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.

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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

No definitely not allowed. I thought It had been done at my school and It all got a bit awkward when I raised it! There have been multiple mailshots from Ofqual and exam boards about it.

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!

I'd take that funding with a pinch of salt...and I'd imagine that it's reusable masks as the Department don't want to be on the hook for buying tons of disposable ones.

Our Government are fond of lobbing in an educational grenade of a Friday afternoon and yesterday was no different. There's consternation among primary teachers in Ireland right now! As far as I understand it, masks don't protect the wearer - the kids would need to be in masks to offer the staff protection. A lot of debate going on on the merits of masks vs visors...visors are less effective of course but as it stands, masks won't protect teachers. I am happy for my secondary colleagues though as there was no way they could maintain the suggested social distancing.

Us4Them kicked off about masks in 'Southern' Ireland I see, the gobshites. I considered wading into it and trying to educate them but decided to leave it be

Good old Us 4 Them can feck off!

Interesting article about false negative tests, the idea that they're sufficiently common (20-30+% depending on how long it is since you might have been exposed) that symptoms should take precedence in diagnosis. This is what doctors have been doing isn't it?

So even if parents obediently take their child to be tested, it might not help regarding stopping outbreaks....

Which is why it should be even more important that when they do get a positive the bubble bursts. Though surely if satpy you get a neg then 2 days later another kid gets a positive logically thats 2?

Piggy n4 is just pass or fail. They'd be like foundation and lower part of general at standard grade I think, and N5 is the higher end. Some schools keep assessments for N5 students so if they fail the exam they can put them in for a N4, assuming they passed it.

@MrsHerculePoirot blimey. If they get found out that school is in a lot of trouble. It was v clear that CAGs could not be released to students. I don't even know what the ones I teach finally got for combined science. Hope no one dobs then in as could affect the grades ??

Yes @Keepdistance I agree but I doubt it'll work like that, except maybe if you're in an area which is at that time on the brink of local lockdown and PH are being extremely cautious.

I think at the last count we'd had 4 emails threatening dire consequences if we so much as HINT at CAGs or rank order. One member of staff is well known for having loose lips so I sincerely hope they get the memo loud and clear.

Since I'm not happy with some of the CAGs my students were given, I'll be happy never to speak of it.

We were reminded repeatedly.

Students can request their CAG and rank order after results day however.

Ours too but only in writing and only via one member of SLT!

www.ssatuk.co.uk/blog/now-the-grades-are-submitted-are-you-ready-for-the-next-data-exercise/

This means that, if a student asks – either verbally or in writing – for their grade or rank order you must respond to this as a school. A student or parent does not have to use any particular language, fill in a particular form, or even use the words ‘access request’. So, if a student asks the question: “Ms / Sir: what grade are you giving me?” this should be considered an access request. Any teacher that is asked this question must refer it to your school’s Data Protection Officer, who should get back to the student within the legal timeframe.

We were told in very clear terms that we mustn't discuss cags with pupils/parents. Even the teachers who are parents of year 11s weren't allowed to know their child's CAG, unless they happen to be their teacher for a subject. I don't know how that worked for the head though, his son was in y 11 and I'm pretty sure he'll have seen all of the cags (it's possible that he hasn't told the rest of the family, but he will know won't he?).

I've got a set of 10 masks just for school. I made them from old clothes that no longer fit, and they are a lot more colourful than the ones I'm wearing for shopping, etc.

Tonreturn to the false negatives article I posted upthread, see this bit of it

"For individuals, however, the FDA cautions that negative results do not rule out infection. It asks that asymptomatic tests include this statement: “Negative results must be considered in the context of an individual’s recent exposures, history, presence of clinical signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19.” And this, in the face of imperfect COVID-19 tests, is key to interpreting a negative result. It depends on your probabilityy_ of having COVID-19 in the first place.
Consider again the decision to visit elderly relatives after a negative test. “If you have symptoms or you work in a place where you’re at high risk for exposure, then even with a negative test, you might want to think really hard about it,” Steven Woloshinn_, a co-director of the Center for Medicine and Media at the Dartmouth Institute, explained to me. “If you’re at low risk because you live in some remote area, you’re practicing social distancing, you always wear a mask, and you feel fine,” a negative test is probably a true negative."

The first paragraph above is surely somewhat at odds with the DfE guidance, isn't it - "Neg test and you're back in the (class)room!"

The issue we have is that the grades I gave are NOT the grades the school gave... and that will be replicated across the board. SLT don't want it getting out that someone turned the 4 I predicted into a 2 which might then become a 1. Cans of worms all over the places

If you have symptoms you are not supposed to return anywhere, even with a negative test : this is what parents are going to get wrong.

@MrsHamlet School will give out the rank and grade they sent to the exam board surely? It'll look like you gave the student a 2 but there's not much you can do about that.

Yes think that will be the bigger problem @Piggywaspushed, both before and after testing.

No. As I understand it negative test overrules symptoms so long as you haven’t been in contact with someone who has tested positive.

To be fair my test was delivered by amazon today so faster than expected. Seems daft to use it given I only had a slightly elevated temperature on an extremely hot day.

Not sure if you can keep these and activate and send when needed. Anyone know?

@Hercwasonaroll that's exactly it. That's why when Bob asks me what I gave him, I have to refer him to SLT. Because I might tell him the truth which is not what they want.
Of course, if he then makes a Subject access request, he'll get all the emails in which I set out my evidence of 4 being a fair prediction and the ones in which I'm told that not possible because of who he is and how he behaves. Six months ago, he bet me he could get a 5. I think he might have, just to irk me!!!

Ah yes I see. It should never be the teacher saying the grade anyway. It should always come from SLT and in writing.

Shit situation for that student. Why do SLT think they know the students better?!

@TheHoneyBadger not daft to test st all.

Did you read the article, it says symptoms can trump results, depending on context? I've certainly read several times of doctors applying the well known principle of "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck!" to negative-tested patients.

@TheHoneyBadger maybe do the test anyway. Friends had symptoms for 2 days only but had positive tests.

Because Bob is THAT year 11 boy - obstreperous, with too much swagger and too many opinions. Equally disliked by his HOY and most of the staff, he enjoyed his bad boy image.
But in spite of his determination to suggest otherwise, he did get it, he could do it, and he really wanted it. He absolutely never would have said so publicly but it meant a lot to him that I thought he could get a grade 5. We were well on with revision by March and it was going well.
We had "too many" 5s which had to be moved to 4 and he suffered from that and the double indignity of being Bob. And then of course you have Emily who is the daughter of Mrs Y, who absolutely deserves the A* at A level in spite of all of the evidence saying B would be fair. But she's such a hard either, MrsHamlet...

Hard worker, obviously!