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.

I remember when DS started school and we were invited in for their first lunch. Having read MN food threads I was a bit worried about his lunch box, then got into the school to find kids eating cheese strings, frubes, sandwiches, an apple while knocking back Capri Sun. Like normal people.

MN is just mad about food. Every time I make my kids some toast I remember the comment 'you might as well be giving them cake'.

The things that make me feel relatively relaxed about going to work (big college) are:

I’m female
Taught for 30+ years so lots of exposure to coronaviruses
On shedloads of HRT
Have had a pneumonia jab
Have had flu jabs for the last ten years or so (I read somewhere that there’s some protective effect)
Think I prob had CV19 in March, a week or so after daughter was really ill with what we think was it
Am in a part of the college where we see limited numbers of learners anyway

OTOH
No real SD
No real bubbles
Most of my learners are adults
I’m old (67)

Hope I’m right to be relaxed. But it makes it easier to do the job if not so worried. Huge sympathies to those in more stressful situations.

I'd be pissed off about only sandwiches.

Annoyed, I get. Complainy in the current situation though like some parents are? It's hot food versus covid safety isn't it?

If something has been implemented as a covid safety measure then I think parents need to do a bit more tongue-biting (unless it's something totally batshit, obvs).

We are offering a full hot menu: four different cooked meals with a choice of sides and salad as well as baked or prepared desserts.

Are you eating in classrooms or the hall @Iamnotthe1?

All our Primaries are eating in classrooms and are currently only offering cold food, Secondaries eating in the hall and having hot food, but I think the choice is limited.

This will be reviewed once pupils have been in for a while to see if what is on offer can be expanded.

Sort of guilty as charged - ds is getting a sandwich packed lunch at school.

On days I work and we are all back in late (after 6) I've always been guilty of a rushed cooked dinner, eg fish fingers and pasta or just a bowl of tortellini and sauce, or boiled eggs and just microwave meals for us, thinking precisely that they're getting more range of cooked stuff at school. We are all so tired and need to get the toddler to bed.

At work they're offering a hot meal in a card box delivered to classes but no choice bar veggie or allergies. It's been tough for the kitchen staff and I noticed some classes don't get till 1:30, nearly 2:00!

@ineedaholidaynow

Are you eating in classrooms or the hall *@Iamnotthe1*?

All our Primaries are eating in classrooms and are currently only offering cold food, Secondaries eating in the hall and having hot food, but I think the choice is limited.

This will be reviewed once pupils have been in for a while to see if what is on offer can be expanded.

A mixture - younger classes in the hall and older classes in classrooms.

My kids school are offering hot food three days (no real choice fair enough) and sandwiches on all days. We are not allowed to mix dinners/packed lunches so whatever you do on Monday is what they HAVE to have for the whole half term. Loads of other schools you can pick and choose, as long as you do so a week in advance and you choose their meal choice in advance. I’d happily do it for the whole half term in advance if I could choose. I can’t see it is that complicated as loads of other schools including the one we are federated with so it.

I also don’t understand why they can do hot food three days only? It makes no sense to me.

So even though my youngest would still be entitled to the universal free meals I’m going to have to make lunches every bloody day. It’s just one more thing I don’t need to be thinking about tbh.

I obviously won’t complain to school but I don’t understand why

My school are doing hot and cold offering but it has to be booked and paid for (if not fsm) in advance which seems sensible to reduce waste.

Some of our schools don't have kitchens so are also relying on what the school who provides the food is doing. I am thinking that sandwiches may be better than the grey, semi warm offering the children often get

Hmmm.... just not convinced sandwiches are 'safer' but , yeah, I'd tut at most.

Amusing line about 100 WhatsApp messages mostly about what the kids ate!

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/05/i-do-not-see-a-single-student-wash-their-hands-teachers-diary-of-the-first-week-back-at-school?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Piggy I guess hot food really needs to be eaten sat down in a hall and then you end up with mixing bubbles or time issues. Or you have to try to deliver it to classrooms. Food that kids can be easily delivered to classrooms, eaten outside or standing up is the only logistical solution in some cases.

@WhyNotMe40

Ah thanks Rafals. Thought there might have been something interesting there for a moment!

Sorry Piggy. the portion sizes at my kids school are tiny and they come out of school starving - I think they would mightily complain if I just did sandwiches for tea, so I was basing it on that

I don’t cook for my children in the evening because they have a school dinner at lunchtime. Portion sizes are fine, we have an obesity crisis in this country partly because we don’t recognise correct portion sizes and overeat/feel we need to empty our plates.

We are also extremely busy in the evenings with both activities and work so don’t have time for all of us to sit down together before bedtime, so the kids have sandwiches/soup/beans on toast for tea.

My kids are within the healthy weight range and the middle one is borderline underweight. Eldest is top of the healthy weight range but still in the green.

My child eats a lot of crap. That’s my confession. He’s endlessly hungry and there are limits to how much healthy food I can offer and afford.

When he was little he was never in after school care and would come home ravenous and have the equivalent of 2 to 3 meals before bedtime. Always a big bowl of eg cherry toms, olives, cucumber and chunks of cheese and a piece of fruit upon landing at home that he’d graze through and then dinner and then still be hungry before bed.

I guess it’s different when they’re in after school care as they get snacks there.

He was always slim by the way! Just naturally a grazer rather than 3 set meals a day type

SAGE report says transmission is more likely in classrooms than in the corridors.

It is just really obvious that, isn't it?

I was thinking about the corridor thing earlier : is it just for the benefit of tracking?

@Piggywaspushed

Corridor interactions are less than 15 minutes and so wouldn't need to be tracked anyway.

I assume so. The bubble thing is for teaching rather than transmission, isn’t it.

I am not offended, don't worry! I do tend to agree with carrie that more than one cooked meal a day seems a lot. I am also mindful that a load of schoolkids stuff tier faces via a drop in to various outlets en route home!

DS2 is skinny and never snacks. Just eats what he is fed. DS2 since going to uni and eating even more crap than I fed him(and drinking beer) is now definitely overweight. But , as he had an eating disorder when he was 12 I try not to make a fuss.

Healthy eating just doesn't really happen in my family. I think it's because I'm Glaswegian! To be fair, we all have good teeth and are never ill! Immune systems generally robust after all the crap eaten, and the filthy house!

tracking not teaching.

Oh yes iam. So, really the masks are pointless!

Yeah masks in corridors but not in classrooms makes zero sense.

Masks on buses but not in classrooms makes zero sense.

Unless you think that the kids are going to be in the same classroom with the same kids all day every day. Which they aren't.

It's part of the failure of the govt to deal specifically with secondary schools as a different set-up to primary.

@Piggywaspushed

Oh yes iam. So, really the masks are pointless!

I'd say used in the wrong place and way rather than pointless.