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

Oh, and apparently heads have been promised a 'definitive' decision on what is happening with 2021 exams within 2 weeks.

Complete head in hands moment reading this!
Well no wonder it does not work. ICT is no longer a valid qualification according to the Conservatives/Gove. Now, had whoever created this sub par system, had completed an actual qualification in the use of these applications, they would have known that it should be a database and a relational one at that! Excel is great as flatfile but not the right tool for this problem. U grade awarded to the government

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/shock-and-despair-follow-revelations-that-world-beating-test-and-trace-system-is-being-run-on-excel/05/10/?fbclid=IwAR1OGaQVb2Uqgd1Z8ZVbcO2esoFcsOepoXVz05apVGW03qCAb3xetih8cB0

There was a lot of discussion of this (excel etc) on the Daily Numbers thread earlier today, by people who really knew what they were talking about. They were similarly unimpressed.....

They put the figures in the columns rather than the rows so they got missed off the end, I believe. 🤦‍♀️

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I hope your appointment is ok why, I'd do what others suggest. You definitely need to get that checked.

Wow to your staff mrsHamlet! I hope there's no big fall out from it.

Nobel I think big gav has done the teacher thing of looking at the calendar at 2:40 and saying "fuck! We forgot all about xyz day!" And hurriedly swapping the assembly at 2:50 to an xyz theme.

I hope poorly people are ok. Ds had his nasal flu jab; I think I'm in for a night of poorly toddler. 😴

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/every-child-self-isolate-over-19053457?fbclid=IwAR1is4KrzAkb6G7K6uhQwhTT_Duz0agH4frZwfG2cX9jdILvx5U-034pYKA

• Calderdale and Kirklees sound like a really sensible council, supportive of schools, trying to explain things to parents.

Also interesting on how public health should work.

I read earlier that teacher working hours have gone up from an average of 50 hours, to 73. So that's nice. Feels about right.

I don't know what the head will say to the socialisers but the staff who've been lumbered with the cover are less than thrilled about it! We've lost a cover supervisor in the group which doesn't help!

mrsH I’m amazed the school hasn’t had to send any year groups home. That’s a lot of cover to find.

Three of SLT were on cover today which is unheard of. If we lose any more we'll be in trouble. Some staff are very lightly timetabled on the Covid timetable so they'll cop fot a lot.

Just checking in. We have very few kids off. Loads of them coughing though 🙄

We have lots of year 8 off. No rhyme nor reason, definitely not corona related.

The rest of the year groups are mostly in and engaged.

@Saucery

They put the figures in the columns rather than the rows so they got missed off the end, I believe. 🤦‍♀️

Wouldn’t happen with a relational database, eh!? It’s what happens when you give important contracts to your mates/family...

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/entries-for-as-and-a-level-autumn-2020-exam-series

Have we discussed the teeny exam entries for A level resits? Maths is ridiculously popular.

@ohthegoats my working hours have definitely gone up -I feel like I'm meeting myself coming back

Setting cover when staff are absent is a big one at the moment plus setting/checking work for kids who are self isolating seems to take forever. I don't think being all over the school is helping- the running around makes you feel like you have less time imo plus it's so much harder to support the faculty staff when people are all over.

Of course, there are still all the usual things to do like CPD,organising form assembly for xyz, the actual teaching and learning which has to be tweaked for restrictions and catch up curriculum to sort.

My head hurts tonight

Supposed to be going away at half term in this country and now I feel like it won't happen because the government will put a lockdown in right over half term which is a depressing thought

We usually stream some stuff by ability, but now can't. Scaffolding everything is taking so long.

Same onthegoats. The level of planning needed for a decent mixed ability 2 hour lesson is bonkers.

Another one with asthma and thyroid issues here. When my levothyroxine dose was too low my asthma was worse. Wouldn't have connected it if I hadn't read others having similar links. I've also recently started on mid cycle bleeding. Has confused my Fitbit period tracking and predictions.

Working hours increase sounds about right. I'm somehow working between 25 and 28 hours a week on a 0.4 contract despite only teaching for 9 hours a week. So yes times that by 2.5 and it fits with what full timers are reporting.

Long story short swamped with planning and marking and recording and reporting before I even get to the 20-30 emails a day that require action. Including the new trend of providing work for individual students who are isolating which they don't bother doing anyway.

Got a massive data dump of 6 major documents to read regarding safeguarding which apparently sends a read receipt the minute you open an email proving the school has provided the training and ticks their box and passes responsibility onto us. That's the usual way of avoiding safeguarding training and updates being counted as directed time. Just dump the lot on us remotely.

My friend is a secret shopper and doesn't drink alcohol anymore so on Thursday after our lunch time swim I'm accompanying her to drink g&ts in four different pubs. I drink she takes photos of how it was served (has to meet the drinks companies serving policy) and fills in a questionnaire about display of the drink. Free g&ts and a nice drive around country pubs is my thing to look forward to this week

Oh and the person who served the drink gets a £10 amazon voucher so they are happy too.

The last lot I did with her were aperol spritzers.

I am a selfless friend helping her out like this

Bit of insomnia here but trying not to stress about it. Only have to get ds up and out with pack lunch in the morning. Have lots of marking and planning to do tomorrow before going to the gym to sweat stress out but have all morning to get it done.

I've just resigned to being awake now and am sampling my homemade black currant gin. I shall pop some in the staffroom for Friday night.

Including the new trend of providing work for individual students who are isolating which they don't bother doing anyway.

Ain’t that the truth!

Including the new trend of providing work for individual students who are isolating which they don't bother doing anyway.

Yup! Yet another bonkers DfE directive with no idea of the impact on workload. Half an hour a day on a good day for me.

Including the new trend of providing work for individual students who are isolating which they don't bother doing anyway

The trick here is to say: when you've completed and returned the task, I will be able to respond.

Duty discharged, 9/10 won't respond.

Sorted.

@echt

Including the new trend of providing work for individual students who are isolating which they don't bother doing anyway

The trick here is to say: when you've completed and returned the task, I will be able to respond.

Duty discharged, 9/10 won't respond.

Sorted.

I was going to suggest this too!

Still here. Just about.