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.

I feel a bit sick . He just said it again 'and beyond'.

Sorry, but I am a specialist. Whoever they think is going to destroy kids by making them learn all summer is going to teach them wrong stuff, badly.

Several times today Gav mentioned summer catch up.

Apparently plans next week.

I am feeling really stressed out about this.

I am not willing to work over the summer for no pay...

I'm not a bloody childcare provider and I'm not working over summer! Levels of rage really increasing at this government. So now we all get yet another week of waiting and wondering what this summer catch up means. Just bloody come out with it!

If there really is a plan Boris could just say 'sod it; I'll tell you now.'

it's not childcare. It's catch up.

Which no other country is doing....

There isn’t a plan though is there? This is how it’s gone all along - make an announcement then frantically try to cobble something together.

The amount of back and forth/uncertainty about what schools are doing I am actually starting to find quite stressful. Every time I feel like I know what plan exists, it's changed again.

Yeah but piggy what's the odds they ask us to stay open for kw kids as well, even though there are now other childcare options

I’m a single parent household and I have no one in my acquaintances who is also a single parent household. My friends have partners and my sister is married. Will I be buddied up with a random single parent? Why aren’t I allowed to buddy up with a couple with no resident children? Do they think single parents hang out in packs?

@pfrench @ohthegoats

Can't say that I am surprised. Hopefully they will let you keep an account open.

Eurgh all this talk of summer plans is making me feel ill. My stress levels are so high trying to chase up kids that aren't doing work. Phoned one, got the dad, asked to call back 10 mins later. No ones answered since.

Piggywaspushed
Several times today Gav mentioned summer catch up.

I wonder how well he knows teachers contracts.

@ohthegoats it's sad if you've been suspended (banned?). I didn't see your thread, was it massively different to the other threads that are still up?

I will not be working to catch kids up in the summer. I'll make sure all my videos are available for them to watch, with corresponding worksheets to work on, but I will not be going in over the summer holiday. And good luck finding volunteers to teach higher tier maths GCSE, as there aren't many secondary maths specialist supply teachers around. A Level would be another league more difficult as well.

Checking in.

I caught up on what happened to your daughter DrMadeline, I'm so sorry. I'm glad she can work at home in peace.

From last thread; Do you think people think we joke about the lack of glue sticks?
The shiny new curriculum I've been working on is going to really struggle to be delivered due to the dwindling budget for resources. It was dwindling pre COVID. I feel I've wasted yet another ton of time on stuff that won't be used.

Of to catch up.

Off...

Do you think they will just offer more Oak National Academy remote learning?

@ineedaholidaynow

Do you think they will just offer more Oak National Academy remote learning?

I hope so. But that would mean the keen and well resourced families would get further ahead and the less keen and families with fewer resources would get further behind. That's not what they're implying, but that's what will happen. Unless they suddenly start saying something sensible like "schools should identify children who have not engaged with remote learning and summer school will be compulsory for those pupils, staffed by teachers who volunteer for the role and will be paid double time for any work done in the summer holidays" I might even volunteer for it myself if that was what they said (maybe not, as the behaviour of those kids wouldn't exactly be exemplary).

Can’t wait for the update next week on “a summer of catch up”.
Wonder if they do actually have a plan of how all children will be back in September that can work or if it’s going to be more impossible guidelines.

Summer catch up!
What hell is this? Is Amanda and the other inspectors delivering it?

Dread to think how this will look.

I think Gavin has always had a plan about summer especially in respect of Y10s and that is why they have prioritised them for the provision of laptops.

This is what he said in Parliament on 13th May in response to the following question:
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con) [V]
The guidance on the return of schools in the primary sector is very clear. May I ask my right hon. Friend to be very clear about the guidance for the secondary sector? For example, what does “face-to-face support” mean? Precisely which year groups will be able to return, and will that be on a voluntary basis, and does he agree that we need to provide maximum support for those taking GCSE and A-level exams both this year and next?

Gavin Williamson
My hon. Friend is absolutely right on the importance of supporting youngsters and children who are going to be facing GCSEs next year, as well as A-levels, BTECs and other qualifications in years 10 and 12. We are working with the sector, because we want all children in those year groups to have the opportunity to go into school and to speak with their teachers. We want their teachers to be able to make an assessment of the learning and support they will need over the following weeks as we approach the summer holidays, and to set the work at the right level so that children can benefit from learning through the six weeks of the summer holidays as well as in the weeks approaching the summer holidays. It is important to get those transition years back into schools, even if not for a full timetable, as that will be a first step in the right direction.

Someone said they wouldn't be doing summer catch-up unpaid.
I won't be doing it PAID.
No way. Not happening. NO.
That is the hill I will die on.

Checking in as don't want to lose my place. I arm feeling so stressed that there seem to be no actual plans. A parent seemed surprised today when I said we hear the news at the same time as the general public.

Our school have said that we will not be going in over the summer. But who knows.

Hmm, does that extract imply that teachers will need to use the final weeks of this term planning programmes for God-knows-who to deliver over the holidays?
Fuck that! Not happening either.