The Eighteenth Republic - More U Turns On The Horizon? - INSET Days and travel problems

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders 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 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

Do not give ‘The Every twat for Themselves mob’ the staffroom password as a number of them are operating in an alternative reality.

No DfE muppets allowed

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 goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom. Close the door quietly on your way out

So utterly business as usual except for hand sanitizer!

Until it runs out, gets stolen or some idiot decides to drink it.

I’ve just told DH that if I contact the virus and get very ill then he is to sue the DfE, Gavin Williamson and U4T.

My OH is worse than ambivalent. He actually thinks it's all hysteria and said the other day that he'd considered getting a sunflower lanyard to avoid wearing a mask. Sometimes I wonder why I despise him.

I notified my ht before the hols that I won't be able to be 2m away from the kids in my room due to its size.

He waded in to reorganise my rows (he does this) and declared it done and workable. Except the rows are so close to each other or the walls that some kids won't be able to pull out the chairs far enough to sit down. But its fine!

We have an increased cleaning schedule. But mo increased hours for the cleaners and they only come after school. Teachers expected to wipe down tables and chairs. TAs expected to do toilets! Their union has emailed them to say that it is not their job. When they informed the ht he was unimpressed.

I worked out yesterday that it will take nearly 20 minutes for my class to make it inside my classroom when they arrive, after break, lunch or pe etc. That's a lot of dead time!

(At 30 kids x 20seconds hand washing plus changeover time).

TAs expected to do toilets! Their union has emailed them to say that it is not their job

Thank goodness the unions stood up for the TAs.
I wonder how many schools have plans like this but they haven’t quite got round to telling the staff yet?

I’ll be moving classrooms as the kids are in year group zones. At least I’ll easily hit 10,000 steps a day.

To be fair to the school, zoning into year groups makes way more sense than letting 100s of kids wander around the school 5 times a day.
I just wish they had zoned the teachers into year groups (or maybe two year groups per teacher). At least I’m mobile, in my least school I know some teachers who wouldn’t physically cope with moving around the school.

I've gone from being quite a shouty DH, to being quite quiet in my current school. I'm still SLT, but not as influential. It was an intentional school move to lower my responsibility levels, so I try really hard not to stick my opinions in the whole time. I absolutely trust my head to make the right choices for us and the children, which helps. We discuss a lot of 'bigger' stuff than we eventually run with.

So far I've not consciously started to stress out about school, but my mouth ulcers are back and I'm reading Twitter more, so clearly my subconscious is winding up. I've not even thought about my new tricky class very much either. Got next week to consider them a bit, so assuming I'll be working next weekend on stuff for the following week.

I'm also lucky in that if I neeed to, if I feel unsafe, I can resign to leave at xmas. I don't want to because I like my school, but I will if I feel I need to. I think there is the potential for a lot of teacher churn at xmas this year because people didnt move over the summer like they normally would.

@WhenSheWasBad

TAs expected to do toilets! Their union has emailed them to say that it is not their job

Thank goodness the unions stood up for the TAs.
I wonder how many schools have plans like this but they haven’t quite got round to telling the staff yet?

I am expecting to be informed I am cleaning toilets next week, the day before we go back. And classrooms. It’s a reworking of “Why have a dog and bark yourself?” “Why have a TA and get down that shitty U-bend yourself?”

Not sure Unison will be able to make a stand about that, with the “.......and any other duties....” in our contracts. But cleaning with no COSHH training, using bleach while children on the premises, in crappy plastic gloves and no FFP3 mask? Get. To. Fuck.

To add, cleaning is a decent job. I could make more doing it than I currently do now, with the correct training and PPE. But I hate it and bleach makes me sneeze and cough so hello! to being sent home for test and isolation repeatedly

Can you imagine if a child goes home with a bleach stain on their uniform? The uproar from the parent!

Our students are meant to clean their desks before they leave. We asked what if they won't. "You do it". Okay - but I also have to leg it across the school round the one way system in no time whilst not wetting myself. It's not that I mind wiping the tables down so much as no one seems to have thought about the logistics for teachers.
And I don't even know what our LSAs will be doing since they're not allowed in classrooms!

Thankfully we have a cleaner working all day now for the loos and (possibly if anyone is sick? Though we will have to don ppe for that.)

But we have to have very dedicated cleaning teams anyway in our setting.

Still have to wipe on entry and leaving a communal classroom. Eg ict suite. And kids are to be taught to wipe equipment eg science stuff.

We are basically going to be teaching our kids to be cleaners for the first fortnight.

And I don't even know what our LSAs will be doing since they're not allowed in classrooms!

That's madness.

as no one seems to have thought about the logistics for teachers.

Precisely. My mind keep boggling at the amount of time things will take.

@Ickabog

And I don't even know what our LSAs will be doing since they're not allowed in classrooms!

That's madness.

That's crazy?!

Our students are meant to clean their desks before they leave. We asked what if they won't.

Does anyone seriously expect them to?

I don’t even trust my colleagues to clean the teacher’s desk (and keyboard, remote control, board rubber...).

I haven't seen a R.A. for the photocopiers yet.

Seriously though - outbreaks in schools and PHE.
Do we know when PHE is being relieved of duties?
Especially as I seem to remember the advice in schools if there are cases is currently "talk to PHE". Nothing about when bubbles burst, just talk to this organisation that we have already massively demoralised by announcing it's demise, let alone it's imminent demise....

Last I heard our TAs weren't allowed in classrooms either - exam desks are being set up in various department offices for them to withdraw students to instead. We are not allowed to use the department offices or workrooms as a result. Or the staffroom. How the fuck am I supposed to get stuff done in my before/after/lunch/PPA time?

What’s the thinking behind TAs not being allowed in classes? To protect them or the students?

I think it's to stop the adult to adult transmission which is apparently the main problem....

The students, or rather, the huge, meaningless ‘bubbles’. In theory, the separate areas for interventions or time outs will be cleaned between students. But how thoroughly? Will everyone be doing under the chairs where the students reach to pull their chair in, for instance. Or under the desks rather than just a quick wipe on the top?

@Appuskidu

What’s the thinking behind TAs not being allowed in classes? To protect them or the students?

It's problematic to have another adult in the classroom apparently. Possibly less problematic than trying to have them support remotely... but what do I know? I'm just a class teacher. This level of logic is above my pay grade.

Could someone braver than me flag up Rats study and chart to the major unions? Or do you think they've seen it