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.

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

Which section is that thread in or do I not want to know?

‘Dentists say it’s not safe to return and they haven’t been given enough time to prepare’

Is anyone calling them lefty workshy slackers or are they just being sensibly concerned for everyone’s safety?!

This is an uncaring lefty arsehole teacher buying SEND resources with her own money and sending them out to parents who I know have not got any tech.

@pfrench

You Marxist workshy slacker; I’m glad you don’t teach my kids.

We are opening (Wales) to all year groups but on a rota. With max 1/3 of the class to be in at amu one time. And realistically it will be 1/4. And to minimise pupils sharing toilets and cut down on too many parents queueing to bring their children it will probably be alternate yeargroup in various parts of the school on different days. So Mon y1, Tues y2. Which means that we will see our class over a fortnight. They get one day face to face teaching in that time.
We will have time built in for still managing the remote stuff.
Worryingly the ht mentioned the possibility of streaming the lesson in some way so those at home could see it. No thanks! I'd rather plan really great face to face lessons and deliver them to the children in turn when they are in and then leave remote work that builds on it.

Some parents on social media have mentioned winding down their home schooling because of the announcement that school is to reopen. They haven't taken on board yet that our new role is to provide blended learning for the foreseeable future and that this is definitely here to stay next term.

Worryingly the ht mentioned the possibility of streaming the lesson in some way so those at home could see it. No thanks!

No way! That's like having parents observing every one of your lessons. Can't think of anything worse.

At one point our head suggested we do that, while teaching a class of vulnerable and SEND children. Can you imagine? All the children at home would get to see is me asking certain children to get out from under the table, or going after a child who has done a runner, or having to sit on another* to prevent him thumping my computer keyboard.

*obviously not for real.

Don’t think heads have thought through how shocked parents would be to witness the kind of behaviour their kids have to try and learn around in school.

Also, a classroom works because you've got your bankers - the children you know will be able to answer questions, or will be able to ask questions that further the learning. Also, you need the interaction to make it an actual lesson rather than a lecture. Behaviour kids or children who struggle academically are not the children who can do that easily. My key worker group at the moment is HARD. WORK. - you get nothing back from them to help the lesson or the learning move along.

Cant see Lancs schools being able to return any time soon as r now over 1.

Erk, it's not looking too good anywhere really - v close to 1.

I'm getting very frustrated today with the lack of help in chasing up kids who aren't doing any work. The policy is that ordinary teachers do not phone home, we do not have access to phone numbers except when we are at school. So I'm supposed to get our admin assistant to send a letter to any pupil who isn't submitting work. Once they've had one letter and still aren't sending work, that is supposed to escalate to hoy. So I dutifully spent 3 hours this morning checking that I hadn't missed seeing work from these kids, emailing them individually to ask them to send some (they haven't bothered looking at any other emails I've sent, why would they look at that one?!) Then I sent my list of kids to the pastoral assistant who passes the names to heads of year. Only to have a bit of a distraught phone call from the departmental admin assistant asking who this long list of kids are that need letters home, she hasn't got time to send out a long list of letters, etc. She doesn't need to send out letters, the heads of year are supposed to be phoning home by now (weeks ago)!! For some of these kids it's 7 weeks since I saw any work from them!!! Why on earth would we just keep sending the same sodding letter every week? Rant over and breathe.

My hod did suggest this morning that we should live stream our year 12 lessons once we're back at school with them. I pointed out that most of the kids in my class access my videos at strange times because of sharing devices with siblings or internet access being better at night, etc. So I'm back to my preferred method of doing a separate video explaining the new topic and setting some work for them to do.

That's not looking good at all. I'm in the North West, and that looks rather grim tbh.

I’m in the midlands surrounded by areas with rising infections and hospital deaths.

Ordered an antibodies test but have been told it will be delayed.

Hope the Director Of Public Health sticks to his guns on this one in Lancs then. He’s due to review the situation on Monday. Backed up by the Tory head of the Council, who isn’t without his faults but has certainly put his backing to the decision not to advise further opening.

I keep wondering, have any Conservative-controlled councils refused to open schools?

Am v impressed (as ever) with our Head (secondary), she's given us all the new policies and plans to look at and comment on, welcomes feedback. Very collaborative approach.

Yes, Lancashire have refused.

For someone who is apparently 'stealing a living' I have been working flat out today!

Numbers look really high today. 357.

But the briefing will only be Hancock : no scientists.

R no longer matters it seems, either. Even though it may be above 1.

strawberry yes, parts of Essex. Not sure about SW but presume N Somerset is Tory?

But the briefing will only be Hancock : no scientists.

Wonder why this is?

Piggy Chief Nursing Officer Ruth May was supposed to be there too...wonder why she's ducked out?

I am feeling suspicious. Maybe she is poorly and it's nothing . But Hancock is a Squealer : he will just tell us we aren't seeing what we think we are seeing.

Hatt Mancock as he has been called in this house for some time.

I've worked fairly flat out the last 2 days too. Have got most of my lessons sorted for the whole of next week. Thank god, because I've just looked at the report format for my school (new to me this year). Holy shit. It total it'll be thesis length stuff. My least favourite part of the job.

I know two teachers who have handed their notice in with no job to go to. Going to take some time out. Seems like a good plan - if we could go to New Zealand for the 'winter' we would.

I spent all day working flat out/ stealing a living on prepping ONE lesson.

Jeez.

My hod did suggest this morning that we should live stream our year 12 lessons once we're back at school with them

I am at a private school part of the week where we have been doing live lessons since Easter. We just record the lesson and post it in Teams along with any Powerpoints, Word files, links etc. and they then have access. I actually quite enjoy it - I don't use the video camera at all because I take issue with students effectively being in my home and the privacy of my own children (and I like not having to wear a bra!) - but I do just talk away and we have established a means of asking questions and doing answers etc using the chat facility and sometimes I unmute them all and we answer questions that way. I use PowerPoints as I would in class, a lot of kahoot and quizlet, can still play some games like bingo (there isn't any topic I can't make into some kind of bingo game!), sometimes I share my laptop and we look at other documents or I take them through something online. We have an online textbook so I have made worksheets based on that and they do some work with me then go to the text book and complete the worksheet. Work is better for some classes and some students than others but overall, I would say students are getting on with it. Progress is slower than in class, however. I wouldn't say no live streaming. I suspect sometimes there are parents in the background but I have not felt their presence in the way questions are either asked or answered and certainly there have been no complaints (our parents complain a lot, about anything and usually nothing) so it has ceased to be a worry.

I've not worked for 3 days.

....Have had a massive migraine. So I expect I will be working all weekend to make up