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

I've signed the NEU petition. BUT I'd actually much rather have a week in/week out rota with half classes. Surely that covers the social and mental health aspect?

I don't know what I'd do about Primary, and I'm not sure about year 7 and 8, but year 9 and above should be old enough to do week on week off with their parents still working as normal I think (SEND excepted, obvs).

They're the ones that are in huge bubbles as well at our school. Having half of them in at once would give us more space to keep what are supposed to be 'class bubbles' at 7 and 8 separate.

I'm the bottom of the food chain though so no-one will ever ask me, just have to do as I'm told.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/lockdown-not-work-without-shutting-22939143

I think primary is 'OK' in the scheme of things. I know that some are having more issues than others, but I think we can make things sort of work using the 'isolate the whole bubble if it goes wrong' thing. That's one teacher at home providing online stuff, schools can work out themselves what that provision best looks like - ie, we've surveyed our parents, we know what they want, we'll provide that.

Isolating individuals or small groups is more difficult - this is where Oak is going to have to come in to it I think, even though I've just tried to link my science up and it doesn't work. Better than nothing, but not quite right.

Still a risk to staff, and staffing will still close schools, but it's much much less of an issue than secondary or SEND provision.

I think secondaries should be part time/2 days on off/ week on off, but I have no knowledge of how that works in practice.

@noblegiraffe

I was supposed to have an observation but the year group got sent home and the observation was never mentioned (and will certainly never be brought up by me).

I had to do one for my NQT a few weeks ago that I mentor because their report had to go in October but I literally sat cross legged on the floor in the corridor, with my laptop balancing, to do it. Relying on what I could see through the door. Absolutely farcical! NQT was great though-was very impressed!

Chloe I have what I now call my "observation stool" which I cart round with me!!
Thankfully one of my NQTs is PE so she has plenty of space.

Sorry all, when I said "Christmas" holidays will start earlier I wasn't thinking: I actually meant a period of home schooling will be added onto the normal holidays!

Isn't that more likely than an extended holiday?

Sounds like exams are the pivot point though.

@motherrunner

DH is having an operation next Thursday which will put him out of action for a month. Least he’ll escape most of the Covid drama next half term. I for one am panicking now. What if I get ill during his recuperation? Will my Head grant me leave to provide care for him 48 post op? If I can’t get a delivery slot it’ll mean dragging DD and DS to the supermarket - actually I think that’s my biggest fear!

Any slt not thinking of staff wellbeing right now risks all their staff being off or leaving. I hope it goes well and slt are understanding.

I agree with your analysis Oh.

We showed that send provision can work well on a rota too.

I think we should go into work and teach the kids, if that is what is required of us by society. But fuck off with everything else. Meetings, parent communication, training days, moderation, extra revision sessions : nah, fuck off.

@Piggywaspushed

I think we should go into work and teach the kids, if that is what is required of us by society. But fuck off with everything else. Meetings, parent communication, training days, moderation, extra revision sessions : nah, fuck off.

If only. I know that there won't be any let up. We've had quite a shake up of SLT they're only too keen to make their mark

I'd be far happier with week on week off rotas. I'd even keep the nurture groups in full time tbh, as they are very small groups anyway (although if I could keep child A and child B on separate weeks the rest of the class could get a lot more learning done). There would be space to distance from each other a bit, one child to each desk would be good.

Any pupil who did no work last lockdown could be on the full time list, as would any pupils who have keyworker parents in the younger years.

Primary schools do seem to be able to keep their bubbles much smaller and more separate than we do at secondary. As a parent I'm much happier about dd being at primary school than I am about me being at a secondary school. But I suppose that's easy to say if I'm not working in one. Dd has so far been allowed to go to the park and to see friends etc, but we won't be allowing that in a lockdown. We do still need to share childcare before and after school though, which this year is sharing around which house 3 best friends go to. I don't think that will be allowed in a lockdown, which leaves dd and her 2 friends all going home to empty houses some days, which will be sad and lonely for them.

We have just been sent a new RA. It is literally The Same.

Michael Rosen is fighting our corner on Twitter at least!

It really doesn't feel like anyone else is.

Have you seen the story about how the Test and Trace app had the wrong risk setting on it basically from the start, so people who were in close contact with positive cases weren't alerted and told to isolate when they should have been?

It has been effectively worse than useless as it has given a false sense of security.

Burnham and Rotherham holding a press conference now. Both have called for short curcuit-break closure of schools up here.

Us4Them have well and truly lost the argument.

Surely Us4Them shouldn't have an argument anymore. They got exactly what they wanted. Everything else locked down to keep schools open and no suggestion of further safety measures muzzles in schools. This should have taken the wind out of their sails.

They have also called for alternative to exams for next summer as our kids have been impacted so much and it doesn't loom set to change. Last call so far has been to have extended hols throughout 2021 to act as regular circuit breaks.

Doesn't surprise me.

Have scribbled all over my planner and updated shared group sheets and sent printing to the photocopier job box. Though I've now instantly remembered other stuff I need to print in the morning so better go do that.

I'm then planning to jump in the shower and wash my hair and I'm going to meet a friend in the pub later. Might as well take the opportunity before it's gone again.

I can't imagine what a term as tough as the last one will be like but now without being able to go to the gym or socialise or access friend or family support. The gym has definitely been propping up my mental health and allowing me brief times of not obsessing about work. I may have to take up smack or something.

I'm not sure smack is the way to go but one of my y11 has contacts... (I wish I was joking about that)

You've heard my revision session timetable story before. Pretty much sums up our SLT. No shits given for workload.

I'm determined to start running again, gave up due to lack of time last term. Not working that many hours again. I think my husband would divorce me.

I think we should go into work and teach the kids, if that is what is required of us by society. But fuck off with everything else.

Yep, that's what I'm going to do this term. I've just spent a few hours pulling back my timetable even more than I had planned - I don't want to mark after school hours at all, I want to be out of the door as soon as I possibly can. Like, 3.30. I can work at home, print all my stuff out using the VPN, pick it up at 7.30 in the morning, stay in my classroom until 2.45, then basically get out.

Means spelling, maths, writing and reading lessons every morning + one foundation subject each afternoon and that's it. Rest of the time on 1-1 reading/whole class reading/mindfulness bollocks/etc. I can then do all marking/feedback and 'interventions' in that last hour.

I agree that some kind of rota system would be good. I'd maybe start from the basis of having each year group in for one day a week, and work up from there. I agree that those who really need to be in school full time could stay, but a lot of students do work effectively from home.

There is a huge middle ground between full time "school as normal" and schools 100% closed- I'm sure there are lots of creative solutions out there!

I think it's just the fact that they haven't said anything about schools that is stressful to me- not even that mask wearing should now be enforced, or students should be kept to smaller bubbles or anything!

I am a bit concerned because on Monday we are moving back to a system of students moving around the school and teachers cleaning between students. Us moving to the students in their "zones" was stressful, but I think having to clean (or feeling guilty because I can't possibly manage to do it) will be worse.

We haven't had any detected cases in school yet, but we have had a lot of students off with "heavy colds".

WRT work for individual self isolators, I have set it as per school policy. I haven't chased it up. A few have sent it directly to me for marking, and of course I've marked that, but otherwise I just don't have the energy. I have one Y11 student who's only been in school for 3 weeks so far and he's done no work, and honestly, my feeling is that is his problem, not mine. I have provided the work. If he can't be arsed...

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t have time to clean between classes, another thread showed that it was pretty pointless compared to measures that tackle the issue of it being an airborne virus.

You won’t be asked about how clean the desks are if a kid tests positive.

Ooooh, how about that?

Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham breaking ranks and calling for school closures in the NW.

Sorry, just saw crackle got there before me.

I never could resist a bit of Burnham with his puppy dog eyes and that weird thing we call integrity.

WRT work for individual self isolators, I have set it as per school policy. I haven't chased it up. A few have sent it directly to me for marking, and of course I've marked that, but otherwise I just don't have the energy. I have one Y11 student who's only been in school for 3 weeks so far and he's done no work, and honestly, my feeling is that is his problem, not mine. I have provided the work. If he can't be arsed...
Me too. I'm pissed off at the number of kids just not bothering at the moment. We're not allowed to do break or lunch detentions so I can't break the cycle. I have one y10 student who has done NO homework this term.