The Nineteenth Republic - DfE guidance issued August Bank Holiday Weekend!

[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

Wow, my cousin's Facebook status:

Let me start by saying that nothing about any of this is okay, it’s not going to be okay, there is nothing OK about this, any of this. I have read the “Dear Teachers, it will be ok” letters, that were meant in the kindest way possible, they were kind, but it’s not going to be ok. I have never wanted to sit in my car filled with road rage at 6:30 am more than I do right now. I miss my students, my friends, my classroom, my JOB...The “mayor” and the “chancellor” are LIARS. I don’t want to hear or see a thing about us being whiners or the “suck it up, we did our jobs” because if you do, you don’t know the half of it. Take the safety part aside, since our schools were in complete crumbling disrepair prior to Covid. They had “no money” to send a simple air filter or send us toilet paper. They have refused to sit with us since MARCH when we had to sue them to close the physical schools (not student education) and we pulled whatever we could together with no guidance. They swept staff deaths under the rug. They pull this “plan” out of their ass in late July without speaking to ANYONE. They tell us they are laying off 9,000 teachers because of budget cuts, but are hiring people to allow a hybrid model to work, but we may never be able to reopen for in-person learning for THE YEAR because of cuts according to the “chancellor”.......oh and giving their own staff raises.....make sense AT ALL?? Crickets when asked about how to work inclusion models and honor IEP’s-legal special education plans, and plans for English Language Learners will be implemented.....no answers to anything....nothing....Nothing to be shown but a yard stick with better toilet paper than a teacher’s bathroom would ever see, clipped to a yard stick to check “air vent flow.” Principals having policies and ways to do things chucked at them and being forced to make decisions in a very short amount of time. I don’t care who you are, if you live on the island, live in the city, have kids, don’t have kids. This is wrong on every level. You want to call me a whiner....let’s chat in real life about the facts. You are going to tell me to trust THEM? Parents in NYC who have stood by us and trusted us with your kids. Please do so now. We don’t want to do this. We would not be striking for more than what’s in our contract, we would be striking for what is already IN our contract, in black and white, to be followed through upon for the sake of students first, parents, teachers and staff, principals. I have kept quiet all summer trying to enjoy whatever time I had with my family before the inevitable would occur and DOE staff and families would be swept up in a disastrous mess. I’m glad I did. I am going to salvage what is left of next week because it’s my time that I will never get back.

Oh ,and I assume Every Twat for Himself is behind this:

twitter.com/wumz_xo/status/1300016579489525760

@Piggywaspushed wow that's great isn't it...

Can parents "refuse to take part in Track and Trace" I wonder? I guess in a way it doesn't matter because if you're in school you'll be told to isolate if necessary by school anyway (?). If you refuse to and try and send the child in then school can require the parent to take them home.

What happens if the parent refuses? Presumably local health authority (which = t&t now) then gets involved, then... who knows?

Have you got symptoms too, mistress? Hope all well 🤞🏻

[quote Piggywaspushed]Oh ,and I assume Every Twat for Himself is behind this:

twitter.com/wumz_xo/status/1300016579489525760[/quote]
That is truly fucked up.

But I have had parents like that before.

They were the same ones that rang up and complained overtime their little bundle of joy got into trouble with a teacher.

@MrsHamlet

I can provide sticks in a variety of bespoke lengths. One of my nuttier characters two years ago told me that his mam had banned him from giving me the end of year gift he wanted to, as he handed over a bottle of gin. Enquires turned up that he'd actually whittled me a stick. My TA and I both thought that was lovely 😂

Oh probably about a decade ago now I confiscated a 1m rule that arrived at my lesson with one end sharpened to a point and "the pointing stick" written on it in permanent marker. I had it for years until I was forced to move labs.

If you want an illustration of why this isn't going to work, go on the thread about does anyone check on you if you are quarantined after a holiday.

Lots of imploring parent to send child in on day 14 as 'it's an important day '. Well yes, that's why going abroad in a global pandemic might not be a great idea

@TheHoneyBadger

Thanks Hamlet. Hope it’s a long stick.

I keep meaning to research brain breaks that can be done sitting still. Seem to remember something about getting them to trace figures of 8 in the air with their index fingers and then doing them in opposite directions...

@TheHoneyBadger Google lazy 8s and also wobbly archer!

I would be prepared to bet my house on the fact that there will be a hefty proportion of children in school on the first day of term who've recently got off a plane from somewhere and they should be quarantining.

CallmeAngelina

I made that point a few threads back and was thoroughly rounded upon.
Probably by the parents that would do it.

[quote Augustbreeze]@Piggywaspushed wow that's great isn't it...

Can parents "refuse to take part in Track and Trace" I wonder? I guess in a way it doesn't matter because if you're in school you'll be told to isolate if necessary by school anyway (?). If you refuse to and try and send the child in then school can require the parent to take them home.

What happens if the parent refuses? Presumably local health authority (which = t&t now) then gets involved, then... who knows?[/quote]
Refusing to take part is as simple as not answering your phone. Also how would they get the phone number of an infected students contacts? Are schools even allowed to share that data?

Our world beating system relies upon someone answering their phone aand then being honest about who they’ve been in contact with and knowing the full name and contact details of all those people.

Ie I traveled on the number 10 bus everyday last week = a shed load of contacts including school kids with no name or contact details.

Thanks aart off to look now

I honestly thought it was Saturday. Now realise I’m back the day after tomorrow

@TheHoneyBadger

I honestly thought it was Saturday. Now realise I’m back the day after tomorrow

DH just asked me if I'm 'excited' about going back.

I'm not sure if he's making a Physics joke or if I should murder him. Possibly both?

Has anyone seen the speculation that the government could put public sector workers on a 4 day week to boost jobs? Can you imagine the fury generally, but specifically about us? Or our fury if it's every public sector worker apart from us. I've always thought we have a retention problem not a recruitment problem and if they doubled our ppa we'd have far less turnover.

Lots of surveys say teachers want

-smaller class sizes
-better CPD
-more opportunities for secondments and time off/sabbaticals for study
-more time to plan

It's all so obvious!

I remember Damian Hinds promising one year sabbaticals for teachers with ten year’s experience. Did that ever happen?

It’s not like we want the moon on a stick

Need to catch up after a sunny walk up the coast.

School risk assessment (pages and pages) has us all with our own pen pack.

Might get a bum bag for pens and to hook the spray into. Or a good cooks apron.

@noblegiraffe

I remember Damian Hinds promising one year sabbaticals for teachers with ten year’s experience. Did that ever happen?

We were thinking of doing this.

I think I've done 20 this sept. Can I have two?

@DollyMixtureLulus no we don't have symptoms (though feeling generally off now but that is probably psychosomatic!) but the dc do. They didn't say anything about when we'd get the results.
It is probably a cold, but no way could we send dc in to cough repeatedly in school. So all off school tomorrow at least - it feels very odd but this is the new normal, right?

I do know two people who took sabbaticals. One has left teaching and one did not come back to our school but went to a private school. The school really gained nothing from it.

Neuro we can get career breaks here (for any reason), unpaid and down to the school if you're allowed. Often used for children but also for round the works trips and someone I know wrote a book in theirs

On pens, I use lamy bright pink ink in mine and it dries quickly.
On sabbaticals, I worked with someone who was given one in her NQT+2 year in the hope she would come back and stay. It worked.
I'd love one. I'd also love to get some CPD instead of always being the one who has to deliver it.

An 80% teaching timetable here would equate to one non contact per day here. Hardly excessive given the amount of work to do and the zillion emails a day that need responding to.

Never going to happen but would likely make a huge difference to retention