The Twenty-fifth Republic - circuit breaker before/during/after half term

[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 and you will receive a detention

To be fair, a union rep can't help you if you're choosing to do the work, but they can help you speak up if the workload expectations are too much.
What's wrong with drawing a smiley face and writing "well done" on the work? (again, only partly joking)

I have some Charlie and Lola stickers that year 13 fight over - I recommend those for marking!
Some of them are marginally bigger than others. It can get ugly when their Hamlet essays are rewarded with unfairly allocated stickers.

Do they? Haven't heard of them!

Some stickers are marginally bigger. The students are a normal range of sizes...

@MrsHamlet

I have some Charlie and Lola stickers that year 13 fight over - I recommend those for marking! Some of them are marginally bigger than others. It can get ugly when their Hamlet essays are rewarded with unfairly allocated stickers.

Mental image is hilarious.

We had an English teacher who didn't believe in giving grades so invented his own each time. So you could get a W or an H and not have a clue what it meant. he gave loads of verbal feedback and liked to show others what he liked about your work. Best teacher ever.

I'm now thinking sometimes it was just so that he could get away with not actually marking....

@MrsHamlet

Some stickers are marginally bigger. The students are a normal range of sizes...

MrsH I'm 😂 that you felt the need to clarify that!!

I use stamps on things I'm just looking at. I've got pandas at the minute, but sometimes I have flowers or hearts. Sixth form and year 11 love a panda 🐼 on their work. Younger years want housepoint stickers.

One of my new popped in to see the head about my actual job and came out with another jobs is to "do something about achievements". We appear to give house points arbitrarily - some year 7 form tutors seem to dish them out for turning up!

No it's not 'my job' but then I'm not sure whose job it is. I did email the whole department but it's the weekend so wasn't like to get a response (especially one in response to something needing doing ).

And yes I definitely should be on UPS and bloody well better be next year between the amount of work I'm putting in and the challenges of helping our current trainee.

I have a meeting with my HOD in the morning to set targets with achieving UPS next year in mind. It wasn't a proper mark scheme just SWANs so a list of strengths to pick from, a list of weaknesses and a list of next steps eg what to include/improve to move your grade up. There is a sort of generic markscheme of descriptors for assessments according to which skill it is but in order to mark to the new system you need to set up a SWANs powerpoint or write tons in the books instead of just number coded.

Not sure I've made any sense but I don't need taking out

Remember I'm in a new department so all lessons are the first time round for me and all the assessments new too - obviously going to be some extra work involved initially.

I did have very nice feedback from my HODs 'drop in' the other day so that's good. Nice to hear pleasant things now and then. No one tends to give up green ticks and well done stamps on our work.

I don't need taking out

Stand down everybody.

STAND DOWN.

Shame really, as I was planning a Mumsnet teacher party. A dartboard with pictures of Gove, Paul Dix, Sir Michael Wilshaw, that Russell Viner bloke etc. You4Us punch bags. A drinking game where you start a schools thread and take a drink every time you get called a crap teacher.

It would have been epic.

I'm mainly there for Dix on the dartboard noble.

Can't decide whether Gove or Dix should be the bullseye. A few years ago it would have been a no brainer.

I'd love to come to Mumsnet teacher party. Maybe we should actually organise one once we're allowed to meet in person again. Or we could zoom 😁

Party sounds good!!

I have sparkly dinosaur stickers from paperchase....Yr11 fight over the purple t-rex 😆

We could play "Who's Who?" Pictures of ourselves and we have to guess which of us is which.

Maybe we'd need some clues, like which famous sleb do we most look like?

I’m in for the party! I’ll bring darts and gin.

I so want to go to Noble's party.
Wouldn't it be funny if we zoomed and a couple of you turned out to work together?

Ange in my head you look like Angelina Jolie so you picked a good username there

I would love it if I worked with one of you lot!!! My department are great, but I think I'd enjoy work with some of you even more.

We all know that teachers at parties just talk shop and bore the arses off all the partners

@SaltyAndFresh

We all know that teachers at parties just talk shop and bore the arses off all the partners

That's what parties are for isn't it? What else do people talk about at parties if they aren't talking about school? Weirdos.

I was once talking to a friend and ex-colleague and recommended she ask MN for some advice about leaving her husband.

She then said 'Oh do you post on there, I always suspected you did'. And yeah, she was on here and had clocked me. Which was fairly mortifying given how prolifically I post. And also weird as I am not like this in real life.

Nothing LIKE Angelina Jolie!! The CallmeAngelina came from some nonsense my sweet old dad was spouting when dosed up with morphine last year. No idea what he was on about, bless him, but it amused me.
I look more like Fern Britton (minus a couple of stone). With a bit of Lady Di thrown in (just had my hi-lights topped up, ready for a possible lockdown on hairdressers).

@noblegiraffe
That’s why i name change so often, it’s a bit of a pain but i have definitely been clocked on here by other staff at my schooll before and I really don’t like it.