The Thirty-First Republic - oh the joy of on-line parents evenings

[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

Welcome! Shuffle up everyone!!

OK, so I was awake at 4.30 again. Stomach better. Legs ache. General bleugh and stress.

herc that sounds serious, I hope no longer term consequences.
Wishing everyone a better day today.

Gosh have woken up so tired. This week so far has been awful and I'm running on empty now. I'm thinking if switching to a diet of haribo and coffee to push me through?

Feeling discombobulated. And quite honestly like jacking it in. My grading was the making at least expected progress. I'm not good or better than expected. And tutor kind of said that jobs would be hard to come by because i don't sell myself.
Worry for another day. Need to get through today first.

Thanks Piggy

I am keeping my fingers crossed that today is calmer but I seriously doubt it.

Students are frazzled , as are staff. Because my role is dealing with others emotional health on the whole, it is full on at the best of times but at the moment it is becoming overwhelming.

Good luck to all today.

The usual Presenteeism is alive and unwell at my school. Luckily, the Head is adamant that even if you think it's a cold then home you go for a test. And some of the staff have been surprised to find it isn't a cold

DS has had an excellent offer from his preferred Uni. It's a tiny bit of hope and excitement in all this so we are enjoying it while it lasts.

Still no crying at work but ds and I both came to tears over remote learning battles yesterday. I do well to get 3 hours out of him and that's with arguments and circular bloody arguments at that.

I actually don't think I could name many 13yos I teach who'd be capable of 5 hours independent learning. Hopefully his year group really will be allowed back on the 7th.

HT does the contract tracing herself here. Bit much to land that in admin imo.

Hope your incident gets dealt with properly herc. Name I think you need to ease up on the pressure on yourself. Expected progress in this climate is plenty good enough and you can develop and learn interview techniques later when your confidence has grown.

In school today for just two lessons due to only 6th form and year 7 being in this week. Hopefully going to the gym later

Oh and mistress thanks for suggestion but it needs to be contracted income not casual like supply to be considered for mortgages unfortunately.

Welcome, HereIGoAgain. The pastoral staff at our school are outstanding and I have never seen any of them cry before. They have this year... You are not alone.

Herc - sounds awful. I hope you are well supported today. Sometimes, the staff and the rest of the children should be the priority and not the one child. I wish this was recognised.

We've still had no positive staff. Lots of children and family members. Staff only been off since September if isolating bc of contact, for childcare purposes or with stress...

I've got a bonus free this afternoon that I'd forgotten about. My year 11 are all in a mock exam. I love it when I get bonus time, although obviously I will pay it back later when I have to mark their mocks (which will take significantly longer than an hour).

Herc I hope you're being well supported today and things are being done with the pupil involved. That sounded like a horrible experience for you.

Home and freezing. Year 7 have the whole of the school to themselves (bar the 6th form centre but that's outside of the fence anyway.

Bizarre.

Had the satisfaction of one of the 2 key stages below students I teach having all the lights on today and having his hand up to answer questions and take part in discussion today. Literally the resources were video clips and me and discussion for the bulk of the lesson so nothing to block his access eg literacy. Love it when he takes part as I often feel so sad for him and worry he'd be loads better off in a special school.

Today another pupil of mine tested positive. That's now 5 classes out of 6 that have had a case. I'm usually left with 4 pupils. I've had enough now.

I have a serious question for leadership types I acknowledge it might sound annoyed but I’m not, just curious

Colleague A asks question via email to dept.
Colleague B answers question.
HoD then replies that B is indeed correct and repeats the answer. No change, no different. Just repeated. Why? Is it a leadership thing? It just seems a bit of a waste of time and clogs up inboxes.

I watched this happen today during my last lesson (computer wouldn’t stop binging with these messages). Surely B’s response - which A also acknowledged - was enough?

This goes on all the time : Colleague C (Hod) is asserting them self and attempting to put Colleague B back in their box.

Massive drop off in mask compliance today. When I spoke to a perfectly lovely year 11, he pointed out that noone was really wearing them, including two members of SLT he had just seen...

Anyone going on the NEU zoom meeting tomorrow? Perhaps some of the great questions Noble has asked on her thread could be asked?(just had a confirmation email from NEU stating that questions can be forwarded to some guy called Mike I think).

I'm not NEU but would very much like to know whether the union are gathering data on deaths in service. They must be!

I know it is ghoulish but nastier posters keep assuming there are none on some boards.

Even if the government isn't gathering stats the union should be.

Feeling paranoid that you've all gone off to chat elsewhere and not invited me! Unusually quiet on here. Are we all exhausted?

Knackered, Honey. Don’t know where everyone else is but you could check out my latest thread if you’re bored. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/a4095400-noblegiraffe-wants-SAFER-schools-not-closed-schools-Do-you

I’m just lurking because I feel like one long Moan in human form so nothing to add. Fortifying fistbumps to anyone who needs one.

I'm not saying anything because I just feel defeated. No-one is listening and it's going to be all kinds of a nightmare in January.

Boris just confirmed exam news coming tomorrow.

It's going to be so underwhelming.

Topics in advance was the leak.... so, they'd rather have a load of regurgitated, prelearned answers than ,say, teacher assessments, covering a broad range of learning.

I think my single biggest point of stress is the exams. My school only has one non exam year group.

We’re told topics in advance for maths, it’s called the syllabus.

Well, quite.

I reckon my board will just parrot out the 'focus ' for every film. Which is always the focus.

It's not like they will suddenly now say ,'do you know what, we agree 12 films to study is too many'. Bastard exam boards are complicit in all of this.

I'm not bothered about exams. Selfishly, if I'm going to go through all this shit this year, I'll be really pissed off to lose my marking money again.

That said, I have utter compassion fatigue.