The Thirtieth Republic ( 30! who would have thought) - Is it too soon to book a staff Xmas party?

[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

The raised hand thing is all a bit Nuremberg rally, I can't stand it. I clear my throat loudly.. aHEM. Usually does it.

When I used to get children sent to me to be told off, I'd just sit them on the floor and glance at them every so often. Everytime I looked, they cried. I never said anything other than 'this wasn't much fun, was it? I hope I don't see you again' I never saw anyone twice.

When I used to get children sent to me to be told off, I'd just sit them on the floor and glance at them every so often. Everytime I looked, they cried.
I spent a day in a feeder primary last year and you might have been the teacher 😂 I was scared!
mind you, one boy was there for twisting another boy's willy really hard, so he deserved it

Legends, all of you!

Had a difficult day which resulted in me bursting into tears at lunchtime and feeling like an awful LSA. At least tonight I have had a lovely takeaway and feel slightly better.

Wouldn't use the raised hand in a classroom, but no one is going to hear an "ahem" on an open playground.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

The raised hand thing is all a bit Nuremberg rally, I can't stand it. I clear my throat loudly.. aHEM. Usually does it.

When I used to get children sent to me to be told off, I'd just sit them on the floor and glance at them every so often. Everytime I looked, they cried. I never said anything other than 'this wasn't much fun, was it? I hope I don't see you again' I never saw anyone twice.

This reminds me of a primary school teacher I had. She was Scottish and awesome. She generally taught 1st year juniors, and if anyone, absolutely anyone was naughty, they would be sent to her class for a day/days/week depending on how bad the misdemeanor. They were set work and just "looked" at every so often

I made one of mine blush today just with a look....after I caught him eyeing up the gluestick that was standing upright on the table. He opened his mouth and deepthroated the damn thing.

Just ick. Def not covid safe sticking a glue stick in your mouth.

He's one of my MAT kids. UKS2!

Urgh!

The raised hand thing is all a bit Nuremberg rally, I can't stand it.

It was unfortunate that this is the method DHs school get silence when they were on the school trip to Germany 🤦‍♀️

People reveal the single decision that changed their lives forever
mol.im/a/8970409

So the DF are watching the threads... JUST TOTALLY IGNORING SCHOOL THREADS ABOUT SAFETY!! Shame on all of them.

Night all. Off to bed before I'm tempted to have more wine. Hope everyone sleeps well and avoids weird anxiety dreams.

Article in the Fail about a promising nasal spray that could be use to be effective in preventing the covid virus getting into the body easily.

Interestingly it says,
The researchers behind the project at the University of Birmingham say the spray could be particularly useful in high-risk situations, such as for healthcare workers, flights or in classrooms.

Wouldnt be a lot of use to me i tend to mouth breathing due to sinus issues.

Looking at the data round here there was no drop for half term.
Not sure if that's because there's a few tourist attractions zoos etc, maybe people went into the city shopping/pubs etc.
Obviously we were tier 1 so people meeting etc.

I was thinking the other day about remote learning and how many kids just don’t engage with it.

Parents are legally obliged to send their kids to school if not homeschooling and get fined if don’t. But when the kids are home, it’s entirely our fault if they don’t engage and we should be phoning home every day to ensure they do? Where is the responsibility on the parents there?

@noblegiraffe

I was thinking the other day about remote learning and how many kids just don’t engage with it.

Parents are legally obliged to send their kids to school if not homeschooling and get fined if don’t. But when the kids are home, it’s entirely our fault if they don’t engage and we should be phoning home every day to ensure they do? Where is the responsibility on the parents there?

Its all our fault every ill in society.

Wasn't there a meta analysis done once ? In which everything the media or someone said should be taught in schools made a list longer than the curriculum.

Now I may have made that up as I can't find evidence anywhere. It may have been about 20 years ago and I am sure the name Vine was mentioned.

Anyone recall, or was it just another anxiety dream?

@RigaBalsam it's the thing I hate about teaching most, beyond all the silly fads etc ... how everything is our responsibility- social work, policing, health, and every single aspect of a child's education. Tbh I didn't sign up for all that I signed up because I love my subject and wanted kids to love my subject just as my teachers passed that love to me...

[quote monkeytennis97]@RigaBalsam it's the thing I hate about teaching most, beyond all the silly fads etc ... how everything is our responsibility- social work, policing, health, and every single aspect of a child's education. Tbh I didn't sign up for all that I signed up because I love my subject and wanted kids to love my subject just as my teachers passed that love to me...[/quote]
I feel the same. I don't mind some life skills obviously but it seems more fall to us each year.

Mine is another primary that’s gone from nothing to a decent sized outbreak (and still going upwards) in a week. I also don’t think our parents know the extent.

When this is all over it would be amazing to all meet up with you! I did that once before with friends I met through an autism forum. It was amazing, we came from all over the UK and met up in the middle (most of us had 200 mile journeys from one side of the country or other). Fantastic day and friends for life. Happy days❤️

Woke up at 6 worrying about an email I had a week or so ago re: a parent having let the school know that their child didn't have internet and I said I would call but don't think I did.

Was going to try not to turn on work laptop but I need to know if it was someone in a year group that's now closed.

A school in our Mat closed yesterday and will be closed on Monday. Ostensibly it's for a deep clean but the rumour is they were worried about staffing.

Cases have also popped up in local primary schools, and we have quite a few kids off with siblings who are isolating.

I think parents would describe our school as one that is basically "fine" but I don't think they realise how finely balanced the whole house of cards is.

We also have an acting HoD who's desperately trying to keep the job long term, and so is piling more and more work on us.

I think I've said this before on here but, even though our local press is reporting (well, listing: there are too many for details) local schools with cases, there is no differentiation between 1/2 case and a few kids sent home or whole class closures/multiple year group closures/multiple cases - like 40+ - within a year group and no closure/numbers of staff off and kids taught by supply...

They do report when it's the whole school closed. That's 2 x secondary schools, 3 x special schools and at least 12 nurseries in my area (I think).

My anxiety dreams tend to revolve around bus duty. That's the most stressful time of my week as I'm in sole charge of 800+ pupils on the playground while they are supposed to be in strict queues for their own bus. Obviously, as there are 800+ of them, I have no idea if they are in the right queue, and have no way of ensuring no mingling between bus "bubbles" or yeargroups. It's all I can do to keep an eye out for physical fights about to break out (that's only happened once so far, as the kids are generally rather nice, but tempers are fraying). They're all supposed to wear masks in the holding area too, but they tell me I'm the only teacher who a) wears a mask myself or b) attempts to enforce mask wearing for them. So they aren't getting consistent messages, no wonder they don't all bother (lots do, because they're decent kids who generally follow rules, but not all)

One member of staff for bus duty? That's appalling!

My last school had one member per bus/queue plus a few SLT. My current one has all HOYs plus 3-4 extra staff.