The Sixteenth Republic - waiting on the GCSE results show!

[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

@Appuskidu - it is mind boggling that the powers that be can see that the virus spreads when people meet, but think workplaces have some sort of magical protection as it doesn't happen there. Because there is a large number of people who haven't been in a work place for some weeks.

Even I can follow the logic that supermarkets are a lower risk because of people traversing through rather than spending hours grouped together in small spaces. Those who work in supermarkets tend to have PPE and are behind a screen which further reduces the risk to them.

@Iamnotthe1 yes but HOD is far too busy and important to bother with that sort of nonsense! I'd been spending quite a lot of time visiting feeder primaries in the first term and was incredibly impressive - but apparently they were putting on show lesson. None so blind as those who will not see.
I couldn't be a primary teacher. I wouldn't know where to begin.

@Appuskidu

It’s not just schools that are safe-it’s work, too!

Chop chop-back you go, there’s nothing to see here!

Brill! Daily Mail too. We can use this when all the U4T snowflakes claim they can't possibly go back into the office because they have to get onto a bus/train with schoolchildren in the morning

Sorry to not provide all links but most of this is on the BBC site; from my reading today so far:

Northern Ireland is discussing reimposing restrictions today, their rate is highest for any region of the UK. But still aiming at opening schools as planned.

American universities which have just started are becoming COVID hotspots and having to close again.

Nicola Sturgeon prepared to switch schools to blended learning if necessary:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-refuses-rule-out-22540201.amp

@MrsHamlet
In fairness, it only happened with ours because the secondary secured funding to work closer with the local primaries. It was after that national report came out saying that students don't make anywhere near enough progress through KS3.

Ks3 is strange. It did used to feel a bit like a holding pen between primary and gcse with not a great deal going on. My school, like many, has compressed it into 2 years and allegedly made it more challenging now but I’m not sure I like that either.

In an ideal world it’d be good to get some interdisciplinary stuff in there with what I guess would be project work and learning the skills, focus points and methodology of the different subjects to that project.

You then make your options based on that.

Cross curricular links was a big buzzword when I started but never seem to hear it now. In fact I’ve not even seen a proper scheme of work or lesson plan since starting at this school. Just folders full of PowerPoints.

@Appuskidu

It’s not just schools that are safe-it’s work, too!

Chop chop-back you go, there’s nothing to see here!

And the threads have begun 😂

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4000119-Matt-Hancocks-statement-on-returning-to-work

@cantkeepawayforever I had my eyes opened when I was supporting in my DD's primary whilst part time (glutton for punishment) and was so impressed at how confident and independent the Y6 were (and how we then spend 5 years in secondary beating it out of them ) As a now HOD I can appreciate what they have done in primary and do share with the team! I know not all primary's are the same.

On a completely different note has anyone had a calendar for this year??? When parent evenings are and such?

I think my issue is that there's an arrogant assumption that we're better than primary just because ... but I wouldn't have a clue how to teach a child to read or write. I know secondary trainees are meant to spend time in primary but it would be very interesting if everyone did. It was planned for the summer term this year...

I have. But only because I'm in charge of the planner. It's got everything on but we're expecting to cancel everything in term 1!

@Sureitwillbegrand

On a completely different note has anyone had a calendar for this year??? When parent evenings are and such?

Yup we have a full calendar. Parents evenings have all been scheduled. The first being the annual ‘Meet the tutor’. I share a form with a colleague so that’ll be interesting to see how we can manage 2m from each other and the parents that evening 😆

Oh I like people can't stay in furlough forever as a variation on the theme!

Disclaimer: except in Germany.

Yes we have calendar but it’s as theoretical as everything else presumably

Love how @StaffAssociationRepresentative got in with the school’s comment 😉

I think the secondary teachers visiting primaries needs to work both ways, tbh. I know what kids are taught at primary and so i pretest them before teaching those topics to find their weak spots and if primary teachers could see some of their lovely able Y6s failing to do long multiplication they’d probably tear their hair out!

@noblegiraffe

I think the secondary teachers visiting primaries needs to work both ways, tbh. I know what kids are taught at primary and so i pretest them before teaching those topics to find their weak spots and if primary teachers could see some of their lovely able Y6s failing to do long multiplication they’d probably tear their hair out!

Absolutely! These should be regular visits between settings to better support relationships and transition. I've done this before and went up to the local secondary (after they had been to me) to see my former pupils and look at what they were doing and the quality of what they were producing.

@motherrunner

Love how *@StaffAssociationRepresentative* got in with the school’s comment 😉

I just can't stop myself. It is like a guilty pleasure I have developed relating back to Easter time when we were getting a real kicking from some posters.

It’d be nice to have samples (typical rather than show pieces) of their independent work. Would mean for example when they scrawl across the page we’d know if that was generally the best they could manage or if we could hold the old and new work up side by side and ask them what’s occurring

@noblegiraffe

I think the secondary teachers visiting primaries needs to work both ways, tbh. I know what kids are taught at primary and so i pretest them before teaching those topics to find their weak spots and if primary teachers could see some of their lovely able Y6s failing to do long multiplication they’d probably tear their hair out!

Completely agree. I have a bonus of an ex primary teacher in my department who is amazing.

It would be great for transition to work both ways. I have no problem at all welcoming people into my classroom at any point - although no trainees this year, which will be very odd.

Basically they go from one teacher knowing them and their capabilities well, and who therefore upholds standards, to being potentially one of 150 kids that teacher teaches. With the best will in the world we can’t properly, quickly get to know them.

The whole switch is a bit shit really. I know we have to have specialists but it’d be good to find some way of reducing the number of teachers they see and vice versa.

Eg form tutor teaches them their specialism. I’d happily teach all humanities at ks3. Not sure what else could be done but that would already reduce the numbers a bit.

I think we could also probably do with ks3 specialists. There’s understandably a massive emphasis on exam years but if things are going to shit in ks3 that obviously feeds into problems in ks4.

I used to hate teaching the younger ones (started out in an upper school) but have come to value it and get better at it in the last couple of years. Can see lots of ways of improving provision and embedding independent learning skills etc but it’s just not valued ime.

@TheHoneyBadger

I think that's a big part of the problem. As Year Six teacher, I'm responsible for that child's English skills so I pick them up and expect high quality writing whether that's in English, History, Geography, Science, Maths etc.

If I taught Science in a secondary school, how do I know the full extent of what the child is capable of in English? Almost more importantly, what time do I have to actually be able to invest in that?

Yep. I have no idea if that unpunctuated scrawl is laziness or the best they can do and we’re not correcting every spelling and missing full stop.