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.

I want a planner with dates.

It's not an extraordinary request, is it? Why don't Pirongs or anyone else do it? All I want is a 5 lesson day and not to have to write the bloody date at the top of every page.

I've got this planner www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07R995KH7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_LjO8EbK6ZZF2P?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 I fill it in beautifully for about 6 weeks, then ignore it for the rest of the year. It's relatively useful as a mark book, although I often ignore that as well, in favour of putting important information into Sims and keeping the less important stuff in my head.

I always get the primary teachers diary from the same company, MsAwesome. If you order from the company direct it's about £4 cheaper than amazon, even with the postage added.

Don't your schools pay for your planners?
I have never had to buy one in over 20 years.

Never. Maybe the cheapest academic diary going, but even that was only given to us when one head teacher was in charge and all the other three I've worked for haven't provided them.

Pirongs unique planners have dates in. Setting it up is a painfully inefficient and slow process though

I tried for ages @CarrieBlue. (Pirongs)

I still couldn't find the bit with dates, although they did it last year. This year it didn't seem to be available.

Pirongs site then unique section on the menu across - each day is dated. It’s the fully customisable ones, not just the cover

Thanks..I'm try again.

We get given a planner by school each year, and the days are dated :) I always have great intentions to use it to record my planning, but that always falls apart by Christmas. I do use the mark book and store useful information on the notes pages though.

People are selfish. If they really wanted children back at school I feel things would be more cautious. And they wouldn't be celebrating opening up stuff. I get the economy needs a boost; maybe they want to test things too to see if track and trace will work, but don't blame the teachers if we get the second wave and the schools don't open.

Coronavirus: UK must prepare for second virus wave - health leaders www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53159918

Marquees are here

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-private-schools-hiring-marquees-allow-pupils-return

I have never paid for a planner. I was a bit shocked when people said they don’t get work laptops but I’m gobsmacked at people buying their own planners.

Bit worried as I was off when the a4 or a5 email came round. I need a4

I buy my own because I can't stand the corporate style one we get given. I also like A4 so i can actually read what I write in the marking pages 😆

My school is rural and on a bit of a hill. Reckon marquees will last til first autumn storm if we had them

I didn’t watch yesterday’s briefing and I feel like I’ve missed a lot. Should I watch it or will I get the rage?

You will get the rage honey unless you like bumbling blond optimists. Let's face it, about half the country seem to.

I somehow stumbled across Planboard ( planboard.chalk.com/ ) when we moved to remote learning - now I don’t think I’ll ever return to a paper planner. I’ve been able to plan weeks ahead and it’s really easy to shift lessons when needed. I love the mark book as well, I can produce a report on each student that can be sent to parents too. It’s American so some oddities but still way better than my usual June task of writing dates in my teacher planner!

Is it free? I keep toying with going online with my planner but despite being glued to tech in other aspects of my life I’m not sure if I could with the planner...

I just use an A4 diary and my head to plan. It has the corporate name on it but its very colourful.

I think I am one of those that likes to keep it in my head and not write stuff down. Probably a bad thing.

Luckily we have a great lab tech.

If you want to go online and have an iPad, idoceo is the king of planners.

I normally have it in week view but it also has a daily view. The mark book integrates with the seating plan so you can easily highlight PP students or rearrange them by latest test score etc. It also produces by student a report from your mark book which you can give to parents at parents evening.

When my school iPad dies and isn’t replaced I will be buying my own school iPad to keep idoceo.

I could have a school diary to plan in but buying my own means I can have a pretty one instead! I do most planning in my head but I find it useful to write odd bits down to keep track

We don't get laptops or planners... One is certainly cheaper to provide for ourselves than the other .

@TheHoneyBadger

I didn’t watch yesterday’s briefing and I feel like I’ve missed a lot. Should I watch it or will I get the rage?

I don't watch the briefings anymore, because they give me the rage. But I stayed up for the 10 o'clock news last night and I get such a visceral reaction when I see Johnson on the TV. Cannot stand him.

The only one I’ve watched in weeks was the recent one with the some mother’s do have em twonk. I decided I was doing the right thing avoiding them after that.

I'm upgrading my laptop at home, mostly because of it's age and I've already replaced the battery once. I'm considering upgrading now so i can then take my current one into school and leave it there as it has a decent microphone - unlke my chromebook which school did provide - and is static and easy to adjust - unlike my ipad which is a pain to prop up even in it's case.

We have to plan on google drive and submit it there, so I have a temptate for a timetable set up there. And we just copy and paste over from previous weeks if something didn't get done. So I don't find an online planner useful.
I've always bought the ed plan books and like the primary teacher's diary. But I'm just not sure how much I'll use it as I seem to just end up writing staff meeting notes in on the weekly pages now.

I think I need a big, blank nice notebook and then just glue in a couple of marking pages for key info on groups (although we take ipads to staff meetings now and all that's held online too!) and to make staff meeting notes in.