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

If it is an actual alert, it should be clear within the app if you open it.

The Apple/Google System that the app sends out an alert that tells you the contact tracing is on and working. According to friends elsewhere, this is clear on their apps, but it seems that on the English one the message that comes up is a bit confusing.

Well, having just had this alert it most certainly did not come across as "the app is working" it came across as "alert: you've been exposed". Whether that's down to the type of phone I've got or anything else, that message to say "the app is working" should be clear in the first few words.

I'm glad some more knowledgeable people seem to know what it means, because I couldn't find any info anywhere. It does lead me to wonder how often that alert is supposed to appear though. I've had the app quite a few days now and it's the first time I've seen anything like it, so is it supposed to be daily? Weekly? Randomly? Has the app NOT been working so far if this is the first I've seen if it? So many questions!!

Hope you are ok salty .
Mumsnet is not working for me on Chrome either so I have downloaded the app. Apologies if I PM someone instead of just posting a message!

Hope you are okay this morning, Salty, and not too shaken.

The college vs school thing really gets my goat. Our local FE college has the Yr 12 kids in one day a week and the year 13/14s one day a month!!! But school sixth forms have to provide full-time, full face to face contact! It's so unfair.

Well my sixth form college is full-time, face to face, I only teach 16+ all day every day and we’re in a watch list area. With no bubbling in college. So not great.

Happy national poetry day!!!

Hope you’re ok Salty 🌸🌸🌸

From a political perspective, I am slightly amused to see that a) people aren’t recognising that’s data is always manipulated and b) that it’s being manipulated in schools so that we stay open and keep the economy going. Surely that’s why data exists - to be twisted and formed into what you want? Is in politics, anyway.

I’ve got a doctors appointment today (off timetable but back in later if all is well) as I’ve likely caught a chest infection. Praying it’s that - the thought of having to record lessons again and trust cover staff to do what I’ve asked (we have one who boosts about time spent giving ‘useful’ lectures about life, instead of the work).

How do you do the union subs tax thing and is it worth it how much do you get back please? I'm so clueless with money

@winewolfhowls

How do you do the union subs tax thing and is it worth it how much do you get back please? I'm so clueless with money

A friend got £250 back for last five years. I have some instructions I can message them to you directly...

There's info about it on moneysavingexpert. Basically you just write a letter to HMRC with the details of your union fees for last five years. There's companies that do it, but take a cut. It was pretty easy when I did it

@MsAwesomeDragon I've got the app and never had that. I'd assume it's telling you to isolate

@MsAwesomeDragon search for the article on FAQs about the app on the BBC website, that's where I got my info from.

I’m a bit fucked off that DS has to isolate due to the stupid, irresponsible behaviour of a classmate. I won’t go into details, because that wouldn’t be fair on the young person involved who deserves confidentiality despite putting themselves and everyone around them at risk.
It just goes to show that we’re fighting a losing battle with the older children.

I’ve been put in isolation for what the doctor thinks is likely to be a... cold.
And I’ve annoyed myself as I set the wrong cover for one set. FGS. I was once good at my job.

Ive got myself in a mess re my thyroid meds. I stopped taking in apr when i felt ill with maybe covid (insomnia and racing heart and SOB). I was running out anyway as gp wouldnt let me have any in mar as needed blood test but obviously with covid didnt want to do that. Started retaking and later went for blood test but theyve decided i havent had enough meds ordered in the right amount of time.

Must be quite a lot of people who have delayed stuff to avoid gps.

I think unfortunately everyone is at the mercy of kids not taking silly risks. (Eg that house party at swansea uni).
And especially unfair on those with health issues ir gcse /a level groups)

I am done with today. Trying to support lots of children who are scattered around the room rather than have a group due to seating plans and rows made a simple lesson challenging.

Not to mention my backs gone and so I'm in a lot of pain and finding my challenging job worse and feel I'm not being patient with the kids.

My thyroid blood test is well over due too keepdistance. Thanks for reminding me

Inset tonight was all about how we will provide remote learning if any classes/years/whole school need to close. So I "learned" how to record a video and upload it into MS Stream. Of course I did 3 of those every day during lockdown, so I'm not quite sure how useful that was for me, but for some of my department it was extremely useful as they hadn't even located the camera (as in the visualiser we were all provided with 4 years ago, and I've been using at least weekly ever since). They claimed never to have been given one, but it was located, still sealed in its box in the depths of their cupboard. I just love staying at school until 5:30 doing inset on things I already do regularly I'm so tired!!!

twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1311681868354523136?s=21

Testing shambles at my school : colleague got her 20 year old DS teste on Saturday. No result and no help to chase it. So she now has to SI for 14 days even though it could easily be negative. Thus the school is without a teacher...

We've got TAs off constantly for child testing issues. Oddly none of the teacher's children have needed to be tested so far. Bit weird

A TA in my team had a huge panic attack yesterday, I'm not being told any of the detail, just that she is off... the class is challenging, the teacher in there is new to this phase, we have no other bods to be in there with him. I already don't have a TA.

We have had our first confirmed case and part of a year group has been sent home.

Tomorrow we have to teach, simultaneously and live, the kids who are in our classroom and the kids isolating at home. Apparently we will find cameras in the classrooms.

So that’s all fine

Hi all. Physically and emotionally done in.

Very challenging behaviour in some classes. Not mine this week but I'm listening to the stress from other staff.

A bubble who was off have had a staff member test positive I believe but even that is being kept under cover at our school so it's impossible for data to be collected unless you're track and trace/ dfe.

And "they'll" be keeping that quiet.

The data was v twisted on those ides yesterday.

@Augustbreeze we've been sent it via email re what happens if you have kids and their bubble is closed but they aren't ill.

It was all rather complicated as we are actually covered if we are all SI due to a positive test, but we've now been given much more emergency leave for dependants. It had to go to governors etc. Obviously wfh.

www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/30/largest-covid-19-contact-tracing-study-date-finds-children-key-spread-evidence