The fourteenth republic - watching Scotland and ever changing DfE guidelines

[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

So trump had a tweet removed and an account suspended for spreading misinformation about children's role in coronavirus!

Someone needs to tell the MN 'kids don't spread it' lot! And our government...

This is the story about Trump :

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/08/05/trump-post-removed-facebook/

I am really really struggling to find a single 'guiding scientist' who doesn't advocate children in masks. Where is the medical evidence ?

I saw that Piggy. It's outrageous and he was backed up too.

Almost immune! Dear me!

Hmm. I had a post deleted last night and today I don't seem to be able to post anything at all under my normal account. Have I been banned? 🧐 I have not had any email from HQ to tell me this, thought I might come back on another way so I could contact them.
As usual, bait and bait till someone snaps and then you're the one in trouble! I will be more sympathetic when this happens between pupils now!

In the early republic I think a bunch of us were on the verge of getting banned permanently but MN needs the money. (I am not paying and I don’t click on any ads)

And now someone is moaning about having to go into the office on a rota basis! They enjoy not having to commute and having a leisurely cup of tea in the mornings. Oh didums! If we are all back then they can make an effort to go back to the offices even as part of a rota.

@StaffAssociationRepresentative

And now someone is moaning about having to go into the office on a rota basis! They enjoy not having to commute and having a leisurely cup of tea in the mornings. Oh didums! If we are all back then they can make an effort to go back to the offices even as part of a rota.

I’ve just read that and couldn’t be arsed to reply.

I think there are a growing number of people who want certain things back to normal (SCHOOLS MUST REOPEN-think of the poor children ) but they are massively pissed off that they have to wear a mask, can’t see their dentist and have to give their phone number when they go for a pint. The same people have loved working at home though and want that bit to continue-with nice leisurely morning coffees and no commute-as long as they don’t have to have their kids under their feet at any point whilst they do it, though!

Seen this about this linked elsewhere so I found the website - Cornish secondary school "We will share the exact details of the annex that has been added to our behaviour policy for September at the SLC days. It will outline what the Academy will do, what parents/carers are expected to do and what the students need to do. Your tutor will talk through the expectations with you and then all parties will be asked to sign the document to show that they agree and accept these behaviour guidelines. Should a student not follow these guidelines and behave in a way which endangers the safety of students and staff, then parents/carers will be phoned and asked to arrange for the collection of the student immediately and take them off site,. They will then spend the next day in the ‘Reset Zone’ – a 2m distanced area where students will work silently and individually for a day. If this is completed successfully then they can return to their original crew the next day. Any further instances will be dealt with by exclusion. Because of the importance of these measures, any student that has not attended the SLC day with a parent/carer will not be allowed to return to lessons within the Academy."

So as well as asking parents to be responsible for their children, they are also saying any student who doesn't attend the student led conference day with a parent or guardian won't be able to return to school. I guess because they won't have the signature for the amended behaviour policy.

I think the point about the tide turning made further down is correct. Schools want to be seen to be doing the right thing.

I do sort of agree with the WFH whiner , though. This pandemic should have allowed people to reflect more widely on work and work productivity and it just hasn't. The government just supports presenteeism.

There was a man on our news who was back in his office doing graphic design and said he could have done twice as much at home (might have been something to do with the BBC being in his way mind!)

return to their original crew ???!?

StaffAssociationRepresentative

there was another a couple of weeks ago who was moaning about having to go back to work as she had moved in with her bf and was looking after his kids.

And she was a major PITA on the TB threads.

They've used crew in place of bubble. I guess it's a sea reference since it's a coastal town school.

Someone did just point out that people need to WFH if we want to keep schools open and in case they close again : it is silly that the government cannot see that herding everyone back to the office increases the risk and the impracticalities associated with school reopenings.

Doesn't mean I don't resent them, though

I like that cornish behaviour policy! We need the tide to turn on behaviour and parents taking responsibility for it.

Re wfh, I've a friend who has just announced they're moving home so she and her husband can wfh more - they're getting a bigger home so they can still have guest room but also an office each.

The current working system for them has been much better, much more productive due to no delays on public transport and their employers (one does something to do with national government, was working in Cambridge and commuting to London. The other commutes and works for amazon) have agreed there isn't as much need for them to commute and be office based, they can do wfh with occasional commuting instead. I guess hiring a venue for a mass meeting is cheaper than renting permanent office space. Especially with modern technology.

Piggywaspushed

I wouldn't mind so much if those talking about "muzzling" kids, and the desperate need to go back to school, were actually making some compromises but they are all of the 'just get back to normal' group.

@Hercwasonaroll - I like it too. Our school only followed their policy of doing that the last week of term, when they were interviewing for a new head. Not that I'm cynical at all... The new head is lovely but I do have concerns about the reward and sanction policy being adhered to from the get go.

Behaviour is going to be interesting. Longer lessons, kids out of the habit of school, new rules. School wide sanctions need to be in place but a lot of our previous ones are not corona friendly. Eg mixed year detentions.

I didn't think we were changing our timetables but there is certainly a different one from my dc's school, in the same authority, so who knows? I've never been so unprepared to return, my lessons are normally planned up to October

@Hercwasonaroll

Behaviour is going to be interesting. Longer lessons, kids out of the habit of school, new rules. School wide sanctions need to be in place but a lot of our previous ones are not corona friendly. Eg mixed year detentions.

Definitely. Even in primary where you might put a child in another classroom for 5 minutes time out, or ask them to go and see a member of SLT-neither of those can happen, because...bubbles.

I suspect we won’t see any SLT for dust and will just be expected to put up with all sorts of behaviours, as long as they stay in our classroom!

Hi. Was busy trying to sort pension out yesterday. It’s gone from not listing current employment at all to having it on there but with wrong start date and listing me as opted out. Screen shot and sent to business manager (pay roll won’t deal with employee direct so no choice) and got a reply implying the problem must be with Teachers Pension not them.

Had live chat with Teachers Pension who confirm they can’t change anything and only go by what employers tell them and that employer has given wrong info and need to change it. Forwarded transcript of chat to business manager. Got a very snippy reply clearly pissed off and thinking the issue trivial.

I appreciate they’re busy but given the situation it’s pretty important to me that I’m on record as being in the Pension scheme and therefore entitled to death grant etc. Having your pension contributions actually being in your pension is pretty important anyway.

Between that and troubles with ds I’m feeling a bit down and annoyed. I get she’s stressed but she is the only person who can remedy it and no I don’t want to go back to work incorrectly recorded as not having a pension or entitlement to death grant for ds.

Sorry for the big moan. It had never occurred to me that I had to check for myself whether my employer has actually recorded me correctly for pension. The online chat lady said it’s a legal duty to correctly inform them each month.

LostinScotland wow! I'm always in awe at anyone who can plan that far ahead. We'll be advance planning a fair bit due to having mixed ability and needing to train staff on delivering them. It's stressing me out a bit as I'm normally a night before person as I change my lessons based on misconceptions etc.

Our (shite) MAT got the pensions guy in for inset one year and it was so interesting and informative. Our heads also pretty decent about forwarding email from them about checking your pension and service. It would be so easy to miss if you didn't know. Hope the business manager can sort it, literally their job!

Last bit of rant

I feel like I’ve been treated like some unreasonable harpee for wanting my pension managed and wanting to know wtf I’m actually doing in September so I can prepare.

These people who think teachers and unions have so much power don’t have a clue. They should try sitting being interrogated about your attendance because you had a dental abscess and noravirus in the same year and took a total of 4 days off so need to be managed and made to say how you can do better. Grrr

Here/Apsu, you have both just made me wonder how our current sanction system is going to work. Currently there are several levels of warning and 2 of them involved a separate member of staff being called to the class to either have a conversation with pupil or remove them.

Are they going to be assigning a group of 'off duty' teaching staff to each 'bubble' to deal with this or are we going to have the usual system where teacher calls for staff assigned to that duty for the period and they may or may not turn up before the end of the lesson depending on what else they are dealing with. Of course, depending on the student and depending on the sanction depends on whether it escalates or not.

I felt hugely sorry for one teacher pre-lockdown as one student was escalating themselves and winding the whole class up yet no one was available to attend, so the student flounced around the classroom doing as they pleased and nothing was done about it. They weren't one of our supported pupils so the other LSA and I were doing all we could to prevent our supported students from being dragged into the scenario as it would not have gone favourably for them yet was not their fault either.