The Twenty-third Republic - school attendance not great - half term to be renamed circuit break?

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

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Come home, straight on the wine.

It's been that sort of a day.

Secondary colleagues, if a kid in school tells you to f*CK off what happens?

Because I am starting to realise I work in a school which has a behaviour lead whonis is wetter than a soggy November weekend in Bognor.

@GuyFawkesDay Fixed Term Exclusion at ours. It didn’t used to be, it used to be dependent on who they told to f-off.

There was some serious Under Armour rivalry going on last winter in Yr6 (fitting neatly into the discussion about brands upthread). We’re not talking having to wear your Grandad’s old long johns ffs.
And of course Reynaud’s would be taken into account, like any other health condition.
In Yr7 DS muttered greatly about his English teacher always having the windows open. If I’d been That Parent I would have fired off an email. As it was, I reminded him of the expensive school jumpers I’d kindly furnished him with for such an eventuality. She ended up being one of his favourite teachers. Maybe the fresh air gave him some gumption or something 🤷‍♀️

@GuyFawkesDay

Day in 'Time out' here (I can answer this confidently because I just had a Y11 miss my lesson for that exact reason, though I think she actually said 'for fucks sake', which imo isn't actually as bad as 'fuck off')

Yep. That confirms it. I thought as much.

I need to find a new school. I think we are being Dix-ified by the back door.

We’ve all been tested now (ds2 was a star even though he said it was awful.) Hopefully we’ll get the results quickly, as ds1 really wants to be back at school and honestly so do I!

It’s not much less stressful being home and fielding problems via email and feeling like I have to do more work than I’d usually do to assuage the guilt of having to be off, and having to swab poor ds2 until he cried, package the bloody tests...

Hilariously, the cap on my swab tube broke apart as I was putting it on. NHS advice line said to tape it up and send it in anyway as the tests are so hard to get hold of. Apologies in advance to whoever at Astra Zeneca has to hack through my layers of tape (or just chuck it in the bin )

At my current school either isolation or fixed term exclusion. At my last school, you'd be told you misheard even if said child was actually screaming it in your face at the time. He also threatened to rape me - but I got that wrong too.
Last I heard, he was accommodated at her majesty's pleasure. For rape.

Checking in.
These parents worrying about the cold should try teaching in a school in Scotland in winter 🥶

Last I heard, he was accommodated at her majesty's pleasure. For rape.
Bloody hell!!

Depends what year they're in at my school. Most hoys give a day in internal exclusion, one of them gives a "stern" telling off and nothing more. It's ridiculous!

@MrsHamlet

At my current school either isolation or fixed term exclusion. At my last school, you'd be told you misheard even if said child was actually screaming it in your face at the time. He also threatened to rape me - but I got that wrong too. Last I heard, he was accommodated at her majesty's pleasure. For rape.

This is exactly why confronting and adjusting behaviour is so important. So many children are getting permissive parenting at home - if they get that from school as well then how the hell are they ever supposed to learn boundaries or even that they can't just do whatever they want to others.

I wish he was the worst! The other student I know of who is in prison got life :(
To be fair to him, he had a lot of mental health issues which were picked up far too late.

@Piggywaspushed

riga, Boris is referring to that letter written in August/July...

Ugh typical!

I tend towards a judicious ignoring of a "for fucks sake" if muttered under the breath and particularly in year 9+. I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as "Fuck off" which is clearly aimed AT someone.

As part of our 'bounce back' sessions we're talking about things we can/can't control. So we got to 'what people think of me'. Some interesting discussion, especially since we were down a classmate who was in 'time out'.

On girl (politely) chips in 'my mum says you shouldn't care what people think of you'.

I'm like 'yep, don't care what they think of your hair, or name, or accent, but maybe care if they think you're rude, or mean, or threatening?'

I had a boy in my last tutor group who would play up for female teachers. Only took one email exchange with his dad to see where that came from.

Parents eh?

@MrsHamlet I've taught one who was convicted of murder. Was PE'd in yr9 or 10 but was a very, very damaged boy. He was unreachable and very 'cold'.

This is my problem. We just aren't helping these kids if we don't put in place effective discipline. I feel totally on my own trying to keep order (don't ask about the HOD 😩)

Me too: I have a "goodness me. I can't possibly have heard that" face which I employ from time to time.
I must confess to letting a fuck slip out last year when I did something to my back in a lesson. It was agony out of nowhere. The kids were brilliant as I lay on the floor writing in agony. The head just looked frightened... he was summoned to my room (not a thing which happens often) having just taken THE call...

@Danglingmod

I tend towards a judicious ignoring of a "for fucks sake" if muttered under the breath and particularly in year 9+. I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as "Fuck off" which is clearly aimed AT someone.

Oh yeah, if it had been me and it was an aside she'd have got a 'language' reminder and a stern look. I wasn't there though, it does say 'shouted at', and it was in a corridor so quite disrespectful and possibly in front of younger pupils. But usually I think a 'fucks sake' from a year 11 should probably be a level 1 'inappropriate language' rather than a level 4 'swore at a teacher' in most circumstances.

Obviously 'fuck off' is actually quite different and I wouldn't be having that.

I've taught one convicted of murder (back while I was an nqt, he very much frightened me and he was only year 7)
2 convicted of armed robbery (one was on his way to the school after his robbery, that was our one and only experience of locking down the school and hiding very, very quietly in our classrooms, he was caught before he got there)
And 1 convicted of rape and grooming offences.

I genuinely teach in a lovely school, but the few kids who are bad are apparently very, very bad!

@Frlrlrubert
I had a boy in my last tutor group who would play up for female teachers. Only took one email exchange with his dad to see where that came from.

One of my former colleagues once called a father in to speak about his Year Four son's domineering behaviour towards girls. The dad spent the entire time trying to convince her to go out sometime with him because she was the, and I quote, "finest teacher in the school". On the way out of the building, he also suggested to the assistant head that she should come away on holiday with him so he could, and again I quote, "show her a good time".

Ewwwwwww

I've also taught a family of lads who were convicted of armed robbery and gbh. Youngest was still at school. He's was definitely a good kid who caved under all the influence of his vile elder siblings. I still feel like I failed him somehow.

Feel like I'm buckling at the moment. I might go and see the GP as tears are never far away.

That father sounds charming 🤣
I had one last year who wouldn't listen to anything I said but when my male colleague repeated it almost verbatim, would agree. He was really nasty to female staff and none of us would meet with him 1 to 1.

Piggywaspushed
riga, Boris is referring to that letter written in August/July...

Was there a letter published today though as he definitely said that?

Easy confused these days me.

Think Boris is easily confused too!

Poster on the Numbers thread says that the new DfE advice line for heads is only (I think, I've asked for more information from her!) for single cases, if you have an outbreak (2/3/more?) then you can get public health advice.

At my husband's school (secondary) a kid told a teacher to "fuck off you bitch" last week. He had to miss one breaktime.