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

Would it be appropriate to welcome @RuleWithAWoodenFoot back??

From my local news: www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/sandwell/2020/11/10/leaving-home-is-hazardous-as-covid-deaths-climb/

‘Hazardous to leave home’. I have started a thread to debate how we can numbers in areas where we can’t WFH?

Feeling pretty anxious today.

Our union reps will have received the same email. I’m not sure they’re that bothered.

Starting a MN thread can also be hazardous @motherrunner ....

Take care, am sure you're doing a brilliant job, remember this IS a stressful time to be a teacher, a mum, a human being.

And eat cake.

I’ll wear my hazmat suit @August!

@NeurotrashWarrior

Had an email telling staff to pause the T&T app when in school as we ‘are not close contacts’

A friend’s school had every teacher had the T&T app go off. They knew which teacher was positive. They were told to ignore it by Public Health England to ignore it.

@Augustbreeze

Would it be appropriate to welcome *@RuleWithAWoodenFoot* back??

🥂

I'm really pleased that Nicola Surgeon told the press that teachers should have their tracing app on, hopefully the managers in Aberdeen will retract their message to staff. It beggars belief.
It's not the norm here for your phone to be put or locked away somewhere that isn't where you are - it will be on the desk, in a pocket, in a bag next to your desk even.
Today going better than I predicted, just a few more hours before I can escape home..

Your thread has gone as expected mother !

For those asking about students with the app, unless you teach y11-13 it shouldn't be relevant as it is for 16 and overs only. Hopefully they are all less likely to put in fake symptoms to get sent home and would be sensible if alerted to contact with a case.

Welcome back @RuleWithAWoodenFoot !

@Piggy I give up having any rational debate!

@noblegiraffe

Yesterday Matt Hancock was saying that it could be kept cold but not super cold for 48 hours before administration so I guess they’d need regular deliveries to GPs.

I’m wondering what it would be like to be injected with something that cold!

That’s the discussion we’ve just been having at work. Shortage of volunteers to be injected with something that cold.

They may well need regular deliveries to hospitals as well if they want to vaccinate the staff. We don’t have the ability to store more than a few at that temp.

Teachers don’t need to be worried about Covid-19 in school, writes infectious diseases expert Pere Soler Palacínn_.
They’re not a high-risk population, he says - you’re at higher risk of being infected if you’re working in a supermarket or a restaurant than if you’re working in a school.

Yes, you can have 30 children in a closed space, with close contact. But they’re not constantly speaking: the only one who’s speaking is the teacher, he writes.
However, there is an important caveat: wearing a mask in the classroom makes all the difference.

Has this person set place in a school this century?

We've been told to turn the app off in school (or leave our phone in the car - lol, surely more likely to pick up the person parked next to you!) because it 'might pick up someone who was close but not actually in the room with you'. I've ignored it. Anyone less than 2m away from my desk is either at my desk or hiding in the broom cupboard one the other side of the wall. Seems unlikely.

Survived my busiest day of my 2 week timetable. Next Friday is similarly busy but with less year 8 so it's not quite as manic.

Loads of my year 10 group isolating and the others moaning that they should be isolating too because they sit less than 2m away for hours a day. My constant come back is to write to their mp. Wish they would en masse.

Workload is crazy and seemingly everyone had misunderstood a reports deadline so lots of people will be working past bedtime tonight.

In positive news the trainee has definitely improved! It was a simple lesson but I think most of them met the learning objectives. A couple of more complicated lessons next week but maybe she will rise to the occasion.

We have been offered the flu vaccine at work. But only enough for half of us.

I had to write to my MP today. I wrote asking if staff were expendable, to which he replied banging on about how children were safe in school, and how disadvantaged children need to be there.

a) I never mentioned children's covid safety
b) he voted against free school meals for disadvantaged children
c) one spelling mistake, two grammar mistakes

Twat.

I was forced to write back.

Good for you. I've never actually written to an mp. Tory stronghold here.

I'm trying to rouse myself to cook dinner. Made the mistake of lying on my bed for a minute after getting home and putting laundry on and it's so hard to get up again. The wine is in the kitchen though so that should incentivise me eventually.

Hi all crazy busy day. DS tested negative again

Antibody test this week through ons in school. Is it wierd to be excited? I'm going to feel like the kids do on results day - though expect not to have antibodies.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot nice one👏🏼

Welcome back rule, it's nice to see you. 🎉

My form were moaning today that they should all have been sent home. "We all hang around together at break and lunch, in the same bubble", which is very true, and makes a complete farce of only sending home 30 close contacts. They don't have a seating plan when getting changed for pe/games, so close contacts are getting missed there.

Good news monkey 🎉

Chaos at my school today. 7 positive cases since Friday including 3 children from the same family who had been sent in to school as normal whilst waiting for the test results. So 3 years pulled off of timetable because of one selfish, irresponsible set of parents.