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

I can see the logic (even though I don't agree with it) of telling someone to resign if they think it's unsafe, as it removes the risk for that individual.

I can't see the logic in resigning if kids have to wear masks. The kids will still have to wear masks, you've not changed anything other than your personal employment status!

That's a great article. I'm glad they said don't blame the teachers for wanting to be safe!

Why are so many mask resistant????

It's clearly not safe in a large number of areas of the U.K.

I'd better get sewing some more masks when we get home!

It's like all those celebrities and MNers who threaten to leave the country if people vote for Brexit/Labour wins/Corbyn becomes PM/ we leave the EU etc etc.

Never happens.

Hmmm

www.tes.com/news/GCSE-results-2020-teacher-grades-ignored

Anyone else think 15 candidates isn't a 'large entry' !!?

Hours and hours and hours we spent quibbling over grades. I have to say I did think it was a little pointless at the time but not to that extent!!

I am not surprised by anything in that article to be honest.

Of course schools over predicted at the borderlines, who wouldn't! You can't say with certainty that the student wouldn't have achieved a 4.

The sentence that reassures is the one from ofqual about them getting their CAGs in most cases despite the modelling and adjustments. Borderline kids will lose out (as always).

Yes, that is the reassuring bit. I am , howvere, surprised by their definition of alarge entry!

The rank ordering was by far more subjective and potentially chaotic than the grade awarding in my school with 14 different teachers . This is where the bias definitely come sin. I reckon the grade Is usually correct. Give or take.

Ironically, I did keep saying'let's stop faffing about with the safe ones and focus on the borders' while pole were quibbling over one kid solidly in the middle of a 7...
I also wish I hadn't been talked into changing a boy's 3 to a 2 and stuck to my guns that the exam board would likely do it anyway.

Yes the large entry is interesting. Not even 2 children per grade (not that grades are distributed like that but still).

I have a new qualification with an ofqual "large entry" with no prior data. I wonder what they will get....

I have that too herc.Intriguing to compare stories on results day!

The comment on Ancient Greek irked me , too. It does sound like the elite schools will get away with grade inflation : small entries in obscure subjects.

My A Level class was 8 , last year was 8. We actually predicted virtually the same as last year (one more B grade). Fascinated to see if the CAGs stand .

I also wonder whether allowing more appeals is to prevent more resits, given they might coincide with a second wave....

This is all very lucky for Laila isn't it?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-dc2d6e2d-3ab4-42de-8d03-bb7eda5fff8e

Bears no resemblance to being packed into an ageing, grubby school and being told not to bother with distancing.

They did miss out Now Laila has no friends because she never meets anyone and can't go to the pub, mind.

On the subject of results , I do hope Aberdeen let in that boy who only got a C for Art and needed a B. He wants to be a primary teacher. We need him!

I’m a lurker and an NQT in secondary (science).

I’m getting a little stressed that I still haven’t received a timetable for September. Is this normal? is anything normal anymore

Anyone else in a similar position?

We aren't getting timetables until 1st September!

Right, if they are not using teacher predicted grades then what the actual fuck are they using to decide the current attainment of a kid?

Because all I can imagine is that they’re looking at that kid’s KS2 results and using those to predict what they should get.

Making the last 5 years of study totally irrelevant.

But then what about kids who don’t have KS2 results? And are they using teacher grades to make any sort of corrections?

I just don’t understand how they can completely ignore the only piece of information they have about the child as they are now.

@WhenSheWasBad pretty normal! We once had new timetables several times in the first month. The timetabler was an idiot though... now she's a Head!!

Are they not just using rank order and then overlaying the 'usual' results on them?

Which only works with similar cohorts in whole year group subjects, I would have thought.

Now Laila has no friends because she never meets anyone and can't go to the pub

There are a lot of soft interactions that happen around offices (and in the corridors and staffrooms of school!) that are very hard to replicate when working from home.

Top tip for Laila: Noise-cancelling headphones are cheaper than replacing your double glazing. I nearly give my DH a heart attack when I bring him a cup of tea.

Have just read relevant and interesting threads about:
• Hand gel which works with eczema (no definite answers yet though)
• What the 11 Aug guidance might contain (mask wearing around school a fave, altho they haven't thought about how we get 100s of teenagers safely taking on and off masks every hour!)
• Whether it's really possible to SD from your school-attending children, especially if you're vulnerable (bags kept separately, showering?)

Are they not just using rank order and then overlaying the 'usual' results on them?

Oh I should have read further! When it said ‘based entirely on statistical modelling and ignoring teacher grades’ it kind of implied that they were ignoring teachers altogether.

Using rank order and adjusting to fit the grade profile is what they always said they were going to do. It seems that this new story has been written to spin that in a particular way - it’s gone from ‘most kids will get the grade their teacher predicted (because these are accurate), with some adjustments at the boundaries’ to ‘we will ignore teacher grades, but in most cases these will match the given grade anyway’.

Yes, but I do think there are signs of panic in their messaging!

The hand gel from Sainsbury's chemist has caused me no issues, july. I think it's called Kleeneze.

Do you have to listen to music with noise cancelling headphones, though? I can't bear noise and that includes traffic ,and music and people talking loudly. Good quality in a teacher...

I can zone out TVs, weirdly. Maybe it's generational.

It worries me the emphasis on KS2. Being limited to what you did at age 10 and 11.
It's a shoddy system to start with.

Noble- they won’t be looking at the prior attainment of individual kids. Their model, (based on PA of the school’s cohort, the national cohort and your last 3 years of results) will be used to generate a grade distribution (x number of 9s, y number of 8s, z number of 7s etc) for your school in any given subject they will then hand out your allocated grade 9s to your top x students, 8s to the next y students and so on.