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’m diabetic so usually get invited die flu jab but this year you have to fill in a form requesting one instead of being invited...

Hope you get results soon @Saucery and @RigaBalsam

Also completely exhausted by the weekends here too.

Having to juggle full time teaching with my 5 year old who’s wraparound care is currently cancelled and no family help and I just know I’m going to crack soon.

Was marking via Teams at about 2pm onwards today trying to navigate the quite frankly glitchy platform on my day off, just to try and keep my head above water.

Think I’ll be heading to bed after Strictly.
Rock n roll times

Infections reported today 12,872

Er, what?

Daily positives showing huge jump (near to 13K) today, apparently due to a technical issue meaning cases weren't shown accurately for previous 9 days.....

Interview with Michael Rosen for @piggywaspushed

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/30/michael-rosen-on-his-covid-19-coma-it-felt-like-a-pre-death-a-nothingness

Sounds like we’re really lucky to still have him.

Just seen those figures😵

@MsAwesomeDragon

I'm watching mathsconf. I've done 3 sessions so far, the best was the one on teaching compound measures with ratio and proportion. Dd has a friend who's just arrived (this is still allowed in our area)

Ooh, I did the previous maths conference in the summer! Really enjoyed it, despite it taking up all day on Saturday. In some ways I prefer it to in-person, as I'm quite introverted and the idea of spending a day with a bunch of strangers stresses me out (even if they are maths teachers ). Cheaper as well.

We're using the recordings from conference 23 as our targeted CPD this year.

Hope everyone is ok, and that those of you feeling unwell are better soon. I'm lucky with timetabling this year as I don't have two consecutive days in school, so I can leave on time knowing I've got the next day to catch up. I feel as if I'm drowning in the marking though.

I will watch that noble!

Dreaming I prefer it being online too, as I too dread the thought of spending all day talking to strangers!! Plus, anywhere they hold it would be a long way for me to go, so the expense of travel and accommodation would put it out of my reach completely. So online is so much better for me, it's cheap, I am still available for dd if she needs me (dh is at home too, but I'm still the default parent), and I didn't have to talk to anyone. I liked it 😊

I've had a lovely day down on the south coast with my dsis and bil and dh.
Blustery walk on the beach and feel we've earned the alcohol blast since we returned.
It's around the time of year when we were very much busy with my dad in his decline and we're both missing him hugely so this is a big wallow.

Angelina, .

Just tried starting the booking a test process to see what capacity is like here, it was miles better than it has been!

But there's new dire warnings about when NOT to get a test, including:
"If your work or school has told you to get a test and you do not have symptoms"

It then helpfully points out:

"If your employer, school or travel company has asked you to get tested, and you do not have symptoms, you can pay for a private test."

So that's going to really set anxious parents' minds s"at rest, isn't it? Provided they're wealthy.

@CallmeAngelina

I've had a lovely day down on the south coast with my dsis and bil and dh. Blustery walk on the beach and feel we've earned the alcohol blast since we returned. It's around the time of year when we were very much busy with my dad in his decline and we're both missing him hugely so this is a big wallow.

and late night

Infections reported today 12,872

Oh God. I’ve resigned myself to catching it. It’s not safe in school, it’s not the kids fault (the vast majority anyway - the one who coughed on his phone seconds before I confiscated it )

If the figures are back dated surely that means the surveillance report is wrong.
So how many outbreaks in schools were there.
Tbh i was surprised that it hadnt shot up again.

So basically all the numbers from last week are under reported.

What a fucking shit show.

I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories but I did think it strange that the 'rule of six' seemed to be working while we were still ramming 100s of kids in the hall for wet break!

Not sure but BRTUS reckoned that uni figures are or arent always included as they didnt have high enough on the maps of the areas. And maybe some were classes as neither 1 or 2 as some unis paid independently.

So, all that "the numbers of infections are levelling off," was a complete load of bollocks then?
Quelle surprise!

Hop over to the data thread and you will see two things. One,the official explanation being reported and discussed. Two, the way in which some posters who are glass half full try to make stuff like this OK! It is a lag from when they fell massively behind and Dido was a dodo, but all that does is push the 7 day average right up : it's not as if those positive tests don't exist!

The new thing I am noticing is a) the proper deniers banging on about false negatives and people dying in car crashes and b) people saying 'it doesn't matter if the people tested aren't ill!

Most of them will be since sample and mass testing is still rare. Student populations account for some of the spike but not all of it.

DH hasn't had his invitation for a flu jab yet. A neighbouring town has done all of theirs, using a facility in our village but our own village surgery can't get its arse in gear.

First time I saw people going on about the number of false positives keeping people unfairly at home was Us4Them twitter. All these kids missing school for a single kid who probably never had it in the first place.

I had a go at MNHQ for not deleting that obvious conspiracy theorist on my thread after I reported it yesterday. They responded with that cut and paste about how it was good to see these things robustly challenged. Well we wouldn’t need to have robustly challenged them if it had been deleted immediately.

Been lurking on the numbers thread Piggy and I agree. Then there was the poster who thought you didn't agree with Dr Zoe when it's the opposite.

Don't wait for a flu jab invitation. Ring up. They're booked now for a month at our surgery but the pharmacy is doing them more quickly. We've all had one free. Dh as shielded, me as education staff and ds as asthmatic.

So, there were 21 year group bubbles popped in my city the week before last and according to the data only 18 positive cases full stop of all people. I'm both relieved I wasn't going mad that the figures were clearly lacking and really scared to have been right.

He has rung up dangling. they told him 'sometime in October'...he is a free jab priority person!

Our surgery is a shambles.

He has also signed up for one via school to see which is quicker but that's through Boots who apparently now have a huge waiting list.

Apparently, my school is about to roll some out, so hopefully I'll be able to get one so at least I won't pass flu to him!