The Twenty-second Republic - the DfE have no idea, Gav MIA, bubbles in and out

[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

Did I mention my PPs are having their laptops taken back?

They’ll have the old fashioned view that TAs just put up displays and wash paint pots, I bet. Our school couldn’t run with any significant number of TAs off, as so many are 1:1s/ help with splitting classes in KS1 to allow outdoor play/ cover welfare etc.

And of course they are, piggy. There never was any serious concern about access to education for PP on an equal footing in many schools.

Yes I bet they do mean just teaching staff. Can't wait for the first school which has to close due to not being cleaned/ not meeting legal first aid cover ratios. Both quite important in current times

I can't understand why they'd be asking for laptops back now, if at all. It's clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that those laptops will be needed soon!

Perhaps this might be of use to the poster (so sorry, can't remember your name) who's suffering pregnancy-related - and other - issues at work:

MNHQ here. A new FREE legal advice clinic from Maternity Action about pregnancy, maternity or parental issues at work www.mumsnet.com/Talk/employment_issues/4026809-MNHQ-here-A-new-FREE-legal-advice-clinic-from-Maternity-Action-about-pregnancy-maternity-or-parental-issues-at-work

I'd love some paint pots - but if I asked a TA to wash them, I'd likely get battered with one.
Actually I felt awful today as the TA in my class was largely just sitting in the doorway and passing me stuff. It's not okay but we're not allowed to do anything else.
What's the laptop logic, Piggy, and where are they going back to?

CMO says alert level should be 4. Ermmm wasn't that full lockdown including schools?

I think some dodgy pigs painted over that version of the alert levels.

Didn’t we abandon the alert level actually meaning anything wrt lockdown after Dom went to get his eyes tested?
Now it just means high level of transmission & rising exponentially.

Link to Whitty quote piggy please?

@MrsHamlet

I'd love some paint pots - but if I asked a TA to wash them, I'd likely get battered with one. Actually I felt awful today as the TA in my class was largely just sitting in the doorway and passing me stuff. It's not okay but we're not allowed to do anything else. What's the laptop logic, Piggy, and where are they going back to?

I worked with a TA who had done supply work and she got a two week job just washing paint pots from classes and stapling a few bits. We were all at that gig!

Apologies, found it for myself (independent learner, me!)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

@Piggywaspushed

CMO says alert level should be 4. Ermmm wasn't that full lockdown including schools?

This makes me so angry. I mean I'm already angry but now even moreso.

While I've been off ill, setting cover and work for SI-ers (in every class) my DCs haven't had anything from their school nor any of my attention. They're off because their mum works in a massive school with a second-rate Covid RA. If I turn out to be +ive and they have to self-isolate for a couple of weeks, my priority will not be live online lessons.

I'm so sick of the inequality.

A confirmed case in a member of staff in my school. Two classes sent home. The bubbles are still in. Will be interesting to see how this goes

Same as everyone else for me today. 3-4 students in each class away, so lots of work to set for them. One boy came back in after 10 days out...not had a test, went home after lunch as feeling ill

DD’s teacher off “because her little boy was ill”...bubbles shut in two different schools in town (very small town). Feels like it’s creeping up on us.

We're at the 'Check the cover! CHECK THE COVER!!' Level of staffing. I only have one free a fortnight that's not PPA (I did have two but double duty means I can't cover for one of them as it's down to 30 mins in between duties), so doesn't make much difference to me. I bet SLT are feeling it though.

God I feel terrible being off. But I also feel terrible and would be sacked for gross misconduct if I wasn't.

None of you should feel guilty for being off. I honestly think schools genuinely having to close due to staffing levels will be the only thing that wakes them up to the fact that this isn't working. The sooner the better in my opinion, we need a better plan than 'carry on regardless'.

I've just been checking the guidance on alert levels and school closures. They've weaseled the word 'tier' instead of 'alert level', so they don't necessarily correspond at all.

www.gov.uk/government/news/all-possible-measures-to-be-taken-before-schools-and-colleges-close

Of course they have. Because they're incompetent manipulative fuckweasels.

The alert levels, R number, etc cannot be linked to any actions in any way. To do so limits the Government and forces it to keep to pre-set agreements. The Government cannot be bound by its own words - such a thing would be madness and would stop them from doing whatever they liked taking appropriate action in each individual situation.

As such, the alert level and R number are, in fact, effectively meaningless as they have no impact on anything in our country.

I’m not due back in till Wednesday so will see how I am tomorrow.

I know we shouldn’t feel bad about having to be off but I do and I also have no idea how to set cover given no textbooks in zones for ks3 and you can’t set anything that requires access to a laptop and the school system.

Thing is the running across the school was tolerable until today when I was feeling unwell and then it and then it really wasn’t. It’s the first time I really felt how unsustainable it all is. Soon it’ll be combined with rain and getting soaked and getting coats on and off at both ends.

I know we shouldn’t feel bad about having to be off but I do and I also have no idea how to set cover given no textbooks in zones for ks3 and you can’t set anything that requires access to a laptop and the school system.

I have this problem. It just means the cover I set is boring and the kids misbehave. Can't even get photocopying done. It takes an age to write cover.

So, tier 2 is supposed to be for areas of local restrictions. And yet I don't think that's been done?

Alert level 4 must be tier 3 surely??

So much obfuscation!! ( I take the exegesis and raise her an obfuscation )