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

The hilarious thing about the ADs is that they 'set up' because they were sceptical about lots of things to do with coronavirus an d fed up people being 'hysterical' an d being 'obsessed' and they can fill up a thread in one day!

I sometimes wonder what any of them do for a living to have so little empathy for any employee.

I went and had a peek : I wasn't that far off with my predictions of 'where even is Leicester?'Isn't it full of Asians?'type comments.

Yes, it was me who mentioned Brazil!

I was actually surprised Matt Hancock said that about children. His words were 'impacted' weren't they? I think we need more info on what he exactly meant. It is possible he didn't mean medically impacted.

I don't know why it has taken me so long to figure this out but 'staggered start and end times' is a longer school day for us isn't it?

I can't see many SLTs saying 'oh well, when your lessons have finished at 1, you can go home'.

Leicester schools can’t have more than a few days left anyway. Don’t they break up early and go back in August? For those that did go back on 1st June they’ve had almost the whole half term in school by now.

I’ve definitely seen one or two posts (not necessarily on the AD thread) which aren’t bothering to thinly disguise the racism, Piggy. Assume Hancock is talking about transmission rather than medically. I’d guess food processing plants with outbreaks + schools opening has been a bit of an issue.

@Piggywaspushed

I don't know why it has taken me so long to figure this out but 'staggered start and end times' is a longer school day for us isn't it?

I can't see many SLTs saying 'oh well, when your lessons have finished at 1, you can go home'.

Wonder will the buses have to do 5 (or 7) runs each day at start and finish? Only picking up 1 Yr group at a time? Do we have enough buses to do that as they may have other jobs to get to?

I think it will be a longer day as well.
The only way I can see it working is if there are essentially 7 hour periods in the day.
One half hour for lunch with a half hour for cleaning before the next group. Maybe also socially distanced exercise or "homework" time.
One hour for break and tutor time which will also be another year's lunch.
5 lessons.
School will be 9-4 and first or last lesson may be up to 30 minutes shorter to allow for staggered start and finish

Indeed, Piggy, and I assume, for the working of secondaries, that means staggered by period? Which with five year groups (ignoring KS5 for a moment) means a 8-2pm, 9-3pm, 10-4pm, 11-5pm, 12-6pm (???) surely not workable in the slightest?

We'd need 2 bubbles per year group so 10 start and finish times. Not including 6th form. Buses become public bus after doing school runs so not free after 8.30am or before 2.30pm. And I'm wearing a mask and visor whatever they say.

A few local schools are very big primary and all together in relatively new buildings. Their staggering has actually involved shorter days and a fewer breaks in order to allow for cleaning too.

That's the issue with a longer day.

It's all going to be complicated as obviously teachers need to pick up their own children from school too. No sign of wraparound guidance. Certainly our wraparound would struggle to function.

Current position from our LA hub is that children can be in a childcare bubble or a school bubble. It’s causing a few issues for parents any work.

If children are required to be in school full time in Sept then I can’t see how it’s workable unless they stop that and allow wrap around care. Which will pretty much pop the bubbles in primary in the same way transport will for secondary.

Matt Hancock on bbc breakfast said children are affected in Leicester in terms of testing positive and as ‘we know children can transmit the virus’ they have decided to close the schools. He was asked what he would say to parents who have been told for weeks it is safe for children to go to school and he said it is safe for CHILDREN in Leicester and elsewhere in the country it is safe for children AND the community for children to attend school. So closing the schools in Leicester is about protecting the community as children transmit the virus and there a lot of positive cases in children there.

That's my view Rafals.

Over all children are less at risk of serious illness, but at least they recognise they can transmit. It may be less in some simply as they're asymptomatic, possibly?

I'm pleased they're now acknowledging that children in schools does pose a risk to the community.

Hahahaha. Oh please, please unions do something with that!!

If the unions are going to push on something, I think I’d be looking at whether there are differences in infection rates that could be explained by differences in how schools are interpreting the guidelines and whether PPE might have prevented schools being closed.

Given the variety of different things happening in schools that are ‘following the guidelines’ you’d hope someone might already be looking at this.

I can't do a longer day as my children's school in Wales will only have them 8:30-4:30 and normally 8 until 3:15. I have a 50 min commute, DH has used most of his AL to cover childcare by now and we can't rely on 70yo vulnerable MIL (my DF works FT even though he's also vulnerable). The school is not even saying if they'll teach my children - it's just baby sitting with online work at the moment even though Wales have started back.

We'd be better off putting our kids in a private school than DH losing his job to cover me (which seems to be the 'choice' the LA is presenting).

Salty, this is going to create a lot of those situations.

Another issue for staggered times are part timers who have odd hours. Some years I start after break, finish at break, start after lunch or finish at lunch. If these are staggered how will that work ?

I think I’d be looking at whether there are differences in infection rates that could be explained by differences in how schools are interpreting the guidelines and whether PPE might have prevented schools being closed

I agree. And what reduction in infection rate is 'worth' whatever measures are in place in those schools. If you see what I mean. I'm wondering nationally how many deaths of teachers would be the cut off in terms of admitting that schools aren't safe.

Wrap around is going to be a huge issue. The TAs that run ours have both handed their notice in, to add to the fun.

Cheaper than private school would be renting a house for a 21 year old relative and her partner, pay them a bit (they can't get any other work at the moment), and getting her to do the school run/wrap around stuff with our child. It's on the table as an option.

So, there are genuinely dozens and dozens more vacancies in my county at the moment for TAs, school admin, and MDAs than there would ever normally be. Clearly, people are resigning in their droves from education. (There are some primary classroom teacher positions, too, still being constantly advertised.)

I know of 7 TAs not coming back in September.

I know of 4 teachers who have left without jobs to go to.

Anecdotal, but still.

I genuinely think the bubbles are entire year groups. The 240 is a myth created by HuffPost to be a bit parent friendly. The year groups IS the bubble.

Anyone got vertical tutoring at their school?

Yes. Not at all surprising.

I know two local schools who moved away from vertical tutoring a few years back.

I also know two grammar schools and one private who teach Yr 12 and 13 together to be able to provide less popular A level options...