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

[noblegiraffe]

It's just some pressure groups opinion and some East Anglian MAT.

It’s piggy’s favourite, Mark Lehain and friends.

If they are actually opening schools on August 18th then presumably they don’t follow the burgundy book. I don’t think MATs have to, but they’d have had to state upfront that teachers can work more than 195 days in their terms and conditions.

[Piggywaspushed]

I was about to tag you noble!

He actually isn't part of PTE any more. he has moved on to a full on Corona denier platform thing.

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

Well any school indulging in that behaviour will find recruitment and retention an issue very quickly. The autumn term is a killer anyway as learning and behaviour starts to tail off. The number of absences amongst pupils and staff will increase.

[noblegiraffe]

According to the Mail article he is, piggy, it looks like he just stepped down at running it for his failed foray into politics.

“ Mark Lehain, PTE’s chairman of networks, said he expected head teachers to ‘unleash a small army of volunteers’ comprising retired teachers and parents to help when the autumn term begins.

‘This needs to be a national effort,’ he said. ‘Children are at the least risk from the pandemic, but their futures and life chances have possibly been affected the most in the long term.

'Of course, parents are nervous about sending their children back to classes, but we’ve seen with primary schools that more children have been attending each week as confidence grows.’

PTE expects opposition from teaching unions, which last week branded Boris Johnson’s plan to reopen schools for all pupils in September as ‘pure fantasy’.

Mr Lehain said: ‘There will, of course, be people who want to disrupt and obstruct this, but that’s another reason to give teachers and parents clarity so that the plans are on the table and people who want to prevent a smooth start to the school year can be pre-empted.’ “

[noblegiraffe]

I don’t think the large army of NHS volunteers have yet been unleashed and they signed up months ago, so recruitment had better start sharpish on this education army.

[TheHoneyBadger]

If that went nationwide every teacher in the land should develop a sudden persistent cough on August 17th and ask for a test by post as they don’t/didn’t feel fit to drive.

[Piggywaspushed]

No, this is his new thing , and it is terrifying. genuinely.

campaigncommonsense.com/

[echt]

Superb summary, Piggy.

I was contemplating the same but only thought of numbers.

Hang on.... how have you had the time to do this? Why aren't you marking live on-line with Zoom and differently -coloured pens?

You slacker.

[noblegiraffe]

I thought going for a short drive was precisely what you should do if you’re not sure if you’re fit to drive, Honey

[Piggywaspushed]

Someone on another thread has just literally suggested that contact tracing is the job of schools, now....

[noblegiraffe]

There was a school that set up its own contract tracing system wasn’t there? Some posh boarding school with a can-do pile of money. I mean attitude.

[Piggywaspushed]

Seriously , though, I am visualising the aggression from all quarters on MN if schools started implementing tracing and declared their own decisions to shut down, not shut down, isolate .

That's why PHE and the tracing people exist !

[Saucery]

Hahaha, ours won’t even temp check in case they find a high temp and have to do something about it and piss a parent off.

[ohthegoats]

Aaaah, that Mark Lehain bloke thing makes more sense of the egg sucking guidance last week about how to tackle September. I didn't know about Bedford Free Schools being run by a right wing nutjob, but it's good to know that they are going to be thinking about curriculum for September.

where, fuelled by Greggs sausage rolls, he halved the incumbent’s majority

I think what he means is 'ate sausage rolls and lost'

We will be asking…
What does diversity actually mean and does it really matter?
Should statues of historical figures be removed because of modern values?
Is there anything that we shouldn’t joke about?
Should the police be prioritising language on social media over fighting street crime?
Are schools there to teach kids what to think, or to help them think for themselves?
Is Britain bigger than Brexit?
Should people be able to speak their mind at work?
Does positive discrimination work?
What views and arguments should be banned from debates?
Can children consent to changing their gender?

My first thought is 'stay away from children' to be honest.

[Piggywaspushed]

To be fair, the guy who now runs Bedford Free School MAT is definitely not a right wing nutjob.

[tadjennyp]

He was the previous Head of my dcs' school, piggy . Made some good improvements and always spoke well.

[ohthegoats]

What I really mean is 'Aha, that explains why Bedford Free School was quoted by the DfE in their guidance - it's all mates jobs'.

I've just been out in the woods with the kids and an ex colleague of mine who lives in the same village as me. It's so nice to talk to him about schools - he works his arse off, is a brilliant teacher (dreadful at whole school stuff, but that's a different story), gets great work from kids, they love him... he hasn't got a clue about any of this stuff. Just plodded away doing what his SLT had told him to do, didn't even register than a union might be involved in anything, has never heard of Teacher Tapp, let alone Oak National Academy. How refreshing. I really should take myself away from social media and see if it makes any difference to how I feel about my job.

I mean, I can't stop the Tories/media only really talking to Birbalsingh, or giving money to their mates to make online lessons. But does that matter? Why does it make me cross? It's irrelevant to my job, or to the kids I teach. Maybe part of my jaded-ness is that I'm giving too much of a toss about the irrelevant stuff.

[AppleKatie]

It’s a fine line isn’t it- Extra stuff can enrich your teaching and also detract from it.

[ohthegoats]

Yep. The amount of times one of the teachers at school quotes Ashley Booth just makes me want to walk out of meetings. On Wednesday she literally waved a hard copy of Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction at me 4 times - picked it up from her desk and waved it at me to supplement what she was saying.

I don't need it waving at me, and I don't need to hear about Ashley Booth either. Especially not every day.

[AppleKatie]

If someone literally waved a book at me in a meeting I’m not sure I could restrain myself from being rude. Whoever wrote the bloody thing!

[noblegiraffe]

Blissful ignorance of Ashley Booth here. Quite like Rosenshine though.

[FlamingoAndJohn]

Hello all!

Has anyone read the ‘how do you know if your child is the top of the class’ thread?

It seems every single child on MN is at the top of their class and doing work for much older children.

Has anyone here ever said to a parent that their child it top of the class?
I never have but I think people hear what they want to hear.

[noblegiraffe]

Tbf I’ve told parents that their kid has come top in a test. Which isn’t quite the same thing.

[AppleKatie]

I’ve told parents that their child is working above average or has a talent for the subject.
I don’t generally mean the literal top- that’s such a fluid thing, but parents hear what they want to hear...

[ohthegoats]

It's irrelevant. Which is what I said in the thread.

If my child is average, but in a class of dimbats (sorry), then she'll be top of the class, but still average and only better than dimbats.