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

(And looking on social media to see colleagues/other people not sd at all in their meet ups with friends, constant beer garden visits etc). Can see me making an effort to not speak to any adult in September or go in the staff room. It's going to be utterly miserable and scary.

@NeurotrashWarrior re schools being given testing kits: the July guidance says that each school will have "a small number of kits" available to give to families who'd find it otherwise hard to access testing. So unless they've rethought that I don't see that that's going to help most families or staff.

@noblegiraffe I wondered what had happened to the discussions on transport which were mentioned at the beginning of July.

[quote WhenSheWasBad]**@MrsHamlet

I’m an NQT, so I’m still very much learning the ropes. The school I teach in is currently in a city that’s in lockdown.
I’m just worried about creating online lessons on a system I’ve never used before. I’ve only been in the school 3 times.

plus homeschooling my daughter (she’s 9) is utter hell on Earth. My son is 6, so he needs a lot of support to complete his lessons. If anything she needs twice as much prodding time complete work as him[/quote]
I do hope that you get lots of support and are assigned a mentor or similar at your school. I’ve already got an NQT to mentor in another subject for this September and will be supporting them as best I can!
Otherwise, hopefully we can support NQTs (and trainees and other new staff) on here too!

Anyone seen the TES stuff about remote learning plans.

The guidance says it expects schools to:

set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects
teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject
provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high quality curriculum resources and/or videos
gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work
enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding
plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers

How does this work alongside FT teaching? There's an assumption if a bubble closes you won't be in school, whereas at Secondary that won't be true as teachers aren't in the bubble.

I can't plan workbooks for online learning and teach. All a nightmare.

Thanks Chloe you sound like a great mentor.

I’ve had a few people tell me I’ll be fine as “no one really knows what they are doing“
This is kind of true but I think they forget just how little an NQT knows about the new school they are starting in.

Sod it - it will be fine. It will have to be.

@WhenSheWasBad I'm the induction tutor for our NQTs and they're very much on my radar!
If it's Teams, I've got a lot of suggestions which might help.
Whilst "you'll be fine" is well meaning, it's not helpful. I tend to take the "it'll be shit but I'll help you" approach 😂

What if actually we're going to be out of school more than in? What if what we should actually be mainly preparing for is the home learning??

MrsHamlet

It is teams (thank goodness as I’m more of a Microsoft fan than a goggle fan).
I think I can just about work out how to upload a lesson on Stream. But it only seems to record for 15 minutes - which doesn’t seem long enough.

If you have the time any tips would be gratefully received.

Much as I find them deeply patronising and annoying, I hope the 'kids don't catch it or spread it' mob are correct.

My DH's school has mentioned testing kits and it's a private school .Maybe the head was just hopeful...

I was told by an neu rep that the aim is going to be to have some tests on site in schools for staff and pupils or even mobile testing centres that can be called to a school. (in our area, makes sense nationally but remains to be seen!) because they can see how disruptive it's going to be

I do wonder about the poster gleefully suggesting bubbles won’t need to close, as anyone with symptoms will pop into the office where the cupboard full of tests will be opened. Then, the school nurse/spare admin person will quickly and easily administer the test to the amenable child (whose parents are happy for them to do so in their absence) and they can then skip off back to class if it’s negative. I’m not sure they’ve actually been in many state schools.

I'm a bit suspicious that that money fort transport will only go to urban areas without school buses . It is about 'avoiding public transport'. my area has woeful public transport so the kids have none to avoid : what they do have is a 50% school population at age 11+ who are bussed by LAs on buses shared between serval schools with no spare seats.

Just noticed my typo and need to correct as it's niggling at me too not to. (Was trying to get kids breakfasted at the same time, but the swear I typed too).
WhenSheWasBad before my nervous breakdown I was an NQT and PGCE mentor. You will be looked after, don't worry. Teachers tend to look after the newbies

I really wish the government would listen to real Heads, not their CEO MAT mates who have never actually taught at all, let alone have experience of a variety of schools.

In true blended learning it would effectively be the same amount of planning but half of it for in school and half of it remote. If a a bubble you teach goes home then you’ll have the time when you would have been teaching them in lesson to use for remote learning.

But ad hoc a few kids isolating will be true extra work as you’re not gaining any time from their not being in school. It might be as easy to set them work then do a quick phone call home to check they understand and answer any questions on the day of their set lesson/s.

Getting a bit fed up of headlines which begin 'schools prepare for'. I don't think I am the only teacher who feels my school is doing no preparing whatsoever!

@WhenSheWasBad Many tips! So many that we wrote a guide for our staff planner so that everyone has it ready for September.
You can definitely record for longer than 15 mins: one of my year 10 admitted to not watching one of the lessons that he'd missed because "it was 47 minutes, miss". I had to point out that a lesson is normally 50 (how he'll cope with 100 minute lessons in September I don't know)
@Appuskidu I heard on radio 4 the other morning that there's a new portable test kit available, perfect for schools etc, and the inventor was saying it's only "in the few tens of pounds". Where's the money for that coming from?

The univ of Southampton (which actually has that annoying professor there who T4U love so much) is helpfully getting quite vocal about masks, bubbles and school openings.

Worth following twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan

Because the paediatricians want all kids back they are quite useful allies in looking at how shit current plans are to achieve this.

From the Gavin Williamson parody account

Teachers are far too optimistic and positive about their students. This Government is committed to uninspiring a generation of failers and stupid people who will all vote Tory

Neuro - I’m feeling fine thank you and was back to normal temperature by the time I retested last night.

I wouldn’t realistically order a test usually (if I wasn’t meant to be in work) just for a temperature and without waiting to see if it stayed high but tbh it seemed a good idea to do a dry run and see what’s entailed and how long it takes. Obviously times might be different if more people are testing in term time or on the bright side maybe they’ll get quicker.

Think I’m at the awkward end of the spectrum by not having a car or living near a test centre.

There are thousands and thousands of people in that category, though, Honey.

My friend in NE Scotland is hours from a testing centre even if she can drive.

I’m hoping our absences for symptoms and testing aren’t subjected to the same absence management procedures. I can imagine having to concede that I should avoid leaving the house other than coming to work to avoid having to be absent again and being subjected to a lecture on how staff absence effects the school budget oops sorry I meant to say children’s learning lol.

Trying to see the funny side of this shitshow. Our incredibly rude cover supervisor will be earning her wage this year.

We’re given really mixed messages. Absence is terrible never be absent v cover supervisor never come into school if you feel ill as we can’t arrange cover in the middle of the day.

True dangling but I think they expect it’s just disadvantaged children in that situation because apparently all teachers are raking in the cash and in 2 income 2 car households paying higher rate tax.

The transport seems to be allocated oddly. Urban areas are more likely to benefit from being able to walk/bike ride. Rural areas with long bus commutes to school surely need more support.

I agree the ad hoc isolating pupils are going to be the difficulty. All online or all in school is fine. A mix is a disaster.

I’m hoping our absences for symptoms and testing aren’t subjected to the same absence management procedures

I think this is could be a huge issue!