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

Seen in DM that they are saying to open schools we will have to limit family contact. My DS lives in a care home (severely disabled). I can't go through what DH and I went through during lockdown again as it broke us and our DS. I'm certainly not going to go through that again to be thrown in to school where people won't abide by that rule if it comes into being. I just want to run away with DH and DS

Yes, in my school no subject classrooms/areas have computers except for IT.

A couple of teaching colleagues that I know of also had to buy laptops during lockdown (normally share or needed better/faster ones) but at least they are paid more than the TAs!

Agreed, Monkeytennis... I'm sorry for your situation.

My dh is shielding category so we're still not doing anything or going anywhere or any shops etc but I do feel riled that there's an expectation that school staff should act more carefully and cautiously than everybody else in society.

I didn't think that was just a vibe in the media neuro : that's very much coming from Government and also Whitty.

Getting teenage kids to behave responsibly so that they can go to school may not be an ideal strategy!

@monkeytennis97 I’m so sorry, I can sympathise. My mum has MS. It’s so severe that she is totally incapacitated and requires 24/7 care. Her home went into lockdown a week before national lockdown and won’t be opening for the foreseeable despite what Matt Hancock said. I haven’t even spoken to her for all that time as she can not hold a phone, and if she did she is mute so can’t talk anyway. I don’t really know how she is. When I have contact with the care home it’s the generic ‘she fine’ spiel. If the home doesn’t open before Sept I won’t be able to see her. If he scared I could transmit something.

monkeytennis .
I had to buy my own laptop when I moved schools at half term. New school has desktops and IWB but they won't be upgraded when they next need it as too expensive.

and to you motherrunner .

And then last night I had 3 hours sleep as my neighbours had a bbq/party with lots of guests that went on until 2am. We live in an area that is on course for a second lockdown. Beyond selfish.

patch.com/georgia/cumming/nearly-300-ga-ymca-campers-staff-positive-coronavirus-cdc

A friend shared this earlier. It rather overturns the theory that children don't transmit the virus. Staff wore face coverings but children were singing, cheering etc.

to those with family in locked down care homes. I had a good old cry yesterday about missing my friends.

Thank you @tadjennyp. I’m a little more sensitive today about things as have had little sleep. MN also seems to be full of threads complaining about restrictions and I want to scream and shout ‘I want to see my mum’, but I don’t as I can see the bigger picture. I think my biggest fear is if she dies and I haven’t see her. She’s had sepsis 3 times in the last 2 years. She’s not very well at all.

That's interesting because US Summer camps are trotted out by people on other threads as having operated as normal with no outbreaks.

The US just are not getting this at all. My SIL is a travel agent in Alabama and had no idea about the US gov's global travel ban or the high rates of infection in Florida.

My cousin teaches in NY and I know they are having the same mask debate there. But individual areas are allowed to make policy and decisions more easily.

(@Piggywaspushed would you forgive me if I have a little 🤔and a small 😆 about your SIL in Alabama? I know you said a day or two ago that she knew nothing about the travel ban etc but am pretty sure you didn't add that she was a travel agent.....!)

Oh yes! She books all the family's flights etc. because she knows the best time to book.

BIL has blood clots and doesn't work at all having had a compensation payout but has just had a cancer op so is pretty clinically vulnerable. Their youngest child has Downs so open to all sorts of infections and they just think it is all a hoax and, anyway, God will protect everyone if only they prayed enough.

Thy also had a former house destroyed by Katrina so you'd think they would know disaster can strike...

I'd be up for a theological discussion with them! Nowhere in the Bible are we told that believers are immune to suffering. Yes pray for deliverance from it, but sometimes that's not in God's plan....

To go to @NeurotrashWarrior's earlier post, many countries have explicitly said that they are prioritising schools over much of the economy, haven't they? Can't remember which now, probably includes Germany.

I have requested that posts quoting this study were removed. I had a long reply back telling me that debate was healthy and asking if I needed help to hide the Corona board!

I had the same response! They looked and the claim was being robustly challenged and that this was better than deleting it.

If we all hid the cv board as they are suggesting, then who would be robustly challenging it? It would be left to stand!

I might email back and point out that even twitter is deleting misleading health claims.

It is hard and fucking unfair that people are being told to put their lives completely on hold and not see sick relatives or go to work so that something that can be done partially remotely can be done face to face.

The issue here is 100% about childcare. No matter how U4T dress it up as concern over lost education it is pretty obvious that most of them are mothers who are at their wits end trying to juggle WFH with online schooling.

But as I’ve pointed out to loads of them on different thread, full time schooling in September is not the solution to their problems. It will only create more problems.

I don’t know how they cannot see that the government give not two shits about education because it doesn’t contribute to GDP.

This is what I think, too, and it is actually the tactic MN bullies use when people step out of line, they tell them to hide the threads or not look. It's a very clear tactic to shut down debate, along with telling people they can't post if they aren't positive.

full time schooling in September is not the solution to their problems. It will only create more problems

The penny will drop on this come September.

Those running U4T know this because they want schools declared critical infrastructures which outlaws closing.

Camp A adopted most components of CDC's Suggestions for Youth and Summer Camps to minimize the risk for SARS-CoV-2 introduction and transmission. Measures not implemented were cloth masks for campers and opening windows and doors for increased ventilation in buildings. Cloth masks were required for staff members.

So the measures not implemented by the camp sound very much like the measures not implemented by schools. 76% of them tested positive!

I think the singing is misleading as this would have been outdoors?

My DH had to buy a new desktop as his was too slow, luckily he’d saved enough from not needing to commute to school everyday. I’ve never been provided with any tech bar an encrypted usb stick so I can transfer files to work on from home.

Yes pray for deliverance from it, but sometimes that's not in God's plan....

Jesus had a good old pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Yep and Job was big on prayer and faith.

I’m really sorry that people have to buy laptops for their own work. I really resented them in the first job I was given one in about 2005 as it was something to lug around with me.

Now I rely on it. If I have to move classroom i can have my register, pp and the starter slide already open and any clips cued and ready to go and just unplug from one whiteboard and run and plug into the next.

Can’t believe teachers had to pay for laptops to work from home. Another thing people won’t be aware of.

One colleague I've observed teaching (not that old - early fifties) doesn't use a single ppt or his screen at all (occasionally to show a film of a text). Everything just written on the board or spoken (obviously this is a subject that suits that - English). His lessons are the best I've ever seen and student progress is fab.