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

MrsHamlet that would have annoyed me so much!! We didn't have any of that in my department. We're maths, which helps as a lot of us are quite black and white thinkers, and we were all very happy that we'd had mocks just a couple of weeks before lockdown. So we took the mock results as our starting point and there was very little argument about the grades they would have ended up with.

That's awful. How do they sleep at night?

[quote JulyBreeze]@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.[/quote]
Totally agree but I was referring to the guidelines rather than common sense

My colleagues have few morals. I have learned to get everything in writing.
Part of the issue is that in English, things are always very subjective - but I am an experienced examiner so I tend to know what I'm talking about!!
I'm glad results are not in person this year. I don't want to have to face some of them and have them believe that the grades are the ones I awarded.

Non covid related but is anyone else fed up with super keen super teachers on places like Facebook being all hard working and creating whizz bang resources that they then offer on their YouTube channel? I thought that by ignoring twitter I could escape it but they are everywhere. Perhaps I'm just jealous because once the kids are in bed I'm watching netflix with a glass of wine completely bloody knackered. I mean I'm sure I was super keen once, when dinosaurs roamed, but it's the holidays! And even back then I wouldn't have dared film myself. It makes me feel old and shit,when in reality I know I'm known for being hard working and a team player.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8607927/Boris-Johnson-says-reopening-schools-month-moral-duty-national-priority.html

Bojo takes on the teaching unions .

How amusing that Johnson speaks of moral obligation. Does he have a single ethical bone in his body?

@echt I thought that!
@winewolfhowls we have a few of those. I'm all for doing the best job you can, but martyring yourself and/or showing off is not a good habit to be in.

Mr Johnson writes: ‘Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.’
Well I hope he's right about the first part.

• This newspaper has established that there has not been single case of a pupil infecting a teacher with the virus anywhere in the world;

Although in the main article it admits there are no confirmed cases of this anywhere in the world. And that they mean "in classrooms" - because a nursery child has definitely infected a teacher!

Am trying to remember, is this assertion in fact true, are there no confirmed cases of pupil-teacher infection?

Of course, schools have mainly been closed since the pandemic struck....

JulyBreeze

Without a descent track and trace system, There would be no confirmed cases.

But then even If I caught this when we go back it still couldn't be confirmed as I could have caught it shopping or off a takeaway.

So it really means nothing.

But in some outbreaks they study the DNA of samples and can see who's infected whom, @FrippEnos

It said somewhere the dont trace backwards tracing to see where people got it.

They have been doing that study on some schools. But that would be luck whether there is an outbreak.

That independent sage say schools are 0.5. I dont see how we can do that.

The ironic thing is that we do, actually, know enough about how to reopen schools safely, we're just not doing it because, well money.

They also talk lower down about the r rate being close to 1 and that nursery outbreak without any comment about how that might link to opening schools.

@winewolfhowls - it's the curse of the YouTube/tiktok generations. Everyone wants their 5 minutes of fame. I'm sure that's what drives most of it - hoping they get noticed by a large company who will offer a sponsorship deal. No different to the plethora of bloggers on any subject who are doing it for the freebies.

I despair this morning. I give up. If they cannot look at the incidents in the US, Israel and Australia and think differently then there is nothing I can do personally to make this less of a shit show.

DH has said that if it is awful then I can quit but I love my school and my colleagues. I feel like I’m over a barrel really.

Me too Winewolf. I've had to avoid some of my teaching fb pages too because they are either flooded with chirpy young things selling product and saying they have the best ideas EVER or asking for ideas for next year because they have none and apparently can't search google.

I have woken up grumpy because I made the mistake of reading the news before bed. To compound this, today's task is buying uniform.for my growing kids to probably not wear much next year. Why we can't just say no uniform is beyond me. My kids uniform insists on academy sports kit and blazers and jumpers so it costs a fortune. And the shoes and trainers.

I'll join you in the feeling inadequate when seeing the Facebook twitter generation!

Then I remember the person like that in school is actually rubbish in the classroom. Look how many of the activities are time fillers/wasters. Look beyond the snazzy design and see what the content is. Most of those knowledge organisers are pointless. Same with the curriculum road maps. Are they really helping kids learn? I'd rather a basic resource and a good classroom teacher any day!

@hedgehogger1

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

I've seriously considered this.

My head was understanding, not directly to me but mainly as our LA issued some policy stuff (I was v grateful for) pointing out that many staff had dependants and to be very aware of this. I'm only two days but with a now 2 year old and 7 yr old even just the summer holiday Covid stylee is sometimes tough!

I'm going to have a conversation with her when I return about just how hard it was (and I was only two bloody days!!) as I expect home school will be more demanding this time round. Though said 2 year old is now well versed in iPads, which helps a bit for completing my own work.

I'm still behind though on some stuff we were all set. I'm on a second holiday with family and going to have to spend two full days ploughing at it due to ongoing lack of childcare.

(I did have a battle with some physical health issues though during lock down which did make things much harder, and also why I'm behind, and I seem to have got on top of.)

I am not going to read the DF link but Boris is just chatting shit to appease certain sectors of the electorate because he is in a panic. Using loaded words like 'moral' to position the unions as somehow amoral is just ridiculous.

If it really says 'this paper has established' I'd like to know how, where, through whom, and through which methodologies or are they just referring to Woolhouse?

He is making the same sorts of noises as Trump, just in longer words. Ideological arguments arise from panic.

I agree Herc. I can teach with a flip chart and a pen - old school style! I honestly don't see the point of a laminated colourful card activity with whizzy typefaces when I can get them to learn the same content in 2 minutes just by watching and doing it in their books or on whiteboards.

The problem is so many of them have been promoted and are twittering about themselves.

Now i've made the mistake of looking at the weather and realised that ds' long promised fishing overnight trip will be in the midst of thunderstorms. Arse.

What I don't like about the Twitter hardcore is they sneer at teachers who don't know what they know (because what they know is right!) and often deride TeacherTapp results if a large number believe something that they have debunked. Their tone could do with adjusting.

Knowledge organisers are beginning to come under scrutiny, which is interesting, because lots of them have written whole books about them, and their income is affected if their stuff becomes old hat.

The way they publicly out people is shocking, too. Occasionally that breaks out into full out war

The irony that they sneer at people who sell stuff on TES and buy stuff on TES whilst touting their own wares, is lost on them! They also tend to crowd out Twitter voices who are unfamiliar to them . It's become another boys' club.

That said, I have noticed recently that may entrants to the profession are incapable of thinking or planning for themselves, can only follow a pre set scheme and can't plan a lesson or make their own resources. This is a problem by me because we really have third rate sources for our trainees. I imagine it happens less in some areas. It annoys me more when they say 'I have made this resource' and share it when the author of their ppt still shows as someone else. And, often it's shit. It's a false economy, as I usually spend ages changing everything that has been done by someone else anyway. All the bells and whistles in the world don't make up for rubbish material!

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-we-are-learning-about-covid-19-and-kids/ar-BB17Kiz8?ocid=spartanntp_edu

@Piggywaspushed

A few years ago I taught with one of these shiny new teachers. She was very engaging and liked to be liked by the kids. She also had a winsome way with male SLT. By her third year of teaching she was deputy head of department.

That’s we we discovered she’s been putting schemes of work written by other department members on Teachers Pay Teachers. Which is where she was also getting her whizzy PPs. She just changed al the fonts.

I a very glad not to be working with said person anymore. She was exhausting.

Oh yes the "don't sell your resources, here's a link to my book" crew! (some of their books are decent but still).

In maths being able to sequence questions well is so important. The NQTs/RQTs we've had have no idea how to do this. They just pull a sheet off TES /equivalent and go with it. Then they wonder why the students aren't learning.