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.

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We have zero laptops at my school!

I think primaries do have more tech like tablets and laptops than secondaries. Secondaries kitted themselves out for ICT circa 1997 and haven't afforded to update anything since then.

[quote AugustBreeze]Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse:

BTEC results pulled this evening:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk[/quote]
I reckon someone at the DfE woke up this morning with fright and thought bloody hell we have forgotten about BTECs. Big Gav called Gove and asked what is a BTEC?. Gove replied that he hadn't quite got round to abolishing them as they were not offered at selective schools. Matt said don't worry I will put out a story that everyone has to go back to the office and that will deflect from the BTEC announcement.

Meanwhile Boris is MIA

@Danglingmod

We have zero laptops at my school!

I think primaries do have more tech like tablets and laptops than secondaries. Secondaries kitted themselves out for ICT circa 1997 and haven't afforded to update anything since then.

None in my primary .

We have a class set of laptops that get wheeled round on a crappy trolley. There was originally enough for 1 between 2, but 5 have broken. None have been replaced and the batteries are all shite. No tablets or iPads of anything. So 10 laptops between 32 is pretty shoddy.

We might have a few calculators lying around with solar labels that still function-that’s about as hi tech as we get!!

"I reckon someone at the DfE woke up this morning with fright and thought bloody hell we have forgotten about BTECs. Big Gav called Gove and asked what is a BTEC?. Gove replied that he hadn't quite got round to abolishing them as they were not offered at selective schools. Matt said don't worry I will put out a story that everyone has to go back to the office and that will deflect from the BTEC announcement."

Bloody love this. I would believe it actually happened just like this...

My school laptop has just thrown a tantrum.

@Piggywaspushed

My school laptop has just thrown a tantrum.

Likely at the thought of being given to a student to take home.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/19/ofqual-was-warned-a-month-ago-that-exams-algorithm-was-volatile

So Ofqual forced the u-turn, not Gav or Boris. Very interesting!

It also sounds like there's plenty of blame to go around - Gav, Nick Gibb, Ofqual itself. Anyone fancy setting up a new regulatory body after the Government scrap this one too?

All the staff have a laptop and I bought 6 for my trainees by scrimping and saving. We do also have a kiln but that's mainly because when they looked at removing it to turn the room into a teaching room, unexpected asbestos was found.
It's all an absolute crock!

For my fellow computing teachers

😂 😂 Genius noble. (and probably not far from the truth)

MrsHamlet puts up hand...
I don't get it 😢

It's assigning random numbers

MrsHam, I think you need to add some Computing into your timetable then

@Iamnotthe1 my ex is head of computing and he would actually cry if that were a thing 🤣

@Piggywaspushed "clear and consistent messages" my arse. Hey kids go through that door, no need for masks and yes you can basically sit on each other's laps. Go through that door? Well no you can't, social distancing? Well maybe some of you can, but only a few at a time and you need to stay 2m apart! Oh hang on you want to go through the cafe door? Well some of you can but not too many at the same table but no you can sit right next to each other again now...

And surely no one keeps the old mock papers. You give them back and go through them so kids learn from mistakes

Sorry, Appu, shouldn't have implied that all primaries were mowed out with exciting things that actually worked. But I have heard a rumour that some have these magical new things called ipads and they've definitely only been around about 8 years, which is definitely more up to date than the tech in all of the secondary schools I've ever worked in

We have a computer room with 30 laptops. Brand new this last academic year, but often 5 cant get online, or logged in. Staff have desk tops in classrooms, and a laptop. We have an iPad per year group and one of the old laptops per year group too, which the TAs use. I dont use iPads at all, dont like them.

So, were doing quite well. Lots of children dont have tech at home though, or wifi.

One of the "tidying" jobs I did last year was to assess the 35 laptops we had on our trolley for the whole of my school. 10 worked properly. We haven't been given any more. We also have 3 ancient desk pcs. A school of 350 plus has to use these to do reading quizzes . It's a fucking joke. I'm sick of it. I get parents moaning at me because their child hasn't done their quiz. But they don't help the school fundraise and they all vote fucking Tory. I live in a sea of blue poverty. I'll have to bite my tongue so badly the first parents evening back. If i'm still teaching.

@Piggywaspushed

So now schools have been told NOT to give out BTec results tomorrow....

I thought I was going to have an exams' officer day without any changes! But no, leave school at 4.30, having prepped for tomorrow (so I thought!). Look at my emails tonight and find that Pearson had emailed at 4.32 to say don't give out Btec tomorrow. So have (at 11pm!) changed the broadsheet and electronic version staff will see, amended the letter to students to explain why they don't have Btec grades and will go into school extra early to take those results slips out of the envelopes again... Fortunately we don't have many Btec candidates... Got all the revised A-level results issued today so that was good. Wonder if Ofqual will pay for all the extra postage for sending them on the 6th formers?

Oh god Blankety hope you are having a well deserved drink.

What a nightmare.

Feel so sorry for the BTEC kids too, being messed around so badly.

Going to let you in on a secret. A few years ago I worked in a secondary (in Wales) with an entire computer suite for the English dept alone, several iMacs for A Level Media AND 2 X class sets of iPads with there own recharging trolley. No library to speak of though, and the head was a bully who promoted her own children into leadership roles so be careful what you wish for

Their