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

Offices etc - stay at home till mid September at the earliest

Flipping heck - each time when I think I have heard it all MN surprises me. Why am I surprised? Those who support mask-wearing even, if it is optional, are now trying to muzzle the filthy, dangerous kids

Google staff arent back until Summer 2021.

My eldest will not be back in London office until January 2021

I have visions of 32 Hannibal Lector’s staring back at me.

@ohthegoats

I'm done with that other thread.

Did you know that applications for teacher training are up 7% on normal this year.

What's that about then? Security?

Incredibly (to me) there's no requirement to pay a bursary back if you don't go into teaching after a PGCE. And a science bursary, for one, is quite enough to live on.

My friend is an IT analyst, she’s working at home for the foreseeable. When I first told her my worries about going back (more so about my increased duties rather than fear of the virus) and she said ‘I feel for you but schools have to go back’.

This is all parents are concerned about. I feel exhausted trying to explain myself all the time!

I’m always bitter about bursaries. I qualified in 2000, if I qualified the year later I would have reduced the ‘golden handshake’ as it was known.

DH, although a year older than me, qualified a year later (spent 2 years working before uni) and spent his on a year travelling after teaching a couple of years. Not jealous at all 😤

*received

@Mistressiggi what happens if someone tests positive if you have no bubbles?

Hmm - not sure - I know we are using track and trace, so would they notify us as contacts? But that would only be if we were within 2m for 15 minutes or more, I think.
It is all a little scary but I'm trying not to get too worked up about it (yet)
Ds has said he won't wear a mask to school (he does for shops already).

@Hercwasonaroll one of our local schools has a system like that I think. Seems to cost a fortune to run and maintain and always makes me feel I am sitting in a draught. Seems so much easier and cheaper to open the windows, but supposedly we have to use the system because of the way the building has been constructed.

I’ve just been into the city centre with my muzzle on for the first time. Bus was empty but city centre is rammed. Most people wearing masks. I think the ADs are going to be a bit disappointed when they discover they are the only people avoiding the shops.

@motherrunner

I’m always bitter about bursaries. I qualified in 2000, if I qualified the year later I would have reduced the ‘golden handshake’ as it was known.

DH, although a year older than me, qualified a year later (spent 2 years working before uni) and spent his on a year travelling after teaching a couple of years. Not jealous at all 😤

I got £500 in 1997-98 as a bursary - but no fees thankfully. DH trained in 2002-03 and got a bursary, loan, golden handshake and loan repayments deferred whilst he worked in state schools (written off finally about 5 years ago). He was better off training than working as a science technician once council tax rebate came into play. His bursary paid for my engagement ring!

I got a golden handshake but after tax it wasn't great! I've been teaching 11 years and am practically ancient in my school. Bar the odd SLT member and the head.

@HedyPrism

We regularly have 6-12 trainees a year, and it infuriates me how many never teach. Some blatantly train just for the bursary; others stick it out until the realise how hard it is and then stop applying for jobs.

In a three year period, none of the maths or computing trainees we had applied for any teaching jobs. It makes me sick.

You know what? I've never been more fed up at being "after 50," than reading a certain poster's toxic TB-ing bile (over on the re-opening thread).
Gives all us "oldies" a bad name.

‘Muzzling the children ‘ makes me think of The Girl With All The Gifts. Then I have a little ponder on whether Cordyceps and the definite collapse of all civilisation as we know it with adults mercilessly slaughtered is comparable to Covid19. Which it’s not really. But only one of them is made up, bit like many of the AD responses on MN

Saucery - I love that book (film wasn't great though).

I'm trying to think of the positives about September, so far I've come up with:

1. Kids might actually take mock exams a bit more seriously
2. I won't put on the usual extra stone in the autumn term as I won't be allowed in the staffroom and no-ones allowed to bring in communal cake anymore
3. I won't get distracted in PPA time by other people asking questions as I won't be in the same room as any other adult ever
4. Replanning everything for remote learning has made me realise I'm sometimes guilty of filling lessons with doing rather than learning so I'm going to crack down on this
5. I'll save lots of time since I'm not allowed to hadn out worksheets anymore so won't have to spend ages photocopying
6. The visualiser that's been gathering dust at the back of my classroom has a new lease of life and will be utilised to great effect in my lessons

Ok I will sound incredibly feckless but I have never had any paperwork about my pension.

I always opted out when I was younger as the idea of teaching into old age was unthinkable.

I had a fixed term contract for a couple of terms years when ds started school where hr department didn’t do the opt out I asked for. They were shite and I got a great tax rebate afterwards as they’d never sorted my code. So presume my pension started then but briefly.

I went into fe and opted out of their scheme after that and then freelance online work when we lived oversea agains.

I started this job 2 years ago and have been paying in but have never had any paperwork or anything. I’m hoping I don’t have to contact the business manager about it as I’m sure she’s fed up of me after my return to work stuff that she had to manage.

Do we all pay into the same system still and therefore I could phone said company and ask for a statement and a form to add ds as my beneficiary? Or has it changed to local schemes?

It’s mental I know. I’m great with savings and shopping around for bank accounts etc but pensions I never took seriously. I grew up through strikes, slashing of industry, my dad losing his job for life in redundancy and endowment policies coming up short and pension funds robbed. I thought by the time I got to this age they’d have hiked up retirement age (wasn’t wrong there lol) and they’d scrap pensions.

Feel I have to justify myself for being pension feckless

Well the teachers pension is all done online now, isn't it? Can't remember how to do it offhand but in theory you can log in and see how little you're going to get.
I'm sure as hell not going to look at the moment!

@Beawillalwaysbetopdog I love that book too! It’s the dystopian freak in me.

I’m actually not too bitter about the non-bursary. I was the 18 year old voting for the first time for Blair and New Labour and went to Uni fee free as I’m the ‘council estate kid’.

Does it sound sad to say that I always wanted to teach? DH ‘fell’ into it. He did a BA and got accepted through clearing for a PGCE as he didn’t know what else to do at 22 and found he loved it.

I always hope there are people like ‘us’ out there for our future generations 😊

That was an essay sorry. Thanks motherrunner I do feel a bit better today. I would feel better knowing I’ve sorted out ds getting my pension though even though it’ll be pennies given my contribution time and current salary.

I’m lucky in that I don’t know anyone personally who has died so far so maybe it’s all been a bit removed for me and that callous dfe doc brought it home.

@TheHoneyBadger like @CallmeAngelina said it’s all online. You log initially with your dfe number. I’ll see if I’ve got my introduction email...

@TheHoneyBadger

www.teacherspensions.co.uk/

You register with your dfe number and you’ll be sent a PIN to log on.

If you want to chat to someone you can request a chat with a rep - it’s all free as it’s part of the service.

All teachers pensions are with Wesleyan (I think)

Everyone should check their pension online. I have been rather geeky about my pension especially when I found that I had a year missing. It can take ages to rectify problems.