The Twenty-ninth Republic - lockdown light continues & good news for Welsh students

[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 staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

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 come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

Mine was
Tutor group (lovely)
Top set year 8
Middle set year 10 (herding cats)
Break duty
Mixed set year 7 (tricky)
Bottom set year 9 (ended crying in lunch)
Lovely bottom set 8.
Gate duty

In every class apart from 1 there were multiple pupils isolating or ill with non testable symptoms.

@DollyMixtureLulus

Well, today's highlight was a parent calling to complain that I had marked work wrongly as there was a 9/11 at the top.

It was the date

Other than that mine were actually v. good today.

That's made me proper laugh out loud. Thanks, needed that.

I did!

Our cover list is definitely growing and growing now, altho boss and I were trying to work out if anyone's shielding (we don't get out much from the library!)

I want to counter it with, gud eve-en-ing.

Hey monkey, hope your lad is ok

That 9/11 made me grin as well

@WhyNotMe40 thank you. He's had another test, we shall see....

Wow-can’t believe we’ve filled 28 of these threads already!

My day was quite nice today.
Tutor group, lovely
PPA
Bottom set year 10 (normally a nightmare, but ok today)
Middle set year 11 (mocks in a couple of weeks is making them focus, they ALL handed their homework in on time!)
Middle set year 7 (calmer than usual because one of the big characters is excluded this week)
Bottom set year 11 (absolutely delightful, my favourite class, no pressure at all and genuinely nice kids)

Ignore me. He said good moaning.

Ds is cooking us noodles for dinner. Literally instant noodles. Very nutritious. At least I don't have to cook.

9/11 is hilarious. Not sure how I'd avoid my tone or facial expression getting me in trouble.

Thanks for the new thread these threads are keeping me sane!

Today for me went:

Form (who are just lovely all the time!)
Y11 - were brilliant P1, actually thinking for a change (they are usually err... challenging!)
Free but filled with a meeting
Y11 again and another great lesson
Free which just seemed to disappear
Y13 half of whom are now isolating
Staff meeting-I was leading, on teams but it went surprisingly well!

All in all, despite the mayhem of isolaters/cover/staff who are sick, my day was pretty good!

Managed to do some more things from my to do list so that was good.

Not sure how I feel about exams being cancelled - on the one hand it's hard to see how it can be a level playing field but on the other hand, lots of kids are working so hard.

Y8 have been hard work today 😭

How did a thread about vaccines being given according to age, end up about teachers?!

Today should have been easy. But somehow wasn't.

Cells with year 9, spent the entire lesson on measurements (micrometers, nanometers), and never got to the actual cells stuff!

Test review with year 7, omfg, I told them to start their next steps on repeat fo 8 minutes (I was clock watching because we were running out of time), 'the tasks I've ticked, do them now, in your book, in green pen' over and over as a class and then to the slow to start. 8 minutes in one of them pipes up ' are we doing this in our book?' Aaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!

Year 10 we're ok but very chatty as always.

Test with bottom set 11, open book, equations on the board. Ten minutes to get them to shut up and start. Marked them in my PPA last thing. Most of them have left most of the test blank. 3 got 0. Highest mark 9/40. I literally don't know what to do with them.

Plus a needy parent, lots of back and forth about equipment, what he's missing, how it's all available at home. He's so disorganised and they seem to think we need to communicate with them over every tiny thing instead of building up his independence.

Aaaand breathe (but not too deeply, cos I had to have a quiet word with one of my tutor group about puberty and the need for soap).

Hello all. Nice to have a new thread.
My stress has just sort of reached a level that the tight ball in my stomach is expanding to fill the rest of me! Will keep going because what else can I do?
I think I'm due a name change actually. Will go for something animal themed.

Just seen my city is now one of the areas selected for the new lateral testing. I think they need to bring testing into schools. I really think we’ll be closed to all years soon.

appu because the OP had the temerity to mention us as somehow deserving.

To be fair we aren't prioritised for flu jabs so I have no anticipation that we will be for this one. It does make me realise what the rushed out ONS data was about - not heralded because they realised it actually made us look deserving of a vaccine?

Honey, ta, you'll perhaps remember the intonation because many have used it like a catchphrase since. Dixon of Dock Green!

I like Gud moaning too though!

I need to train my DS to cook instant noodles, anything to not have to do it myself!

@Piggywaspushed you have a devious mind...

@Augustbreeze

. to you too (it is v funny, esp in combination with that poster's name!)

But am I the oldest on this thread, no one's yet picked up on my allusion to early 70s telly on the Broom cupboard thread?

Yeah, I got it. (Dixon of Dock Green)

Can someone explain the full stop?

My DD will be very pleased to hear there are no formal examinations in Wales this summer. Still externally set and marked, but delivered by the teacher in the classroom should make it lower stress. It's fair not to expect them to have the same pressures in a year where they can't all guarantee to be in school consistently.

My day was ok. Parents' eve on the phone though, and first time using the new booking system so I had one father telling me I was calling them at the wrong time when they'd booked a later time online, but they'd written down an earlier time. At the earlier time, when they actually called by a different teacher to discuss the sibling, the parent told THAT teacher they'd got the time wrong too and they were expecting me instead. Totally a mess up on their end of the stick.

Very weird doing parents' evening all by phone too.

I had a truly delightful day (no sarcasm). Reminded me why I do the job. God knows, I’d nearly lost sight of why I do the job in the last few months!
The adaptability of our children is brilliant. I’m proud of them.

The full stop is because someone was using one on the data thread to bookmark, and another poster thought they should only use the bookmark facility....

We had our first staff meeting since mid-March. Beautifully socially-distanced in the dining hall.
Recent assessments in maths and reading show that children are achieving similarly to pre-lockdown.
Recent observations of their table manners at lunchtime, show that most of them have no idea how to use a knife and fork.
We debated putting the latter into intervention sessions. (no, not seriously).