The Twenty-Seventh Republic - rules or guidelines - Pandemic or Pirates of the Caribbean

[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

[MsAwesomeDragon]

honey I teach this class 4 times a week!!! I need them to actually learn something. The other 3 lessons are in the morning though, so they do behave better then. I think Monday afternoons will be dedicated to entry level stuff instead of GCSE, as it's too much for their little brains to do any actual thinking in an afternoon. It didn't help that they were wet and cold as well. Wet lunch, but it only started raining towards the end, so they got drenched just coming in from being outside, and the heating wasn't on today for some reason. We can't have no heating and the windows open, not if we expect the children to be able to behave themselves and learn something.

[flumposie]

More staff wearing masks today but pupils are still not wearing them on corridors. Head insinuating it will only happen if dfe guidelines say it is mandatory in all schools. Pathetic.

[TheHoneyBadger]

Scary about your sister phleb!

Awesome your last period sounds a lot like mine. I see them once a fortnight last period on a Monday. They're the only class who I literally despair of being able to shut up for long enough to be able to teach. I've threatened that if next time is the same every lesson with me will be textbooks read and answer qs because then at least the ones who do want to learn can get on and do so. Their poor form tutor! I did make a point of giving house points to the poor kids who were trying to learn. All of about 8 of them in a class of 30 poor sods.

Day 1 done, much running around at school and I went to the gym so at least I'll have burned some calories.

[Danglingmod]

Ooh, that would get my goat, too, Piggy.

Every single new year 7, the MOST geeky, bookish and well-informed kids are always boys.

I also own one.

[Augustbreeze]

Oh @Piggywaspushed that's fab.

I wonder if attendance figures - primary at least - will dive this week. If you read BRTUS pages you definitely get that impression, plus there's a thread on not wanting to send your DC in here isn't there - haven't read it though?

[Piggywaspushed]

DS2 just told me how grateful he was to have a parent who encouraged him to keep reading 'because it built my knowledge and has helped to make me cleverer and increased my cultural capital.' This was off the back of him being the only person in his history class to know about Bobby Sands.

I love DS2. He is the best.

Sorry for soppiness. But some children are great. We had Boys Don't Try guy today. he was fine really but never once acknowledged that some boys like schools and are actually quite clever.

[ohthegoats]

phlebas so much for immunity, huh.

[oddsbodkins]

I'm still self isolating due to 4 positive cases in my class now. We were down 18 staff today. Lots of children not in as they are self isolating. Surely it cannot continue like this?

[RigaBalsam]

[quote motherrunner]@RigaBalsam I don’t know how to stop your swearing issues but you can change the setting so you are the only presenter and therefore no line else can kick out or let others in the meeting.[/quote]
Thanks have figured it out now.

Its the whole of year 11. One teacher just logged off as she was so fed up.

[MsAwesomeDragon]

Sorry about your sister phleb I hope she feels better soon.

I had a lovely day right up to last lesson, where I could easily have cried as the pupils were so incredibly badly behaved. That class are often badly behaved in an afternoon lesson, but today was far worse than usual. It didn't help that I had to give them test results back, where their results were terrible because the test is too hard for them (they are my nurture group, we're aiming for "a grade" at GCSE, the test is the same level of difficulty as a foundation tier GCSE paper, it is too hard!) So they were demotivated right from the start, and then they needed to actually listen but are apparently incapable of such a feat, preferring to call each other names and their things at each other. Every single one of them now has detention tomorrow (which is a shame because it's my detention duty tomorrow so I'll have to deal with them ☹️)

[WhyNotMe40]

Phleb - your poor sister, hope she gets better soon. I'm hearing it more and more that people are now catching it for a second time.
Riga - omg that sounds hideous!

[MrsHamlet]

We had similar oh and the head said we're not providing work. Since the start of term we've been asked to upload lesson resources for self isolators, and he's not asking us to do more than that.
If a bubble closes, we teach online but he's not for live-streaming from in school classes to kids at home.

[starrynight19]

Glad your day wasn’t so bad ohthegoats after such a wobbly start.

Phlebas that’s a real worry that she has got it again and so soon after the last time. Hope she starts to recover soon.

Hesgehogger1 that’s awful if that is the case but probably going to hear many more

We had to read our updated risk assessments again , laughed at the deployment of mobile testing units section. So will believe the testing for schools etc when it actually happens.

[ohthegoats]

Today not as bad as I thought. I've got 5 children in my class choosing not to come in. Much hoohaa about whether we have to provide online learning for them. They won't be in until the end of this lockdown.

Decision made not to provide specific stuff, otherwise all parents will start keeping kids off. They are mostly children of parents on 2 year visas - lots of mothers come with the dad's work visa, and don't speak English, so stick to being friends with other partners.

[hedgehogger1]

5 teachers in my school tested positive over half term. The Rumour mill is rife with stories that a teacher at a neighbouring school died of Covid over half term

[Enoughnowstop]

@RigaBalsam You need a lobby. When you have set up your meeting, go to your meeting in your calendar and open it as if to edit it. Click 'meeting options' and allow only you to bypass the lobby. That way, you can let people in and out.

[PumpkinPie2016]

My first day back wasn't actually too bad.

The computer in my form room wouldn't work so that wasted some time this morning. The school was absolutely freezing (ok, not the biggest problem ever but I hadn't taken my cardigan!) so that wasn't much fun.

But, I had a nice lesson with my Y9 class - tried a new recall activity that they really engaged with. My Y10 class were pleased with the assessment results and worked hard. Managed to get some randome admin tasks done in my free. All in all, a decent day.

So much to do around KS4/5 though in terms of plugging gaps and moving them forward. It's making me feel somewhat jittery. Need some different strategies to use.

[Piggywaspushed]

Sorry to hear about your sister, phleb. Hope she is OK and her family, too.

[motherrunner]

no-one else

[motherrunner]

@RigaBalsam I don’t know how to stop your swearing issues but you can change the setting so you are the only presenter and therefore no line else can kick out or let others in the meeting.

[Piggywaspushed]

Who are these children? Are they SI ?

[RigaBalsam]

Well what a show Teams was today. Apparently all the schools settings were reset in an email. So we had kids going into the wrong lessons. Some kids unable to get on.

Someome dropped into my lesson ' sam is ( and an inslult) then started shouting miss should we play fortnite. I kicked him out but then the kids let him back in.

Others had similar with they insulting each other in the chat and their was a racist incident.

Nightmare! Pass me the vodka.

[Danglingmod]

Well, a blob of (self bought) sanitiser...

Sorry to hear about your sister, Phleb. Hope she's not too poorly.

[motherrunner]

And don’t forget ‘hands, face, space’.

Oh wait, maybe just hands and face.

[MrsHamlet]

But mother... we have hazard tape! How can we not be safe??