The Ninth Republic - stand by for the return of Year 10

[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 come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom.

@Appuskidu Mr Bronson - yes! 😆

Loved the ORT passage. Need an equivalent for secondary school!

The Demon Headmaster School for the Vulnerable

there have been days when Mrs May has barely had time to go for a shit

This is me, this is. Today it was as child stood outside the door repeating "we're going to be late, we're going to be late" banging her bike helmet on the doorhandle. Relaxing 'me time'.

Today I've got 2 and a half hours of childcare school for child, then she's back on screens at home, while I do things like try to record 3 lessons for Monday so I can have a weekend off.

Just recorded 8 sessions of class book reading, and did Monday's maths in front of the telly last night, recorded at 11pm. English to go, history might not happen. Aaaaaagh....

I have to say my kids' school just put a pdf of suggested work and links up on the website every week for every year.
Which for us, is perfect. I've also bought cgp workbooks.
I'm not a primary teacher, so I'm not sure if they are making "enough" progress or not, but at age 8 and 6 it's not really going to affect their future careers - they just need to keep practicing what they already know, surely? I really don't get the angst of a lot of parents about live or recorded lessons.

I agree whynot my dd is 10, I'm pretty sure she's not actually making progress, but she's not forgetting what she already knew either, so that's ok. She's got 6 years before she died her GCSEs, I'm sure she'll catch up at some point before then.

This is the difference between teachers and non-teachers as 'home schooling parents' though. Most teachers I know don't really care what their children are doing from a learning perspective. I think that most parents don't realise how much we go over and over and practice and practice what they already know.

We'd covered the writing curriculum in my year groups before Feb half term - this has been an alright opportunity to keep trying out those skills in different situations really.

YouTube is not fucking working for me today. It's like it's out to get me - I need to be done in 45 minutes, I can't fucking upload. Just sits on 99% processed for 10 mins.

I wish I could help but I know nothing about YouTube!

Also, those parents wanting lots of learning carrying on - what's wrong with just using BBC Bitesize or oak academy? That's what they're there for! My kids have loved choosing what to learn each day from BBC Bitesize. I have let them have free choice from their respective key stages though, and they've mainly chosen history or art/tech - which is fine as the workbooks they've been doing are maths and writing/comprehension. I couldn't bring myself to inflict SPAG workbook on them!

My friend posted this. Good point.

I work 7:30am - 5pm, take work home and work at least one day at the weekend. I made that choice. Now it seems that society wants to take that away from me, (I should work at school in my holidays). That’s okay, if that’s how it’s going to be but I will need to be paid and I think I should also work 9am - 5pm, weekends off. That seems fair, I get a hefty pay rise and my work - life balance suddenly becomes normal! I would also not have suffered ‘burn out’ at the end of every term. I think society should be careful about what it wishes for, we might actually take you up on that!

So we've done a mixture of suggested tasks, workbooks and BBC Bitesize. I really would have hated being tied down to proper taught lessons at home.

DH's friend ahs just found himself in an awful situation re teaching and CV. He got a job at a well known Northern public school recently, resigned form his current job (and replacement has been appointed) and now his new school (this has been building up) have laid him off...

Clearly there are big problems in public schools.

He has no clue what he will do now. Presumably some smug git in the DfE will count him as a 'returning' or 'extra' teacher if he now gets a job somewhere else.

@SallyLovesCheese

All this talk of 'Nightingale schools' has me thinking - who is our educational equivalent? KS1 pupils learn about Florence Nightingale, but which famous teacher would we name our super-schools after?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Arnold

note the "he introduced a number of reforms that were widely copied by other prestigious public schools"

obvs, innit

Gallo school. Or Holt schools. Not sure the parents or government would like those icons.

Anyone who has gone back/is looking towards going back found that they are being expected to clean their classrooms?

I'm not looking forward to the meeting when the HT tells our TAs on Monday that they may be expected to - release teachers for breaks (only half an hour a day), be on the rota in the keyworker provision in our hall for a longer day than they are usually contracted for AND toilet cleaning!

We're not expected to clean our own classrooms, but the kids are cleaning their own desks!!!! Apparently. At the end of each lesson I am supposed to give each pupil a Dettol wipe (are they enough to stop covid?) Then the kids are supposed to wipe their own desk before the leave. I can't see many of them being very thorough!

We had to clean classrooms as part of key worker cover. Disinfect at break time and lunchtime and end of the day. Head saw kids out while we disinfected, everyone out by 3.15. The normal cleaners did the toilets, emptied the one bin and waved a hoover around.

I just kept the kids outside all day, easier.

We’re having a day in for academic reviews with Yr 10 and 12. We will be rotating around bubbles. Been told to clean the desk and computer with (provided) antibacterial wipes. We’re been teaching to timetable so this is just lip service for the ‘face to face’ contact. Yr 12 will only see the sixth form team for UCAS.

So, what happens if people are allergic to anti bac wipes??

I never thought to ask that question. I was just overawed that my desk will be cleaned at all.

@RigaBalsam

My friend posted this. Good point.

I work 7:30am - 5pm, take work home and work at least one day at the weekend. I made that choice. Now it seems that society wants to take that away from me, (I should work at school in my holidays). That’s okay, if that’s how it’s going to be but I will need to be paid and I think I should also work 9am - 5pm, weekends off. That seems fair, I get a hefty pay rise and my work - life balance suddenly becomes normal! I would also not have suffered ‘burn out’ at the end of every term. I think society should be careful about what it wishes for, we might actually take you up on that!

I think this is a really good point- the current way schools work relies on teachers being willing to work really hard in term time- which I think lots are only able to do because they know it's for a 5-8 week stretch and then they will have some time off. If holidays start to change, then the way teachers work in term time will also change- people will be less willing to do lots of extra work in term time.

@DrMadelineMaxwell

Anyone who has gone back/is looking towards going back found that they are being expected to clean their classrooms?

I'm not looking forward to the meeting when the HT tells our TAs on Monday that they may be expected to - release teachers for breaks (only half an hour a day), be on the rota in the keyworker provision in our hall for a longer day than they are usually contracted for AND toilet cleaning!

Luckily not- the school have managed to change their cleaning contract so we will have more cleaners available to clean the school during the day.

Oh God, I just tried a face mask on. It was way too loose, too big for my face, got in my eyes, emphasised my wrinkled neck and I couldn't breathe...

I always feel term time is a bit like going off to work on an oil rig: life gets put on hold for a few months, then back to it again. Having evenings off during the week during ld has been amazing.

@Appuskidu, thanks for the Mrs May story, I love her . Did anyone else see ICT with Mr P covering some of the Mrs May books on FB? They were funny.

Hope everyone is ok. I'm ready for the weekend now.

Ready for the w/e and I've worked very long days this week so I can actually have the w/e of for a change.

I've done better at not reading 'those threads' but couldn't resist a link on facebook that led to this beauty of a quote...

Former education secretary Lord Baker said today: "School holidays should be cancelled this year.
"Teachers and children have already had too much holiday this year and should return to learning throughout the summer.
"By September hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of schoolchildren will have had no school experience for more than six months.
"That is shocking, and some of these pupils will never be able to catch up."

It has the best sadface I've seen (and actually this is pretty much the face of the keyworkers being made to come in, ours most definitely don't want to be in, even though we're doing our best to entertain them)

It's a toe-rag of a newspaper so I refuse to link it (I've had to disinfect my fingers just for clicking on the link)

But Kenneth Baker gave us Baker Days!

Turncoat.

Of course, must add, he is behind the highly successful UTCs...
So excellent source of educational leadership.