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 really hate "just". When people say it to me, it makes me stabby.

Think I'm going to get all my ski fleeces and thermals out of the loft in the next few days (after all, doesn't look like we'll be going this season ).
Fingerless gloves have arrived.

When combined with ‘pop’.

Just pop your data onto the spreadsheet.

@CallmeAngelina

Think I'm going to get all my ski fleeces and thermals out of the loft in the next few days (after all, doesn't look like we'll be going this season ). Fingerless gloves have arrived.

My fingertip-less anti-arthritis compression gloves (and my thermal socks and tights and my new boots) arrived today. I will not freeze!

I was chatting to the union rep on break duty and she's going to check where we stand if it gets proper cold, she's of the opinion they should be providing us with warm PPE, or at least reimbursing is, if we're expected to work below the legal minimum (which I think is 16) but she's going to check.

YES!! My HT uses "pop" all the time!

I've taught 5 lessons in three different buildings with two duties and an extra 3pm registration for year 7. I can't do this moving every hour thing. I feel like I'm the only one struggling in my school and I'm very, very experienced (main scale)

Anyone else in the same boat?

How we

I'm told windows will only need to be open 5 minutes in 30, or 15 in an hour. Don't feel great about that. Also my school has asked pupils to wear masks but hardly any of them have.

Checked union advice on marking - it's saying don't take books home to mark but my school is saying do 🤷

Knackered. Caught up with thread but nothing to add really apart from the knackered.

Year 8s behaviour is getting worse and I had to shout to be heard over one group. Wasting tons of time just getting them to settle down and get started.

I think they got rid of one of the legal limits a few years back. Can't remember if it was the low one or the high one.

We're about to have our boiler ripped out and replaced. The work will take until February. It wasn't specified exactly how we're to be heated in the meantime!

Anyone else in the same boat? How we?

I’m similar (minus the 3pm thing). I’m an NQT and am struggling. So tired, the kids behaviour seems to have taken a real nose dive today.
I’m in a very high Covid area, I think they are all wondering if we are going to lock down soon. It’s really tough but at least my colleagues and SLT are supportive.

What’s “pop”???

Apparently the association of ski travel companies (or some such title) has done a survey and all of their customers who skied last Feb are planning to go this Feb (or so they claim)!!!

Whoopeydoo! Remember what they brought back last Feb?

Look at the CIBSE doc on ventilation I posted earlier today, re how long windows should be open for. Don't think it gives exact answers though, just principles.

@waytheleaveswork

I've taught 5 lessons in three different buildings with two duties and an extra 3pm registration for year 7. I can't do this moving every hour thing. I feel like I'm the only one struggling in my school and I'm very, very experienced (main scale)

Anyone else in the same boat?

How we

That sounds horrendous. I wouldn't be able to cope with that at all.

I am knackered today. Year 7 CAT tests this week, so they and their form tutors are of timetable period 1 Monday to Friday. So I had to supervise CAT tests during my PPA, just because I happen to have a year 7 form, yet other people who would normally teach y7 period 1 have gained a free ☹️. That's happening again tomorrow as well ☹️ just because I have a year 7 form and have 2 PPAs first lesson. I am bloody pissed off about it, but nobody cares because I'm literally the only person in the school who has lost any frees at all, but I've lost 2 of my 3 frees this week. I can't do a full week with only 1 free period!! Apparently I can though, and inset after school on Thursday will just be the icing on the cake. (I think I said last week thatI wouldn't complain about my school again, I lied, I'd forgotten that this week was basically going to be the week from hell)

@CallmeAngelina we've just cancelled our Christmas ski trip. Fancy hotel with in laws. V sad. Last night we started talking about going over for the whole season.. the endless dream (did it 2018/9, don't think a week or two will ever cut it). Concerned that even if we can go, the reality of distanced lifts/bubbles etc will be limiting. Don't want to spend £4k to stand in lift queues. Have rebooked for Feb 2022. Mad!

I got my base layers out of the loft yesterday.

I'm losing my PPA tomorrow. By end of term will have had 2 PPA days instead of 4 like everyone else has had.

You should get PPA paid back if you lose it for something like that - check with your union rep?

I will say we get less PPA and a more fast and loose interpretation of burgundy book rules in college (lunchtime meetings for example) but so much less stupid pissing about with data, spreadsheets and so on, and I only have 5 classes, albeit for 4.5 hours a week each, so the burden of any data stuff is much less. However when we do have to do stuff we have to do it for everyone as you don’t have any “light” classes, they’re all exam classes. Swings and roundabouts. But I don’t miss all the fucking spreadsheets, book scrutinies and other utter bullshit from school. I worked in one where form tutors were supposed to line their form up for assembly in silence in alphabetical order. Used to make me want to let them all stroll in smoking fags and kicking chairs over. Petty nonsense that just puts work on the teacher. No kids were worried their form was lined up wrongly, but teachers were...

That's not okay, oh

I worked in one where form tutors were supposed to line their form up for assembly in silence in alphabetical order.

This was introduced in my school last year but everybody ignored it. We had so many bigger behavioural issues going on that were just being ignored.

@ohthegoats

I'm losing my PPA tomorrow. By end of term will have had 2 PPA days instead of 4 like everyone else has had.

I feel your pain. You poor thing. It's shit to miss out on that valuable time to catch up with everything that needs to be done outside the classroom.

I asked about claiming my PPA back but was told that it'll all even out over the year. So I'll gain when other people lose out later on. I don't think that's how it'll work tbh. But it's not worth the argument. I would spend more than the 2 hours I've lost trying to argue my case and then planning the cover for the lessons I would claim back. I'm missing a year 12 lesson too, which I really need to be teaching them, as they're (understandably) much weaker than they would normally be at this stage. I'm just pissed off and venting.

My school does register order, but it doesn't work when two shitbags are next to each other in the register. At the moment I have a class of 24, only 4 are not shitbags.

I've got the hump tonight. Head talking about school trips today- guidance apparently they should carry on as normal. I mean really, just fuck off guidance. Had the rage in SLT - how can everything else in the world be restricted, not allowed to mix with friends and family, yet I have to somehow do my job as completely normal. Just fuck off.

[quote ohthegoats]@CallmeAngelina we've just cancelled our Christmas ski trip. Fancy hotel with in laws. V sad. Last night we started talking about going over for the whole season.. the endless dream (did it 2018/9, don't think a week or two will ever cut it). Concerned that even if we can go, the reality of distanced lifts/bubbles etc will be limiting. Don't want to spend £4k to stand in lift queues. Have rebooked for Feb 2022. Mad!

I got my base layers out of the loft yesterday.[/quote]
We managed a long weekend at the beginning of January this year (I'm part-time, so called in some favours and arranged some swaps), before Covid was even heard of.
I think it must be apres-ski bars that are the main risk, as once out on the slopes, you're in the fresh air, with goggles, neck gaiters covering your mouth and gloves on all the time. We tend to go with one or two families and stay in the chalet self-catering (and boozing there), which is less of a risk. Sneak in the occasional vin chaud or chocolat chaud a few times, I suppose.
We had wondered about driving down (to avoid planes/airports) at half-term, but actually, it's the risk of having to quarantine afterwards that will make it a no-go. We'll see how it's all looking come January for a last-minute booking perhaps, but I'm not hopeful.
Maybe Scotland???

Zero lift queues in January - but Feb half term is another matter! Insane.

We're not even doing the compulsory A level trips for Geography - they've got to walk down the road instead!

We also had a long weekend in Avoriaz first weekend in Feb. We got a wellbeing day, so used it for that. Both me and boyfriend came back ill though

We were going to get the train down at Xmas, but when that was cancelled back in May, it felt like the writing was on the wall. We can go whenever if it looks OK this coming season, but who knows. Our best mates live in Les Arcs (both me and boyfriend worked in the Alps for years, he's a ski instructor), so would just go and stay with them we if we're allowed.