The Twelfth Republic - push and glide to the summer break

[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

My results have come back as "unclear". I assume I messed up the test somehow, maybe I touched the thing with my tongue even though I tried really hard not to. Not massively helpful.

We've been told whole staff training is in our theatre ( please sit one seat apart) to have our health and safety training. Falling down on the first hurdle there, the seats ain't that wide

@MsAwesomeDragon so do you have to redo it?

Yes I think so hedge. I'll try booking one for tomorrow. Which will be a pain because the mobile unit I went to today will have moved on tomorrow, and the nearest test centre tomorrow is 30 miles away, whereas today it was pretty close to my house.

Yet another survey that shows how out of step the government are witht he way people feel ,as are the vocal TBs:

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/74percent-of-parents-want-choice-on-sending-children-to-school-in-september-–-poll/ar-BB16N3Su?ocid=spartanntp_edu

@ohthegoats with channels - if you’ve set them up as not private anyone in the team can access and see them and it’s a good way to organise your work. If you have set the channel to private then only those you have added can see it. In my class teams I have added a private teacher channel just for me. It meant I can upload stuff to the channel that the kids can’t see but that I can easily get to eg my ppt is there so I can share it in the way you can still see chat/participants.

In my lessons to differentiate work I’ve had questions on different slides and then the answers on another. Once I get to that point I allow them to move forwards and backwards through the slides choosing their own tasks or questions and checking their own answers (in my classroom I’d have answers displayed around the room for example). When they’re done I stop allowing them to roam my PowerPoint again and we finish or move on. They’ve loved that!

@MsAwesomeDragon

My results have come back as "unclear". I assume I messed up the test somehow, maybe I touched the thing with my tongue even though I tried really hard not to. Not massively helpful.

Oh no that’s frustrating. Can you get them to do it for you? Did you watch the video on the email? The one with the actual doctor in his kitchen? I watched that and the cartoon one and they did help a bit. Good luck whatever you do - maybe enjoy the drive and blast some music?

@Keepdistance

How were the kids getting infected in may though? Parents working?

In apr we had a sore throat for less than a day then straight into a dry cough chills. But we all got ill. It was very odd though as i had no runny nose and that continued and actually it's still not as runny now.

Playing with mates in the park? Bank holiday at the beach? School? Garden parties? All were still happening

@SquashedFlyBiscuits

So...inset plan for first day back is all staff to meet in the main hall and have face to face training together for 3 hrs.

What do you think? Any of your schools doing similar?

Yes- except ours is the entire day...

Yes, I watched the video of the doctor in his kitchen. I really thought I'd done it right! I've got another test booked for today, at the same location as yesterday, even though it says on the website that they'd be moving. It let me book for that same location, so they'd better be there! Dh is the one desperate for me to get a clear negative result, because under the current self-isolation rules I'd be allowed out be Wednesday but he'd have to stay in for an extra week. He's supposed to be going back to the office this Saturday, after working from home since March. He thinks I'm over reacting about "just a bit of a cough", but that's one of the main symptoms we've been told to look out for for months! I can't just ignore it.

We did a survey of our parents about how they felt about the learning we've provided over lockdown. The results looked fantastic, over 90% were very pleased with what's been sent home, some lovely messages of thanks from parents, etc. We'll just ignore the fact that less than half the parents responded, so we have no idea what the others thought.

So... our head has just sadi we dodn't have lunctiem any more. We now have tow breaks (early and late) apparently to improve behaviour.

I spent all last year weeping about our 35 minute lunchtime (which was in reality 30 minutes) and now it has been reduced to 30 minutes (in reality 25 because of bells)

Somebody needs to help me by explaining where this leaves us with the 'unpaid lunchtime' business?

There was NO consultation on this at all. This is because he knows we will all say lunch is not long enough.

Excuse typos : rage

Oh piggy that's truly crap!!!! Do you have a good union rep? They need to get on the case about this. A 30 minute break just isn't enough time at all!!! How on earth are you supposed to catch up with kids who need extra help, get sorted for the afternoon, eat, and also go to the loo within 30 minutes??? I'm not convinced it helps with behaviour either, it just means the bad behaviour happens in lessons rather than around the school at lunchtimes.

How does this fit with directed time, piggy?

And how will kids actually get to eat? Surely parents will be kicking off?

It's only 5 mins difference so they remain historical problems.

Union rep is fed up...

I guess we are supposed to spread our eating out!

How do you get all the kids through the dining hall in 30 minutes? Do you have several eating areas with huge capacity? We only have one dinner hall (also our assembly hall), and each yeargroup gets a 10 minute slot to buy their food, so it takes pretty much the full hour to feed all our kids. I can't imagine getting them through much quicker than that, but obviously other schools have different facilities.

@Piggywaspushed We’re having 20 minutes for lunch (kids will have 40) as we’re needed for duty. We are having a daily before school duty (8-8.50), a break duty (11-11.20), the dinner duty and an after school duty (3.45-4)

20 minute all day. It’s gone through consultation and been allowed as it’s covered by directed hours.

I’ve also found out my children’s school is not providing wraparound. I contacted
Childminders and they are either full or can not serve the school area.

How do I drop off my children at 8.45 and 9 when I’m expected in school at 8 and collect them at 3.15 and 3.30 when I’m in site til 4?

I feel sick about it all.

Out inset days will be online but we’ll be based in school in department areas as I understand. We’re also breaking down which year groups will be in which days in that first week. There’s only 2 teaching days. I think Year 7 and 11 are in both days but 8 and 9 one or the other.

We also have a 35 minute lunch break but the kids will have to bring in their own packed lunch or collect their free school lunch when they arrive in the morning. Not sure where that leaves canteen staff.
That sounds really difficult, motherrunner.

I wonder if an unintended side effect of the draconian lunchtimes will be teachers get completely out of the way of doing anything off their own bat at lunch or other breaks - so no doing a bit of work, tidying, emails, bringing a pupil in to catch up etc. You would guard every minute of that time preciously. In practice, this may run smoothly or it may involve queuing to pee and not eating - a few fainting teachers who haven't been able to eat might help.
In an office if I had only 20 mins for lunch that would be hard, but I could pee whenever I wanted within reason and make trips to the kettle/water cooler - I wouldn't be restricted in the same way. (A call centre I think would be very different)
Is your overall day shorter then if your breaks are reduced? Given you aren't paid for breaks. Something has to be reduced!!

The school day has stayed the same. There has been a reduction in meetings, just one staff and one pastoral a term and dept once a half term and reduced to an hour in duration. We used to have a meeting a week for an hour and 15.

@Mistressiggi I take on board your comment about the unintended side effects. As departments we would religiously run revision sessions throughout the year for Yr 11 and 13 from September-May. These would be 30 minutes. I teach in a very successful school results wise. I’m sure there’ll be complaints when these sessions can not be run.

We are also having shortened lunch and break, with extra duties - with fewer meetings to compensate. I think I will end up just not eating and drinking a lot less - especially there are only 2 female staff loos, and it's a reasonably big secondary!

Presumably no detentions then?