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

I was a very naughty Mary who refused to conform to the weepy sad stereotype on the day.

My nursery teacher was not best pleased. I loved the attention.

Social Workers locally are getting antibody tests.

@Piggywaspushed

Did anyone notice in the draft btw the little comment about full uniform? It really is a back to basics opportunistic power grab. Everyone facing teacher, teacher stays at the front, all children in synthetic blazers and ties.

If we get the zero tolerance discipline require I'll eat my contraband facemaskhat.

Remember that Gove likes his 1950s nostalgia!

I know of a range of NHS workers who are getting antibody tests. I agree it would be very useful to know. Likewise about the staff at my school as there are quite a few who had classic symptoms from Dec to March, including hospital admissions for suspected pneumonia.
I was mildly ill with classic symptoms mid-Feb.
I wouldn’t like to get complacent though, as there’s little evidence to say whether immunity lasts.

Maybe this is a cunning plan. Maybe they’re expecting us to go mental over the full classes and no social distancing and no PPE and they’ll backtrack on PPE and we swing into school as normal but with masks?

Y’know, where you make kids wear uniform to give them something to kick against so they conform with the rest?

At this point I wouldn’t put it past them. Flip flopping all over the damn place with ‘advice’ anyway.
Isn’t it 70% infection rate if uninfected person is wearing a mask and infected person isn’t? Then less than 10% if both wearing masks? No parent is going to agree their child should wear a mask all day at school. Well, not many, anyway.

I hate it on other threads when someone comes back at an e[experienced teacher with a pass agg' what do you suggest then?'

Oooh, I don't know any more than you do, goady person, because I am neither a virologist nor an epidemiologist nor a public health expert! What I am is an educationalist and ,as an education specialist, those plans suck for academic progress, and mental health, even if we put aside physical health.

Do we know if those guidelines even went anywhere near SAGE!?

They are apparently going to be accompanied by all their evidence. The last time they did it , it was all the debunked studies that Mrs Williamson had presumably copied and pasted off MN. (or perhaps our beloved c and p MN friend does that!)

@Saucery

At this point I wouldn’t put it past them. Flip flopping all over the damn place with ‘advice’ anyway. Isn’t it 70% infection rate if uninfected person is wearing a mask and infected person isn’t? Then less than 10% if both wearing masks? No parent is going to agree their child should wear a mask all day at school. Well, not many, anyway.

They will if that's the only way to get their DC out from under their feet!

Nobody at work who had that thing they thought was COVID in Jan/Feb has any antibodies. Although virtually nobody has any antibodies so you probably can’t read too much into that.

I was the most ill I've been in my life this last winter, literally sitting there concentrating on breathing. It was very scary and DH thought he was going to have to take me in to hospital.

We had huge numbers of kids dropping with the same bug at that time, running temps and being sent home. At one point we were down to only 1/3 in and wondered if we'd have to call public health.

However, I think it was too early in the year to have been CV, no matter what the HT says, so I expect a negative response.

Happy to be tested though.

There was a really horrible bout of flu about Dec/Jan.

It would be interesting to see if you did have antibodies because that sounds very much like covid. There was some genuine surprise at some of the people that didn’t have antibodies when we got results back.

Just read the thread about additional needs children and I can kinda see where the parent is coming from. If we need to 'catch' children up but cant do interventions or work closely with them then how are we meant to do that?

Plus children with 1:1s how does that fit in with adults at the front.

@eitak22

Just read the thread about additional needs children and I can kinda see where the parent is coming from. If we need to 'catch' children up but cant do interventions or work closely with them then how are we meant to do that?

Plus children with 1:1s how does that fit in with adults at the front.

Yep!

Where do the 1:1 tutors come into these bubbles?!

I’ve just about got my head around what this could look like in primary. No masks, no SD, all children back in rows, no phonics sets, lunch in classrooms, staggered start, breaks, lunch etc, no assembly (only plus of it all), no breakfast or after school clubs, no interventions outside of your class etc. It’ll be shit, go against anything PHE have to say and it won’t allow for PPA or any of the grand ‘catch up’ plans as anything like that will burst bubbles, BUT I sort of get it.

What I don’t get is how secondary schools can possibly operate year group bubbles? The only way I could see is to offer part time rotas on different days, which aren’t allowed!?

Can any secondary colleague give me any vague clue how this could possibly work?

@Appuskidu nope :P

I teach a bottom set (and I'm so lucky that I'm keeping them next year). There are 2 TAs in there. That's 3 adults all needing to be two meters from the rest of the people in the room.... not that I can fit all the kids in if they are 1m apart and all facing the front anyway. They all best have shrunk in lockdown. The ASD girl is going to struggle!

I waited outside my massive Lidl today because they are only allowing 45 people in at a time. I can fit at least 7 of my classroom in there. And they all had visors, aprons and plastic walls.

What an absolute negation of any sense, ethical responsibility or plain common bloody sense this government is.

I was also thinking about teachers married to/living with teachers - we'll be off both schools the whole bloody time the minute one of us coughs!

I'm starting to get very anxious again. I have been so reassured with a the precautions my school have taken with year 10, and also with my kids primary - all very sensible and reasonable.
September's plans do not seem safe or reasonable.
I have already made masks for my kids out of fun print material. I have science themed cloth masks for me. Was planning on us wearing one mask all morning, take off for lunch and bag up, fresh mask for afternoon.
But even that is too much for us it seems.

My DHT is married to a DHT of another school and has his three children in three separate secondary schools (various quirky reasons)!

Well said, Phlebas.

In between thinking about version 312 of the timetable, I'm also thinking about the Autumn exams...
I've a hunch that lots will sign up for them soon after their results (the entry deadlines will have to be pretty soon after results day, especially for A-levels) because they're initially disappointed. And we'll sort out rooms and invigilators (all time-consuming) and then the students won't turn up... because they've have settled into their new courses, or they weren't as keen as their parents in the first place, or not done any revision and realised they can't be bothered with the exams...
Really going to have to put some thought into deposit/fees etc.. I think our school will pay the entry fees but we need the students to take the intention to enter seriously too!

Exam boards will need markers. It will be horrendous trying to find markers to deal with 150 so scripts each in the busy autumn timetable

[quote Teaandcustardcream]@MrsHerculePoirot I use a lot of assignments and fewer quizzes in lessons. What is it that you are trying to do?[/quote]
I just wanted the to complete a little multiple choice diagnostic quiz. I set it as an assignment to show 5 mins into the lesson but I didn’t then know how to get them to access it! I went to forms and shared the link into the chat but it only recorded one students score in the assignment but, although when I go to forms I can see the others and their answers?

Basically how is it best for them to access via assignment during the lesson I think I’m asking?

The logistics for primary in the face of catching up and filling gaps, but without intervention groups and so on.. cry. And we'll be accountable for that. That is what will make me leave over anything else.

@MrsHerculePoirot in that case I think you need to set it as an assignment in Teams and tell them to go there to find it at the appropriate time. They will need to submit it, and if you set it to be self marked you will see the scores. If you set questions you need to mark, you can do this question by question once they have submitted them.

I have been teaching live lessons through Teams since the week after lockdown but I'm still discovering better ways to use it. There are issues with quizzes/forms that I haven't ben able to solve. I would like to be able to send them feedback and have them resubmit. They can do that to an assignment by attaching a new document or picture, but not apparently if it was a quiz.