The Twenty-Eight Republic - Lockdown Light

[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 booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

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

James O'Brien on schools now, if anyone is free please call him!

More cases at school. 2 year groups will not be in school tomorrow whilst their zones are deep cleaned. Staff not to go in those zones until they've been deep cleaned. We didn't do this last time but it makes sense and good to see we're evolving in our response rather than being blind sheep following the advice of, 'minimum wage teenagers reading a script in a call centre'.

@motherrunner I hope you get the time off

@TheHoneyBadger the deep clean sounds sensible, but does make you wonder what they were doing before. Have any staff been asked to isolate?

How many cases has everyone's school had now? We are approaching 30 positive cases across all year groups and staff since Sept...

Ours is less than that. I think we've had about 10 kids and 4 members of staff confirmed positive so far. But with 2 new cases in two completely new year groups today I'm guessing that's likely to increase soon as 'close contacts' at least (ie about 2% of the people they were actually in close contact with) seek testing.

We've had cases in yr 11, yr 10 and year 13 now. We had zero until halfway way through the last week of last term somehow but it now seems to be taking hold.

I suspect the reason they're picking it up in older kids rather than younger years is purely because they are more likely to display adult pattern symptoms and therefore qualify for testing.

Blindly saying it's older kids who are catching it more is non scientific nonsense IMO. They're just more likely to have a cough or temperature like adults whereas younger ones have fatigue and head ache and or upset tummies.

We have had sooooo many year 7s poorly with "tummy upsets." I'm pretty sure many of them will be Covid.

2 cases in local secondary. And their contacts after a halloween party have gone into school this week. The HT sounds very annoyed and frustrated.
A primary shut too after 2 positive staff after inset day. But sounds like rest of the staff are contacts.

Piggy should tell her slt about that primary as a case in point for not doing inset or meetings with all staff in person.

Presumably that's what that primary did.

Update from DfE regarding face covering removal-have they ever been in a school??!

@Keepdistance that’s really interesting about the primary. Do you know how long they were in a room together and how far apart? We keep getting told if we’re all facing the front and 2m apart then we don’t need masks (that might have changed now possibly) and it’s ok?!?

Today has been a mixed day for me. Y11 were tough today -I'm getting so drained with the lack of effort/apathy and having to chivvy them every step of the way

To be fair, they were quite good Tue/Wed. I gave them an exam question to try at the start of the lesson and it was like pulling teeth

More positively, Y10 and Y12 were great

Yeah I'm fascinated about where this space and time and supervision is that allows for children to wash their hands before and after putting their masks on or off when they arrive at school or at the beginning and end of every lesson etc.

It's utter nonsense. 30 kids coming from a 1.5m wide corridor, through a 0.9 metre doorway into a small room filled with desks, chairs, bin etc. What are the logistics that envision could allow a student to wash their hands before and after stepping through that doorway? If it's via sanitiser at the doorway one at a time whilst the others are rammed in the corridor with all the other students waiting to enter the room that's at least half the lesson taken up to get into the room and then it will be about time to turn around and repeat the process in reverse to get out of the room. It is advice that it is totally impossible to apply.

I’ve offered DS one of his old sticker charts, with a little treat for each week he does in full at school, successfully evading Covid. He thinks that is unfair . His mates have a sweepstake on how long before the first subject cohort has to self isolate. Very telling that after only one week break there have been no absences, tests or positives in his 6th form.

Very few people can do the proper hygiene measures for donning and removing masks. A squirt of sanitiser before each process is all that’s doable in school, really.

[quote marplemead]@motherrunner I hope you get the time off

@TheHoneyBadger the deep clean sounds sensible, but does make you wonder what they were doing before. Have any staff been asked to isolate?

How many cases has everyone's school had now? We are approaching 30 positive cases across all year groups and staff since Sept...[/quote]
We are approaching 30 too...

@TheHoneyBadger

Yeah I'm fascinated about where this space and time and supervision is that allows for children to wash their hands before and after putting their masks on or off when they arrive at school or at the beginning and end of every lesson etc.

It's utter nonsense. 30 kids coming from a 1.5m wide corridor, through a 0.9 metre doorway into a small room filled with desks, chairs, bin etc. What are the logistics that envision could allow a student to wash their hands before and after stepping through that doorway? If it's via sanitiser at the doorway one at a time whilst the others are rammed in the corridor with all the other students waiting to enter the room that's at least half the lesson taken up to get into the room and then it will be about time to turn around and repeat the process in reverse to get out of the room. It is advice that it is totally impossible to apply.

Exactly

@TheHoneyBadger no idea... officially none but rumour mill is rife amongst the kids. I've just got this feeling we won't be told.. who knows🤷‍♀️

I need to share my rage.
Email today from hoy: I know the reports are due next week but can you tell me how child x is doing?
Me: x did nothing in lockdown and has been off most of this term. She has therefore missed all of Shakespeare and all of paper 1. Wasn't in the online lessons last week. Do we know if she has internet access at home?
Hoy: oh dear. I don't know
Me: well it might be useful to know that.
Hoy: no one has told me

Is it only me who wonders how this person got promoted????

We have had the teams data for student's logging on this week from y11.

Out of approx 250. Only 10 didnt login on Monday. 30 on Tuesday and back to 10 on Wednesday.

That's pretty good. I was surprised.

One more day to do then they are back on Monday.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/932944/Weekly_COVID-19_and_Influenza_Surveillance_Graphs_W45.pdf

Brtus had some info on wales cases in schools

Very impressed with our first day of masks, apparently everyone just got on with it, no issues.

We've had only 5 known cases, all students, inc 2 siblings. Secondary of 1500.

That's good August.

I know the kids don't social distance, and that you can't distance from them, but watch for other members of staff thinking masks make them invincible and there's no need for social distancing.

Shocking

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18846999.anger-school-sends-letter-blaming-rise-covid-bangladeshi-community/?fbclid=IwAR3IVnumuR_78M2R--8Cv4ClbUmbYyeYix5n6CokL6i5G3ggCQf5tBOonAg

@starrynight19 how are you feeling today? Hope your symptoms are proving to be mild.

8 members of staff now off, 6 SI and 1 +ve. Masks in communal areas now. Head looking stressed - trying to juggle to keep everything covered.

I left earlier today and have been for a run. Feeling oddly happy. Endorphins are a wonderful thing!

Only 1 case in my school (about 1200 kids) and one at dd's primary, both children. We are in a low Covid area.

Isn't @ohthegoats Primary?
I think we are under-represented on this thread, so I will miss her.
Hope she can return.