13 weeks holidays' types to descend.

I will never understand why a teacher would start a thread to basically explicitly criticise other teachers. Grr.

@piggy it’s almost as if they aren’t really a teacher!

Well, it’s back to work for me tomorrow. Haven’t seen a risk assessment, no idea what the plan is. Am dreading it.

@Piggywaspushed let me at them. I worked in the city for 10 years and then in HR for quite a few more. Teaching is the hardest job I've ever done - but also the most fun.

Think I'm ready for tomorrow. Back to doing my best.

I couldn't care less whether someone has been a teacher for life or a coalminer or a bank manager once upon a time... but I cannot abide the 'I'm better than you because I once worked in a Bank' attitude.

Good Luck tomorrow for those returning to the metaphorical coalface.

That “previous career” post is weird. Why wouldn’t it be in staffroom... or perhaps on the board for phase they teach in? Almost like they think they know “the rules”... but don’t know how to apply them... I wonder why...

This is an article to read and reread when the teacher bashers get us down. Only 9% of survey respondents found their lockdown home learning experience negative and 64% have enjoyed it.. Hold on to that thought:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/30/home-schooling-boosts-parents-interest-in-teaching-as-a-career

Thinking enormously of all those going back tomorrow and this week

Thanks for that article Piggy! Counteracts the hyperbole from some these past few weeks nicely.

Thinking of those back at school tomorrow.