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.

Were still have an hour for lunch and hot dinners. Food is delivered to classrooms for some year groups whilst 4 eat on rotation in the hall with cleaning between the groups. 20 mins outside time, 30 to eat and 10 for a story/film.

I'm expected to supervise 60 children in 2 classrooms - clean tables and give out meals but also get them out to break on time. Wonder how that'll work.

Hello all, first post here but I have been following for a while and had a question.

I am doing a salaried school direct year so working as an unqualified teacher in Y3. Had my first day with the children on Friday and by mid-morning I could feel my throat getting dry despite chugging water constantly. I was probably talking more than a usual morning with so much information to relay and was a little nervous so perhaps that's why it seized up, but I am a bit worried about next week now!

Obviously the last thing I want is to be clearing my throat/coughing/losing my voice in the classroom so I wondered if anyone had any tips please?

@MsJuniper

Hello all, first post here but I have been following for a while and had a question.

I am doing a salaried school direct year so working as an unqualified teacher in Y3. Had my first day with the children on Friday and by mid-morning I could feel my throat getting dry despite chugging water constantly. I was probably talking more than a usual morning with so much information to relay and was a little nervous so perhaps that's why it seized up, but I am a bit worried about next week now!

Obviously the last thing I want is to be clearing my throat/coughing/losing my voice in the classroom so I wondered if anyone had any tips please?

This is very common and normal! Gargle Oraldene or similar at home and drink plenty of water to lubricate your throat. You will get used to ‘projecting’ in no time!

Were still have an hour for lunch and hot dinners.

It's an hour for children, 1/2 an hour for staff. My letter of resignation is written.

Are any of your schools doing the normal open evening?

One in the local area is and is giviyout tickets and doing it within' guidelines'

I hope my school doesn't do this. It's usually packed out.

@bettsbattenburg

Were still have an hour for lunch and hot dinners.

It's an hour for children, 1/2 an hour for staff. My letter of resignation is written.

Oh I get 20 mins on the 2 days I do duties and probably not much more the other days.

Hoarse voice, sore throat etc pretty normal in September. Then just as you get used to It, the first cold arrives!!

@RigaBalsam

Are any of your schools doing the normal open evening?

One in the local area is and is giviyout tickets and doing it within' guidelines'

I hope my school doesn't do this. It's usually packed out.

I think ours is virtual.

Thanks ChloeDecker, I will buy some of that mouthwash. I used to do a bit of acting so might dig out some vocal warmups to do in the car before work!

@RigaBalsam

Are any of your schools doing the normal open evening?

One in the local area is and is giviyout tickets and doing it within' guidelines'

I hope my school doesn't do this. It's usually packed out.

Virtual here but not sure what that will entail?

We’re supposed to make a video showcasing our department for open evening. Urgh.

@noblegiraffe

We’re supposed to make a video showcasing our department for open evening. Urgh.

Another skill to acquire and waste hours on 🙄

Virtually I bet we have to do a video then too.

Also virtual here.

We have to do a 'welcome to the key stage' video for the website. I've done mine, it was easy after all that bloody online learning.

How are you planning on doing parents evening?

I was unhelpful in SLT and suggested we show books through the window, then do the actual conversation through the medium of dance.

@ohthegoats

How are you planning on doing parents evening?

I was unhelpful in SLT and suggested we show books through the window, then do the actual conversation through the medium of dance.

I would love to see this!

Anyone else doing parents evening pretty much as normal? Ours is half an hour longer to reduce gathering and in classrooms rather than the hall but otherwise normal (except no Tea and biscuits delivered)

@phlebasconsidered we have to provide work for any kid missing this year for quarantine/ symptoms ( previously we rarely did) parents have been promised a full programme of remote learning 😳
@ohthegoats we are doing parents evenings via teams, not looking forward to that, having to make a new remote connection every five minutes, no word yet about open evenings but yes ours are usually totally rammed.

The head has asked us to just upload any resources we're using to teams so anyone off for whatever reason can access it.
Parents' evening through dance sounds great. It'll be a good use of my A level 😂

Like this

We are a massive school and then massively oversubscribed. Open evening has thousands of people. The roads around us become completely gridlocked every year. We don't even attempt to leave until an hour after it finishes. We are doing something virtual this year. Of course this was the first one I didn't have to do as I was going to be doing it as a parent. Got to decide if I just send my kid to my school and be done with it

I'd be amazing at an interpretive dance parents evening. We haven't finalized plans for parents evenings, so I might suggest it but I think it will be done via Teams, which is much less interesting. It's definitely not in person.

Open evening is virtual as well. One of the ICT support staff was going round filming heads of department on Thursday and Friday doing their little talks. I'm often glad I'm not a hod, and this was definitely one of those times, lol.

@MsJuniper

Hello all, first post here but I have been following for a while and had a question.

I am doing a salaried school direct year so working as an unqualified teacher in Y3. Had my first day with the children on Friday and by mid-morning I could feel my throat getting dry despite chugging water constantly. I was probably talking more than a usual morning with so much information to relay and was a little nervous so perhaps that's why it seized up, but I am a bit worried about next week now!

Obviously the last thing I want is to be clearing my throat/coughing/losing my voice in the classroom so I wondered if anyone had any tips please?

Get proper voice lessons. As an NQT I really struggled til I had them. You can do permanent damage if you're not careful

Are they still publishing outbreak data by source anywhere?