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

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.

Yup! Not sure how that’s going to work?

No mention of what happens if staff get symptoms or a positive test either-it’s all about how low-risk young people are!

No Ofsted in the autumn term though which is one small plus. That will leave the Ofsted inspectors free to run catch up sessions...

Well that’s an evil article.

How is that a safe workplace?

So art will be cancelled and the art teacher will magically become a maths teacher who can deliver catch up maths?

So unfair on those kids that want to study more than maths, English and science. How the bloody hell are they going to timetable staggered breaks?

Must be different guidance for Sen, we don't do sitting in rows very often.

And, huffington post?!

Huffington post?!

I thought that. Wonder what the Sunday Times have done to piss off the government.

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?

I'm sorry. I had a job like this too, where I came in on supply, PT, on a 1-year contract. It wasn't me and it wasn't my teaching, it was just a really cliquey and divided department. As individuals I liked most of them but I felt really pushed out when we were in a group.

I put my head down and did as I was told for the year. Stayed out of the staff room and found one or two other members of staff who were being treated in a similar way, we hid in the working staff room. Counted down the days until I could leave. You can be friendly and professional without being friends. It's so hard though. Find a few that you do get on with, that would be a good start.

I sort of get how this could work in primary-we stick to our bubbles, no mixing for assembly, lunch in the classroom, no setting. Not sure about PPA or wraparound care and there is not room for staff to stay 2m away from children though, but...

How on earth will year group bubbles work in secondary?! I have one in Y8 and one in y11 at the same school. They both get the same bus in. That is the only bus so they will all arrive at the same time for a start. How can you possibly keep the year 8 away from any other year group?! They will pass each other in the corridor? How could you stagger breaks and lunches? I don’t get it?!

So art will be cancelled and the art teacher will magically become a maths teacher who can deliver catch up maths?

I’m not an art teacher but similar and yes this is a worry.
A) what about the GCSEs and A Levels of those who have already committed to creative subjects.
B) why would the government imagine I could help anyone catch up in Maths or Sciences.

Unless you have five distinct spaces for break (assuming sixth formers stay in their common room) you would have to end lessons at different times, so period 2 could end at 11, 11.15 etc. What if you are timetabled with one group to finish at 11.30 but your next group finished break fifteen minutes ago? Very complicated!

I had half a mad thought earlier about how you could make this work in secondary- I think you’d have to designate areas of the school to each year group and having ‘moving’ and ‘non moving’ subjects.

So for periods of the day they spend in one classroom with the teacher coming to them for non moving subjects (maths, English, geography, history etc) and then different year groups at different times as far as possible have ‘moving’ subjects like sciences that need a lab or art or drama or DT etc...

That keeps them mixing only in their years and takes away some corridor traffic. WTF you do about starts and ends of the day and lunch is anyone’s guess.

Also chalk and talk, distant teachers and coming down hard on the misbehaving.

It’s like idealised Eton from the 1970s that probably never was and a Govian dream. 🤢

Well, I've been in school today. Videos for 8 and unders are pointless. I used mine, my partner teacher, Bitesize and Oak, just to see who would get to them. Answer, no one. Maybe it's the time of lockdown, they cant learn from a video anymore. I'm going to massively scale back the effort I put into lessons. It just needs a 5 min chat/input followed by a tiny task. Death by PowerPoint. They'd not listen to live stuff either. I scrapped all video plans and just winged a really simple sentence lesson- it was like magic, all engaged.

Did I see people on here had an ink pad? Or something that you can write on to shows up on the screen? Does that exist?

something that you can write on to shows up on the screen?

Visualiser?

I’m using OneNote on my iPad and a super cheap stylus.

Oh, you can't beat the magic of the actual classroom. And the old fashioned methods!

I'm wondering if our ppa staff will not do those subjects and be available, attached to a bubble to do endless 1:1 reading... though, can we do that, sit that close?

Nobel maybe the times got a red card because they said secondary schools may not be back in sept!

Good luck to the timetablers. And heads of options subjects.

Good point, Neuro

They’ll be leaking edu stories to Ladbible at this rate.

We have a lot more than 240 kids in a year group...

But what about the school buses!

@hedgehogger1

We have a lot more than 240 kids in a year group...

I was thinking that about a lot of schools

I have a visualiser, but it doesnt do what I want it to do - I'm really using it as a webcam. I'm imagining that something exists that I can plug into my laptop, which will allow me to write on it, then that writing appears on the screen.

I just read the guidance for September. I am not going to be involved with track and trace.

I'm hoping that the main reason for making school compulsory again is to safeguard children in vulnerable situations at home. Abusive/negligent parents should not be able to hide.

Do we think testing if symptomatic will become a legal requirement for all schoolchildren and staff? I think it would need to be if all back without any real SD, but can't imagine how that might play out in practise.

Anecdotally also - teachers and TAs are jacking it in 'possibly forever, possibly not.. but def for a year'.