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

Sonya, I'm in a similar setting, full sen school.

I agree our kids won't wear them (though some of our more able asd pupils have wanted to) but I do feel it could be optional for staff or at the very least in corridors etc. I'm ppa and I don't feel comfortable talking all over different bubbles of pupils.

My thread has turned into ‘you can’t shut schools’ although that wasn’t what my OP was about.

Ostriches everywhere!

Professor Semple is on BBC I half heard as usual as people talking over it but he said that older teenagers are spreading it and that has surprised us. Really?

So many posters just don’t want to know what is happening in schools (both primary and secondary) because it may well shine a spotlight on a) how little has been done by the govt to make schools safer places to be in b) how badly behaved a lot of the students are and potentially their own children are (Secondary I mean) and how their behaviour puts people at risk c) there will always be parents who don’t think Covid rules apply to them and put everyone at more risk and d) that there are young people/adults in Secondary schools that increases the risk even more so and conveniently forget these young adults may well be in relationships where they are kissing etc each other and therefore, whatever a school tries to do, won’t be enough. 2 of the positives at my school were because of this and we found out during the whole year group self isolating that these two were even ‘living together’ but both sets of parents didn’t think to even let us know!

Makes me laugh that it is instead staff ‘talking to each other’ that is apparently the biggest risk, because it’s much too uncomfortable to admit that the above points are the real reasons!

At the very least I'd like to be able to wear a mask to reduce any viral load I personally get.

@NeurotrashWarrior We do wear masks when we are outside the classroom, that was bought in after a positive case in the school. And another change implemented since we had cases in school is now nobody can cross bubbles for interventions etc - PPA was already being covered by the class TA. The thing I have in my favour is at least my class size is smaller - however so is our classroom - and this is probably tempered a bit by having more adults in the room (5 as opposed to 2 in the mainstream classes) and we can’t socially distance from each other within our bubble, it’s just isn’t possible in a small space while dealing with complex needs. I do feel for you having to be part of multiple bubbles, that doesn’t feel right at the moment does it.

The children I work with do need the structure of school and their parents certainly need the break it provides for them too - but I saw your comments (possibly on another thread) and agree that some sort of rota might be a good idea for us, some of ours also have medical conditions that put them at higher risk alongside their autism too so I do worry about getting the balance of risks right for them.

I'm an emotional wreck this morning. Woke up to news about lockdown with schools open , and a positive pregnancy test

@marplemead Congratulations!

@marplemead Time off for pregnancy isn’t counted as an absence - I predict 12 weeks of morning sickness that prevents you from being in school.

@marplemead congratulations?? It sounds like it's a surprise. But motherrunner has an excellent idea here.

@marplemead - congratulations (I hope?) Are you ok?

I can see schools being open and everything else around us closed.

Trying to get organised for next week today and not really feeling it. Have had a cold which is going but still don't feel great.

I keep seeing about schools needing to stay open for MH of students. It's like everyone who doesn't work in a school has completely forgotten that schools are buildings of education. Students learn in order to become productive members of society when they leave.

MH of a person obviously plays a huge part in anything and I've had enough of my own battles to know it's not cut and dried. But it's like parents have decided to outsource any responsibility for their children's wellbeing to schools. Schools are childcare and MH guardians as well as teachers. And it's the governments fault schools have been out in this default position by absolving parents of any ability to deal with their children.

Should schools stay open? No. I think as the largest concentration of group activities, there needs to be at worst, a part time programme of education to reduce the numbers of students in schools at any one time. Or at best, closing schools for a 4 weeks period and insisting parents are made responsible for the whereabouts of their children during this time.

Too many people think 'this doesn't affect me' without looking at the much bigger picture.

Thank you! Not a surprise exactly, but after two miscarriages, I was beginning to lose hope.

@motherrunner I had severe sickness with my DD, so very likely to be off sick anyway, but at least the option is there if I get too anxious...

When should I tell my headteacher?

@marplemead. Sending you lots of virtual best wishes and support. I have a loss between DD and DS and I remember how nervous I was carrying DS.

Tell your head when you’re ready. Is it around 20 week mark when you legally have to do it? If it makes you feel better you could tell your head now so a Covid risk assessment could be made for you.

Congratulations marplemead! Make sure you look after yourself! I remember when I was pregnant with dc1 I was in a very physical job but ran around trying to prove that pregnancy had no effect on my (think scooting up and down ladders and crawling around under manufacturing plants etc.). Didn't realise until after she was born, just how foolish I had been!

I've put remote resources together until Christmas now for my KS3 classes, which is something of a relief. No KS4 for me this year, so need to get KS5 sorted before we return to school on Wednesday.

Weather terrible here, but I've promised ds a Pokemon Go walk at 10am. The wind is howling and the rain is coming down in sheets .

Thank you @motherrunner

Both my MCs happened at 6 weeks, so I think I will wait until around 7/8 weeks to tell my head just in case. My school aren't exactly supportive, so wonder what difference a risk assessment will make.

Well then @marplemead you need to do what’s best for you and if it’s taking time off for morning sickness (real or otherwise), then do it. You need to stay healthy.

Congratulations marplemead! hope all goes well!

Lovely news to hear this morning @marplemead

Congratulations @marplemead. A republic baby!

Thank you all! I'm going to see what school is like this week, and go from there. I want to have a chance to collect things from my desk, before I am forced to be off sick.

Do we think secondaries, as well as primaries, in England will remain open in 'lockdown'?

Definitely congratulations then @marplemead. I know life is pretty gloomy in general right now so it's lovely that there's a sliver of light heading your way.

I don’t know. There was talk about moving to remote learning, rotas and closures to all except KW and vulnerable children if we reached Tier 4 but as the school tier thing has been forgotten then it’s anyone’s guess.

Congrats, marplemead

Do whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe and stress-free.

Congratulations @marplemead. Do whatever you need to stay safe. I told my head ASAP because he is supportive and I needed the protection. I didn't share with anyone else until 16 weeks (apart from my HOD as he was sorting timetables).