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

@Danglingmod I think the wrist warmers would work better with hand sanitising - you could just push them up your wrists (no thumb hole)

Hadn't thought of that @Danglingmod - all the more reason not to have expensive cashmere!

I seem to have spent most of the day working again but I have all but one of my remote lessons set for next week and have recorded a full 'live' lesson for the first time on loom.

I 'think' it's ok but no idea what anyone else would think. Not my job to do the lives for this year group but I'm ahead in the SOL so I'd rather just crack on and do it and know it's sorted because I suspect I'll be tearing my hair out trying to get ds to engage with remote learning this on top of teaching in school.

Can't believe the time! My parents stopped by outside whilst going for a walk earlier so we sat on benches at opposite ends of my driveway and had a quick freezing cold chat. I'm still in pj bottoms and a jumper in my bed where I've been most of the day as my room is the quietest one to record in.

This weekend has flown by. Technically having set my remote lessons I only have one in person lesson to teach tomorrow and some printing and resourcing to do so don't 'need' to be in school for long at all unless they insist on me being there for lessons I've already planned and set whilst my son is stuck at home on his own not engaging with remote learning. We shall see.

That twitter thread is brilliant and backs up what was being discussed on the schools are f*&ked thread. We're so ahead of the curve Must be time for a drink I'm thinking.

Yet another Sunday of a long full working day.

Cases are increasing rapidly in my city - I’m betting that we’ll have some larger groups isolating this week.

I’d really like someone to explain to me how exactly I’m meant to deliver a curriculum to a group who are in and out. How am I supposed to map out learning when so many miss lessons - they simply don’t understand what’s going on because they haven’t read the preceding chapter/ the extract we’re working on.

It’s such hard work.

Spent 3 hours today prepping a lesson for the isolators for next week. 3 hours as the stuff wouldn't upload properly- as I created my own demonstrations. Argh!

I just posted a ‘fun’ quiz for teachers on my thread if you want a distraction.

Oo you are a tease noble!

Interesting the reaction to the school corridor photo.

General shock and surprise, and then we have people saying, "Oh, but MY child's school isn't like that," when no parents have set foot in schools for months.

I just unhook my thumbs when I need to use hand sanitiser. I fold them back on themself to use the toilet and to eat lunch and use as a wrist warmer. If you sign up for the e-mailing list they give you a £10 off voucher but it has to be used within 24 hours, so you can get a pair for £19 but you can only choose an overall colour not the shade.

@TheHoneyBadger I have also just recorded my first loom lesson... it was easier than I thought. Just hope the kids bother to watch it!

Urgh the sunday feeling is strong today. Feeling really anxious about tomorrow.

I have done some planning, finished marking Y9 assessments and analysing them, uploaded seating plans to the required format/place (again!) And written 5 assessments. Overall not bad. Never enough time though!

Planning to relax a bit now before bed.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55037124
Seven more whole school closures - and this in a part of Wales that has had really low transmission rates until now. The report says it is due to 'a number of super spreader event'. I wonder what? Sleepovers? Parties?

Yet more students in the yo yo of in out education. It's a good job that those in year 11 will not be expected to sit GCSEs next summer.

Silly question alert.....

Is there such a thing as Loom, or is it auto-correct from Zoom?

I've marked very few exams and dug the garden for 3 hours. No idea what I'm teaching tomorrow and can't be arsed thinking about it.
Stepmum is home but very very weak. She's not eaten for nearly two weeks so that's not much of a surprise. Dad is clearly worried about how he's going to cope.

My motivation is at zero. I did nothing this weekend. Mentally I have already left the building; it's just a case of 'when' now, not 'if'.

@noblegiraffe I commented on your other thread. I'm in awe of what you're doing

@Timeturnerplease, fingers crossed for your embryo transfer , what a stressful situation to be in .

@MrsHamlet, glad to hear your stepmum is home .

I'm determined to go to bed early tonight. This week has parents' evening spread over two (unpaid) days, reports due and an assessment to write. I'm setting Mathswatch and Dr Frost homeworks where I can, although there are 3 lots of 6th form marking coming in as well.

We are still being quite thorough with cleaning in our school - spray and wipe every desk if there is a change of bubble between lessons and the children are pretty good at doing it themselves when asked. I spray and wipe the teacher's desk and equipment after every lesson (and hope they are doing the same for me). I'm keeping windows open and wrapping up warm.

Mrs Hamlet, get your Dad to contact his GP for a prescription for some hi-cal drinks for her - Ensure are ok, like a milk shake.

@pussycatinboots

Mrs Hamlet, get your Dad to contact his GP for a prescription for some hi-cal drinks for her - Ensure are ok, like a milk shake.

Thank you - I'll pass that on.

@CallmeAngelina

Nope Loom is an actual thing!

You can record videos of up to 45 mins and then send the kids a link to watch!

And if you can't get Loom to work, try Screencast O Matic.

I've done no work at all this weekend. Just opened my laptop, but have only posted on here so far. Haven't opened work email and am not going to.

The following is from a local council Facebook page. Interesting acknowledgement of symptoms in children.

We are now asking residents to get a covid test for 'precautionary' symptoms including:

• Headaches
• Aches and pains
• Feeling very tired for no good reason
• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Sneezing
• Tummy ache in children

When booking make sure you answer the question 'Why are you asking for a test' with 'My local council or health protection team has asked me (or someone) I live with t get a test, even though I do not have symptoms' as per the photo in this post ✅

Book online here orlo.uk/NWVku

By doing this we will be identify cases quicker and slow down the spread locally.

Update from the comments in this post ⬇️⬇️

So this has generated a lot of discussion this evening...

To be clear we are not demanding that everyone goes and gets a test every time they have any of the above symptoms. If you regularly have any of these symptoms for medical or lifestyle reasons then you likely know the cause and don’t need to get a test. However if you start to feel unwell for any of the reasons above unexpectedly we are asking you to get a test as a precautionary measure. Yes it might just be a cold or the flu but would it not be better to spend 10mins having a test to be sure you don’t have coronavirus and you don’t potentially spread it to someone else who could end up in hospital or die because of it.

A lot of children won’t show the common 3 symptoms at all and data shows that many people who test positive had one or some of the above symptoms before developing one or more of the 3 main symptoms or they never developed them at all. If they’d been diagnosed earlier their isolation would have started earlier and therefore potentially spreading the virus to less people.

Would it hurt just to get checked out? Would you like to protect others?

We are simply asking you to consider getting tested for more symptoms. You DO NOT need to isolate if you have these symptoms, you can get a test quickly likely on the same day and results should be back within 24-48hrs.

We don’t want to be in tier 3 and we want our residents to be safe and be able to enjoy the things they enjoy with the people they love again very soon and this will help slow down the virus if we can isolate faster.

It’s simple consider getting a test for other reasons and help keep each other safe

Could someone point me in the direction of noble’s thread? I need to read some sensible posts!! Not dissing the conversation in the Staffroom, of course 😁

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4086336-The-government-is-encouraging-covid-spread-in-schools

This is the thread. But be warned - noble had her mental health questioned by an (alleged) nurse for wanting to restrict the spread of covid in schools. Because clearly nurses on covid wards are delighted to see the way the virus runs through schools, then gets passed on to older relatives.