The Twentieth Republic - all back and its time to bubble bubble ...

[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, especially if you have not used the hand gel. Close the door quietly on your way out and put your mask on.

Salty, primaries vary enormously because they are essentially fiefdoms. Your child's sounds great! It's good to know there are good ones. Good for your child too. Mine is utterly shit. Not even a one way system. Still handing everything out and collecting it in. No masks or visors, not even a bit of tspe on thefloor. Nothing. Business as usual. But it's ok because the head says we "own" the risk. And i've been given a bottle of hand gel.

How the f can they tell us kids don't transmit? Clearly that's been a source of infection.

I don't know about anyone else but I feel all the contact stuff is barely half of the issue, the other just being stuffy air. We are extremely well ventilated I now realise but I remember so many places I've been in that aren't and can't be made better.

Phleb, your ht is a dick.

And going to eat his words soon.

I can't believe parents aren't worried at your place?

Thank you for dropping that on the numbers thread EducatingArti

We're still handing things out as normal. Worksheets are fine (but the photocopying budget is tiny so avoid if you can), textbooks are fine (and if you need to share textbooks between 2 bubbles then just give them a wipe with a Dettol wipe)

So, government have voted for another 11 weeks working from home!

Bloody hell, you're 250 posts in already.

Get back to the office unless you are an MP Angelina. Do as we say not as we do.

@Frlrlrubert
We also have basically no behaviour policy now, other than recording it on SIMS. We used to remove disruptive students to a 6th form class or similar. If they were then disruptive again or wouldn't go, we'd call and someone would come take them away.

Now it's just if they won't wash their hands or use sanitiser we call for SLT and the kid is sent home

@CallmeAngelina

So, government have voted for another 11 weeks working from home!

Where have you seen that? I can’t find it anywhere but have only looked quickly...

I've been trying to find detail about the Rossendale "spike" relating to the after school club. Although the local news outlets are running the headline that it's caused by the school the articles actually say evidence of transmission via bars etc, so am not sure.

But yes the school club is run by another organisation and may have children from other schools as well.

There's some evidence for educational settings outbreaks on phe info. Would the holidays club be included in that?

Things I haven't missed :

the stink of hand gel

The absolute stench of a colleague's perfume.I told her yesterday I was allergic. I swear she bathes in it. ...!

I guess so @NeurotrashWarrior, as they wouldn't come under "care homes" or whatever?!

Guess we have to wait for the story to emerge....

August I'm finding bits on twitter. There's a fb page apparently too.

Oh ffs! One of my dc's classmates parents has posted to say 3 of their dc have come down with a cough and 'sniffles' this morning (after they've spend a week away with friends and family) and it's 'typical when they're back at school on Monday'. How can people be so fecking ignorant about these things right now and blaming teachers and schools when parents send their sick kids in. This isn't the type of parent who will take kindly to any suggestion of her precious darlings getting tested given it's a new cough and covid symptoms. Nope, they're blaming it on going swimming. Entirely possible I know, but! Aargh!

And I know logically the chances are small. But this is a family who have consistently flouted lockdown and SD guidance. Hence feeling utterly paranoid.

My search of SM gives an unconfirmed report of 15 cases linked to the school holiday club.

Link please @NeurotrashWarrior ?

Something's just hit me re spotting symptoms in secondary children, following a training session yesterday.

How on earth can classroom staff ever spot a potential case and send them home advising testing? Presuming your school is sticking strictly to the DfE guidance.

We're only allowed to do it for one of the three main symptoms (which I think should be expanded anyway, WHO have about 5 "less common" ones).

• temp - only detectable without a thermometer if child is flushed/has other symptoms/tells you they feel hot
• loss of taste/smell - only if they tell you. I've asked if we can prompt a class after lunch "Could you taste it?" "No" was the answer I received.
• continuous cough for over an hour or for 3+ episodes in 24 hrs - unless you now have double lessons, impossible to spot! (But possible for primary.)

So although there may be children who we suspect have symptoms, we can't do anything at all about it. Great! 😞

What's not clear is who; it may be a sports based one if based in a high school as that seemed very common round here.

If it was a similar set up to my son's, local high school students interested in sports were used to help run it, as many tend to do now for sports days etc.

What concerns me is that a Gp friend told me the majority of cases locally are younger people (which is shown on PHE reports very clearly)but also that half are asymptomatic.

Oh @NeurotrashWarrior I'd (completely stupidly) not thought of it as a holiday club, but an after school club. OK, that is a little different. Still evidence of child transmission though as presumably the 15 cases aren't all adults.

It's only a parent's post in a boycott school opening group. Not exactly super cast iron evidence; at the same time, they're all local parents sharing what's happened at their schools. (And not happy!)

Yes the context is very important.

I've been shocked at the numbers of older teen rates on the latest phe report.

It's a double issue as most are asymptomatic so won't be taking seriously, have low risk and also will have no idea if they're spreading it.

Which is the issue within a school setting if we are looking for symptoms in children and teens.

There mostly aren't any

I suppose I was focussed on it as we've got pages in our RA about how to handle a suspected Covid case!

Question for secondary/PE teachers.

In your secondary school are pupils wearing their kit on pe days or not. My query is mainly because surely there is a higher likelihood of respiratory virus transmission post PE, when students are together in changing rooms, likely breathing more heavily after an active session. This doesn't feature on my school's RA either. But both mine and dc's changing rooms are completely enclosed rooms with no windows and only the entrance door.