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

If there are too many As to choose from for universities then they should look at more than just grades or do entrance exams

Trim a stack of A4 paper (one side and the bottom), and then it's ready for classroom use at any time as it fits neatly into their books without overlapping the pages - one of my bugbears.... Our kids have to have glue sticks, so they also write on just one side of the paper so that it can be stuck into their books page by page. Save me loads of time!

I refuse to stick stuff in kids' books... but I am rather insistent about how and where they stick and write so I have them drilled now!!
I also never take in a closed book.

I feel like the ability to cut and glue sheets into books is the sort of skill that will definitely have suffered over lockdown.

Trouble with fixed grade boundaries is they don't reflect the difficulty of a paper. From a maths pov it's nigh on impossible to write a paper of equivalent difficulty to another (unless all you do is change the numbers). Obviously for other subjects this would be easier.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

I feel like the ability to cut and glue sheets into books is the sort of skill that will definitely have suffered over lockdown.

For sure! No matter how many times you hold up that piece of A4, show them which way up to stick it and draw a diagram on the whiteboard with arrows etc there will be at least 3 in a class who don’t do it 🤦‍♀️

Our Y7s have notably suffered from not using measuring skills over lockdown. On our baseline test loads couldn’t measure a straight line or an angle.

Not to mention using scissors!!!

It's crazy how much time can be wasted, rifling through closed books looking for the right page they have randomly picked to write on.

We too trim down all worksheets prior to use, so they can fit into an A4 book without sticking out over the edge (which unreasonably enrages me). But if my 8 year olds can do it, secondary kids ought to be able to manage it.

@TheHoneyBadger

Exams are bizarre. There is no way kids are so much brighter now than in my school years that they need an a**

I think they should just be fixed grade boundaries that remain at the same levels like in university eg 70% plus is a 1st.

When someone says they have an A in English that should mean the same thing regardless of what year they took their exam.

It hasn't for so long though. Grade inflation has been going on since the beginning of gcses. Huge rise in it during the late 90s- early 2000s.

" No matter how many times you hold up that piece of A4, show them which way up to stick it and draw a diagram on the whiteboard with arrows etc there will be at least 3 in a class who don’t do it"

Ditto writing the date! I have it up on two different boards, modelled beautifully in cursive font, and I point out every fucking time that there is a capital letter for the day and the month. I had one write "thersday" last week and, obvious errors aside, my despair was intensified that it was bloody WEDNESDAY.

So in my books, we only write stuff for marking on the right pages. Left pages are for sheets and notes and stuff I will never look at. Every lesson I say "turn to the next right hand page and..." and still they use the wrong page.
Our senco told me last week that based on the tests she's just done, most of our current year 10 need extra time in exams because they've not written anything for months. Writing speed is a real issue.

I've told my Y11 that their rank order will be based on their ability to follow instructions and do as I say at any given moment, including sticking sheets in; they are not quite sure whether to believe me or not...

I believe you!

Mrs Hamlet, you can have position number 1 - congratulations!

I had one write "thersday" last week and, obvious errors aside, my despair was intensified that it was bloody WEDNESDAY.

Oh my god this is my class to a tee

My biggest peeve atm is the constant answering back. If you say ‘P5, please go and put on your coats,’ three will ask whether or not they can put their coats on, one will go on at length about their jacket (not coat), four will feel the need to explain at length that they didn’t bring one and one more will chatter on about their fleece. I don’t fecking care. Please just put on an outside garment.

They are so chatty that I have a soft spot for the most disobedient one, purely because he at least defies me silently 😩😂

Yessssss! Fist pump!!!!

@noblegiraffe

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

Clad in leather (with studs) in DomCs dungeon...

@CallmeAngelina

" No matter how many times you hold up that piece of A4, show them which way up to stick it and draw a diagram on the whiteboard with arrows etc there will be at least 3 in a class who don’t do it"

Ditto writing the date! I have it up on two different boards, modelled beautifully in cursive font, and I point out every fucking time that there is a capital letter for the day and the month. I had one write "thersday" last week and, obvious errors aside, my despair was intensified that it was bloody WEDNESDAY.

Is this why my year 7s are neurotically obsessed with how they have to write the date? I have to explain that I really don't care so long as they stop asking questions and underline it with a ruler. Am I undoing the hard work of year 6 teachers?

I have seen some of the most couldn't make it up ridiculous sticking in of sheets this year despite saying fold it in half and glue it on one page.

I've managed to restrain myself from marking my yr 8 qma. Feel like I'm wasting time but it's Sunday ffs. It's made for wasting. I've washed uniform whites and filled the dishwasher (via yelling at ds to retrieve the missing 90% of crockery from his bedroom). I'm building up to having a bath and preparing dinner.

BRTUS have posted an account of a NS interview when she commented that the rates were higher in Scotland perhaps because schools and unis go back earlier there.

I don't know why anyone is frothing about schools not closing and hospitality venues being shut, this is basically what were told in August would happen.

However, I've always thought it significant that govt said "schools will be the last to close". This is not the same as "schools will never close".

@CallmeAngelina

" No matter how many times you hold up that piece of A4, show them which way up to stick it and draw a diagram on the whiteboard with arrows etc there will be at least 3 in a class who don’t do it"

Ditto writing the date! I have it up on two different boards, modelled beautifully in cursive font, and I point out every fucking time that there is a capital letter for the day and the month. I had one write "thersday" last week and, obvious errors aside, my despair was intensified that it was bloody WEDNESDAY.

Our date is always written on the board, everyday they still ask me what the date is or where the date is!

I never have the date on my board and on the odd occasion students ask me the date I say “I don’t have a clue!”. A bit different from life in school! They also sometimes ask me “what’s the title?” to which I always reply “I don’t know, what’s your work about?”.

I don’t mark any classwork at all. If they’ve submitted it on Teams I C+P a generic sentence or so before I return it, but I only mark exam style questions or assessment work really. The rest is all verbal and often whole-class. Doesn’t seem to affect their achievement at all. When I think about how much time I used to spend “marking books” and also getting bollocked about said books for lack of purple pen etc I could cry.

@GravityFalls

I never have the date on my board and on the odd occasion students ask me the date I say “I don’t have a clue!”. A bit different from life in school! They also sometimes ask me “what’s the title?” to which I always reply “I don’t know, what’s your work about?”.

I don’t mark any classwork at all. If they’ve submitted it on Teams I C+P a generic sentence or so before I return it, but I only mark exam style questions or assessment work really. The rest is all verbal and often whole-class. Doesn’t seem to affect their achievement at all. When I think about how much time I used to spend “marking books” and also getting bollocked about said books for lack of purple pen etc I could cry.

The date written in full and the title is part of our book scrutinies. They are obsessed with marking at my place though. Even yhe supppy teacher last week said he has never seem anything like it.

Its a nightmare!

(Wanted to comment again on the Daily Numbers but don't want this to be deleted because of becoming a TAAT!!!)

The date written in full and the title is part of our book scrutinies.

V important for learning, that.

In my classroom “what’s the title?”
“Er, Solving quadratics”
“That was the title yesterday”
“Oh, ok, More Solving Quadratics”

it's got a bit feisty over there august. happens whenever anyone mentions schools. I am a bit fed up of the thread police on there.