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

[Hercwasonaroll]

I'd love to tell the sectioned story but it really would out me to people who were there. Suffice to say it wasn't a reflection on the school, however the ITT programme they had signed up for clearly wasn't suitable.

[TheHoneyBadger]

@Hercwasonaroll

Our trainee is decent so far. Older person and very helpful, takes feedback well and can't believe the true circumstances we all work in!

Opposed to the other trainee who we had to call an ambulance for and they ended up getting sectioned. That was one crazy day.

I shouldn't laugh but this did make laugh. That one definitely takes the

[fuckweasel]

We had an interviewee who hospitalised one of the students in the class he taught at interview. To be fair it wasn't really his fault; the boy ate one of the lesson props. He didn't get the job.

[MrsHamlet]

Honey if you came to me with that, I'd absolutely try to save you from her! It's hard enough when you're officially in charge of them but this is way above and beyond!

[winewolfhowls]

Ate one of the lesson props?! What, like a Science chemical?

Lots of posts on social media about the lack of trainee bursaries, did anyone see that? Obviously the gov think covid unemployment will encourage more people into teaching, must be that surely because there is still a teacher shortage yes?

[MrsHamlet]

I'm hopeful that the lack of bursaries will stop the trainees who bursary chase. We've not had a maths or computing trainee in several years who has actually gone into teaching - the fine art graduate training for maths was an interesting one!!!

[winewolfhowls]

Wow mrsH how did they even get on that course, ridiculous!

[MrsHamlet]

Because universities need their £9000! He assured me he was okay because he'd done his SKE. His 8 week SKE. He was dreadful. But he finished the course, passed (not on my watch!), and collected his £25k tax free. He's not teaching. He never intended to.

[WhyNotMe40]

Talking about ingesting things - I'm having a panic because we've just given my youngest ribena that has been opened for about 6-8 weeks, and I only just noticed it says drink within 21 days!
What's the likelihood I will have a vomiting / poorly child? Feel really bad about it :(

[noblegiraffe]

Ribena like a bottle of squash? It’ll be fine!

Swear they only put things like that on to sell more Ribena.

[MrsHerculePoirot]

@WhyNotMe40 reckon she’ll be totally fine honestly.

My daughter came home from school when she was about 5 once and said to me excitedly ‘I didn’t know you get could bread with blue spots on the side mummy!’ The shame...

[CallmeAngelina]

Ribena has a "Use by" date?????
Who knew?

[Keepdistance]

Very low i would think.

Ours must have been open months.

At a children centre toddler group they put out cooking pears to play/explore and one of the toddlers was munching it.
My dc once ate the train funnel on a thats not my train book. With back turned. Ate random mushroom in the park and had to go to a&e just in case.

[MsAwesomeDragon]

MrsHP my dh does the packed lunches and is very much of the opinion that bread lasts much longer than the use by dates. Dd is well versed in "don't eat the blue bits, pick them off and eat round them". I have to check the bread every few days and stealthily chuck out any mouldy/stale stuff. I don't even eat it!!

Use by dates on ribena never entered my head until dd1 left an opened bottle in her bedroom for 9 months while she was away at uni. Squash does indeed go off if left for months on end 🤮. But a few weeks is absolutely fine, neither of my dds have died yet and they've had all sorts of stuff past its use by.

[WhyNotMe40]

Thank you everyone
To be honest I'm not sure why I'm worrying as this is the child that has eaten duck poo, a snail, and drank plant pot water despite his own water bottle actually being in arms reach.
I think it's because I gave him it rather than him just randomly eating/drinking something.

... It looked and smelled ok tbf

[ohthegoats]

My worst one was child, somewhere between a year and 2 years old, eating snails. Crunchy. Blee.

I've done some big PSHE/behaviour stuff today with my class. Probably to no avail, lunchtime was a shocker, but still. Worth a try. I've also banned all home pencil cases and colouring pencils from the room - going to suggest they take them home on Friday and don't bring them back. Used to have own basket on table with gear in, have now taken those away too and will hand out stuff. Sounds time consuming but by 10.15 this morning, I'd wasted 20 minutes of teaching time dealing with arguments over 'WHO STOLE MY PENCIL', complete with storming in and out of the room and pushing chairs over. Stupid school asking kids to bring in their own stuff.

[Augustbreeze]

Our head's pointed out that teaching staff might just want to make sure they take anything home they would need for online teaching when we break for our 2 week half term on Friday. Just in case!

[echt]

As predicted the head did not reply to my email clarifying what criteria exactly she thinks I don't meet for threshold but did a fly by grab me in the staffroom as I'm on my way to a lesson and said, 'I've spoken to your HOD and asked her to set you some targets to help you meet threshold in the future'. So she's basically refused to say which criteria I don't meet and committed nothing to writing

Email after a week: Hi, scumbag. I still need clarification on ...... Also can we meet to clarify what you meant in the corridor on.....

I would not accept any target without a reply to your first email.

It's entirely unacceptable to be given verbal, therefore deniable, info about targets. Keep a record of dates and times.

I hope you're in a union.

[TheHoneyBadger]

I sent you the first email I sent her by pm Echt. Feel free to delete without reading! I was feeling needy.

I think I will email again and say thanks for speaking to HOD however I would still appreciate your answer as to which criteria you feel I wouldn't meet. She's going to hate me.

[TheHoneyBadger]

Thanks MrsH - I think I'm going to refuse to be her next attempt at teaching observer at the least. Her professional tutor can have her teach her class and observe her and give her feedback next. I kind of think she should have been the first one to do this anyway.

[MrsHerculePoirot]

@Augustbreeze what tier area do you teach in? Or just being cautious do you think?

[eitak22]

Today was a hard day and I'm feeling exhausted mentally and physically. Not sure I've got another week in me till half term and now looks like I'm going to be a 1:1 for a while so not in class which is frustrating.

[Augustbreeze]

Sorry I meant to add that the Head hastened to add that she had NO special knowledge, just being pragmatic.
Secondary (I don't personally teach).

[MrsHerculePoirot]

@eitak22 sorry you’re so knackered. Nearly there, hang i there. Can you get an early night tonight or tomorrow?

[ChloeDecker]

Oh it’s that time of year again! The emails and requests from Year 13s (and their parents) asking to put up their UCAS predicted grade, “because they need A that grade don’t you know!?”.
Interestingly, the three students who contacted me today also didn’t engage during lockdown and missed deadline after deadline!