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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

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

999 replies

StaffAssociationRepresentative · 13/10/2020 18:33

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
monkeytennis97 · 21/10/2020 16:32

I mean it's so obvious that if they just stick to the tiers it's going to get worse by Christmas. For pity's sake if we do get a lockdown they must close the schools to have any hope of it working.

Was listening to HoC earlier and it was suggested (by Labour health guy) that CMO working on a 3 week lockdown plan for November for tiers 2 and 3...

Danglingmod · 21/10/2020 16:37

I will be furious if there's a lockdown only of tier 2/3 areas. We have higher rates than loads of tier 2 areas but are ignored because we don't have a regional mayor or other such made up extra level of government.

Danglingmod · 21/10/2020 16:38

100% of the secondary schools in my area have current cases.

Frlrlrubert · 21/10/2020 17:05

I think (not sure, only going on what year 10 told me as usual!), we had a teacher contacted by T&T in the middle of the day today and have to set cover and leave.

Surrounding schools are starting to see more staff cases. I'm hoping half term acts as a sort of breaker but I don't think a week is long enough.

I have a snotty cold, just hoping the inevitable cough holds off until the weekend.

namechangedyetagain · 21/10/2020 17:31

Thank you all for your kind comments. I feel like the only one feeling incompetent as everyone else in my cohort seem to have "got" it all straight away. I'm finding Ta to teacher also hard. Was the one that used to provide training and help and knew stuff and of course that's all different now!

I've spent most of the afternoon asleep. I realised that the permanent headache, weepiness, inability to focus, feeling sick etc was due to tiredness. I feel very guilty that once again I've done nothing today but I actually slept this afternoon for 2 hours and I feel slightly better.

Flowers to all of those isolating or worried about covid. Local secondary has first case. I feel resigned that next term it will be inevitable that at least one of us in the house will be affected

namechangedyetagain · 21/10/2020 17:35

Also, forgot to ask, does anyone use white rose maths? How do you get from the lesson slides to working up a lesson plan? That's tonight's task!

WhenSheWasBad · 21/10/2020 18:05

[quote monkeytennis97]Britain faces a second Covid-19 peak at CHRISTMAS, SAGE adviser warns
mol.im/a/8863559[/quote]
Oh God Shock

I bet in three (ish) years time we will get the results of an enquiry. It will tell us schools transmitted the virus and it was bloody obvious this would happen. And the government chose to close pubs instead.

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 18:08

I use white rose. We straight up use the powerpoints. Sometimes I add in another model by duplicating a slide and changing the numbers. We cherry pick questions from worksheets and combine with classroom secrets or London maths hub.

I stick the flashback 4, or true or false in for the starters, and usually a vocab slide too.

HerdyGerdy · 21/10/2020 18:11

Does anyone struggle with a trainee teaching their class? I'm worrying about the impact on learning and assessment outcomes. This is my first time mentoring and I may be a bit more of a control freak than I realised (struggling with sharing groups with one less than organised colleague too).

I told our trainee today that they weren’t taking over the teaching of my class until I’d done the assessments with them as it ‘wasn’t fair on them’ too much of a control freak to risk it

2nd Covid test for me this afternoon as have spent the day coughing - to the point where the students asked if I needed a test. Fingers crossed for results back before school starts tomorrow 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

MrsHamlet · 21/10/2020 18:20

I struggle with trainees and I'm in charge of them all!!! It's really hard when you look at them and think "oh god.... this isn't going well"
I'd recommend giving them really clear targets so that you retain a measure of control - I have unbreakable routines which I expect them to stick to. In part, this is because they work, and in part it's so I'm still in control!!

FrippEnos · 21/10/2020 18:54

Given the current situation, I am amazed at how much more the SLT want teaching staff to do on top of the stuff that they already added.

namechangedyetagain · 21/10/2020 18:55

@ohthegoats thank you for that..we have a long proforma we have to fill out. Would i put the slides under the development section? Would the success criteria just be something like i can identify common factors? Would I assess through looking through books?

This is how confused I am. And I'm pretty sure why I feel at sea. Also have been given 3 titles for foundation subject lessons. No outcomes as to what mentor ,wants them to learn so I'm referring to NC 🤷‍♀️.

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 19:10

@namechangedyetagain - take a pic of your proforma and stick it on here, I'll have a look.

MrsHamlet · 21/10/2020 19:12

Urgh.... long proformas fill me with sad.

Piggywaspushed · 21/10/2020 19:17

Hi all.

Just dashing on to post this

www.tes.com/news/Covid-dfe-cuts-schools-arent-high-risk-line-guidance?fbclid=IwAR2TErUOm5y-oD6iHTcK6LW5LZMFeNQwtb1PEOc5IFDr6gls0cM_i93L22k

My DM has had her op and is apparently now up and about. You know as much as I do really.

Our year 11 case is still poorly … should be back by now.

School is as non covid secure as ever : boiling hot, all windows shut, no cleaning, gaggles of staff everywhere. PE packed changing rooms and lessons screaming in packed gyms. But we have been instructed to stay in our boxes so the head is worried.

Local school just on the news in our region. the site agent was disinfecting picnic benches.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 21/10/2020 19:18

What sections do you have on your proforma, named? If you are using the flashback 4 you might have to put the power point in more than one section.

Piggywaspushed · 21/10/2020 19:21

On a side note, apologies for mentioning another thread but the data thread had a big falling out. Everyone is tetchy it seems. I am not sure if I am welcome now, though, as there seem to be in group and out group. It's like Big Brother.

Still good to see one of our least favourite posters have her arse repeatedly handed to her on a plate.

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 19:23

Our lessons go like this:

Retrieval vocab - always a vocab section - could be a sentence with a missing word, vocab definition, finish this sentence etc.

Retrieval maths - flashback 4, or a true and false. Children respond to these in the back of their maths books for the flashback 4, or on small whiteboards for true or false. I get them to answer with what I call ABC questioning. So someone Answers, another person Builds on the answer, C might conclude it (so do a model verbal answer using the A and B parts honed), or Challenge it if they think it's not right. Sometimes we might get a choral answer out of it.

Then I put them on the carpet for the 'get ready' part of the whiterose powerpoints. They do those on whiteboards, I might ask them to do the questions in partners, or individually - I usually then have a post it note on which I jot down those who haven't 'got' the questions right. I might then focus on them during the lesson, move a more competent child next to them for the rest of the input discussion, or whatevs. Again I'll use the ABC thing to get good answers.

Then I do the main input - I don't think you'd call that development, it's just the main teaching. Like I say, if the powerpoint isn't detailed enough, or I think the kids will need more than one model, I'll duplicate the slide and add another one with different numbers/scenarios. I always make them watch one without doing anything on whiteboards - this is the explanation I might have rehearsed when I'm looking at the powerpoint in advance. Then I can do the second one in partners, or on boards so I can see that they've got it. I go through the work (read it and show where I want things completed) under the visualiser, they then go off and do it. While I'm doing the input, my 1-1 LSA puts the work on their tables (if she's not out with her 1-1 kid). I might keep some children on the carpet for a bit for more input.

I do whole class marking, so they would have looked at yesterday's work in their books before coming to the carpet, and I will have moved any children I need to move, to the front so they can work with me. I might have counters or B10 ready on those tables (which I put out while they are doing the Flashback 4 or Get Ready stuff).

I'd say that 'development' is moving on from the initial input. So the stuff I'm doing when I'm going round the room marking/giving feedback. They can go and get the next bit of work when they are done, although I'd prefer to see it in advance of them moving on.

If I want to get them to do the reasoning stuff in the same lesson as fluency for example, then I'll have them back on the carpet to go through an example. Always have something greater depth for my 1 or 2 kids to move on to.

Usually end up going through a problem solving or reasoning question under the visualiser for what used to be called a plenary. Sometimes they'll have their whiteboards for this too.

We do a lot of talk and vocab because we are 75% EAL.

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 19:25

the data thread had a big falling out

I saw the OP there getting pissy about it being DATA ONLY NO OPINIONS the other week, but she now seems to have moved to starting the threads all over again at #1 with only data. Only certain people are allowed opinions. Ha.

I lost my management time today for cover. Boo. Really needed a day without kids frankly.

WhenSheWasBad · 21/10/2020 19:25

I struggle with trainees and I'm in charge of them all!!! It's really hard when you look at them and think "oh god.... this isn't going well" I'd recommend giving them really clear targets so that you retain a measure of control - I have unbreakable routines which I expect them to stick to. In part, this is because they work, and in part it's so I'm still in control

Thanks everyone who supports trainees. I wish I’d had more structure provided when I first trained. It very much seemed to be a learn by failure model.
I learned a lot and I failed a lot.

Augustbreeze · 21/10/2020 19:26

(I don't read the new state of play like that @Piggywaspushed....) We'll see what happens anyway.

I was just about to post that TES article, it's actually quite a big thing they've spotted, isn't it?!

• DfE have updated the guidance today, so that it no longer states in the intro that "schools are not high risk settings"!

• also they've removed the mention of shielding pausing in August and that therefore everyone should be skipping back thru the gates (I paraphrase!)

• the new para states that admin staff may be able to wfh.

Don't know if anything else has been updated.

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 19:26

Yes, planning proformas suck. I know it's what trainees have to do, but really. I plan straight onto a powerpoint or notebook these days. Maybe a post it note.

WhenSheWasBad · 21/10/2020 19:26

piggy sounds like good news about your mum. Hopefully she will continue to improve.

TheHoneyBadger · 21/10/2020 19:31

Our trainee seems to think downloading our department PowerPoint and scribbling some notes on a piece of paper counts as planning. It doesn't imo.

I'm out of touch but aren't trainees produce at least some of their own resources?

ohthegoats · 21/10/2020 19:32

the new para states that admin staff may be able to wfh

Our admin staff never go anywhere near a child, and there are only two of them in the office. We're not allowed in at all. No parents allowed in the front door, and even the post has to be left outside. They aren't taking any risks at all.