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

The one teacher is since June. It's a long, rambling paragraph but that's what it means.

Also, the schools sending kids home one afternoon a week for PPA time was becoming common before CV. It is more convenient for lots of parents.

It does say since June in the article...

They don't link to the Sage papers, probably because those are the ones I posted about a week ago that call for the term bubbles to be dropped and mention things like masks. It is also the one that says universities will be a shitshow.

It does seem to have initiated a respond from DfE about transport though.

Me too-thank you for posting that link. I might complain more often about the shite my DP read!

This is interesting

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/education/masks-to-be-worn-in-schools-when-2m-cannot-be-maintained-1.4324863

I’ve stocked up on masks - I got some in packs of three from boots. They work better with my glasses but you have a sort of plastic up and over fastening you adjust them and it took me ages to get it right ... hopefully the others will be the same and j can copy the settings!

I also got my own kids some from gap - DD is 10, but will be 11 in December and she is keen to wear when shopping etc... and so I got her some more. DS is only 6, he had one he wasn’t keen on, but prefers the gap ones. I know he doesn’t need one, but just in case, and if everyone else starts wearing them he is more likely to. I also thought they’d be an i teratijg keepsake when they are grown ups and their children and grandchildren ask them about Covid days!

How hard is it to take unpaid leave. I'd rather do that then be trying to teach online, in school and look after my own kids all at the same time

That Irish u turn is interesting indeed! I note the funding and provision too...

However, why do they have to be reusable? Will all parents and teachers want to or be able to wash daily? I don't do a wash once a day!

hedge - very much depends on the head. Also the local job market I guess in terms of whether they think they can replace you?

Any Scots about? Did the Scottish kids know their schools grades before results day? I can't get much sense out of my SM. She seems to think her great nephew definitely knew his and has been downgraded but I am not sure this isn't just emotive media fuelled language.

@Piggywaspushed surely the story will have got mangled in the passing on...
"Ay, he absolutely knew he was due an A!!"

Piggy it seems to have been a mixture. Some posters definitely talking about knowing their dc's estimates. Sometimes that turns out to mean they know prelim grades rather than actual submissions to sqa, but I think some did.
Others didn't tell them but we will need to inform pupils when they return so they know if appealing is an option.

Yes, never can be sure! She has no children of her own but takes a lot of interest is all her nieces, nephews and beyond. She won't understand the system at all either so all easily lost in translation. It doesn't sound like he is terribly able so I think he was a victim of the rank order. It does sound like some children had a disappointment in one subject, some in none, and then some seem to have lost out in every subject .

I know a friend in England whose school have given their students their centre assessed grades - as in what they submitted. They choose to do it as they wanted to protect teachers from
Issues when actual grades came came out, they made it clear they were the final submissions and could not be changed and weren’t to be discussed with teachers. Something to do with if they left it until results day it would have been a long and complicated process to then get them or something?

If that gets out they are in trouble. That's malpractice!

Here's another question : do kids do Nat 4s? Didn't hear anything about them on results day!

I'm quite shocked at that. I heard my local 6th form college had revealed grades, and didnt believe it. Hmmm.

Yeah, they'll be in big trouble!

Got my own answer to the Nat 4s now!

We are "trusted" to assess Nat 4s ourselves every year

Yes, seen that now! Interesting. Are they with anything in terms of progression? Does the grade matter?

I think I was the only year to have O grades markers at grades 1 to 7. We were supposed to do standard grades and half way through the year there was a massive u turn but they kept the wacky numbers. Nicola Sturgeon will have been affected too. We felt like proper guinea pigs.

@Piggywaspushed

If that gets out they are in trouble. That's malpractice!

That’s what I thought, but they were adamant it was ok?!? Interesting... it seemed to be a very open comment, not something they thought shouldn’t have happened!!!