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

Ours, too, Herc and WhenSheWasBad... I have to upload pre-recorded lessons at home as the Internet is absolutely piss poor at school. No way can we do live lessons from the classroom and nor are we expected to.

I had to supervise wet break for year nine alone because the other guy hasn't got the memo on wet break procedure.

Animals.

Their HoY happened to be the break supervision so came and helped out towards the end, but even then they were being silly and didn't seem to take it seriously even when she made them all sit down and bollocked them. We need more tables and chairs (they were fighting over chairs) in their break area, we must have some somewhere.

Trying to shout 'put down the chair' through my mask into a crowd of kids taller than me took me right back to the days of NQT fear and shite behaviour management! At least it made me realise how much I've improved (under normal circumstances).

We are a "no masks" school, and have also been told we no longer need to keep windows open all the time.
Apparently there has been some message from the LA or something that we have to balance cold against ventilation, and that occasional opening of windows is sufficient if we keep an internal door open....
I suspect they realise that otherwise schools will close due to cold. And schools MUST STAY OPEN.
FFS.

We have no opening windows. Classroom doors are supposed to stay open but rarely do due to noise.

One positive case and close contacts isolated. No other cases yet (10 days in).

We have all windows and doors open, no heating on yet.

770 test positive at University of Northumbria, wonder how many total students they have?!

That's a lot!
Surely gov can see this is out of control with such huge numbers. Even if they dont get ill themselves that many people wandering round with it, like an extra 10% of the daily amount just at 1 uni!

My windows are all open, and the door is open when I have a big class. When I have a small class who are able to spread out and SD then I allow them to close the door because my small classes are LOUD, and the whole department doesn't need to hear me shouting at them as the windows should be enough ventilation for such small numbers.

A lot of teachers in my school are shutting the doors and windows though, so the kids complain about it being cold in my room (it's not, the heating is on, I rarely need a cardigan but they want a coat on)

That's loads at Northumbria!!!! And they're right in the city centre as well, so they'll have spread it far and wide.

There's about 32,000 students at Northumbria in total. So it's a smaller percentage than I thought, but still a really huge number, and a higher rate than the general public.

I have hit the wine early!

My windows slide open fully sideways and there are 3 of them , plus 2 doors (one external and one internal) so you can get quite a through-draught going.
But it was pissing down with rain all day and when I was operating a quick blast-through of air (after one of my cherubs availed themselves of the opportunity for a large "dump" in the classroom loo!) I heard a plaintive voice saying, "But Mrs Angelina, please could we close it. I'm being rained on!"
Then the Head decided that any kids who had wellies and raincoats with them, could go out to play. Brilliant - except I was on duty and didn't have wellies or a decent raincoat. Everyone got suitably soaked, but to be fair they had a fabulous time splashing around in puddles. Was, bizarrely, the high point of my day to see such pure joy.

That sounds lovely Callme
My windows and doors are staying open. I have had stern discussions with each class telling them I will not discuss it every lesson, yes they are open, yes it will get cold and yes they may want to wear their school skins under their shirts, or heaven forbid a school jumper.
It’s bloody noisy when y7 go for early break or lunch but that’s the rub.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-school-classroom-teaching-has-covid-turned-us-all-trads?fbclid=IwAR28dAxJ-wwNOY1kahqEsG_Itwq7fXmnTgpUCXBeLFWAavFyzjUU0FyJVHY

I wonder when the last time this deputy head organised a drama production, school trip, science practical or did anything worthwhile outside of his office.

We’re still in rows. Windows and doors open. We’re starting to teach from class/home simultaneously in the next week or so. But not to KS3 at the moment. @HipTightOnions we’re not projecting ourselves at all - only our screen and then sound, not for whole lesson - just instruction/explanation but then cut off for independent work bit. Kids at home to stay muted - essentially just listening in. Anyone disrupting from home will be removed from lesson and potentially not allowed into next lesson...

I'm pretty happy with it to be honest - the way of teaching. Fewer gimmicks isn't bad.

Apparently staff at Northumbria Uni are threatening to strike, over safety fears... (Sorry have lost the article now)

Yes @HipTightOnions you need the power to mute kids at home, we certainly have that. My rock bottom y11 set were always a bit silly when the sent home isolators came on line but settled after that And just resorted to normal off task behaviour
I raised it with slt, that the parents might be looking on and seeing the ( not unusual) poor behaviour and they just said carry on, do what you would normally do.

@Piggywaspushed was it this?

Disappearing Covid-19 app alerts cause alarm www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54389083

@Augustbreeze

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumbria-university-staff-could-strike-19037725

It's being reported as 850 in the chronicle.,

That sounds good mrsHP.
I would hope parents would just be grateful that the kids can listen in.

What did the 22 oct document actually mean?

No, it wasn't that. It was definitely some sort of weekly update...

Our la has decreased 48% to 30 this 7d.
Only concern is a bit like with the charts earlier is it that now the kids are over their colds are we picking up less as less tested. Or were most infections related to travel abroad

Thanks @NeurotrashWarrior, yes that's the one! It must all be v worrying for you at an SEN school (and are you or a family member vulnerable, iirc?)

@Keepdistance, what 22 Oct document? Three weeks is a long time in Covid autumn.....

The issue we have in Newcastle is that Northumbria and Newcastle unis are so close they may as well be the same campus. And then two local fe colleges too, all a stones throw from pubs and bars etc.

The halls are all now close to the city centre but there's always been many student flats in local residential areas. I'm sure they're all mostly abiding by guidance but there must be so many asymptomatic cases. Newcastle is not a massive city.

Also, both unis have medical / dental students/ nurses (Northumbria the nurses, physio, ots etc) and both have many teaching students.

I'm seeing a wave of infections go up the west end (non students) which is where it will really get out of hand and there's a lot of Asian families, big multigenerational houses etc too, as well as very low income Geordie families.

The old student flat areas where we always rented are very dark blue too. But they're next to wealthy larger houses and lots of smaller Terrace flats and houses. That's my concern.