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

Anyone see that Sedbergh School has uncovered 53 cases??! Nearly all asymptomatic. They have had to send a load of boys form one boarding house home.

Childcare issues due to self isolation and actual Covid cases are neck and neck in the race at our school for which can empty the staff rota the quickest.

I have a question. Was just talking to dh about schools that don't allow their staff to wear masks. He reckons this can't be true, as they're not within their rights to forbid it, and that it wouldn't stand up in court if anyone challenged it. My point was that many staff wouldn't challenge it, if that's the culture of the school, for fear of rocking the boat,

Anyone know? Or who's categorically been told that they must not wear PPE. I know I've seen it posted here on MN a lot, but not sure which threads.

@Piggywaspushed

Anyone see that Sedbergh School has uncovered 53 cases??! Nearly all asymptomatic. They have had to send a load of boys form one boarding house home.

A colleague of mine lives in one of the boarding houses but she's at work with us! Seems very odd.

I have a Swiss chef friend in Egypt who will happily cook anything for us in return for a suitcase of decent cheese so we can multi task and have the cheese fest there.

We used to have oysters followed by raclette on Christmas Eve in Paris. And gallons of champagne. My past seems so much more glamorous than my present

Knackered but alive here. My worst group of year 8s were surprisingly tolerable today possibly because we were learning about machine guns and chemical warfare.

No new cases when I last checked email. Just one year group out in full and about 30 kids out of another as close contacts. Most definitely more kids than staff testing positive at our school so it's not us infecting them as accused.

So do we think No10 is actually operating a bit like the White House and making up its own 'Covid security' - which, let's face it, all workplaces have been left to do?

There was a 35 min meeting, at which one presumes they weren't actually touching each other, probably in a room big enough to space out, resulting in the PM, 6 MPs and 2 aides having to self isolate (presumably in addition to the positive MP).

Meanwhile the EIS (Scottish Union) are ballotting on strike action re lack of measures in schools. Any thoughts, oh Gaelic posters here?

Well the pupil self isolating didn't log on to the lesson So, I now feel like I need to set other work but I was doing that last week and got no response.

Had two staff panicking on me about doing the live lessons when some are in school and some at home. Tried to alleviate their concern and tomorrow going to do a drop in after school for anyone who wants to ask questions etc.

Can't post details but one member of staff put her foot in it with one of the staff who is feeling delicate so that took some smoothing over.

Plus something came up about one of my form which took me a while to start dealing with.

Lessons went well though -trainee said my Y9s were the best he'd seen so that bodes well.

August, I doubt we will get the numbers. It's really hard to get strike action passed now the way the ballots work, we did a couple of years ago in our pay campaign but that took a year of campaigning and working with teachers. I don't think we have the will for it this time. And most people don't want to strike they just want safer schools. I have voted SNP for a while now and I ever will again, I feel completely let down by them.

Nearly had an email fight with my stepmum about Nicola S last week. She is so proud of her and can't see that she is letting teachers down. But I can't see any party doing differently, I guess.

@Piggywaspushed

Anyone see that Sedbergh School has uncovered 53 cases??! Nearly all asymptomatic. They have had to send a load of boys form one boarding house home.

They’re sending all the positive ones home, I think.

So do we think No10 is actually operating a bit like the White House and making up its own 'Covid security' - which, let's face it, all workplaces have been left to do

The government doesn’t have to follow all rules and regs in their buildings so we can probably safely assume that they ignore everything difficult.

Meanwhile the EIS (Scottish Union) are ballotting on strike action re lack of measures in schools. Any thoughts, oh Gaelic posters here?

I think it would be a huge mistake. We would have absolutely no public support and we'd be slaughtered by the media.

I personally can't afford it either.

Opinion in our staffroom today was that they're trying to goad NS into closing early.

The only reason so many pupils are still in school (as NS was talking about today) as they are only sending home the pupils sitting closely around a positive case, and basically no teachers at all.

Oh ffs reporter reading the headlines on BBC Reporting Scotland about teachers threatening to strike over a picture of about 6 teenagers spaced out in a classroom
I am so pissed off I've just had it now.

Sorry I'm a wee bit cross

Oh ffs reporter reading the headlines on BBC Reporting Scotland about teachers threatening to strike over a picture of about 6 teenagers spaced out in a classroom

That’s so fucking annoying.

One of my classes has had 6 positive cases over 4 weeks, 2 teachers 4 pupils. I don’t feel remotely safe in that room. But the school thinks it’s fine to just send home the pupils sat in a 2metre radius of the positive case.

I actually had a reasonable day.

But, we've got positive parent cases now, and children properly off for 14 days instead of 'waiting for test results'. Our head is seconded to another school just down the road that had to send 2 year groups home today. So, maybe it's the start.

Where is Gavin Williamson? I am concerned for his well-being, it’s been so long since he’s shown up to anything.

And is it me, or did anyone else freak at the doubling of testing capacity by the new year? Is that what they think we’re going to need?

I think it's because they're starting mass testing, which is a good thing.

Our Head is good and always sends out an email telling us the name of a child who's tested positive and asking if any member of staff has had 'significant contact' with them in the time window (the teachers will already have been contacted). However have discovered today that if it's yr day off no one thinks to contact you at home. Fine.

It's an almighty mess.

I so so hope we'll break up early.

I’ve been within 2m of a child who is now off. I feel strangely laid back about it really. Resigned to the possibility. That fabulous caveat “where possible” from the risk assessment ringing in my ears 🤷‍♀️

I've just shifted everything forward just in case we are at home for the last week. Can do a stand alone unit of writing/etc about Xmas.

Honey your offers of Egypt/cheese/champagne (well it came into trouble post somehow) this morning all sound great!

Right, are my threads hyperbolic and shut down conversation because I bloody feel like I've been trying to get a conversation going and it's not an exaggeration to say secondary schools are fucked.

Annoyed by someone's comment on a thread I really can't derail.

I just commented elsewhere about determined denial and wanting to shoot the messenger elsewhere noble.

People are ecstatic that their kids are back at school and horrified at the idea of losing that again.

People ultimately are pretty selfish.

Egypt, cheese and champagne sounds bloody marvellous.

It's my birthday tomorrow in lockdown. At least it's a day off and I don't have any marking to do