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

Not even 900 signatures on the get schools open petition! Good!

Over 40,000 on a don't open schools until Sept petition. And over 90,000 on one that parents can keep kids off during the pandemic with no prosecution

‘Why can’t schools just have bubbles of 30?!’

Ffs

No I think some teachers are amazing. DD2s for example. There are a few very loud teacher dementors on MN and it's easy to forget that they do not represent their profession just their own views.

WTF! Not having a good day today!

Our union reps set up a WhatsApp group for Union members from our school yesterday. This morning the head sent an email to all staff addressing concerns (ie, where are our bubbles? What happened to having less than 25% of a yeargroup in? Etc) and it's all kicking off on the Union WhatsApp group. Plus we've just discovered, via a letter to parents, that they've decided to scrap setting for year 8 as we don't have exam results to set from. He still hasn't mentioned that to staff!!!! It won't affect me, I teach maths and we do our own thing anyway. We set from the beginning of year 7, and timetable half a yeargroup in maths lessons at a time, so we'll just have our own sets. But other staff who are used to having sets from year 8, are annoyed that they will now have mixed ability groups, without any discussion.

@Asuitablecat it won't even work to ask to be part time though - I'm part time, but I've no guarantee the days the dc get for going in will tie up with the days I'm due to be in.

My partner's office is reopening for facilities staff, but he's not one of them. He's been told he'll be home until summer 2021. Doing both ends of the school run while Kindle Fire does after school care!!

Yes, we do rely on schools to enable us to work.

It's an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Teachers will have to be KW.

I think it's considered a bit late now to ask for part time now anyway, which is a shame.

I'm ok for childcare now, as dd is now old enough to walk to and from school by herself, and she would only be alone for a short time either end of the school day. Assuming she's only in school part time, I will be asking for her to be in as a key worker child (which we haven't done for this side of the summer holiday as dh is still working from home on the days I'll be in school), but if she can't be in ft, dh can probably wfh at least half days on the days where she has to be at home.

I really do feel for those of you with younger children!! It's so hard!

Three times on the stats thread now I have mentioned the much higher rate of SAHMs in Germany (it's culturally expected) and been ignored....it makes a huge difference!

Well done Piggy, yes that makes a difference. Isn't that the case in Denmark too?

My FE workplace has just gone rogue and is going to do 50/50 on site and on line teaching from September. They are looking into it very closely and are currently being very good about staff who have children...I am worried though. My eldest is in year 1 and back but obviously only school hours. We rely on breakfast club and after school club and with that unlikely to reopen I just have no idea how I will work. Youngest at nursery though currently at home

I actually would prefer mixed ability y8 (science teacher), we had mixed ability y7 this year and it was lovely, whereas my set y8s were a nightmare.

I didn't know it was culturally expected to have a sahm in Germany. That's interesting. It will definitely make a difference to what school can look like if they aren't reliant on it for childcare.

I've just been told that the head has approved funding for next year's year 11 to have an extra class on each half in English and maths (I think they wanted to do it in science too but can't find any teachers to staff it). It will be set 2.5 in maths to accommodate the set 2 kids who aren't going to manage the higher tier work in the long run, so they will move down to Foundation tier. So that means I am going to lose the bottom portion of my current year 10 class, who are nice enough kids, just lazy and/or not quite mathematically minded enough to cope with the harder work. It's made my day!!!!

I really do feel for those of you with younger children!! It's so hard!

Life with a two year old... honestly, this would be a breeze with just the older one and me being very part time.

I think he's in that slow painful phase of dropping naps too. Needs one but seems unable to fall asleep till 8:30/9 etc, then today has thrown a curveball and fallen asleep at 10:30 (tantruming since 9 am) other days won't till 1:30.... etc.

There's sand and play-dough everywhere.

Ex Ofsted chief has said schools should look to their budgets to pay teachers tocome in over Summer. What fucking planet is he on? We can't even afford a ks2 TA for years 5 and 6 this year. We'll be expected in for free.

flags I don't think anyone has objections to mixed ability teaching in general, in fact some have been asking for it for years. The complaint is that they haven't been asked about it, or even told it's happening. We only know because of a letter sent to parents, which some teachers also happen to be. So the teachers who are parents of year 7 got this letter explaining that their child would not be in sets next year, other than in maths, but didn't know that about the classes they are going to be teaching. The nurture groups will continue to be kept in their own groups with their work adapted to be more accessible though.

Has anyone seen the scared to go back to retail job thread? I can imagine somewhat different responses if it was teaching not retail!

Madeline that must have been really scary for you.
Just read a thread in academics corner about them having to teach Monday to Saturday. don't give Gavin any ideas!

@MsAwesomeDragon yeah it is definitely better to not find stuff out in a letter meant for parents, although that is the sort of thing that it is useful for parents to be told, better than repeated conversations in September 'why is my child in set 5, they are excellent at ...' 'it isn't a set it is just a number' should have let staff know first though, it isn't hard to send an email...

I was just chatting to a check out woman at Sainsburys (for God's sake don't tell MN I went shopping!). She was shielding but has now returned to work because she has no income otherwise. I felt so sorry for her. It would appear these supermarkets aren't the great employers they say they are...

neuro I think most Danish women would have a fit if told to be SAHMs! What they do have is an excellent record fro paid lengthy parental leave, WFH and flexible working and hugely state subsidised childcare.

Schools "looking to their budgets" means no extra funding but SOME schools may be able to stretch to it, meaning further imbalance across the board - and cue, a whole new load of people shouting on here asking why the lazy teachers in their school aren't providing extra lessons when they are in the school down the road

OMG, have just seen that retail thread! Nearly all the names on there are familiar 'crack on' teacher bashers!

I'm not even looking at other threads any more unless they are clearly nothing to do with schools, it's too depressing.
Definitely worth noting though that I think MN really is a bubble - I've heard/seen absolutely nothing about schools in real life from friends/acquaintances or on facebook etc, even in local groups. All the messages from parents we've had at school have been positive. MN has just been overrun by a vocal minority desperate for childcare!