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

I must say, it angers me hugely how "had underlying health issues" is added to a report of someone's death.
There was something on the bbc news earlier about someone having died "but they were diabetic."
My dn is Type 1. He leads a perfectly normal life. If anyone dared do the "yeah but" routine if anything dreadful (Covd-related) happened to him, I wouldn't be answerable for my actions.

I don't know what that pen thing is or does but I want one.
I was given some assessments to mark today. They're in my classes but the work wasn't set my me and serves no useful purpose except to make a TLR person look like they're doing something. I may have randomly given a number and filed them.
HT made an unwise quip today which saw me crying on a colleague and getting invited to family Christmas with her family including her sons, both of whom I taught

@CallmeAngelina I totally agree, for obvious reasons.

OK, pen purchased. My whiteboard at school is crap, and no doubt I'll be teaching from home soon enough. Figure it'll be good for both.

Just realised that on Monday after school I went into a single toilet cubicle straight after the teacher who had a positive test this morning. Erk.

It's so crass to identify the underlying issues. Fehzan wouldn't have died if he hadn't been exposed to Covid, end of.

I reported that DfE post as twaddle and borderline lies, though I should have left out “borderline”.

I agree that "underlying health conditions" is an awful thing to add about someone who's died. It makes it sound like it's perfectly fine for people to die if they aren't in perfect health. I'm diabetic, as are both my parents, 3 aunts, my sister, and 1 niece. Almost my entire family could be wiped out and people would still say "but they had underlying health conditions" as if we would have died anyway. We wouldn't. My mum has lived with her diabetes for over 40 years now, and one aunt has been diabetic for almost 60 years. There is no reason to believe any of us would die in a normal year, but covid increases that risk dramatically.

That poor little boy. He looks so beautiful and happy in that photo. I'm sure he will be missed by everyone who knew him.

I read somewhere - might have been here? - that on average, people who are said to have died with 'underlying conditions', have 35 years of life left without covid in the mix.

Obviously hard to use as a fact, but also doesn't seem unreasonable.

Have had a tough day. Behaviour in my class was tricky at the start of term, now 2 chn have deteriorated. They have no limits. Defiant, swearing, rude, disruptive, fighting. The maximum punishment I can give each day is 5 mins off reward time on Friday. I have asked for support from SLT and am now bogged down w form filling, observation, discussion of assessments etc...
Of course the undertone is (I feel) that I need to adapt, up my game for these kids.
There have been some pretty extreme events when I (or someone else) has had to haul them off to SLT, partly because there were no other adults available. But afterwards, no follow up, no consequences.
My Qs are

• is it normal that once an incident has been raised w SLT there is no further action? I'd assumed that once it's been landed at their door, they follow up and ensure appropriate consequences. (There's a lot of "I'll talk to them")
• is it possible to manage tricky chn with no more than loss of reward time? (Obvs I'm trying positive strategies eg reward charts etc but I can't get slt to commit to support me w an adult to help give the reward). A child refused an instruction the other day and said "what are you going to do about it?". Good question I thought, there's bigger all I can do. I feel like the wizard of oz when Dorothy has pulled back the curtain.

Oops - the bold was an accident

@RobertsUncle no, it's not normal (or at least it shouldn't be). SLT should be supporting you with these children. 5 mins off reward time doesn't sound sufficient to me.

Despite the difficult day, I did some work this evening and finalised catch up planning. We need to get going with initiatives but at the moment, staff really don't seem in a good place so need to focus on that first.

Hoping tomorrow is better!

Is there any point in involving parents @RobertsUncle ?

It sounds awful. What year?

@MsAwesomeDragon sounds tough with your dd. My mum and dsd have MH issues and trying to support can be so draining.

Checking up on my isolating children. Not logging on to the system. Parents not replying to emails or answering the phone.

More book looks and initiatives at school.

On the plus side, the child I was sure was going to be positive wasn't so my bubble remains open and tomorrow may be PPA (if there is anyone who can cover me).

Checking in, I promised myself I would be better at resisting the biscuits this half term but I'm failing miserably.

It's nearly Friday, right?

Sorry so many of us having tough times. I cried off and on from about lunchtime yesterday. Other colleagues also feeling the strain. No reason in particular. Just exhausted and just, well, everything....

I'm getting so bored of crying at work every day. What to do?

Weirdly I haven't cried yet. Very sweary though. Think I am going with rage most of the time.

This has made me so angry for you all.

I'm so glad there's another thread.

I emailed my (Tory, new) MP on Monday night after seeing the format on the other thread and received an email the next morning thanking me for 'trying to educate the nation's young people during this pandemic' and promising to pass my concerns onto an education minister and then get back to me. Can't wait...

Back in yesterday after wfh for a week. It's all so really bitty as we had to press on with the curriculum and some kids engaged really well and did loads and others not so much. School was meant to have been deep-cleaned when we were off but some rooms were sparkly and others hadn't been touched, including one where a positive case had been. Behaviour's shit too - I'm in Y11, which is one of the better bubbles (and P16, which is great) but lower years are telling horror stories...

Have my ridiculously chatty set 4 last lesson and about 1/3 did everything and others I suspect logged onto Teams and then did something completely different, so that'll be fun...

Why are the teacher unions so ineffectual (really I guess I know that it's because there is more than one and not enough teachers are proactive supporting them when they do raise action). All sorts of public service unions commented on BBC article about pay freeze but teachers unions nowhere to be seen. Although I don't think pay freeze is THE big issue at the minute.

Cried yesterday too (not normally a crier). First online parents eve tonight.

Ipevo visualisers landed

@CallmeAngelina

I must say, it angers me hugely how "had underlying health issues" is added to a report of someone's death. There was something on the bbc news earlier about someone having died "but they were diabetic." My dn is Type 1. He leads a perfectly normal life. If anyone dared do the "yeah but" routine if anything dreadful (Covd-related) happened to him, I wouldn't be answerable for my actions.

Obviously not the same but I teach a couple of type 1 diabetics. They are all healthy and the idea of someone saying "oh but they had underlying conditions" if they died is seriously heartbreaking.

Must admit I've cried a fair bit this year as well.

Also pretty sure stress is making me feel lightheaded which is not fun.

I cried yesterday too - it seems it was the day for it.
Upper KS2 august, parents aren't too fussed.