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.

Yeah the issue with rotas is that it limits the exposure of kids, but not teachers.

The sticking point is finding someone non shielding to replace them in school as it's more money....

This is the crux.

As many people on MN (often when TB) say, ‘just get schools back, full time as normal. Vulnerable teachers stay home and send work to vulnerable children. Simples.’

Or some such bullshit.

But, if out of a primary teaching staff of 9, you have 3 CEV teachers, you can’t reopen as normal, unless you somehow find 3 x £23-40,000 salaries to pay them. I can’t see a way round it.

Parental pressure in Scotland is going to end up with us all back with no distancing come August. If that's the way the numbers have gone, then great, but I think it will be one rule for schools and another one for other workplaces. Staff will probably be told to distance from eachother, and stay at the front. I was thinking I could control a class of around 12 from the front, if it's 30 it might be a riot.

It wouldn’t be possible for secondary teachers to only see 30 kids. The least I could see would be 90 (more likely 180 as we have to share groups in science to be able to make the timetable work) and I’m 0.4fte.

Personally I wouldn’t mind having one ks3 class and teaching them all subjects. It would be like doing supply again as Libya’s I wasn’t expected to do the planning for more than 1 subject. Half the class in mornings, half in afternoon and as much self/peer marking as possible.

I don’t think it will be done that way though and suspect I’ll have to mingle with 180 kids.

I would mind teaching kids all subjects!

As a maths teacher I find I’m hopeless at any subject that requires facilitating discussion or getting the kids to do extended writing. Not my skill set!

Libya? As long as I didn’t have to plan all subjects.

I quite like the challenge noble so long as it’s offset by next to no planning and marking and it’s temporary.

Day to day supply was exhausting and full on whilst you were there but you walked out at 3.30 and it was over. Couldn’t go back to being ripped off by agencies though.

Oh yeah, sorry - should have said my plan is for primary.

Secondary you're dealing with adults. You should be social distancing same as any other work place. I have not a fucking clue how that works. #chocolateteapot

We escaped the kids being affected by deaths of relatives at our school. But, I work right by where that park stabbing was yesterday.. kids in flats use that park as their garden. I'm now worrying about what they might have witnessed. I caught a out 3 seconds of the video of it before i realised what I was watching and turned it off. Another thing to add to the mental health issues.

I haven’t seen the news. That sounds awful goats

Does anyone else wonder whether the demand to send all kids back to school with no distancing in Sept, when other work places are expected to have SD in place, (even if and when that reduces to 1m) will end in teacher strikes?

It really is very concerning. There is no consideration to the safety of teachers being given in anything at all I've read. Even down to not needing PPE. I am concerned about the potential issues of being in a room all day with someone who has the virus and doesn't know it yet. I am not sure I can come up with how that can be managed but certainly, we need to be provided with PPE of some kind and it can't be the case that Heads and governing bodies get to say we're not allowed to use it for spurious 'it'll scare the kids' reasons.

We need some support with how we will manage children who are sent to school with symptoms, including some kind of heavy fines for parents who start messing with our lives and those of our wider communities in this way. I want to see very clear Government-led instructions on how to handle/remove children with symptoms and what we do in secondaries with young people who insist the rules don't apply to them, particularly the idiots going around coughing on people and licking stuff. It needs to be really, really tight. No room for misunderstanding. And parents need to be signing up to it before their children are allowed back in school.

I have already advised my family that if I die of covid, they are to pursue the issue through the courts! I can't believe we are going to be hung out to dry like this but it is going to happen.

People keep wanging on about other countries while failing to mention the kids desks have plastic shields or the everyone is in a mask or there’s temperature checking or a track and trace system that is better than a phone call saying ‘do you reckon you’ve given it to anyone?’.

Our school has made the year 10s and their parents sign agreements on behaviour that breaches schools sd rules equaling being sent home/having to immediately come and collect them

Yeah we've got kids who aren't in because their standard behaviour isn't good enough. Risk assessment said no. Not sure how that works come September.

Same honey and goats and actually the year 10s have all been behaving really well and taking it seriously. We also temp check them all. How this will work come September when the other 900 odd kids return including the ones that are basically feral God only knows.

So, it’s Adonis that is pushing this one...

Drawn up by Labour's Lord Adonis, a former schools minister, the blueprint urges ministers confirm a loosening of social distancing rules, appoint a national director of school operations and bring back teachers in August to start preparing.

An army of retired supply teachers to fill in the gaps when teachers need to self-isolate, hiring church halls to provide more space and the stockpiling of hand sanitiser, masks and thermometers for classrooms.

He is a Labour ex-schools minister, isn’t he? Why is he drawing up blueprints for anything?! Has someone told him to do that?!

Don’t we already have a ‘national director of schools operations’? Isn’t that the Minister for Education?

An army of retired supply teachers? Does he mean an army of retired teachers, am who are now working as supply? If they are retired supply teachers, they probably aren’t coming back!

Are these retired teachers now not also in a higher risk group?

Adonis can kiss my arse. I know my head will not expect us back in August.

Well, no more than normal.

Well, exactly!

I would imagine they retired from teaching as it’s so shit.

Retired doctors and nurses may have come back to help the nhs in March, but they came back to rainbows, clapping and a free pass to skip supermarket queues. I would imagine retired teachers would be asked to come back for no pay, frothing vitriol that they should do it for no pay, ‘for the poor children’ and general criticism.

I won't be back in August. That is the holidays. Don't care if they offer pay - I'm not interested.

And I don't fancy teaching KS3 other stuff, either @noblegiraffe.

I couldn't teach Y7 Maths, for a start.

I’m not interested in being paid for the summer either as I will be at home with my kids.

I would only cover keyworker childcare in a sort of playscheme set up. I will not be teaching or in some church hall where it would actually be harder to monitor bubbles/manage handwashing etc.
If our Head decides that is unworkable for her team or the school community, or there is suitable provision elsewhere so parents can go to work then I won’t be volunteering my services for any other ‘hub’ or scheme.

They also came back to death appu to be a bit ghoulish.

Yes, it would be a nice way to get out of paying some of those pesky teacher pensions-kill two birds with one stone!

But looking at it in all seriousness, if they get supply teachers or holiday clubs in, presuming they are available (and all the supply teachers I know, were doing supply because they wanted more work-flexibility to be with their family, so I doubt they’d be up for the summer holidays anyway), schools will still need site staff to open the premises, cleaning staff each day and catering staff to provide meals all of whom would need paying.

They will also need member of SLT who is a DSL in every day.

Many heads have been in every day since February half term-through holidays, weekends and bank holidays. They have to have a break or they will burn out completely.

Geoff Barton certainly seems resigned to the fact that heads won't get much of a summer holiday.