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

noble, yes but also to take a 2 week term time holiday...

And what school wants to fine parents of children with moderate to severe underlying conditions??

I also really object, must say, to schools having to hand out fines when some parents' offices have told them not to come in because it's not Covid secure.

Rafals *Neuro, I’m in a covid-secure office at work so don’t need to wear a mask if there are fewer than the maximum number of people in there but do if I leave the office for any reason.

For reusing masks :
Remove it touching only the elastic loops. Wash hands. You can store them outside down in a plastic container. Then to put it back on wash hands, put on touching only the elastic loops, then wash hands again.

It’s a PITA so it’s often easier to leave them on. And I do use separate reusable ones for getting into and out of work.*

Just wanted to thank you Rafals for this post on the last thread as it's really helpful.

I know of office workers who've been told to wfh till after Xmas. People who sort out complaints for energy companies, mortgage advisors, that sort of thing.

Oh yes, term time holidays will be a big thing next term I reckon.

Neutotrash

I'm shitting it tbh

I have 2 in separate year groups at high school

1 in year 1 in another school

Then me at my school

An adult dad who is a chef and has gone in today to find out about going back, but with a tiny kitchen will be unable to SD

Dh is self employed. We will struggle to pay the rent if we have to isolate repeatedly and he will lose jobs.

Symptoms being the kind of cold symptoms everyone gets October onwards. Willl we ever be at work??

That should be adult DD (not dad 😂)

ach twinkle, yes that's tough. It's going to hit all parents I suppose.

We will be at work because they’re only going to close a bubble if someone has a positive test.

Do we think parents are going to be taking their kids for tests every time they have a fever or cough?

A bubble will potentially stay open until someone is ill enough to require hospital treatment and therefore the hospital tests them. That will likely be a teacher given most children are presumed to be asymptomatic or to have mild enough symptoms to be given some paracetamol and sent to school.

Unless there’s compulsory regular testing it will be spreading through schools unchecked. Until a teacher gets sick and has a test and then everyone will claim we caught it at the pub or some such.

The policy in some places eg nurseries is to not allow a child in with any symptoms unless clear of COVID via a test, including sending a child home if they become ill.

I know that's the policy at my sons school and is also the same at my school. I would have to take time off to look after my child till the test comes back clear, perhaps only a day or two but it could mount up with other non COVID infections. Dh would/ could too but I'm going to have to have a discussion with him as he tends not to want to cancel a lot of the meetings he's set up easily, which he'll just bloody have to do. In the past we've been able to rely on grandparents.

Obviously COVID quarantine itself might allow special dispensation.

This is on top of any time I might have to take to look after them if they're actually too ill to go in, not with COVID. Usually that's minimal and thank god they've have chicken pox.

This is more for under 7s who seem to catch more random viruses than older children.

Same at mine and my youngest dds school. Although interestingly we don't ask for proof that they had a test

Our head had a test last week. She had gone to the doctors with something unrelated, was sent home and asked to get a home test. She was 6 days until she got the result

Can I ask a somewhat personal question?
So I found out today that most of my department have been ringing and texting and doing quizzes during this period. Actually all of them. Except me. I joined the school relatively recently as a supply teacher they wanted to keep, but there is one newer teacher than me in the department. I know I'm part time, but still it is hurtful.
I'm feeling not good enough. Excluded. Crap. They are all very nice people who I actually really like and thought I got on well with.
So my question - should I carry on being friendly and chatty, or do you think they just don't like me and I should just come in, work, go home? What would you do?
Maybe it's me personally they don't like. Maybe I'm crap at my job. I don't know.

Six days

Oh why, that's rubbish! I'd try not to take it personally; our school was democratic and did it all through staff emails so all included, it could be they weren't as organised? Do you want to be involved? I'd ask if you could be. I think sometimes things happen without people thinking it through properly.

@WhyNotMe40 sorry that’s happened. Is there someone in the department you could mention it to? Head of department? Just say you hadn’t realised that was expected/being done and could you be involved as it’s hard being new/part time?

That sucks what. Mine are all faux friendly, bringing in cake, doing birthdays etc but I overhear how badly the hod and pal slag off anyone who takes a days parental leave or a day following having to rush to another town where their elderly mother is in hospital dying.

My department obviously shouldn’t be held up as an example of healthy.

I doubt it’s active dislike maybe just being totally inconsiderate?

I remember asking a nice colleague if they too found everybody rude and unthinking and he explained that it was science He is autistic and reckons half of my department are without knowing it. Sorry I know that’s potentially offensive to science teachers and people with autism but his insight has really helped me to take some of the lower level rudeness and social blind spots less personally.

I could mention it to the HoD but I doubt that would help as he's pretty crap at replying to me even when it's a work email I actually need a reply to.
Maybe I just need to keep work as strictly just work and not take it personally. After all I'm hardly there even in normal times and tend to just plough through everything.

Sorry the science part was that he reasoned science had a higher than average level of people with autism and having always worked in subjects with more empathetic and ‘touchy feely’ types I might be feeling the contrast.

It was so interesting hearing someone with autism’s take on some of my colleagues.

@WhyNotMe40

I could mention it to the HoD but I doubt that would help as he's pretty crap at replying to me even when it's a work email I actually need a reply to. Maybe I just need to keep work as strictly just work and not take it personally. After all I'm hardly there even in normal times and tend to just plough through everything.

This is the conclusion I keep coming to. Trouble is it’s hard to put into practice. When I go back I need to find some way to treat it like any other part time job and not emotionally and mentally bring it home with me.

Hopefully it’s an oversight because you’re new?

I'm science as well. I suspect there is something in that!

I think it's partly me (I'm never popular) and partly being new AND part time. There are newer members of the department but they are full time and more popular than me.

Guidance headlines www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/school-reopening-whole-year-bubbles-full-guidance-covid_uk_5ef9dd4ac5b6ca97091288e4

Bubbles of 240

Teachers advised to spend no more than 15 minutes at any one time closer than 1m to anyone

Teachers advised to keep 2m away from pupils, at the front of the class, and away from colleagues as much as possible as if in a supermarket

Heads told not to put in any staff rota or physical distancing that would require extra space or make it impossible for all pupils to return full-time.

Those physical distancing requirements literally require extra space on their own. I can’t be 2m clear of the kids at the front of my room without removing a couple of rows of desks.

Well we like you in this staff room why.

Thanks Honey

So I found out today that most of my department have been ringing and texting and doing quizzes during this period. Actually all of them.

Are you sure that it’s a science team thing that you are being excluded from? I know some of my department will have been ringing and texting and whatnot but that’s because they are friends not colleagues. My team haven’t done anything as a team.

I'm a desk width away from the front row as well. It's not even 1m if they are leaning elbows on their table and I'm sat at my computer.

@noblegiraffe

So I found out today that most of my department have been ringing and texting and doing quizzes during this period. Actually all of them.

Are you sure that it’s a science team thing that you are being excluded from? I know some of my department will have been ringing and texting and whatnot but that’s because they are friends not colleagues. My team haven’t done anything as a team.

It may be just because they are all friends. But they have done a WhatsApp science quiz I was left out of, and today they were talking about something they had been chatting about that I knew nothing about - but it was personal not work related so I guess it may well be because they are all friends. I've been with the department for about a year