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

From the BBC - Today's expected announcement on schools makes formal what head teachers and governors in England have said for some time: it's not possible to massively increase the space each class needs to meet social distancing rules and bring everyone back to primary schools in England - there's not enough room

I do wish the Government had listened to primary school heads before making their announcements on Primary schools returning. MN is going into overdrive. Some posters will be exhausted with all the key board bashing

I suppose that they only hope will be that more return in September but I think some companies will not wait that long. Some will insist that parents are back in.

This is where end up on both sides of the fence. Dh hasn't been allowed time off but isn't a kw. If I can't get my kids in a hub, or if thry aren't running in.sept, how do I.go and teach other kids?

Wish you’d stay off those threads for your own sakes. So much toxicity and it has to effect mood and health reading that shit regularly.

I had another mn break and am trying to be careful what I read now.

TheHoneyBadger you are so right- it's like an addiction- keep getting drawn back !

Gav has just announced the expected sweetener : working to getting all pupils back in September and exams will go ahead, of course.

NB : another thing they can just unannounce

*all pupils back, not full time...

Yeah, it'll be a part-time nightmare, logistically, and still give people plenty of things to complain about.

I thought the Teacher Tapp questions yesterday hinted at it with their options, which were:

Days split in two with younger years in am and older in pm
weeks split in two with younger on Mon - Weds , older Thurs and Fri
Weeks on/ weeks off for year groups

I honestly did not know which way to vote there!

Has the minister said that re "all pupils in Sept" just now, or was that in the earlier announcement, can't find it to check?

I heard about a meeting in my (sec) school this morning which seemed to be presuming school as normal from Sept - or slightly later, and I was like "Whaaat? I don't think so!"

Sorry have answered my own question now, hadn't really caught up with yesterday's news. From BBC website

'At the Downing Street briefing on Monday 8 June, Health Secretary Matt Hancock conceded that England's secondary schools may not fully reopen until September "at the earliest".'

September is a long way away - surely we should be able to accommodate more kids and a more normal set-up by then?????
God, let's hope so.

What do those in secondary think? I've been waiting for someone to say something about the new Y7s - what exactly are they being inducted into, are they going to be in even half time in September? I know the exam boards/ Ofqual are considering what will happen to GCSEs and A levels next year, presumably we have no idea when they will tell us anything at all?

I guess it's all dependent on how it goes in primaries. I know we're not even sure whether summer holidays will pertain as normal yet.

Are staff in all secondaries just planning as if it'll all be normal in September, or planning for "whenever things do go back to normal", whilst not thinking too much about the interim at the moment?

The other possibility is that we start off normal(-ish) in September but then lockdown happens about November time.

Bloody hell just logged on. How many threads? Ffs!

Watched Big Gav in Parliament. When RLB keeps pushing summer learning it better be optional.

What did Gav actually say today-did anyone see?

No indication they are going to move the holidays or try to make us teach?!

Anything about primary and September?

Days split in two with younger years in am and older in pm
weeks split in two with younger on Mon - Weds , older Thurs and Fri
Weeks on/ weeks off for year groups

Yeah I went for week on week off - I notice that the results were pretty evenly split. I just thought about what my partner would want, considering he'd be doing all the school run stuff. He'd be better knowing that he's got a whole week of 'proper' work, followed by a mess.

Hmm.. from my own perspective perhaps I'd prefer half a day every day.

@StrawberryJam200

The other possibility is that we start off normal(-ish) in September but then lockdown happens about November time.

That’s pretty much what I’m expecting.

I’m on a 0.4 contract. Goodness knows what that will translate into?

BBC site's summary:

The education secretary said he was "working to bring all children back to school in September" and that exams would take place next year.

Gavin Williamson said a "cautious phased return” was the “most sensible approach to take” for schools across England.

And he confirmed the government was “not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer”.

There was also something about it taking over a year for all children to catch up.

I still wish we could seize this moment to start school a year later. There’d be one less year group in school next year but that would help with doing catch and meaningful work on closing attainment gaps. It would also men more space for sd.

Parents expecting their kids to start reception in September may go ape shit though.

I went for week on week off. Because trying to split the week in any way had a huge impact on timetabling. It's difficult enough making sure all the lessons fit into a week, let alone adding constraints like years 7-9 need all their subjects on Monday to wednesday lunch. Hideous. How would you timetable it fairly as some subjects get 4 lessons a week (impossible to fit in 3 days) and others only have 1 day a week (so ALL lessons in person or ALL lessons remote). It would be carnage!

I would actually like all yeargroup in at the same time, but with half a yeargroup at a time, week on week off. So I would always have half a class in front of me and half a class at home doing remote learning. I could plan 4 in person lessons and then 4 remote learning lessons building on the in person lessons they've already had. It would work for me (assuming I wouldn't need to then physically mark books as well because obviously the workload then would be too much). That wasn't an option though. If we can have whole yeargroup back in to secondary schools though, we would have to have scrapped social distancing, as full yeargroup means full classes.

Yes, I think the best solution would be years 7-9 (or even 10) in one week on, one week off but split in half so you teach input, then they have, effectively, homework or flipped learning to complete at home.

Year 11 (and arguably year 10) needs to be in full time, though, so still impossible to have smaller groups without removing staff from other year groups.

My school has already done that. Staff who are in are leading 2 bubbles, week on week off. That way it left the rest of us 'free' to do the same when our year groups come back. Or don't. I was relatively OK with that logistically, if you discount safety. Ha.

But now we have the BAME thing in our school, so only a couple of staff left. The BAME thing is not going to be resolved in time to have more children back on any sort of teaching basis.

Maybe we'll get them in for a day here and there or something. Rolling 6 kids a day for the last fortnight or something. Who knows.

Teacher Tapp today... 'are you planning on extending the school day in September'.

I think the thing I'm finding hardest about this whole situation is the not knowing what to expect. There needs to be a plan. I feel in a constant state of confusion. My colleagues are going back on Monday, I've got a shielding child so have been told I'm not down to come in, and I feel guilty like I'm bunking off. I don't know who's going to be teaching my year 12 or what I need to be doing for them. Am I still putting together online work when they're in some of the time? I can't motivate myself to get on with anything