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

I do wish the Beeb would do links to their sources.

I need to send this to my union rep : she keeps banging on about visors. Our TAs wear them.

We are having lots of staff meetings!

Ah mystery solved, it's Northern Irish Guidance!! Will go back to BRTUS and point this out (not sure if it's just England and Wales actually, but it'll have Co fused many!)
Interesting article anyway.

@Piggywaspushed hold your horses!

I have just read the guidelines and can't find reference to visors or no meetings:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools

@Augustbreeze

Ah mystery solved, it's Northern Irish Guidance!! Will go back to BRTUS and point this out (not sure if it's just England and Wales actually, but it'll have Co fused many!) Interesting article anyway.

Oh no, typing too quickly! I meant I wasn't sure if BRTUS was just England and Wales., and I didn't mean to invent a new Irish county, Co. Fused!

Oh FFS. Silly billies!

Thanks @NeurotrashWarrior
I saw GP back in March, and she talked about referring me for lung function tests, but then lockdown happened and I never got around to chasing. I had three bouts of chest infections last Autumn/Winter, so don't stand a chance this term.

@pooiepooie25 Agree that you need to do your hours. 'Goodwill' needs to be earned, and doesn't sound like it's something you owe your school anyway. I have a real problem with school staff doing things out of 'goodwill', because many schools take advantage of us wanting to do our best by the kids.

@Viciouslybashed Our school has guidance about quarantining books before and after marking. But so many staff are ignoring this, because it's inconvenient, and they think it's pointless. Which doesn't really help the rest of us who want to mark as safely as possible.

My test result came back negative thankfully. I won’t be patient zero at our school at which the magic school walls spell is holding up thus far.

Hoping I can be fighting fit on Monday and hold up till half term. Halfway there

Marple I'd definitely chase that up, it's relatively easy and could make a huge difference.

The inflammation degraded to a really bad level in me after a bad winter and when only oral steroids stopped the perma cough they thought there was something going on. I had to push a bit with some advice from asthma uk.

Someone on another thread said schools no longer need to take PH advice after only one case of Covid. Surely not so??

Another person ahs just called the French approach of basically keeping them all in until they ahve 3 cases in a bubble sensible...

I may have gone on a cold weather shopping spree and ordered my first pair of DrMartens, thermal socks and tights, long sleeved base layers and fingertip-less compression gloves. We'll probably go into lockdown now so I won't need them 😂

@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.

So annoying! What about if you put up early morning work maths/ English questions for the kids to get on with as soon as they got in? So not actually teaching but revision stuff? Would they accept that? That's the kid of thing we do- or foundation subject questions? Shitty of SLT to make things harder

schoolsweek.co.uk/government-flying-blind-over-covid-tests-for-pupils/

Isn't that the poster I quoted yesterday, @Piggywaspushed, who said no for one case it's DfE hotline (staffed by goodness knows who), but two or more, PH?

And underneath yr SchoolsWeek article, Geoff Barron pointing up that the entire catch up budget is being spent on extra cleaning etc.

Thanks for that article, piggy, I was just making that exact point on another thread so stole it!

That's right about the DfE hotline. Just another way to take actual health science advice out of the equation.

It's the end of September and schools are suggesting children wear fingerless gloves in class; teachers are buying thermals. We won't possibly last til November. Either the cold or the Covid will do for us! #covidwinteriscoming ....

Oh maybe august. She has been corrected by several posters to my joy.

I keep getting spam emails for electrically heated vests!

We leave whatever book the pupils have last been using on their chairs the day before. Then, when they come in they have something they can finish off during register while they wait for the rest to arrive. The breakfast club kids are in class 15 mins before the rest. Or they grab their art book to carry on something in there or they read their book.

I play quiet music to reinforce a quiet start to the day.

SO much better than when we were going out to line up the whole class and bring them in, to then struggle to manage all kids putting away their things, washing their hands and then finally getting into class without it turning into a scrum.

I had a doozy of a chest infection last year - to the point that I had multiple sets of steroids as well as antibiotics and LOTS of my inhalers to finally get over it. Nearly enough meds to trigger a shielding letter, but not quite.

My boss doesn't believe in people being poorly. It's just an inconvenience and they believe people are often pushing their luck by going off sick. So I'm totally looking forward to when (not if) I develop a cough and have to go off to get a test.

I'm SMT but with a full teaching commitment as is often the case in primary. With additional responsibilities (somehow on my TLR I have more of a profile in terms of leading the staff than one of the deputies!) and a partner colleague who is AWOL since the beginning of term because they can't face coming into work in a pandemic now the kids are all back due to their health anxiety.

It's full on, as we all well know.

So piggy, do you mean the poster who said no PH advice for on case is being told she's wrong? But I thought she'd been part of/witnessed the call? (Sorry can't remember which thread it was now)

No, this is different person, I think.

What a shitstorm:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/27/class-sizes-in-uk-may-rise-to-60-as-schools-struggle-to-cover-for-self-isolating-teachers

On a thread we are being now offered patronising flowers and thanks for our 'frontline' work by some of the most venomous TBs out there. And told 'well, it's all fine in my area/school'.

The Guardian article above is one of the very few I could find on schools.

No. I will not be covering 45 children in a classroom made for 30, breathing in that fetid air again. Been there, done that in March. No way.

Bought some fingerless gloves for work, went out for a run in them yesterday. Suddenly thought about hand sanitiser issues with the gloves... please please let us go to tier two by half term at the latest. Work are piling more and more stuff on as if it's a normal year. So many staff seem to be unaware about Covid /think it's over.