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

34 top set year 11. Quite needy in a "please come and look at this miss" way.

Yep morning again and I have seen the class lists. There are a number who quite frankly will not make it through A Levels and should be on a BTEC course at college. We are doing these kids no favours

Washimal, I'g get a test tbh. The WHO lists 8 symptoms and you' have 3 of them.

It probably isn't because there's a lot of cross over with other winter viral infections.

Being forced to accept students with D and E at gcse for A level was one of the reasons I swapped to primary. My sympathies - it's awful for you and them.

Has anyone received a union response? I contacted my rep about my having to cover break every day and losing 40 mins of my lunch. I think this counts as directed time and this would take me over "budget". Still no reply. I am intending to raise this at inset tomorrow so if anyone has any advice please send it my way! It's actually worrying me as I need a wee from 8.30 to 12.45! I can have very heavy perimenopausal periods and I need my break.

@Ickabog From that well known government propaganda machine called the BBC

Morning all. Just about recovered from yesterday.

Main points of day:

-sanitiser dispensers outside each classroom. They are empty but assuming they’ll be filled for today.
-each staff member been given a trolley, wipes and personal sanitiser bottle.
-we’ve all been assigned a work space so we have someone to go during PPA.
-all classrooms have been emptied except for basics and tables in rows.
-I found all my classrooms
-My flask kept my coffee hot from 6.30am to 4!

Am as ready as I’ll ever be.

@phlebasconsidered

Being forced to accept students with D and E at gcse for A level was one of the reasons I swapped to primary. My sympathies - it's awful for you and them.

Has anyone received a union response? I contacted my rep about my having to cover break every day and losing 40 mins of my lunch. I think this counts as directed time and this would take me over "budget". Still no reply. I am intending to raise this at inset tomorrow so if anyone has any advice please send it my way! It's actually worrying me as I need a wee from 8.30 to 12.45! I can have very heavy perimenopausal periods and I need my break.

@phlebasconsidered I have a 20 minute break from 8-3.45. Found out in July. Contacted school rep, regional and national. Responses were that it is covered in directed hours so fine and 20 minutes is the legal work break for 6 hours worked.

My year 11 is back in today, I've been involved with all the preparation and know that everything possible is being/has been done but it's not going to be enough is it?

I was back yesterday.

And the school that spent 5 grand on a fancy temperature scanner!

What are they not spending money on?

Motherrunner - fuck! How can that be? That's insane! I can now fully expect to flood in the classroom.

And if that's our directed time, then surely they can't then expect us to attend meetings etc?

Does your school have a menopause policy motherrunner ? If you end up needing a day a month off because you are too heavy, they will lose out.

I didn't know such a thing existed! It is now on my "Yes I am awkward so mark my card and sod off" list for inset tomorrow.

We’ve had meeting reduced to compensate for the extra duties.

I’ve spoken to my HoD about my fear of flooding and she said to leave the class. Is there such a thing as a ‘menopause policy’? Will have to trawl the annexes!

No class lists here yet. No kids til Monday but still.

No actual logistical arrangements either. Just GDPR, safeguarding and being read out emails that have previously been sent.

@Piggywaspushed - the trade off will be not getting a TA or replacing a member of staff or an embargo on buying class sets of books. There has to be a trade off somewhere. They could have used a chunk of the pupil premium budget for it.

Well that's the thing, there might not be yet. But given the majority of school staff are women and 25% of women experience severe symptoms and therefore experience higher absence levels, they bloody well ought to. If you end up leaving or reducing your days just to cope, they would have to spend a fortune to replace you. And they owe you a duty of care anyway as your employer.
gets down off soapbox

I wish I could be confident they cared, but they'd probably be glad to save cash and get an nqt or scitt student instead. Every single post filled in the last 3 years has been an nqt. We have only myself and one other teacher not in slt who are over 40. Older teachers are already routinely capabilitied out throughout the sector, I think the fact they are now identified as higher risk will make things even more difficult. I am protected thus far because no-one wants year 6 with a bargepole but I can see it coming.

Just about to go in. Bricking it about teaching Reception, even though it's only 15 mins. Much prefer year 10.

Secondary commute is 28 minutes. The lowest I've ever done is 23 but that was 7am on a Saturday. It's 16 miles through mostly lovely E Devon countryside. Today's commute is 9 minutes unless I meet someone coming the other way or the bastard woman who always goes for a slow horse ride on a Wednesday lunchtime...

Hello All. I hope those of you in today are doing okay. Second INSET day here. Yesterday was 9 people in a small room doing live online training ALL DAY. None of us were more than 1m from anyone else. Crazy.

I'm part-excited, part-nervous about how it'll be with the kids back.

Literally just been sent details of assemblies. Massive disruption to lessons as year groups are being split. This still means 90 to 150 kids and adults together often in unventilated spaces.

Our max for assemblies in Scotland is 50, which still feels like a lot

Katherineofgaunt again that would not be allowed here, all meetings require 2m distancing. Do we really have much better rules than rUK or is it just your schools being shit?

No live Assemblies at all here - just headteacher loom videos.

No live assemblies here. Just finished online training day.

Still people pedalling shit like purple pens of progress and pink box questions

@Mistressiggi

Katherineofgaunt again that would not be allowed here, all meetings require 2m distancing. Do we really have much better rules than rUK or is it just your schools being shit?

More a case of support staff not having the means to join the meeting technology-wise so we were in one of our small classrooms using the IWB.

Technically we're a bubble anyway, but we're also part of different year group/phase bubbles too. sigh