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

Morning all! Just had the worst night's sleep... head spinning with everything and full teaching day today! Lots offor me today. Hope everyone has a good (ish) day

@Frlrlrubert

Oh Lordy, our 'reengagement' reports have gone out to parents and now we all have to spend hours dealing with the backlash where their darlings have been given 'poor' reengagement status.

Obviously this is due to the woeful lockdown provision, and if the darling has scraped a 'satisfactory' in their other subjects it must be that one teacher who is at fault, nothing to do with the darling not having their exercise book half the time, oh no.

I sometimes wonder why we bother telling parents anything, it never ends well!

I wish we could be properly honest and could get rid of all this 'teacher speak'. It would be so much better for both parent and child in the long run. However, with the backlash that already comes for giving a lower effort grade, it would never be possible to give completely open comments.

I am in an area which is considered to have low community prevalence (although cases have gone up a lot recently, but under 30 per 100,000 still) - but we have had positives in the first school I work in, my year 5 sons middle school has had several cases (he is still in, as the positive in his class sits on the other side of the room) and now my sixth former has been sent home yesterday from his school as a close contact of one of the several positive cases they had reported yesterday! Seems that over the past week it’s popping up everywhere I look, thank goodness for a 2 week half term here (a pre-covid decision) am hoping it might at least slow things down a little bit!

@noblegiraffe

I think the comment in the summer was more aimed at Boris than the unions. It was about establishing political capital after Boris had gone after him for so long suggesting that he thought schools shouldn't open. That's what then allows him to be critical of the Government's decisions now.

To be perfectly honest, in this political climate and with the media opinion / public opinion what it was during lockdown, closing schools really isn't an option anymore. It doesn't matter what the science says if scientists aren't making the decisions. All that matters is the optics for Government. They've wasted their chance at an effective lockdown and they've wasted their chance with the closure of schools. Those decisions will not be accepted again, even if they are needed.

Morning!

Schools in NI to shut for two weeks (including half term, obvs, so not really two weeks is it, BBC?)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54533643

Had a wee perusal of youforme site this morning, they are concerned about unions here pushing for blended learning (not pushing bloody hard enough in my view) and that we aren't doing it for the children but for "our own agenda". Wonder what that could be, protecting members possibly? They are very upset that exams for Nat 5s are cancelled but GCSE's aren't.
Even my union doesn't seem to think we are at much risk
Just need to get to the end of the week...

I learned everything I know about mentoring from my absolutely shit mentors on my PGCE and then my great one in my NQT year.

My professional mentor in my NQT year used the conscious competence learning model and I still refer to it now. Basically trainees are consciously incompetent and that's why it's hard - you know you can't do it and it hurts! Eventually you become unconsciously competent and it's all fallen into place. But we all bob about between there are consciously incompetent all the time like with nightmare classes

Is consciously competent ever an option?

Insomnia last night so not feeling massively 'on' for work today.

My professional mentor in my NQT year used the conscious competence learning model and I still refer to it now. Basically trainees are consciously incompetent and that's why it's hard

I’ve been told this too. It makes sense. Very conscious of my incompetence at the moment. I know it sounds tragically needy but I would mind someone at my school telling me well done for something.

My year 8 class is appalling, but I think I’m doing ok in the rest. Not ok for a teacher with a few years under their belt but pretty good for a trainee.

Consciously competent is absolutely an option. I reckon most of us spend most of our working day there!

Flipping heck - cover again! What the outsiders don’t see is the impact of cover on workload.

I am going to prod union rep today. It is no ones fault but at this rate I will need a recovery day!

WhenSheWas you're doing great. One of the big downsides with teaching is that we rarely if ever get a, well done!

I know you're doing great as my trainee is about to do her first stint at the front of the room with a starter task today. I say 'my' - she's not mine and I'm not her mentor or professional tutor just a classroom teacher she's meant to be working with but turning out to be rather a lot more work than expected. I'd foolishly dreamed of observing her lessons and giving by this stage but she's not even come out from behind her mask and shield so far and hasn't spoken to the class.

Our nearest town now has over 100 cases per 100,000. Isn't that supposed to trigger something? I've lost track with what version of tier system we're on this week.

I don't think so anymore. We do too but people are still referring to us as a "low area" (I mean locals themselves). I think it's the entire Midlands and the entire North, but many urban pockets in the south in the same boat.

Hilarious that the rare at which foreign countries became quarantine requiring destinations was 20/100,000

@MrsHamlet

Consciously competent is absolutely an option. I reckon most of us spend most of our working day there!

Oh god yes!

Is all v weird.

I tried that website that shows prevalence in a school's area.

In my son's it's over 600 per 100,000. So far it's only been one member of staff affected and a reception bubble closed.

However, we had v stringent restrictions brought in 3 weeks ago (absolutely no mixing anywhere) so I wonder if it's helped?? (Except the new tiers have actually loosened restrictions... !)

That is v weird. My area is a measly 120/100,000 in comparison but we have over 60 schools partially closed, many with dozens of cases. I think ALL the spread in my area is in schools

We definitely have a lot of schools affected in the area and a few have fully closed, but something must be having an effect locally.

Certainly not being able to visit houses, go restaurants or play with others outside school may be impacting it.

Having said that I feel it's the calm before the storm.

Thanks to someone on here who gave me the link to sign up I get emails each day about the new cases and rates in each of the LAs that feed into our school. I wonder where I got the over 100 = something idea from.

Has Boris said we absolutely definitely won’t be having a circuit breaker with schools closing for an extra week in England yet?

@Appuskidu

Has Boris said we absolutely definitely won’t be having a circuit breaker with schools closing for an extra week in England yet?

By the time he makes a decision, I’m guessing half-term will have been and gone.

@Appuskidu

Has Boris said we absolutely definitely won’t be having a circuit breaker with schools closing for an extra week in England yet?

Even if he had, they wouldn't be bound by it so it wouldn't help for planning purposes. This Government like to announce things as late as possible. However, if it was coming, I'd have expected to see some 'leaks' to the papers already.

Arlene Foster announces lockdown inc school closed plus half term week from Friday, a fortnight.

ie Northern Ireland

Interesting idea from Russia which I think was nicked from a thread on here (not here the Staffroom here, but a MN thread!):

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/14/coronavirus-students-to-replace-older-teachers-moscow