The Eleventh Republic - countdown to summer holidays

[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

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/whole-year-groups-to-be-isolated-as-secondary-schools-reopen-l08qq3h3n

Can’t read it all though as it’s behind a pay wall

We have 450 in a year group so goodness knows how it’s supposed to work in college. I assume they just won’t bother with anything much above the random bottles of hand sanitizer now dotted around college. There’s certainly been no “deep cleaning” going on. The principal told me today he expects it to be business as usual in September. I gave him a Look.

Anyway even working today with three groups of four or five students showed me what a nonsense it all is. You can’t give individual feedback from two metres away when you’re trying to look at a computer screen or written work, or rather you can but it feels like the silliest kind of farce given we’re all in the same room together anyway. Then I went to see my HOD and the office she shares is long and thin and I was practically cheek to cheek with her and another teacher. It’s just impossible!

The Huffpost link said "But even with the new protections, the government will warn schools they may have to focus on core subjects like maths and English to allow catch-up from the lockdown, and a full curriculum may not be available until next summer term and I know it's been mentioned earlier upthread but please no.
Please please no.
I love my subject and so do my classes.
I am pretty sure that teaching KS3 Maths, I'd be a wreck.
That article really upset me and reminded me of the 6 weeks pre-SATs at my DC's school where they still take kids out of every "fun" lesson in order to cram Maths and English into them.
I hate it, I hate it, that's not what school and education is all about.
I'm going to cross everything that the Huffpost is wrong about that.
And that my HT doesn't read it.

And an epic quote fail too

Meanwhile in Italy...

twitter.com/RRaimato/status/1276553347177340930

@noblegiraffe

Just looked at that drawing tablet thing and it suggested an ‘anti-fouling glove’ which looks quite funny.

Mine came with one. I think it looks a bit smutty but maybe that's my dirty mind. Wouldn't bother though, just keep a clean hand when you're using it. And don't eat crisps anywhere near it!

School reimbursed me, ohthegoats, I'd ask anyway if I were you. It's gone up by a tenner since I bought mine in April. They do smaller versions for cheaper but that one is a decent size for teaching. I mark all of my work on OneNote with it.

I was just thinking about marking.

Also I want to carry on doing videos for the website to show parents calc methods and how we expand sentences etc.

gravitynotes I think we might be at a similar college. 4500 at ours over 3 campuses all using coaches. Surely there can be no bubbles when the coaches are arranged geographically...

How is fining going to work? In a period where blended learning is going to be taking place and he government themselves are funding a free to use online academy are they really going to start fining people who are doing home learning for non-attendance.

I though the thing you get fined for is failing to provide an education rather than the act of being registered with a school and not turning up.

I hope the unions push back.
Even at primary it's pretty ridiculous.
Due to siblings. So a 30 bubble is linked probably to every other bubble in school.
Then toilets. The year group share about 3-4 for 60 kids. So cross contamination from probably very unhygienic kids.
Then reception 60 kids all have access to the garden and things in it so unless they somehow split that. 420 kids so 840 people on site drop offs. It is manic normally but with possibly no breakfast clubs. Even 30 kids would be 60 including parents.
It would have to stagger so much as to be hardly at school.
14 classes start finish and play times different.

People wont trust gov after locking dowm so late so as soon as cases in the area some parents will withdraw kids.
I think attendance should maybe be case by case. 2 parents i know havent sent theirs back but are both teachers so they can probably teacher them 1-2 better than a class of 30.

Also what % of kids like with an over 70 you literally cant distance in a house from an under 10 probably.

I find this a little chilling:

Dr Victor Aiyedun, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control at PHE, said cases in the school setting could help scientists better understand the transmission of the disease.
"It will also provide insight into how the virus spreads in nursery settings as they prepare to welcome more children over the coming weeks," he said.

This is the reasoning behind keeping the MK nursery with 23 cases open.

It really is a weird leak.

Back-to-school safety plans for autumn leaked www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53225365

This is the reasoning behind keeping the MK nursery with 23 cases open.

FFS if that’s true then there’s no chance of parents trusting the government enough to send kids back. Or maybe that’s the plan.

I think they want research evidence for transmission....

103 cases in one Israeli school saw them test the whole school population and shut a 'sister' school down, too.

Loving the BBC's headline!

safety LOL.

So safe they were leaked.

Reading that BBC article, I think the 240 is a media guess based on 8 form intakes.. I think it literally does mean year groups. So, that's gravity and me fucked then.

I can’t see how we can do it! I’m supposed to be taking y12 of a new spec into y13, having been the one to write and deliver the course, and I’m also supposed to be teaching two groups of the vocational y12 new spec, again having been the one to write the new course. If I lose my upper sixth A level so I can be in a bloody CTEC bubble I’ll be fuming.

Local lockdown in Leicester is on, schools to completely shut there again.

Looks like Leicester is locking down again, including shutting shops and schools.

They can’t bubble secondary teachers to year groups option subjects generally have less teachers than years in the school surely?

I am actually experiencing grim satisfaction since I was just told on another thread that 'no schools have shut down' .

So how do we do intensive catch up reading with our send pupils if we are to stay 2 m away?

And in primary schools though, too. I'm in a year group of 104. Others in year groups in the 80s. Others in 40s. We teach across phase - so, 200 kids. Lots of logistical changes would need to be made.

If they want to test transmission, I had a better idea.

I don't think we bubble gravity. We remain 2 m 'where possible' away from any human being 'like in a supermarket' except no masks allowed

My poor DH with his not quite shielded heart condition still finds a corner shop terrifying.

Neuro, you can get closer, but only for 14 minutes.