The Tenth Republic - what is the new normal?

[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.

Well, again, the most disadvantaged students won't be able to attend even if they want to, because of transport. They're either on the school bus or they're not there because parents don't drive/don't have cars/refuse to pick them up. Only the advantaged students attend after school revision normally.

Am I right in thinking there’s two different things

One lump of money (£350m?) that schools use to pay to tutoring agencies who will send ‘specially trained’ graduates (probably the same training the Track and Trace workers had) out to do a few hours of tutoring with disadvantaged children. Presuming schools are happy to open their bubbles to numerous random visiting graduates, that is.

Then £650m that is given to heads directly to spend on making children do longer days, weekends and over the summer? Is that money which heads can use to pay existing staff overtime if they wanted to earn more? Or is that only to be spent on Tory-approved companies?

Or have I misunderstood?

I would hope we use some of the money to ensure each bubble has a ta trained in delivering s&l, reading intervention and nurture. So it could go to additional tas (we could call them tutors 😂👍) and CPD. Lots of our tas are already highly skilled and could do this - but we wouldn’t have enough for each bubble.

@Piggywaspushed

I’ve just read that schoolsweek article. Do we really need a three way Relationship between tutor/pupil and teacher? That implies the teachers have to plan for it all and spoon feed it to the tutors!

Just give the bloody money straight to heads and they can pay who they want to run interventions. People that are trained and already know the kids might be a good place to start.

I think that was my trouble, I'd missed them so much that I wanted to actually talk to them, hear their news, make sure they were ok rather than teach.

Given that we know that there’s loads of vulnerable kids out there suffering terribly in lockdown, talking to them and finding out if they’re ok should be a priority rather than framed as a bad thing.

Schools can’t and shouldn’t go back to normal as if nothing has happened. There should be plans for reintegration not a standing start, especially with the little ones.

DS (Y6) went back at the start of June. He’s absolutely knackered, the first few days he could barely talk when he got in. It has been a massive shock to the system going from months of cosy isolation to the school environment and hours of social contact.

If the first concern of the school had been to ‘turbo-charge his learning’ with an extended school day and tutoring, I’d have been pretty pissed off.

I think that is how it is @Appuskidu. So I assume the £350m will be added to Pupil Premium and the £650m is to be used how we want. Assume that will be split per pupil, but when do you receive it. So if you plan something for the Summer but don't actually get the funding until September, how does that work?

Just give the bloody money straight to heads and they can pay who they want to run interventions. People that are trained and already know the kids might be a good place to start.

Fully agree.

They knew exactly who needed what before this and who will need what going forward. Bar a bit of extra reading for example, which we lazy parents can do, my son isn't a concern. I can well imagine there are pupils who need more input.

I do know my son's school had subscribed to some online catch up programmes for maths and literacy that were happening prior Covid that pupils did at home. I know some have tried really hard to do those every day, others may not have been able to.

The divide is greater in sen schools though. All our pupils need as much as we can give at any time.

Aw bless him Nobel. Again, completely agree, we can't turbo charge education.

My son's school have thought carefully and considered this actually from letters we are getting. Can't help thinking it's because the head has two mid primary age children and she's seen it all from both angles. Including the refusal to work, tantrums and sleeping in till 10. (And she's freely admitted that's her too!)

I was thinking also earlier (lots of thinking!)

The govt haven't got a clue with education.

They've learnt that they state their top goal, and then let all the LEAs, schools and teachers do all the problem solving, work out what could and couldn't happen, including local LEAs realising local infections are too high, and then see what happens.

They've decentralised everything too much to have any direct impact.

It's a mixture of pr and we haven't got a scooby but we know the people who do.

Intentions and ambitions aren't solid. It was the first thing Dh mentioned yesterday; what people think he said isn't what he actually said.

Couldn't sleep last night thinking about the reality of September. Just the logistics of running a 30 child bubble with no TA. At 5am this morning boyfriend had to talk me down from minor panic attack. If it's too awful, then I'm going to leave at Christmas. As he says, it's manageable if I know it's relatively short term. #copout

As I understood it the £65 billion is what the government will hand over to the third party tutoring cartels and the £35 is to be allocated to schools from which they have to pay 25% of costs of tutoring for the pupils they elect to access it and if anything’s left over they can spend as they see fit.

That’s a part of what I was angry about-another handover of public funds into private business. How many schools are there that have to share that £35 million and how many kids will need tutoring at 25% (£12.50 per hour and they are to have two hours a week). Can’t see much being left over.

ohthegoats I hope you are ok?

It's only ever going to be safely done. They can't risk a shenanigans and second wave, anyone. The logistics are still really confusing and they're going to have to issue clear, safe guidance. The hospitals don't want second waves either!

Do speak to your Gp though. Teachers need a ducking break.

Maybe a break from here? Hide all the threads. I'm only really posting here now and the numbers; but that's imploding.

It’s not a cop out goats. Yes it’s a vocation and important etc but no job is worth destroying your mental health for and what good would we be anyway if we’d reached and lost hold of the end of the rope?

I’m thinking similar to be able to face going back to bullying hod and likely none of the accommodations I’ve asked for and the doctor has recommended.

Oh yeah, I'm fine. I could just feel the anxiety rising yesterday. Same as March. Not doing that again.

I suspect the unions are about to come in for even more of a bashing!! It's going to be interesting.

The government announced that they wanted all primary kids back before the summer and then reality took over and it didn’t happen.

Don’t confuse ‘government says’ with ‘will happen’. No point in worrying especially when it’s months away.

Checking NC

My dc's HT has emailed a letter to parents which includes this line, which I really love:
It is unfortunate that being really, really fed up of Coronavirus is neither a cure for it nor a vaccination against it.

They didn't even really announce much.

That's brilliant

Dd's school haven't even managed to open to year 6 yet, because they're full to bubble capacity with just the KW children. We seem to have an unusually high number of KW children in the catchment, but most managed to keep them at home until they were encouraged to send them back in June. As soon as KW were "encouraged" rather than "allowed" to send their children to school, they're full! So there was no way all primary children were ever going to be back at school before the summer. And there's no way we'll have all children back at school full time in September. Unless the number of infections has gone down to practically zero by then, which may happen but it's a long shot.

I will not be planning work for tutors who will effectively be paid the same, if not more than I am (on an hourly basis).

From a couple of threads here and there it's clear that local clusters are in part due to local communities not really caring about SD, having bbqs, kids in and out of each other's houses.

Then a friend who's known for loving a good piss up, group texts everyone suggesting a SD bbq, 4 bbq stations, for each family. We all have 2-3 kids. Oh and "is it legal?"

Either it's a very elaborate joke and he's starting drinking already or is genuinely reaching peak Covid.

No wonder schools are requesting to see test results to allow a child back in.

My neighbours having children round to play every weekend is going my nut in. It is so blatant. Additional adults, too. This week's excuse appears to be a birthday. On the verge of reporting them tbh.

That is an excellent quote @Messageinateacup

Callmeangelina
The tutors won't y getting anywhere near that amount. Most of it will be taken by the tutoring agencies.