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

They paid millions for oak yet cant fund masks for teachers. Or let them make or wear their own.
They expect kids to have and wear them on pt but cant in a classroom.
They expect parents to buy 65-85£ blazers but parents cant afford internet or a tablet £50-£150.
They want parents to buy u iform. But they might not be at school.

Anyway dc school is doing:
2 days back with old teacher at the start 🤔 . So bubblespopped straight away it's like the HT doesnt understand you cant just move a teacher about though i guess some teachers teach both halves of classes part time, though that too is against guidance.
No uniform.
A weird curriculum something to do with supporting them but im not keen.
Focussing on maths and english (tests at start and end of year)
No sharing resources
Desks
Dc2 is going into yr r.
Now i want them to do everything they can to mitigate. But tbh i just dont believe what is written. Because
Yr r kids are used to sharing things not having their own. The desks look circular anyway. They wont get 4yo to sit down for 40 min. There are 2 classes so no stuff outside then? They would have to go out at different times. As ive said toilets are shared anyway.

There seems to be a real divide.
SD (sensible people who dont want nhs overwhelmed and vulnerable family affected).
Non SD selfish Us for them.
People who havw already had it or think they have.

A librarian is surely unlikely to spend 15min with someone.

I live in the town fourth most likely to go into a local lockdown. I work in a different borough though but it is certainly a concern!

I posted about this when the leaked guidance was first out. It's very sensible and logical to require all pupils to get tested if they have symptoms. Whether the government will make a commitment to doing this a requirement of returning to school (likely) and will follow this up with fines (possible) or ??expulsions from the school roll (unlikely I guess) remains to be seen.

Reasons for parents not getting their child tested I can think of include:

• Not understanding the procedure
• Thinking "By the time we get postal results it'll nearly be a week anyway"
• Understanding procedure but thinking it'll traumatise their child
• Problems with transport, disregarding postal option
• General disorganisation/chaotic lives
• Not wanting the label of being Infected, maybe

Any more anyone can think of?

@Keepdistance, not to disregard the main part of yr post, but just to address your last sentence: the problem in libraries is not so much the f2f contact but surface contact transmission, especially on browsed books.

As ive said toilets are shared anyway.

I know that the local trust school group particularly looked at how toilets were accessed by different bubbles. As that's key to transmission. This was from the disseminated lea risk assessment though. I do wonder if some LEAs were better at this than others.

Most of the schools locally have said that children can't come back without proof of a test if they've been ill under current guidance, but those in school are desperate to have their children in school.

Yes i agree surface. They have put up plastic to protect them (sensible) but should only really be a few minutes contact.

My dc1 stuck something up her nose at school and had to have a GA to remove it because she wouldnt let them near her with the tweezers. I had to hold dc down to have nasal flu (and go to a clinic as she refused at school).
So tbh i think trying to stick a cotton bud up there is probably potentially dangerous as she would fight. Probably couldnt do that in a car.
Hopefully they will get the saliva ones being used in Oz.
And actually if dp and me didnt have it before we started we would after with all the screaming.
But people definitely need to agree to take the tests. Imo really the bubble should pop on symptoms. Or certainly parents and vulnerable teachers need to be told so they can not come in.

What are the chances of 0 people catching it.

Here you go:

twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1278405214203252746?s=19

Really? NOW we are worthy of a press conference?

Half an hour later I emerge from the Twitter rabbit hole!

Do we know when the press conference is going to be?

Can I ask, I've seen references to there being a resignation window for teachers on several threads - what's that then? We don't have anything like that, just a notice period to work (one month for unpromoted staff, usually two months for promoted)

In a state school you have to give a half terms notice : the last resignation date to leave at the end of the summer term is May 31st, for example.

In a private school, it is usually a full term.

I bet the press conference won't be about schools : it'll be preparing everyone for the booze up and perhaps something on air bridges.

Thanks Piggy. It does seem strange to me, I wonder is it the same in Wales and NI. Most people who leave here will still do it at the end of a term, but that's just down to when jobs come out and what is negotiated between new and old employer. I like the idea of only being a month away from leaving! (What on earth do you do if you win the lottery? )

I think if you win the lottery you don't care enough not to walk out!

There's a TB thread in the making - my dc's teacher won the lottery and had the cheek to leave and go to the Bahamas, should I complain to the governors?

Win the lottery and I'll pay for my supply replacement from the very next day.

Oh no, I’m a petty cow, I’d stay for my notice and have some FUN!

Looks like Gav's statement might be around 11ish tomorrow.

Urgh just saw DM saying all schools will be back 'come what May' and even if society is closed down. I feel sick.

They’re not open in Leicester come what may are they?

DM talking shit.

Teachers are apparently "no more at risk than other professions."
Even though one of the proposed plans is to have 30+ kids all facing us, sneezing and coughing in our direction.

The DM’s comment about teachers not being at greater risk than any other profession pisses me off.

Teachers have never said they were. We would just like to be put at no higher risk than other workers.

Don’t read the DM they don’t know anything.

The govt didn’t want to shut schools in the first place but as numbers rose in March attitudes shifted and they will continue to shift over the next few months.