The Twenty-first Republic - All back but for how long? Why is Big Gav still in post?

[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 survived the week! Yay! But taught some really rubbish lessons.
One was because I was so excited we now had exercise books that I forgot to bring my resources that the entire lesson was based on. I am also really struggling with tech. I have one room where the volume isn't really loud enough to properly show videos and another where I can't freeze the screen so it's difficult to have the pupils doing something while I do the register.
And goodness, behaviour management is so tricky when you can't get anywhere close!

@Piggywaspushed

On an entirely separate note, how many hours do secondary teachers in here teach? I have always thought our school is at the top end?

If you are a HOD how much time do you get?

At ours full timers do 22/25 hours. Subject Leaders used to get an hour per week, I think they’ve upped that now to two.

He can be an arse sometimes.
He's cross because I struggle with anxiety and OCD and gets impatient at yet another panic/worry - and he thinks this is one. Because he KNOWS it's a cold

Does that include any time for form tutor type stuff? This is what causes issues at our school.

SLs seem to get one hour a fortnight at my place!

So a SL of two subjects in my school is on 43/50.

We also do 25 mins form time every day, so that ups us to 24.5 hours contact time. I think I've overestimated the SL time at our place, because my hod has extra responsibilities as well, so gets more time than ordinary hods. I think ordinary hods get 2 hours a week usually.

why would it help to show him the rules from the NHS website, to show him that is not just you being anxious, those are actually the rules!!

I'd settle for two hours a week!

HoFs recently had form tutor responsibilities taken away (thereby leaving the school with insufficient form tutors!) and had their contact time slashed so they now do about 36/50 but the SLs who are victims of everyone else's to do lists remain on about 42 - 44 depending on from tutoring. It's mad.

@WhyNotMe40

DH is still insisting we send the kids to school tomorrow then it's up to them to send them home. He doesn't understand why I'm stressing about setting cover and kids potentially missing school. I want to book a test but he's adamant that we should wait for tomorrow morning to see if they are still coughing.

But doesn't that mean they spend more time off school? If you send them in with a cough and they get sent home early on Monday and then you start trying to get a test you've essentially lost the weekend non-school days you would have had waiting for a test result. Now all the waiting time trying to get a test and waiting for the result is going to be during a school week.

He's being a bit of a twit.

Sorry, why, he's being an arse.

I've forgotten (v tired!) have they had high temps? If so they must be tested.

Sounds like mine is the worst.

I’m 0.4fte therefore 9 hrs teaching and 1 hour ppa. Considering going to 0.6 which would mean 27hrs teaching per fortnight and 3 hrs ppe per fortnight. The 2 week cycle gets rid of having to round down teaching time to be inside the 10% ppa.

Luckily I can’t work first thing so no crazy arsed form share on top this year.

A week ago dd1 had headaches and a sore tummy, with one explosion of squittiness. Was then fine.
Wednesday she had a sore throat, started getting standard cold symptoms Thursday/Friday. Coughing last night and today.
Dd2 had a sore throat last weekend, then a day of snot, then fine.
Ds had sore throat Tuesday, rivers of snot from Wednesday to now, started coughing last night. But he only coughs occasionally.
I had a sore throat Wednesday and felt like I was getting a cold, but it's gone now. Chest feels a bit tight but might be psychosomatic!
DH now saying just keep the coughing ones home and say they are under the weather.

They all had mild temperatures with the sore throats, but not 37.8 or above. Just a bit high for their usual.

Primary school next to ours has had an outbreak. Three years home with cases. And now three years being asked not to come in tomorrow as not enough staff as they all waiting on test results. Two staff got positive tests up to now.
Small area so kids will have been mixing with our school

22/25 hrs at my school plus 2.5 hrs form time.

HODs and HOYs get about 2/3 extra frees. Not much.

On another note, am sitting having a coffee in my very touristy city and it's full of European families with school aged children. There seems to be a lot of people who have not sent their children back to school...

@Piggywaspushed
Full time Teachers have 22/25 per week but I always try if I can timetable them for 21.
HOD - 18/25 lessons.
All have tutor groups. 20 mins a day.

Keeping them at home with colds or to have Covid tests won't be much different in time though?

We have a thirty period week. Full timers teach 26. HOYs teach 20; HoDs 22. HOYs and Ass HOYs have no form. HoDs of English, maths, science and humanities have no form. My timetable is equivalent to HOY.

@Piggywaspushed

Does that include any time for form tutor type stuff? This is what causes issues at our school.

SLs seem to get one hour a fortnight at my place!

In extra to the 21 hours we have 20 mins form in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.

We have a 27 hour teaching week. I do 22.5 hours which is on the high end of normal (I’m the only FT teacher in the dept so that pushes me to the most hours they can fit in). However we don’t have form groups or duties, and when you have a group it’s yours alone which for A-level makes life way easier than splitting it IMO - if you have 4.5 hours a week with a group you write in your own “downtime” so to speak - if I have a full day, that’s the day my A level are doing a 30 minute essay question in silence (it’s considered completely normal to mark during lessons here, or even to wander into the next room for a chat/into the office for a snack! The VP came in the other and and I literally had my feet up on the desk chatting to an upper sixth BTEC group while they were planning on computer - totally normal as long as the class are doing something meaningful). It’s so different to the “constantly on” feeling of teaching secondary.

Reading one here and in the media generally about the impossibility of getting tests, or obtaining results in some cases, atm, I'm wondering if schools are going to be half empty this week due to numbers self isolating?!

Of course, the alternative scenario, is that parents not in the position of being told to get a test for their child will ignore symptoms, send them in, and infect swathes of others.

[quote SaltyAndFresh]@TheHoneyBadger have you.been offered an antibody test? I had a negative one but I'd be interested to know if anyone's had a positive and thinks they had Covid some time ago.[/quote]
I have had a negative antibody test. I didn't have any covid symptoms but I have had some weird heart things going on and some weird blood test results.
My GP and cardiologist both think that despite the negative test and not having had symptoms, that I had Covid. Apparently lots of people who have had Covid are having heart issues and the things showing up in my blood.

The temperature thing is shite anyway. My average temperature over the entire lockdown was 35.8 to 35.9 which for a lot of people is freezing! If I get to 37 i'm very ill. It's so low because I have autoimmune thyroid issues - my bp too. I've been logging mine because I just know my school will demand to know the temperature if i'm off!

I am wondering if I had it in February. I was very wheezy and asthmatic (they upped my steroids) and since then i've had heart palpitations. I had tests in May for iron and my thyroid levels but they came back normal (for me). It still happens but the gp is putting it down to stress. I don't think it is. It feels different. I was running 30km a week in February now I can only do 5km by jeffing (walking and running). And thats despite averaging 20k steps a day over lockdown to lose any weight I had. I need to be pushier with my gp I think.

@Augustbreeze - after ds1 coughing so much this morning, I had a look to see if I could get him a test if needed. It came up as nothing available - no postal, walk in or drive-thru appointments. It didn't even suggest a centre further away. Now, that might be down to his age (10) rather than there being nothing available. But I suspect many parents will just ignore the possibility of needing to test unless they are specifically told to.