The Twenty-third Republic - school attendance not great - half term to be renamed circuit break?

[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

@CallmeAngelina - that's just lazy on the part of the person who put them back! I think it's a hat able offence in DC's primary! (They have a similar system, it means siblings share laptops as well)

@Augustbreeze

Oh yes even sixth form can't be relied on to actually put a laptop back in the charging trolley the right way round...

Yes of course there's the tiers /blended learning stage. As someone on here has alluded to, we might be forgiven for forgetting about it as it was published and has not been referred to since even in Bolton etc!

I have trained my 8 yr olds to stand in a socially-distanced line, holding the laptop the correct way round (with the logo near their tummies) and with their finger by the charging outlet, ready to stick the lead in quickly and firmly when it's their turn. And to know whereabouts "their" shelf is.

I may be developing OCD.

www.st-margarets.bury.sch.uk/stream/news/full/1/-?fbclid=IwAR3EycHbxbYxjMlp-dx_AW_zvcltdvk1nbU7NMQaFBGowXrdWORGGp04ezM

She sounds a nice lady, @Keepdistance.
Is this a school you have personal knowledge of?

That's interesting @Keepdistance. So the head (who sounds lovely) obviously hasn't been keeping 2m away from everyone and is prepared to admit it. I wonder whether this contradicts their RA?

Although I presume it's not simply the fact that she's tested positive that has closed the whole school, more the multiple cases amongst both students and staff.

@plasticboxesrock

I'm primary. There's not even the pretence of SD going on. We are marking as we go, green and pink, over the children's shoulders, but they are turning round and talking at us. They don't stay in their seats. They have individual pencil cases of stuff and every morning I go round checking they've all got what they need, and by the end of the day it's total carnage, they've "lost" their pencil or ruler, they've borrowed someone else's highlighter, etc etc. There's no extra cleaning going on except by me when someone sneezes onto a desk.

SLT have become manic about going in and observing three or four times a week. we get bollocked if we haven't marked a book by the end of a session, there's no attempt to acknowledge the reason the children haven't achieved the LO is because most of them haven't written anything at all for 5 months. We are supposed to quarantine reading books but parents are complaining the books aren't being changed daily. Some children are being dropped off at 8.30 if they have siblings with different drop-off times and we have to "teach" them until everyone else arrives at 8:50 but by then they have done 20 minutes work that everyone else hasn't so they play up. They play up under the gazebo when they have eaten their lunch and have to wait to go back in. We've had complaints about it being too cold and children having to go out in the rain. Behaviour is appalling - children have lost the ability to be quiet, they talk over me, they shout out, they can't sit still, they have no independence. You'd have thought that lockdown would have been a good time to teach your 7 year old to tie shoelaces, wouldn't you?!

I'm run ragged from 8 to 3.30 and as a TA I don't even get paid until 8:40 am.
I'm so exhausted already.

That sounds horrendous. I am primary too and zero distancing in class with the kids. Same issues with pencil cases and I am just handing out my spares. I figure if they are breathing all over me and each other, touching a pencil will do fuck all.

However, our SLT are being great and I have a lovely class. We also have a staggered opening done by alphabet so that siblings come in together.

Do you need to start a lesson when they first come in? We just put up early morning activities for them to do and start the lesson when everyone is in.

I wonder if the tone of the message to parents would be different if the head was not one of the positive cases. Compare it to that other head's letter!

No it's a link that someone put on BRTUS. I think it demonstrates how it can spread. And when they say outbreak it's not necessarily just 2.
Seems to be mainly staff so could have maybe been reduced with masks.
I wonder though that so many infected before the yr5 bubble burst. Though of course it may have been an asymptomatic student so all the symptomatic people got ill around the same time?

Mainly staff testing positive doesn't mean mainly staff who have it. Children are more likely to be asymptomatic therefore not tested in the first place.

pooiepooie25 At the start of term we just let them chat if they turned up at 8:30, or read, but SLT wandered past and from then insisted that children are to be taught as soon as they arrive. We have a new head who is very ambitious, and new SLT as well, and they have all said there's to be no "recovery curriculum" style start, we're straight in with high expectations (which the children haven't a hope of meeting).

I couldn't turn up at 8:40! I know it's "goodwill" time, I'm not expecting to be paid, but I can't work properly if I'm not well-prepared.

I'm telling my TAs to come in 5 mins before the kids, and sending them home the minute the kids go. They are all BAME and over 50. Less they are in school the better.

Having said that, no SD happening in my bubble at all. Assume that's the point of them. Absolutely business as usual.

As someone above just said, it would be really helpful if a sub group of SAGE or whatever, in combination with some actual teachers, could risk assess everything that happens in schools and then give us a definitive list of what not to do/ how to do it (relatively) safely.

Yes this would be excellent.

I have to say, we've had a H and S bod come in again and risk assess the school and some changes were made.

At the end of the day it's impossible to distance and not touch the majority of our sen children. We have smaller class sizes on our side though. And the school is very well ventilated. I've started wearing coats in class!

Changes have been more around how to keep staff apart though.

I think my mood is plummeting because we've had to accept that the staff we work with count in our bubble. I don't like accepting that. I could close several bubbles just by doing my job if I fell ill or even was asymptomatic. I and others have clinical vulnerabilities or relatives who do.

We wash and clean as that's the only thing that's in our control but i do feel it's futile.

Having said that, I don't think anyone has tested positive in the bubbles after our positive tests (yet) so perhaps what we are going is ok? ignores superspreader events

That's a lovely letter from the head.

Makes me think the true numbers on stats are misrepresented as, as you say, it could be more than 2 cases that counts as an outbreak.

ohthegoats well done you, lucky TAs!
Definitely business as usual but with 2 squirts of sanitiser.
I love my job but I feel half term stress level after only 3 weeks.

I feel really stupid for asking...

I had a cold with cough 3 weeks ago. Test came back negative. I have woken up today with another cold and cough. It's a wet, productive one. I'm prone to coughing and chest infections from Sept-Feb. Do I need to test?

Do you have a temperature or loss of taste or smell?

Did your last cough stop, ie is this a new cough or a continuation of the old one?

If this is a new cough (as in the last cough stopped, then this one started a couple of weeks later) then yes I'm afraid you need to test. Sorry, that's probably not what you want to hear.

Yes, old cough stopped and this a new one. I knew the answer would be to test. I've managed to get an appointment for tomorrow morning at a temporary mobile testing unit in my city. Hoping to get result on Mon, but who knows.

Is anyone else prone to chest infections? I feel like I'll be testing every few weeks at this rate. I know it's the right thing to do, but I can't see my school being happy with me having a few days off each time.

Yes marple, and then I was diagnosing with asthma. I became quite the expert in coughs!

A wetter cough could be a secondary bacterial infection if it comes back negative. If it sounds/ feels like you've got a soggy sponge low down in a lung, it could be so I'd (try to!) see a dr if it continues.

And get back

Sorry! Get well soon!!

We are also marking as normal, in class with kids moving around freely to bring their work over. It's so odd at my school. I don't understand why some places are strict and others so lax. I already said about our inset days with staff from another school altogether in the hall. I also think they just have normal staff meetings all crammed into our small staff room together. How is this allowed. I don't go to staff meetings as I am a ta.

Gav does appear to still exist at least being a twat

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54309133

@plasticboxesrock

pooiepooie25 At the start of term we just let them chat if they turned up at 8:30, or read, but SLT wandered past and from then insisted that children are to be taught as soon as they arrive. We have a new head who is very ambitious, and new SLT as well, and they have all said there's to be no "recovery curriculum" style start, we're straight in with high expectations (which the children haven't a hope of meeting).

I couldn't turn up at 8:40! I know it's "goodwill" time, I'm not expecting to be paid, but I can't work properly if I'm not well-prepared.

That's appalling. Seriously just do your hours. If they need you they need to pay you.

Definitely useful being on BRTUS Fb group, someone there sported this, presumably no one on here knew there's been new schools guidance published, which includes something saying masks can be worn in class??

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54287342?fbclid=IwAR2IaFmNLBvg-B9THNX-aXEhX02iIVsU2hE5PEghu1KDR6vEd70MetVzASc