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

Our life insurance runs out soon. I'm only mid forties but was one of those annoying sensible people who bought a house very early. Mortgage is paid off so that's fine, but not a lot else in the pot if we die after the life assurance runs out (couldn't extend the term because of dh's health conditions).

Just realised my post makes me sound like I have no hope due to our family history 😆

I was engaged and home owning at 19 and then went wtf and decided I needed to travel and study etc. I owned again when ds was born but a 1 bed beautiful but impractical place in the centre of town and I’d decided to take a break from teaching whilst I did my counsellor training just before I fell (silly word) pregnant and then perfect storm of single mum, unemployed and housing market crash.

Vowed I’d never buy again unless I could pay at least 60% up front.

We’ll see. Ds is 13. Just gotta get through another 7 or 8 years and can then work out what’s next. I’m 44.

I’m not wishing time or ds away by the way! Just aware I’m in the child rearing chapter and there is another chapter after that if school does kill me off.

So hard being a ‘grown up’

Isn’t it? I suspect this is why I’m a secondary teacher. Teenagers make sense to me because sometimes I feel I never graduated to grown up.

Kids are always fascinated if I mention having lived in other countries or been a diving instructor or whatever. I think they have this terribly fixed dull idea of what an adult is so are fascinated that there may be other ways of doing it.

So true. I think being surrounded by young people all the time makes me feel young and then certain things bring me back to Earth.

Like the fact a colleague is married to a boy who I taught at GCSE. Except he’s not a boy now. He’s 34.

Or the fact I share a form with a teacher who I used to teach when he was in Yr 8. He’s 25.

I’m waiting for the day when come one says your taught my mum/dad ... grandparents’!

*someone

Some of the most inspirational teachers I had at secondary school were the ones who shared a bit about their lives before teaching. Really confident HOY who told us how socially anxious they were as a teenager, art teacher who had travelled all over the world, older teachers who had been in the Armed Forces.
One of DS’s teachers has a surprising background which would genuinely be too outing to post on here, but I was like when he told me

I think getting financial stuff organised even though it can be depressing to plan for the worst is a good idea. Then it’s done and it can just....be there. Put it out of our minds and may we not need it for many years yet.

I've just realised our life insurance doesn't include my asthma which was diagnosed I think after we took it out. Thanks for the head up!

Yeah. Glad my panic made everyone check policies and pensions And yes hopefully no one need worry for many years to come.

I’ve just had teenage boys out the front asking me if they have to wear masks in September or if eg they have to isolate if their parent comes back from abroad etc. I ran through relevant guidance and warned them it’ll probably all change.

Even they could surmise lots of time off and mayhem if they have to stay home when ill. Over winter there’s always a good few per class hacking away and shiny faced from fever in each class.

These boys seemed to be still pinning their hopes on school not being able to open. Definitely not in the mental health is suffering group.

They sound like a group of my year 10s who I saw this week in the park. They like the online learning as they can play x-box at the same time.

Just as a little diversion for you all, this is apparently from a public school district in Tennessee. You wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry...

Christ.

🤦🏻‍♀️

My SIL in Alabama would post something like that.

My husband is Catholic, I’m going to get him to steal me some Holy Water when he goes to Mass. Need all the help I can. Although he does say if it touched me I’d sizzle like the heathen I am.

Ha! I think it’s Saint Jude we need to appeal to. I’ll get my mum to do a novena for me.

@TheHoneyBadger

Ha! I think it’s Saint Jude we need to appeal to. I’ll get my mum to do a novena for me.

Patron Saint of Lost Causes? Sounds perfect!

Yep. I’m a lapsed Catholic but may find myself asking St Michael to protect me at school.

A really sweet friend I did my pgce with is a Christian and says she still prays before every lesson for strength and compassion bless her. I won’t knock it as she’s been in her job since we qualified bar maternity leave. Whereas I’ve burnt out a couple of times with depression and stress.

We pray before everything at work. Which is nice and a comfort at times, because I went to a Faith primary school myself and we were never out of the Church next door!
However, I have just ordered a finger oximeter and a new thermometer because a higher power ain’t gonna have the stats for a call to 999 if any of us gets ill. I haven’t even had a working thermometer since DS was little. We got a temp, we got better. Now I want to track any ‘silent breathlessness’ if it occurs in the Autumn term.

I’ve read it all now!

Because teachers 50 years ago used to apparently stand over children and watch them use a communal nail brush when they had tape worm-they had a vocation, unlike the teachers today?!

And breathe...!

I'm a total heathen. I'm afraid that the thought of praying for something makes me roll my eyes or laugh, depending on my mood.

Someone on twitter just told me that their daughter is a teacher, she did the maths and realised that she was more likely to die of just about anything else and 'never refused to go to work'. That comment has loads of likes.

Know anyone who 'refused' to go to work?

We had one who was very anxious, but was also asthmatic, and able quite easily to work from home.

I think we’re all going to need those and more at home given the tories now want us to continue forever only ‘seeing’ our doctors over the phone seeing as it’s worked during covid ffs.

I was hoping a couple of weeks of holiday might have made me feel better but actually, I think I feel worse! I've got mouth ulcers - classic sign of stress - and feel very anxious. Have binned off going to a staff social outside tomorrow - it contravenes the "guidelines" in any case. Mind you, reading this thread every day has kept me sane. Must look up my pension. Why are they so complicated? Why can't the local government issue an annual update which real humans can understand? I've got an Oxbridge MA and I'm bamboozled by it every time. Asked our business manager if someone from County could come in for a Q&A (lots of staff thought this a good idea) but apparently they "don't do" visits.
Gah.