The Twenty Fourth Republic - conditions not great and are teachers becoming modern day lepers?

[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 yo

Staff hope she starts feeling better. Has she got a pulse oxometer?
Lying on your front can help.

staff sorry your sister is sick, hopefully she will make a swift recovery

Staff - sending get well soon wishes to your sister

@StaffAssociationRepresentative hope your sister recovers quickly

Sorry to hear about your sister staff hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Hope your sister starts feeling better soon, Staff.

Best wishes to sister staff.

MrsH no! I'd never get my work done. I'm tempted to start marking a year 8 QMA now to get it done. At least I can sit in bed doing rather than trying to find a quiet space when I'm not to shattered to think or being interrupted by requests or lonely teachers in need of adult conversation in the week.

MrsHP it's impossible not to isn't it? If I didn't turn my laptop on and deal with things on my days off I'd go back to a zillion emails that needed actioning.

On the other hand I don't work till 10pm at night like some do.

T&T not bothering with school cases is shocking. They'll have plenty of non school contacts that will be being missed surely?

Sorry to hear your sister is ill, Staff, I hope she recovers soon.

We have two weeks until half term and I'm counting the days. Parents' evening went fine on Teams, some parents said lovely, complimentary things, which heartened me - I need to hear it at the moment!

Hope your sister makes a full recovery soon staff.

2 weeks sounds manageable, I think I can make it that far.

I'm wondering if local councils are collecting the data. Bil is a primary stand in deputy head and on some sort of committee where the council discuss how things are going and he'd been told how many Leeds schools had had to close at least one bubble etc.

There's a ridiculous news lockdown on it locally bar the closure of an entire special school. But I know of three more that had to fully close.

We have year 12 parents evening to do next week. By phone. Fun times.

I've got to ask, Honey - what is this QMA of which you ideal?

Speak. Not ideal 🤦🏼‍♀️

@MrsHamlet, we have ours too. Need to spend today (the first sunny looking day for weeks) writing preparatory notes. No idea what to write, actually, as we've had a very bumpy and disrupted few weeks in school.

Also, it's not yet been made clear how/where we are all meant to conduct these calls.

Staff, I hope your sister recovers soon.

@TheHoneyBadger yes - I try to get as much done during the two days I don’t work as possible along with doing something for me (meet a friend etc). Usually then I just work late on two nights and not much at the weekend.

MrsH Quality marked assessment. Allegedly to lessen the marking load and perhaps it does in maths and science where see groups 4 times a week and potentially it's a page of eg maths that you tick against the answer sheet and give a score.

I think in subjects where we see them very little in ks3 in particular and it's essay like assessments which need more subtle marking and markschemes it's way more work than tick and flick and closely mark eg a homework or lesson and give a target every few weeks. I also suspect we are doing more than necessary for the amount we see them.

In science we had to have a marking point every 2 weeks and we saw ks3 6 times a fortnight (and had less groups obviously). We seem to be doing QMAs at the same rate in history even though we only see them 3x a fortnight I think previously they just had to mark the books and give a target after every 6th lesson in History ie 4 weekly.

Sorry this is boring stuff!

Should have added every one needs recording on GO with a flightpath and in their books you have to give swans (strengths, weaknesses, assessment grade and next steps). Time consuming plus I'm being an idiot and still reading through and marking the rest of the book because it's hard not to.

Robert J on Marr saying schools, unis and work places do spread it etc but they will do everything to keep it open. Marr asked what if it doesn't and he ( paraphrasing) said its our priority and we will do everything in our power.

Why is Jenrick on talking about schools? Where is Gav?!

Quality marked as opposed to badly marked then?! Because that's what calling it QMA suggests to me but we have CBA weeks in our calendar which also make me laugh inappropriately
That sounds insane and time consuming and insane again!

Our marking policy is per number of lessons - in English we get 4 a week so we are expected to mark fortnightly but RS get one so so they're marking every 8 weeks.
I'm a big fan of marking rubrics and putting them on stickers. That way I'm writing much less in each book but giving the same quality feedback. And I get to play with highlighters, so it's a win win.

Including fudging the figures and muzzling the press it seems

Think it's quality as in opposed to quantity but just hasn't worked out that way for us.

I'm being an idiot and still reading through and marking the rest of the book because it's hard not to.

It really isn't! Mark the piece of work, close book, onto the next one. Set yourself a deadline by which the work needs to be marked, that will concentrate the mind.

You are spending so long marking because you have time to do it. You have time to do it because you are part time and unpaid. DON'T DO IT. You didn't go part time to spend more time on your marking. Teaching will expand to fill any time period, so you have to set times where it's not allowed to.

What noble says!
I always tell trainees that this job is like expanding foam...

@MrsHamlet

What noble says! I always tell trainees that this job is like expanding foam...

Yep and as a wiseman said teaching relies on a lot of good will. You have done enough.