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

Our year 13 are still doing prefect duties too, which puts them in more contact with the younger years. Whereas the year 12 haven't started that yet.

We are making changes to our sixth form after half term. There are too many of them hanging round in the common room, so we're splitting them up. The 2 yeargroups will have even less contact with each other than they do now. It's going to be alternate weeks for access to the common room at lunch, and nobody is allowed in there during study periods (because they don't bloody study! As well as the covid risk of course). We've got staff hosting "supervised study periods" in their frees, where we will literally sit at our desks and allow specified groups of sixth form to study silently in our classrooms. I have requested the kids who are falling behind in my subject to be in my supervised study session so I can force them to do my homework!

Started a thread about that schools infection data as the other one reached 1000.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4058078-Now-we-know-why-the-govt-were-suppressing-the-schools-infection-data

I thought you had retired!

Glutton for punishment 😆

Good work nobel, that can be the long clamoured for school data thread!

I got my first TLR as a part timer, but only the measly lowest rate of the TLR3. Which was a one year project and had to be decided on whether it would renew each year. Then I went full time.
THEN my ht allocated me several new roles, inc one that would mean I was on a school improvement project crossing our school and several others in the catchment area. When they handed me the large folder of info I told them I wasn't doing it for the paltry TLR3 (esp when I realised the other member of staff doing something lesser than me was on a 2) and the HT had a quick word with the finance fella and cleared it through govs for me to have the TLR2 instead. :)

I seem to be doing more high-profile stuff than one of our deputies (we have several).

There must be lots fewer uni students as only 3 year groups. And only 50% get into uni. But concentrated at few hundred unis so really affecting the pubs there.
8m school kids. ?
1.8m uni students
Theres been 1000 infected just at bristol

I’ve been between 0.6-0.8 for last 10/11 years and have TLRS for all that time. I’m now on the leadership scale but not on SLT, sort of a step below, and 0.6. It means I essentially work full time (but at home 2 days unpaid) but I get to do my job well, see my kids at weekends but it isn’t really right. I know I am amazingly lucky to be in a financial position to do that also. I think though I couldn’t cope full time, with this role that I genuinely love, so I guess for now it suits me.

Totally get you working so hard @TheHoneyBadger and suspect you’re right that first year etc. Has an impact. Fingers crossed that it all pays off, you get your UPS (and more hours if that’s what you want) next year. If that is the case, despite it not being ‘right’, I’d probably do the same as you in your position. Also time draining trainees have such a impact on workload compared to those that are great, respond to feedback and are proactive.

Email this evening: 3 sets of data, including one set of reports. Due 9th November.

Happy holidays, teachers!!

@Piggywaspushed

I thought you had retired!

What, me? No! My last thread reached 1000, got to have at least one on the go

Top thread, noble.

How it infuriates the usual suspects. :o

Ha, that's a fun and infuriating thread! It's like back in June... nostalgic..

I had a TLR on part time hours (0.8), I was also on leadership scales at 0.8. I'm now full time with a massive TLR, but that's because I was stepping 'down' from leadership.

My school has tried to introduce face coverings for a second time (we have lots of cases and are now down to about 55% capacity). Year 7 are being monitored but today when questioning why lots of older pupils still aren't wearing them, I'm told we can't insist. I thought we could insist, otherwise what's the point of schools having the discretion to require face coverings at all?

@SaltyAndFresh my head said the same. The guidance says ‘should’ not ‘must’ and was insistent we couldn’t enforce it and it wouldn’t work. How ever most teachers ask them to put on at end of lesson and stand behind desk and many of us make them wear them properly in corridors. We’ve found much higher compliance than my head certainly suspected. Some schools enforced it from September, I think it is all down to wording and expectations (a bit like any behaviour). We’ve been told not to have big battle but so far the kids just put them on... one said they were exempt and I just said fine and moved on. But one of everyone I teach and challenged in corridors isn’t many.

We enforced mask wearing in corridors from 2 weeks into term. It was "encouraged" before that, but only the year 7s and sixth form wore them at all. So it became an expectation after the first 2 weeks. Not wearing your mask properly attracts the same penalties as not wearing your uniform properly, and pretty much all of the kids wear them without complaint (obviously the medically exempt kids were given badges to wear so they don't get told off)

Not been here for a while- see user name- but the cv increase has brought me back. Spent a lot of time here under my more appropriate animal name, but I think I gave a lot of info away. Nice to see the Republic lives on.

And is the French name for Scotland on the other threads the garlic porpoise from the summer?

@noblegiraffe - thats the spirit! Attracts the usual bashers who will try to derail it whilst annoying other readers.

In my school students automatically put masks on before they leave our classrooms. It is the new norm. Students who previously claimed exemption now toe the line.

We have no hot water in school at the moment. There's some sort of problem with the something or other, which means that it was was scalding hot, with no means of mixing properly with cold, so it's been switched off altogether.
Anyone know how effective hand-washing is with only cold water?

Garlic porpoise?
(rubbish at crosswords)

Gallic porpoise. Or daffodil. The arsey one who always sounded a bit like xenia, but wasn't.

I don't think the cold water matters, it's the soap and length, thoroughness of the washing.

Here in Melbourne we're had all primary and years 7, 11 and 12 in for the last two weeks, everyone else back on Monday. Fingers crossed.
The masks in school are not a big issue as they are now mandatory for 12+ throughout the state.

@CallmeAngelina

We have no hot water in school at the moment. There's some sort of problem with the something or other, which means that it was was scalding hot, with no means of mixing properly with cold, so it's been switched off altogether. Anyone know how effective hand-washing is with only cold water?

I think if using soap it’s enough for COVID as it only needs to break through the outer bit or something? Is it a fatty type layer? Very technical answer from me... 😂

Bang bang bang... back of the net

Well, most of the time it's sanitiser only as who gets time to get to a sink (in secondary)?

I believe cold water and soap is fine and probably better than sanitiser.