The Fifteenth Republic - A Level and GCSE Results storm coming!

[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

Another outbreak near me. Is it bad that I’m thinking no don’t lockdown yet, wait till September?

But schools are staying open in lockdown. I'd rather there was a local lockdown earlier to get cases lower before we go back

I asked about the Polish kids because the outbreak in Northampton is in the Polish community. Worth knowing...

So, if schools are remaining open during localised lockdowns, how does that work then? Are all students and parents expected to go directly home at 3.30 (or whenever), making contact with nobody? Who will police this?

Oh, and I ignored my own advice earlier, and went and told LaurieMarlow to fuck off on another thread. I expect I'll be deleted for it (fine) but I snapped.

@CallmeAngelina

So, if schools are remaining open during localised lockdowns, how does that work then? Are all students and parents expected to go directly home at 3.30 (or whenever), making contact with nobody? Who will police this?

That is crazy, and not a lockdown!

What actually shuts during a lockdown, then? Do shops?

Or is it just telling people to wfh if they can (rather than listening to Boris who says wfh is now bad?!).

@CallmeAngelina My friend was banned/suspended/whatever they call it here, for quoting someone calling someone else thick. On a vaccine thread, where they were being thick.

Regarding local lockdown - if the town where I live locks down, am I allowed to drive to the town where I teach, or vice versa?

Yes, you can still go to work in a local lockdown. You just can’t do any leisure or visiting stuff (except as a household with no contact).

@Piggywaspushed - it doesn't surprise me. There's an awful lot of immigrants working in our local factories, who also live in HMO's. I suspect it's ripe conditions for spreading viruses.

@CallmeAngelina

So, if schools are remaining open during localised lockdowns, how does that work then? Are all students and parents expected to go directly home at 3.30 (or whenever), making contact with nobody? Who will police this?

For the local 'lockdown' measures that have been put in place where my school is, they've just stopped people gathering in gardens or going into other people's houses. It's not a lockdown like we locked down before and I imagine future ones won't be either.

I think schools will make their own calls in the end just as they did in March. Will take ovaries of steel to do it but we have a duty of care for kids, staff and the wider community that should come before adherence to flakey politicians.

I’m giving black on Monday and going to have to get the bus. Is it mad that I’m anxious about that? Haven’t used public transport or been into town since this began and we have high infection numbers

I'm not anxious about stuff, but I'm wary of ruining my summer holiday, so I'm not really doing anything at the moment @TheHoneyBadger. Gardens and the park and that's about it.

@TheHoneyBadger

I think schools will make their own calls in the end just as they did in March. Will take ovaries of steel to do it but we have a duty of care for kids, staff and the wider community that should come before adherence to flakey politicians.

I’m giving black on Monday and going to have to get the bus. Is it mad that I’m anxious about that? Haven’t used public transport or been into town since this began and we have high infection numbers

Not at all mad! I'm more worried about getting back on public transport than I am about being in the classroom.

David King of independent Sage has asked people to tweet him with suggestions of how to open schools safety. It has been swamped with a deluge of Twats4themselves replying and frothing about opening as NORMAL with no muzzles or segregation. They also seem to think IndSage have an agenda and want schools shut forever!

I'm doing stuff now while I can. Seeing friends and family as I've said to them that come September I will be their biggest risk factor.

@Iamnotthe1 assume that's why they're extending the northern lockdown as cases have "failed to fall"

U4T really need to be careful. I think they started out with vaguely good intentions and are now so hyped on their own power that they’re out of control.

People will need scapegoats when this all goes wrong. Might as well put the blame where it belongs- the people who didn’t even want teachers to be able to use hand sanitiser.

If I said what I really thought about them I’d be banned from MN.

@Appuskidu

David King of independent Sage has asked people to tweet him with suggestions of how to open schools safety. It has been swamped with a deluge of Twats4themselves replying and frothing about opening as NORMAL with no muzzles or segregation. They also seem to think IndSage have an agenda and want schools shut forever!

I’m sick of this. It’s THEIR job, not OUR job and 2 weeks before English schools open is a bit too damn late.

Saucery

And Scottish schools have already opened with some already closed.

@Saucery this is independent sage though, so not their job, more concerned, knowledgeable bystander

I know, I know. I just keep looking for the Grown Ups in this situation. As in scientists, pandemic managers, someone who knows what the hell is going on. But there doesn’t seem to be any.

@TheHoneyBadger from what we're seeing in Scotland local health officials are being pretty proactive about closing schools and taking other measures.

Right now I am grumpy at DC's primary school. I walked past DS1's class the other day and saw they had returned the stupid little tables and stools to the classroom. When the new (to the year group not school) teachers took over the year group, they removed all the normal tables and chairs from the class and replaced them with coffee sized tables - the Lack ones from Ikea, sofa, stools and Poang chairs. Students were using the classroom space as they saw fit, so some would lie on the floor to do their work, others would curl up on a sofa and there were those who would sit leaning back in the comfy chairs with their feet up on the tables! They are allowed to choose where to sit on a whim. Fine in normal circumstances (if a little too casual for a year 6 group imo) but not conducive to social distancing at all.

From what I could see, they have gone back to this as the normal school tables and chairs are back in the outside space and near the fire door are 2 lack coffee tables with 2 stools either side - 4 pupils around a table 110cm x 55cm. Notwithstanding there is zero SD being done at that table, they are also expecting pupils to hunch over if they are to be writing at them... I've already had to ask that they ensure DS1 has his own dedicated desk which will not be used by anyone else without his permission as he will have a meltdown if he has to keep changing where he sits or if someone else chooses to sit in his assigned seat.

I have yet to see anything other than pupils will be bubbled by year group, to enter and leave from a dedicated doorway per year group and will have staggered break and lunch times to avoid mixing with other year groups (presumably with the exception of breakfast club). There is clearly no intention to SD within the classroom at all, at least in this classroom.

In

Cohort of 21 - I was VERY careful to be accurate with my grades - totally in line with previous three years attainment. 7 of mine were downgraded, but as we are in Wales 6 of those will have to gob ack up as they did better in the AS last year (an actual exam in exam conditions and not some random number generator!). Sadly the lower grade is what appears on their results currently, and I assume it is the grade UCAS has been given. I only hope the admin tutors listen to them when they phone and explain they WILL be upgraded.