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.

Urgh that Trust poster on the schools can't carry on like this thread....

Even the logistics of the day isn't sustainable. Any behaviour in the mix and that's it, whole day gone. The runners are in and out now, honeymoon period over. I had a child hack a chunk of his hair off in the middle of history today too. It's all a bit mad.

@SansaSnark we aren't allowed to move them I don't think due to track and trace/proximity of students to each other in case of positive test.

I feel like I was overly animated today. Like that feeling you get when you've not slept and you get a second wind?

Anyway, the kids probably think I'm a bit weird, which is probably a good thing really, keeps them in their toes 😂

Oh Oh, your bunch remind me of an inner city school I was once at.

And half the classes I teach, but they're moderate Sen and asd.

All this talk of more vulnerable children and catch up fails to recognise they're also often very hard to actually teach.

I'm teaching two of the toughest classes in school this year, at least small classes and with support but anything can happen... 👀 which is half the fun I suppose. Luckily I've know some of them for several years so am hoping they remember me

Agree it's not sustainable. I have 2 days with no scheduled lunch.

So someone else covers 30 minutes for me, but I have to set work. On a full day.

Add to that the fact I have lunch duties that because there's loads of lunchtimes, have fallen so they take up part of my free periods. And the stress of lugging everything around and being out of your own room.

The kids are playing up whilst staff aren't in rooms.

It's totally unsustainable.

@MrsHamlet

She called someone an effing idiot. Said person was demonstrating the qualities of an effing idiot so....

I bet they fucking deserved it😂😂😂

I’ve just been messaging a colleague with screenshots of Matt Hancock’s remarks about 17-21 being the age range with the steepest rise in cases. After the first day on college today not only can I well believe it but we’re actually really upset.

ZERO social distancing. I mean I knew it would be zero but today it just hit me - ZERO. Like less than zero. Constantly walking through tight groups of students, squeezing past the backs of their chairs, leaning over them to show them stuff - it’s just not possible. Staff wearing masks way more than I thought (even in the staffroom grabbing drinks) but none on kids. At all. Anywhere. Even though college have tried to say they should wear them in communal areas. Just...none. Nobody hand sanitizing. Impossible to wipe desks or computers in the time given. It’s just...I can’t even describe it. I had to fudge when I talked to DP when I got in because he wouldn’t let me go back if he knew.

And that’s with one year group in. Y13 aren’t in until tomorrow.

God I shuddered when I read the comment above about sticky door handles. Yuck yuck and triple yuck

Same here with ours gravity and in the common room, no one has rearranged the chairs so they are still in sociable huddles.

I am most upset by how filthy everything is : use a lidded bin but circumnavigate the bacteria to do so....

What. A. Day!

Yep, as we said, SD just cannot work in a primary classroom, not even year 6. Although, they neither look nor feel like year six (yet) due to all the time they've missed. One boy remarked he hadn't written anything in 7 months - unsurprising. Plenty of kids remarking that it felt weird to be writing anything. Handwriting standards through the floor!

And they are so LOUD! I was warned they were a chatty, quite loud class pre-lockdown, but some have clearly forgotten what classroom voices and/or behaviour are. Right back to the beginning today.

Add to that, staying 2m away from them as much as possible had to go out of the window early doors as they need help. They need to see you circulating the classroom for behaviour to be maintained - 30 mins spent using the laptops today and 2 were on the wrong website doing what they fancied.

It's going to take a lot of training to get them where I want them!

I wish I was as deluded optimistic as the weirdos on the 'end social distancing now' thread.

Nooo because you are also not that effing selfish!

This is so exhausting. So stressful. Do not know how we will get through to half term. I think there'll be a mass of resignations by half term and also several Heads having significant stress related health issues.

I was dog tired on Friday. Today has been less awful but I'm not having to deal with poor behaviour yet. It will come, and when it does it will take everything I can muster not to just leave the building for good.

Lots of people are going to be SD for the rest of their lives. Shortened or otherwise. You can't just end it.

I think there'll be a mass of resignations by half term

Me too. Might be me too.

I do wonder if some posters have been watching The Matrix on a loop throughout lockdown and see themselves as Neo.

I'm determined that it's just a job to me now. No email checking, none of my own money, limiting my hours each day. Yes, it will mean some things don't get done, but it's how it has to be.

Kidney - I think you have it on the nose.

I have been Mrs Dedicated, Mrs 200% in my entire working life. Not any more.

We need a new thread: is @StaffAssociationRepresentative around so wonder?

So sorry that it's awful for many of you. 🧁 (made by your own fair hands, obvs... or those of M.Kipling of course!)

@Danglingmod

Kidney - I think you have it on the nose.

I have been Mrs Dedicated, Mrs 200% in my entire working life. Not any more.

Yep. Realistically I'm not leaving, so I've got to get through it.

Just checked my work email - a panicked email has been sent from the principal to parents and students basically begging them to social distance and wear masks, but with the threat that college might have to close or go to 50/50 remote learning - the trouble is I’m not sure that’s much of a threat? I’d be happier with that and so would many parents and students (given that there’s no childcare issues involved).

Yep I am here @Augustbreeze

Just had our first day with mask. SD is still chaotic. Our main problem is lunch and break - it is carnage.

How early can I retire?