Thirteenth Republic - School’s out for summer, no more pencils no more books!

[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

SNA/TA covered by ‘distance where possible’? So if it’s not possible, there’s no distancing. No PPE either, but I promise not to go off on another Glove Rant today
I can guarantee that whatever guidance comes out it will not cover TAs needing to be close to a child.

@BelleSausage - yes it is probably likely that our usual bashers have now found their tribe

Scottish guidamce out tomorrow. I’m feeling nervous now. We’ve got 2 weeks left of the holidays.

If a teacher goes out sick and no sub can be found, the SET covers the class.
What’s a SET, Sionnach?

dolly.

SET = Special Education teacher. At least I presume that's who those documents mean when they talk about non-mainstream teachers as we haven't got many extra teachers floating about.

I agree that the Us for Them lot are obviously sensing flying monkeys to threads here to shout at teacher commenters.

Oh absolutely. I joined their page a while back out of curiosity (and then quickly left again after I saw how bad it was). They're posting links to MN threads asking for people to brigade them. Theres a lot of anti-vax, Covid hoax believers in there.

SNA/TA covered by ‘distance where possible’? So if it’s not possible, there’s no distancing.

Yep, a whole lot of "where possible" and "local measures" to be taken. Aka make it up yourselves lads And tbf, I don't mind that so much but I'd rather they came out and said it.
I was surprised they said that about SNAs too piggy. They usually forget they exist!

Which is interesting because when you sign up to the FB page it says they do NOT accept teacher bashing ; 'teachers are our best allies'.

I only got on to the England page because I wouldn't answer the main page question about no SD. Was it *angelina8 who answered that question no? Someone did and I was interested to know if they were granted access.

I think that means no bashing teachers who agree with them.

Will there be teaching jobs going in Ireland? #escapefrombrexit

I’m married to an Irish man and my children have dual citizenship. DH often jokes he and the kids will be in the first plane to Dublin and I’ll just have to battle the apocalypse, I mean a post Brexit/pandemic world, alone 🙄

Looking on their facebook page they are still whinging about children SDing.

Yet this is not happening in any secondary schools.

I would like someone to ask us for them

If they care so much about education

Where were they when school budgets were slashes
Where were they when schools campaigned for the budgets to be redone fairly
Where were they when the government redesigned the criteria for SEND pupils to get support
Where were they when the government were making schools become academies and work to a business criteria
Where were they when ofsted failed its own review and yet still gets to tell schools what is wrong.

So many things that tell me that they really only care about getting their children back in school and out from under their own feet.

Another few more

Where were they when there was no guidance for schools to set work during the pandemic.

Where were they when there was little guidance about how to mark and set the grades for the pupil's that were leaving GCSEs.

And whya are they not campaigning for those pupils that look like their grades will be reduced by a faceless (non transparent) standardisation algorithm?

Can I ask about GCSEs? I didn't have a year 11 class this year and had only 2 A level students so the process of dealing with grades was pretty simple for me personally. However, I have a son in Year 11 and he was, at best, a grade 5 on a good day candidate in most of his subjects (dyslexia is his downfall I'm afraid, if he were allowed to do oral assessments in everything he would be grade 9 across the board!) and I am worried about what I am reading regarding 'moderation'. If someone was given a grade 5 by their teacher but placed, say, at the bottom of the grade 5s for the cohort from a ranking perspective, is there any chance this could be moderated down to an (albeit high) 3? I just don't understand what is going on!

From what I have read, Enough the vast majority of students will be awarded a grade the same as, or within one grade of the centre-assessed grade.

It’s possible to be downgraded by 2 grades, but highly unlikely unless the school was really taking the piss with predictions.

Im assuming most T4U have primary age kids. 1 on a thread was talking about their only child who was starting in reception in sept so they have no idea what schools are like. And they were only about 24yo.
Others may have kids in really tiny rural schools.

Even if they wont accept teachers will get ill obviously hcp will.
I saw in DM some schools 10? Are going to insist on it ans U4T are talking about legal action.
I just cant see them winning that.
I mean if other countries are insisting. And their right not to have their child wear one shouldnt trump other children right to go to school.

I trust the school to have predicted correctly without taking the mick. However, it is an up and coming school - it is one of those that as a result of a shiny new building and a 'good' Ofsted grade (the rest of the local area has been RI or inadequate in recent years) has seen an influx of 'better' students and I suspect that this would genuinely have been a year where results would have been very much improved compared with last years (I have friends/former colleagues who now work at this school). It is this that is worrying me - that they may have their grades pushed down because they were genuinely going to be higher than normal which for a borderline child could be devastating.

If there was an influx of ‘better’ students then this will be reflected in their KS2 SATs profile and Ofqual would accept that their GCSE results should be better than previous years with lower SATs results.

It’s the schools where the kids have stayed the same but teaching has massively and rapidly improved who might have issues.

Thanks noble, I hadn't thought of it like that. You're right, SATS results will help. Phew! It's such a worry. I just want enough for him to be able to move on to do the course he wants at college. Few more weeks go to!

My concern about these Ofqual grades is they seem no longer to be talking about patterns of individual subjects within a school. I haven't heard this mentioned for some time. My subject always outperforms the school at GCSE. History always underperforms...

@FrippEnos precisely! We got no support when school budgets were being slashed.

Sixth form pupils at my last school were forced to buy their own textbooks are we simply did not have enough money. Year 11 pupils had to buy the revision workbooks etc

It is heartbreaking that we have people claiming they are supporting schools now but in the realisation that it is only for childcare purposes.

I honestly dont think prediction can be done accurately or fairly.
I think i was predicted bcc and got cdd (with the c still being the c.
And i think that because in sciences it does become harder during the second year.
The following year my friend got As (partly because it was then modular exams) but my year sciences were mainly c and d and lower. Also such low numbers can create a big variation.

Also it will disadvantage the yoyngest in the year more as they will be even younger when the results are based on. (And any ks2 data would also show them doing worse.

I’d probably have been predicted Gs by many of my teachers given how rarely I went to school but got all A-Cs. Lucky I had exams.

Yep a lot of boys at my current school ‘pull it out of the bag’ in the exams. I feel sorry for some of them

I'm aware that this is a thread for teaching staff so hope you don't mind me posting.
Have a child just finished year 10 and wanted to say to all the posters on this thread a big fat thank you!
I am forever grateful that there is a profession that has shown such dedication to their jobs and their students in an absolutely manic world.
I obviously have great anxiety for my own child but view these discussions with the greatest respect.
Maybe I'm fortunate but I do not have a single complaint about my daughters education. It's hard to imagine other jobs that require, overnight and without clear guidance, to have to relearn absolutely every aspect of those roles.
I'm sure that many parents watch these threads as a source of information.
I for one am happy to be led by teachers in this instance and have absolutely no time to listen to any politicians who claim to know better.
First and foremost I want my child's teachers to be safe. How utterly selfish it would be as a parent to put my child's education before another person's safety.
Utter madness.
It's shown me how some parents view school as a third parent and not a place to nourish and encourage a child's desire to learn.
Nicola Sturgeon said something early on in the easing of restrictions, "if you feel everything is going back to normal you're doing something wrong".

I have a greater respect than before of the teaching profession.
I trust you will do all you can to protect yourselves and provide the best education you can in the circumstance.
Well done to all of you and thank you!!!

Much appreciated, drivin .