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

Don’t get me wrong, I expect to deal with toilet issues, puke etc but it is an added risk, in my view, however small if we are in the face of 95% of the children fixing shoes etc when a change of item (Velcro, buttons and zips they can manage or a container they can open) would remove this. I am in year one, not reception where it is expected to be like herding kittens at this time of year, pandemic or not. I wonder if they were less independent at home over the lockdown? Family on hand to do these jobs rather than attempting themselves as the foundation year progressed.

Perhaps I am worrying with no good reason? I have made the choice to work in school, these children have no choice and are sent so I do feel I need to do my best to keep them safe. Perhaps I should triple knot the laces until the families cave in and buy Velcro? 😉 Would love to find time to teach them to tie them.

@Goldensyrupissticky as long as you don't tie the laces to each other...... 🤭

I think it’s probably a mixture of higher expectations in terms of independence at school and being 1 of 30 in school golden so they just have to get on with it sometimes. My guess is they’ll probably catch up but it’s going to be hard work for a while.

Would it work sending letters home getting parents to work on some of the skills that they are lacking? Or asking parents to double knot the shoelaces in the morning. Perhaps go from a ‘time being wasted’ point of view rather than an infection risk one.

Im not surprised they might be behind having missed 3m of reception.
My dc is summerborn CSA in yr r. So already 5. They are pretty tall but still have velcro shoes.
Some summer borns will have had only 7m of preschool.
Dc is pretty good getting dressed etc. But very emotional temperament. A lot of independence is personality. This dc gets own milk or juice from the fridge. Dc1 more a stargazer
Dc2 has been doing reading eggs and can blend but their memory isnt good so still doesnt know half the letters. Also loves to plug stuff in
Dc is still going to struggle (as they hardly sleep)

It’s funny keep, I’ve got 2 nephews who fall just either side of school cut off. They are year 4 & 5 now but it was odd watching them go from a point where they were fairly similar in terms of development one summer to being completely different in terms of maturity a year later. And I’d admit I did catch myself having different expectations of them.

Hello all,

Similarly fucked off with that idiotic guardian article.

Tin hat says it's so they can blame it on teachers.

Enormous sympathy for those working in R and Y1. My ks2 are effectively the same though we have a third of the numbers. There's no SD possible. No ppe. So Viner can fuck right off with not testing kids ta very much.

I do have issues with the early primary curriculum. Not enough time is spent on social communication and basic self care skills imo before trying to get them to write pages and pages of stories. I also think it kills learning for them.

I've noticed a nose dive in scissor skills among my pupils, (non Covid related). They'll be expected to be able to cut basic stuff at secondary but I feel even the pressures to do the increasingly high level of lit and num we have are squeezing those skills out.

It's curriculum led. I noticed a big shift up in expectations for writing etc after gove et al got their hands on it. But at the cost imo of other things and some pupils who just aren't developmentally ready.

I wonder if Covid will force a change or just make the gap wider.

Sometimes it can be hard to find shoes with Velcro - I get elastic laces from amazon and replace the normal ones with those, until they are confident (I mean for my own dc, not pupils!)

A good informed critique of the JAMA paper on BRTUS page posted yesterday evening. Sorry I couldn't copy a link to the post.

There is occasional informed debate in the group but I have to say, most of it just reveals how uninformed large parts of the population are about the virus. And how very anxious, although this may be amplified in that group.

Ds couldn’t tie shoelaces till he was 10. It’s still painful watching him try and spread butter at 13 and when they had to do sewing at primary school they ended up sending it home to be finished.

His fine motor skills have always been a bit behind. I remember the 2 year check when he was way ahead on language etc but incapable of threading beads. Velcro was our friend.

I’m back to work today. Late start and late finish as we’re moderating qmas to ensure consistency. Little bit jealous of those of you not marking. I have 5 sets of in depth marking with grades to be recorded on go for my ks3 classes this week and another one coming up for them before half term.

I feel like I’m behind having been off waiting for test results for some of last week.

I’m in y1 with a reception summer born. Dc1 is good in English - can blend and knows most single letter sounds, has a good vocabulary & good attention skills. Ok in maths but socially sightly behind (more personality than lockdown). She can do her clothes and shoes (I won’t let her wear jumpers/dresses on pe day Coz she struggles on her own) because I bought stuff that she could do alone.
I have lots of year 1s who need help with coats and a few wearing laces (why?!? Even in none Covid times!). They wear pe kit so less changing issues but guess it’s just pushing it down the road.
I have to say - I social distance far less because I want my child to get physical interaction where necessary for her education and emotional needs. So I consider her when the children in my class have a need. Our risk assessment is 2m where possible - so this is very infrequent in a y1 classroom. But I’d be making it very clear I had close contact (I.e. the child had touched me) if we had a positive case. Keeping distance and teaching 5yo don’t go together unfortunately. I’ve reduced the amount of physical contact to as few episodes as possible.
Academically many are behind - particularly on phonics - even those parents who have clearly worked with the kids haven’t all used pure sounds so it’s a case of reteaching. And attention span is much reduced!

Just took dd for a test due to loss of smell and a cough. Feeling guilty that I'm missing work, especially as it could be off the back of the tonsillitis she has had.

200+ tests available when I booked. Dead teat centre. Now just the wait for the results.

We’re seeing that almost all students in Yr7 are behind. It’s really worrying as the work provided by our feeder primaries was supposed to be quite good.

Secondary staff (esp English) - can I ask how much evidence you’re planning on collecting in case of exams being cancelled? I’m panicking as I’ve planned every lesson between now and Christmas and bar language mocks, I’m going to struggle to collect much.

Was the test centre inside a tent?

Fingers crossed it's just being ill.

One of the things I was really looking forward to with blended learning was being able to properly differentiate and support children. I still feel that I’m trying to find out exactly where my class are... gained two extras last week so now up to 31 😭

Long weekend here today though and I am only just up. Going to finish my coffee, get showered and meet a friend on a dog walk. Determined to do no work.

NEU 2019 document in classroom temperatures, worth a read.

What on Earth are schools going to do when they can't maintain reasonable temperatures for children and for staff due to open windows and doors?

Oops, here's the link::
neu.org.uk/advice/cold-weather-and-classroom-temperature-england

@Augustbreeze

NEU 2019 document in classroom temperatures, worth a read.

What on Earth are schools going to do when they can't maintain reasonable temperatures for children and for staff due to open windows and doors?

Staff in my school seem to have stopped already with everything being open and our bloody useless SLT aren’t noticing 🤨 kids are quite rightly complaining that they shouldn’t have to sit in my arctic classroom if it’s not done across the site.

Found this

If it is windy, cold or raining then it may not be practical to fully open the windows/vents, however they should be open as far as reasonably possible without causing discomfort.

During cooler weather, it may be necessary to have the room heating on more than normal. This will incur energy penalties; however, these are deemed acceptable as the increased ventilation will help remove any airborne virus particles from the building.

During warmer weather and on bright sunny days it may not be appropriate to have the heating on during the cooler mornings as this may exacerbate overheating in the afternoon.

Opening windows can result in draughts that can cause occupant discomfort. Where possible discomfort should be mitigated by ensuring building users are not located directly in a draught for long periods, for example moving desks/room furniture. Relaxing dress codes so that warmer fleeces can be worn is advisable.

From one of the Chartered Institute of Building Safety Engineers' documents on coming out of lockdown - Ventilation. Think this is what our Site Manager quoted to me last week.

Right, so dd's boyfriend has gone for a test today. He's feeling very unwell with whatever it is. Went out boozing at the end of last week. She hasn't seen him since last Monday.
Will she need to isolate? (I know we won't - unless she exhibits symptoms).

No, wouldn't have thought so!

Around 8,000 schoolchildren and more than 350 teachers and staff are self-isolating in Liverpool, the city’s mayor has said, as it recorded one of the highest infection rates in England.
Matt Ashton, Liverpool’s director of public health, said the city was in a “very difficult position” as its number of cases rose sharply in the past week

If his symptoms have just started and she hasn't seen him for more than 48 hrs then no she won't.

NeurotrashWarrior have you seen the revised EYFS goals ?They are dire in my opinion and written with no / little understanding of child development.More an attempt to push the year 1 curriculum into EYFS

And yet they constantly peddle the line that schools need to stay open beyond all else.
And that pubs etc are driving the infections.
And that we shouldn't be testing so many kids.

Thanks guys.
And DrMadeline that makes me SO cross!