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

Does anyone else have ads to download the Covid app following them around MN, or just me?

Not seen any. Did get the shock of my life when I got a text from test & trace this morning though.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Not seen any. Did get the shock of my life when I got a text from test & trace this morning though.

Oh no! Are you a contact of a case?

No, it was just telling me to download the app.

Ah yes, I had that as well. I can't see the point personally. My greatest risk of catching it and/or transmitting it will be at school - where most people won't have it as it's for over 16s only. And most adults leave their phones in a locker anyway.
My kids at their school and out of school childcare are another risk point - but they are too young to have phones.
I don't go anywhere except school, home, and outside exercise with the kids (eg walks or bike rides etc).

My hairdresser required me to download it yesterday. I was not very pleased - they're not taking walk ins so they know who is in already.
I've got it but my Bluetooth is permanently off so I don't know what it'll do.

I have already downloaded it. The bus will mostly be the issue and I think it’ll be useful for that.

Since I work for the NHS, I’d be surprised if the response to getting pinged by that app wasn’t just come into work tbh. I can’t see how we could run a service if we were in an area of high transmission with people being alerted by the app all the time.

Me too @RafaIsTheKingOfClay ! Suddenly getting a text from NHS Tracing probably resulted in a few cases of raised blood pressure today.

I pity the first place that tried to tell me I'm only allowed in with the app (I have an iPhone6 which can't run it), as I'm likely to get very cross!!!

If your Bluetooth is off I won’t contact trace. But you can use the QR code and enter test results.

Sort of. There may have been a bit of a cock up with the test results.

Honest question - what's the point of entering test results if you are not using the trace capability?

I presume it’s then to do with the QR code for checking into places. Although apparently you can’t check out, so no idea how that works.

We had to download it to go and eat out today. We had a whole 3 hours without child, so went to see what we could find for lunch. Went somewhere nice as walk-ins, but had to download it to get in. This annoyed me irrationally. Boyfriend did it, then took it off his phone when we got home. We won't be getting time to go out to eat for months now, so considering my biggest issue is school, it's a bit pointless.

I've just looked at yesterday's list of the places I checked in - the in times are right but the out times are made up. According to the app, I was in the hairdresser until 1.45 (I left at 11.30) but also in a bar an hour away from 1.30 for 5 hours (I was there an hour). This might be because of the Bluetooth thing - but if someone who checked in to the hairdresser at midday then turns out to be Covid +ve, I'd presumably count as a contact even though I wasn't there. It seems riddled with issues.

Just need to off-load, I’m an HLTA in KS1 and work in what I think to be a very caring school. Head and SLT very keen to keep us safe and listen to suggestions. They even brought us a pump sprayer so we could clean all the toys etc quickly rather than lugging buckets of water around.

The teaching has been ramped up to warp speed and this, coupled with the repeated hand-cleaning, makes for an exhausting day for everyone. The teachers are on their knees, I am just about managing as I just ‘teach’ for one day and am support for the rest.

But social distancing isn’t happening, you can’t expect in ks1 however, the families aren’t making it easy. Children are sent in with food they can’t open, bottles which spill everywhere...so far quite normal apart from fact they were told explicitly to avoid these items. The worse is the ruddy shoe laces....none of them can do these themselves but all are experts at untying them. PE day is a nightmare and then the parents complain when we double knot them so we can avoid tying them up every five minutes. Normally, not an issue, but I am right in their faces...not in the best interest of the child. Since when have lace-ups come back in fashion for small children? The children are all over each other at every break and all we can do is remind them to give space.

Yet, despite frequent cleaning, hand washing, disinfecting everything, in the last three weeks I have had a heavy cold with a sore throat and then a vomiting bug. Surely if our measures were effective I wouldn’t have picked up these?

@Goldensyrupissticky (great user name!) gosh I hadn't thought of those kinds of issues, it's a while since I worked in primary.

Could the school send a standard letter home with any child who has something they can't open etc, as it's already specifically been requested? Reminding parents and saying the item will have to be binned by the child if it happens again (can't think of less dramatic solution!)

And have Tying Laces as a class lesson every single day? Outside?

It doesn’t check you out when you leave. It should check you out when you check in elsewhere or at midnight as far as I can see.

It looks like if you’ve been to a venue they would only tell you to isolate if you were there at a certain time.

I don’t know if it is very different to the contact tracing sign in sheets tbh. When we ate out they recorded the tune we arrived, but we never signed out, unless they did it for us.

What is it with KS1 parents & shoe laces? I realise it’s a right of passage but unless they can tie them reliably don’t put them in lace up shoes.

@Augustbreeze it is something I need to raise with SLT as I think they don’t appreciate these little things (or more likely have thousands of other stresses to contend with). They are keen we use visors for group reading which seems a little pointless when I have been crouched down cleaning knees or sorting laces.

The children are so behind emotionally and physically to where they should be at the start of the year. It is so very tricky.

As the parent of a summer born reception child - do you have any theories about why they are behind? And is it all of them?
(My child is exclusively in elasticated or velcro clothing that he can manage himself. Does have a wee accident when engrossed in something occasionally though, but he can change his own clothes)

Not behind from my perspective, many with better vocabularies than you might usually expect . I am very concerned about going back after self isolating following Covid in my class .I am a mid 50s asthmatic.My colleague is positive and very unwell . I am not aware of any of the children having been tested .No masks on site .Nothing has changed.When we were in groups of 15 in the summer it was just about manageable but now it is impossible .We are not expected to social distance and it is acknowledged not to be possible .

We’re quite used to wee accidents in engrossed children in reception. It’s par for the course. And if he can change his own clothes and is in clothing he can manage himself the teacher will love you.

There’s a huge jump in emotional maturity that comes from being in school in Reception/year 1 why. I can easily see that going backwards given the time some of these children have had out of school and that when they went back they were in smaller class sizes.

At least in secondary I can (mostly) stay distanced from my pupils.
But as a parent of a wee reception starter - I heartily appreciate all that his teachers/other adults are doing to keep him safe and happy, knowing they risk their own health to do so.
I am selfishly glad that they don't socially distance from them as they are so physical at that age.

The little ones absolutely deserve nurture and I would continue to give that regardless , to be honest it’s impossible not to in reception .Live streaming lessons and planning remote learning has been interesting but actually better than I expected even factoring my geriatric laptop.I’ve certainly got to know families better .

My sons preschool staff are amazing. He's thrived since being back. I can't imagine how they'll do anything meaningful if they have to shut, but I'm reassured they'll do their best!

I had PPA Fri morning. Was feeling pleased I'd ploughed through everything and got all the planning and much of the prep done in the morning. Then realised I hadn't put any of it on google classroom for the pupil who has been SI since last week. So there went 40 odd more minutes while I got as much up as possible.

Then I found out their track and trace didn't start from the day they were taken out of school when their parents got the message, but from the weekend before when they had their actual contact.

So not only did I have a potentially infectious child for much of the pervious week due to it taking time for them to be traced and alerted, but I also wasted the time as the child is back in Tues.

At least it's there for any other kids who might then be off if they need to SI.

VERY annoyed by the article that says that we are testing too many kids. Yes, there's a point in the fact that there are many, many kids with golds at the moment - far more off in my class than usual at this time of year. My own DD has had the worst tonsilitis and the longest amount of time off getting over it in years. BUT some kids are testing positive and, as mentioned by a PP, we need to find who they are and have the chance to break that transmision chain for the sake of the other kids and all the adults working in schools too.