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 am exhausted. Trying to remember the rules and deal with challenging behaviour (lots of emotional regulation which I find draining).

Still no bubbles popped here just a few children whod travelled quarrantining.

In the immediate (walking distance) area where I live there are now 3 schools with year groups at home. None of which have been reported in the media.
Apparently even the local Spotted on FB has been advised not to post people's posts about them.
This feels very fishy....

I had kids with coats on today, at 18 degrees (to be fair, that's at the front, might be slightly cooler by the windows), what are they going to do in actual winter?

I have reynauds so really need to find gloves I can type and write in and stock up on thick socks.

Behaviour outside the classroom is really slipping, I've never seen so many FTEs by this point in the year. Phones, fights, selling stuff, banned items, it's like they've forgotten the rules altogether.

@Piggywaspushed

Yeah that seems low!! I am getting fed up of kids requesting work because they have a cold! If they have a cold they need to go to bed!

This is a big expectation shift.

We've made it very clear that if the child is unwell, we are not providing work. We wouldn't have done it before so we aren't doing it now.

We only provide work if the child is well and one of the following:
Waiting for a test,
Waiting for the result of a test,
Isolating due to past positive result, or
Isolating due to past contact with positive person.

Otherwise, this providing for ill students is going to continue well after Covid-19.

Behaviour outside the classroom is really slipping, I've never seen so many FTEs by this point in the year

Yes behaviour seems so poor. So many kids (often in Year 9) seem incredibly immature and entitled.

V late checking in!

Yep behaviour poor at my place too.

Then had a 🤨 moment today and realised the behaviour policy has been changed.

I fear we are going Dix by the back door.....

If we all recognise that education is so critical to society that schools must be open, full-time, come what may; previously shielding staff must return; masks may not be worn...

If remote learning was so appalling it must never be contemplated and we must all bear the risk because the education of this generation of children must never again be compromised...

Then why aren’t they doing their sodding homework?

I found some homework thrown in a tree on my walk yesterday. It was Home Ec (paper exercise rather than finished product).

My exposure app has notified me that I have been potentially exposed once this week. I've only been to school and to Tesco, but I feel that exposure there is very different. Quite concerned tbh

Meeting tonight talking about remote learning and how we can support self isolators. I'm a teams nerd pioneer so I was giving suggestions (as requested) of things I found worked. Shot down by SLT member because "that all sounds very complicated. I've not done live lessons yet". So when mainscale staff were learning on the fly in March, you were doing what???? Boils my piss.
Apologies for my rant.

Is this the new one dolly??

ALL of my year 11 class this morning were sniffing, sneezing, snotting all over the place. The only 2 who were coughing have just come back after negative tests. I did go round and give every one of them several tissues so they could at least attempt to keep their germs to themselves. They did have a laugh at "wouldn't it be funny if it wasn't just a cold we've all got, it's all covid but we just have the wrong symptoms".

Behaviour ahs actually been really good at my place but you probably remember how feral it had got. I genuinely feel very blessed with the classes I have. Shhhh.

It's the Scottish app, it launched about two weeks ago. I thought you would get more information about each exposure tbh.

What does it mean, Dolly, do you have to isolate?

The notification popped up and all it said was 'You have had one potential exposure to Covid19 this week'. Nothing else.

@MrsHamlet

Meeting tonight talking about remote learning and how we can support self isolators. I'm a teams nerd pioneer so I was giving suggestions (as requested) of things I found worked. Shot down by SLT member because "that all sounds very complicated. I've not done live lessons yet". So when mainscale staff were learning on the fly in March, you were doing what???? Boils my piss. Apologies for my rant.

Hmm yes. Told today to prepare online learning to be ready to go when kids start isolating. 2 jobs (at least) now... teaching in person and teaching online. Pass the wine!

Behaviour at my place is off the charts, it's exhausting. I've a very low key day planned for tomorrow.

@MrsHamlet

That is pretty poor. I hate how teachers get the blame for this. It is an SLT decision if online lessons are provided. Honestly ridiculous!

We are having a full inset tomorrow about TEAMs and Moodle. Our SLT are pretty clear that we need to be ready to do a full timetable at home if it comes to that. Not sure how I feel!

@WhenSheWasBad

Behaviour outside the classroom is really slipping, I've never seen so many FTEs by this point in the year

Yes behaviour seems so poor. So many kids (often in Year 9) seem incredibly immature and entitled.

I was talking to a y9 girl today and she said it felt like they'd gone from Year 7 to doing their GCSEs in the blink of an eye. I think missing the end of year 8 and not really considering their options properly has hit some of them really hard.

Year 7 on the other hand, seem to have no fear. They normally last until at least half term before they start misbehaving.

Year 11 could not give a flip, they have resigned themselves to being screwed over and can't be bothered to try to make it any better for themselves.

My year 11s are generally a good bunch and are working hard (but then we're going to have a load of set changes at half term that will change the dynamic ☹️)

Year 10 on the other hand, are feral!!! We'll whip then back into shape but my goodness they've forgotten how school works.

And year 8 had 3 fights yesterday resulting in about 50 of them needing to be internally excluded. I think every sixth form lesson had at least one year 8 kid sitting in there today (our "overflow" system for the internal exclusion room that can cope with 10 at the minute). Apparently this is fine as long as the year 8 child is at least 2m from all sixth formers in their lesson

4 cases at my school now. I dont understand the inconsistencies across how schools respond. We have not sent any year groups or whole classes home. Just those in close contact. One case is a teacher and so a whole department are isolating. Cover board looks like it's December with illness rife, not week 3 in September.

A whole department??? What were they doing??

Yup... year 7 definitely feral. No usual fear, it's like they are playing out their year 6 'we're the big kids now' attitude but at secondary level it doesn't quite cut it. They definitely are hugely immature.