The Eight Republic - half term over - primaries under pressure- 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.

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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

I’ve resisted opening the what should we do one as I assumed it was a baited trap and a way of proving we don’t have a can do attitude.

My energy has mostly gone into emailing work and trying to tell them I desperately want to get back to work but could I have a clue what I’d be doing please and have they got any answers on the accommodations I asked for weeks ago. I’m trying to be really positive, feed them ideas about what I could do, remind them of my experience and qualifications etc rather than having to get into having to say how shittily and unreasonably I’ve been treated for the last couple of years.

Trying to catch flies with honey

Oh and the 11 weeks one of course. Apparently they're working two jobs so I can sit in the garden and get a suntan. If only sad

Let them think that! If it was true, we’ll be seeing a huge uptake of teacher trainees and a lower rate of those leaving the precession overall, if it’s such a cushy number.

We all know that will never happen ....

I've had my bubble in today of year 1. They were very good but a bit shell shocked and very quiet all day.
One of them told me that he's not coming in tomorrow, but going to a friend's house instead! The same parent sent their class teacher an aggressive, nasty email about how hard it was working from home and that she wouldn't be doing anymore work with him at home
I've informed the head. Doubt she can do much. I don't see why the whole bubble should be put at risk like that.

Piggy, That 8% figure you quoted earlier, is that 8% of the workforce have "children" (presumably meaning under 16 or 18) or "children of primary age or under, who presumably need childcare."
And where does the statistic come from, because I looked but couldn't find anything.

Actually, I have good news. In the "Real World" of actual schools, my HT showed me this morning a printout of loads of emails sent in by grateful and appreciative parents. It seems that all the WhatsApp groups (often a hot-bed of gossip and whingeing) are singing our school's praises for the fabulous work we've been setting all along (no live teaching, either!), and the way the key year-groups have been welcomed back to school this week.

Also in good news our HT (she of the in at the deep end after head walked without notice) sends lovely emails to staff including things like, ‘I imagine you have x, y, z concerns and are asking x, y, z questions following that briefing-don’t worry we are too and it’s our job to deal with all that so you all just keep doing the great job you’re doing’. Lots of staff and parent surveys etc. Thinking the old head did us a favour by leaving

Anyone seen @GravityFalls lately? I need to discuss media related woes!

Angelina it was on Twitter. It was primary school aged children.

I'll see if I can find it.

Well, it should be put at the top of all the teacher-bashing threads that persist in attempting to hold teachers responsible for the economy grinding to a halt.

Unfortunately I now can't find it. The ONS isn't helping.

Obviously MN has a large number of those 9% so they see things from their point of view.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/adhocs/11709estimatednumberofhouseholdscontainingatleastonechildaged5to11yearsuk2019

4.1 million families in the UK have children aged 5 - 11. Was updated on 7th May 2020. Don't know what that means as a bigger picture. There are an estimated 28 million households in total.

14% of households are affected by primary school aged children and their need for being looked after!?

But it won't be as much as 14% because of women (and the odd man) who SAH or are part time . I think 78% of women of that aged child are in the workforce.

Oh yeah, that's nowhere near all the info. There will be households in there with a grandparent living there too etc.

Even 14% isn't very much. Although there are 8 million households with 60+ year olds in them, loads of which will only be 60+ year olds, so not so much needed in terms of working to keep an economy going.

I've done a thread about FSM vouchers. Something to get annoyed about.

Just found this gem on Twitter:

Had a practically roaring online lesson with my year 8s today. So many children came along, more than ever before. I could barely cope with all 6 out of 98 of them

And this which I know is of interest to some:

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-clinically-vulnerable-teachers-under-pressure-work

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-goves-school-space-cuts-will-hamper-safe-reopenings?fbclid=IwAR0SLeXUcxY33BRy44Fp0PUT5fx3orgesqb9qqkn8SC7OrHnrAbh124xkLk

The gove legacy lives on.

I know; I saw that! Bollocks to Gove.

I saw this in the local news. Glad he is recovering but shows teachers can be affected too.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18497338.teacher-defies-odds-recovers-coronavirus/

Oh , bless him. Looks like his wife is a nurse, though, so maybe she got it first.

Two children tested positive in a school in Bradford.

Anyone seen @GravityFalls lately? I need to discuss media related woes!

I’ve been busy today - we’ve been airily told to “make a video” to replace our year 11 preview lessons, and of course ours need to be good, but my computer nearly bursts into flames every time I try to run any Adobe software so it’s proving trying...

Thanks @Piggywaspushed
That, as we well know, is definitely the case and not just for older vulnerable staff, but medically vulnerable too.

We are gearing up for our rota for Wales.

And our opening up school documentation does have the extremely vulnerable and clinically vulnerable staff referred to in terms of not being expected to be on the premises. Yet time and time again my HT glosses over the fact that there are more staff in this category than just the pregnant teacher and the one whose family member is also shielded.

I've emailed and pointed it out - it won't be popular. In one part it states work from home if they can (which could be argued that I can't) and that they would have a role that is 2m away from people (and in KS2 we are having tables at 2m etc and will be distancing) but it then does clearly say they would not be expected to attend the school and would be working from home instead.
I've reiterated yet again that that does include me and my moderate/severe asthma and linked to the document that says that (the annual flu for chronic conditions is most definitely the case) and asked where it leaves me with the rota for my class as I do fall into that category.

We will only have a few in at any one time. Won't be in every day and I may well still choose to go in as it was actually nice to spend time in my classroom today and actually think about being able to teach something properly for once. But I think it was and is an important point to make.

I await a reply.

Hi gravity . Have you tried screen sharing films at all?

I am having meltdowns because Amazon Prime has managed to fix it so you can't share films, even though we can show films in the classroom! They get np visual but sound, or both visual and sound but lots of pops and crackles and lags :(

I can't teach like that :(

They are still trying to get all of us in to school even though there are virtually no students in the building.

Luckily I haven’t needed to teach any full films (just by a sheer fluke of timing). I’ve been using some shorts for Film NEA but they’re all on YouTube.

Do you have ClickView? I got our technician to put all our set films on there at the start of the year and you can pin them as a tab in Teams which is really useful. I’ve also used screen recording on my laptop to record a commentary over one short, and for another I downloaded it from YouTube and imported it into premiere to cut down and do a commentary on (because it was half an hour and I didn’t need all of it).