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

@Iamnotthe1 that’s pretty much it. It’s the biggest mess I’ve seen.

This next year is going to be the first year I've had a seating plan in five years. I'm used to flexible seating where the kids change seat regularly and move around based on what challenge they are working on and which people I pull to work with me at different points. It's going to be weird.

Will be interesting being back in a classroom with no room to move between rows. Guess it doesn’t matter next term as I’ll be in my little isolation zone at the front.

I was thinking today to make sure I have the direct dial number for student services on my phone. We usually have to open sims and press the emergency icon and wait and see if patrol turn up. If a child is ill or being unsafe I don’t want to wait hoping. Will call ss on my mobile

My classroom is as far away from SLT as it is possible to be. Summoning help is largely pointless since they like to play "pass the parcel" with the phone and then amble slowly over. I'd like to think September might be different but I'm not so naive.

@MrsHamlet

I have to say that I am in awe of *@noblegiraffe*'s commitment to arguing with stupid!

Oh I’m just passing the time. Bit unfair to go up against stupid, really. But there are genuine A voters on that thread who may think the same thing so worth pointing out the flaws for their benefit.

And tbh I want to stop others getting dragged into the petty A-level teacher-bashing shit, some people just read the last post and react because they don’t realise it’s trolling.

The front page of the Sunday Express states that there will be a new campaign from Monday that is designed to persuade parents that schools are safe places to send their children in September.

It bothers me how many people genuinely don't know what's happening in schools. My parents believed that I was safely in a bubble - not in 4 different ones, all of 100+, all of 15 year old upwards. They didn't realise that there are no masks and that 2m is a pipe dream. But they're retired so they have no reason to know.
It's shocking that so many parents are blade about it. I know the ones in my class who have those parents, of course, but the vitriol is another level.

Can’t believe they’ve u-turned on the mock thing late on a Saturday night.

I mean, of course they have. That’s how education policy is done.

I imagine Gav got on the phone and pointed out that there were too many opportunities for the plebeians to get good marks so we'll see version 2 in which valid mocks can only count if they're done on a yacht

Sam Freedman says “Anyway I have no idea what is going on. In the immortal words of Malcolm Tucker they have laid a fat egg of solid fuck.”

Which poor sod has drawn the short straw and is going to do the round of Sunday breakfast shows trying to defend the Alevel fiasco and shutting down PHE rumours?

@Iamnotthe1 Came onto say the same thing:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53795439

Not the SD classrooms ... again!

*note

“ The government initiative will point to guidance, endorsed by Public Health England, that ensures schools are Covid-secure.”

Magical walls!

[quote motherrunner]@Iamnotthe1 Came onto say the same thing:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53795439

Not the SD classrooms ... again![/quote]
It's so irresponsible to continue using those images and pretending that schools will look like that.

That image from the bbc; when ever I look at it I think 'isolation ends but mum could still be ill for another 2-4 weeks, as per dad when he gets it.'

If you're a teacher and the last to catch it in the house hold, that's a lot of absence affecting the school and staffing.

Gah, back from our hols now and starting to feel the strain of going back.

Cases are taking a sudden sharp turn up locally. Including a cluster in my ward. Looking at local papers it's predominantly young and from pubs and bars.

We are a heavy university city, with two large universities. Gawd knows what will happen then.

Staff isolation will be the first thing to shut schools.

Can the pic from that BBC article be reported to the IPSO? After the "success" with the mail article. That picture is so misleading.

The hashtag #backtoschoolsafely has already been taken over on twitter by people with saying how unsafe it is.

I'm not sure this has been thought through properly.

I am trying to accept the situation for what it is. I have resigned myself to DH and I catching it and DH we have organised a plan, just got to hope we don’t become incapacitated. Then I’m reminded how unfairly we’re being tested to other professions. Just booked hair appointments for DD and me. We need to wear masks, stylist will wear a mask and a visor. Keep switching between anger and floods of tears.

I've just seen the picture referred. Children miles from teacher who is sat at front of room...not going to happen. And how dare they spend money on a publicity campaign to persuade people it is safe yet not spend a penny on sourcing extra teachers,PPE or even some bloody sanitizer for the schools.

It’s disgusting that they are spending money on this and not on actual schools.

I was also thinking about the children in the front rows but from a contact point of view. If SD is not possible in the classroom and a teacher goes off sick all the students in the front rows of the classes will probably be treated as contacts. Once parents realise this they will be complaining about where their child sits.

That photo is laughable. Even in my smallest A level class, that's not possible.

I think I am more angry right now than I have ever been in my life.

This cannot be good for me.

Re the appeals. There are no senior examiners to do the review legwork because they wouldn't furlough us. We got nothing (AQA).

I don't think they could legally furlough examiners due to contract wording. I'm with Pearson and got an ex gratis payment. Surprising AQA the apparently ethical board paid nothing.