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

So, thanks to the government's proclamation, people on other threads are now declaring 'only 0.2% of schoolchildren have had covid' Jesus wept.

I blame maths teachers

Humber region here, but not Hull, so obviously Tier 3.

We were completely ignored when the mass testing was rolled out last time, but this time, it's possible we may be eligible for funding for it. This is what my council leader had to say though:

"There can be unintended consequences with mass testing. You can end up identifying people who would then have to isolate and that can have an impact on the delivery of services."

Sooooooo.... we may not take up the offer of mass testing, because we can't afford for them to find any more positive cases. Brilliant.

And I thought one of the major worries in Hull was that so many keyworkers were having to isolate because they or others tested positive!

Scientist on R4 just said half term probably brought rates down. SAGE need to make their damn minds up about school transmission!

Good morning Britain talking about schools now and an early Christmas closure.

Yes, loving the Prof on R4. Stated twice that half term brought cases down and that Christmas would be a mixed bag - mixing within households bad, schools and many workplaces closed "good, because they are the main two drivers of transmission."

With a tab on the bottom of the screen saying “There’s been no official link between schools and the spread of coronavirus”

On GMB? Pfft.

The Today presenter seemed rattled by the Prof’s assertion about schools, but OTOH he might just have been running out of time.

Loving my backdated payrise. £70!

I have a bonus day off so did an anxiety shop in Sainsburys. If I have to SI at Christmas, we're OK. I have Wensleydale, Pringles, gravy and Ritz biscuits.

@Piggywaspushed

I have a bonus day off so did an anxiety shop in Sainsburys. If I have to SI at Christmas, we're OK. I have Wensleydale, Pringles, gravy and Ritz biscuits.

Same here. Happy for a lie in. Woken up to dd throwing up on the landing. Brilliant.

alcohol consumption creeping up, and the house is turning to shit around me are you me why? shouldn't laugh but totally resonated with my life.

With a tab on the bottom of the screen saying “There’s been no official link between schools and the spread of coronavirus that feels very stazi-esque.

Not turning my computer on yesterday on my day off meant that when I turned it on just before 8 I had an avalanche of emails that needed immediate action and have just spent 2.5hrs catching up. Reports on students for ehcp meetings, changes to schemes of learning requiring rejigging and changing planning and updating shared groups sheets (because if I don't then I don't know who will because they're all knackered and at least being part time I got a breather yesterday), changed procedures for remote learning that required changing things on google classrooms and that sort of thing.

Teaching year 7s this afternoon and going to try and interim mark my 2 year 7 groups books which is effectively flick through and put an encouraging stamp somewhere and that's about what my brain feels able to handle today.

We now have years 8, 9 and 11 out till December 7th. Literally new cases in year 11 everyday but we've been trying hard to keep them in because they already had to isolate once this term and have missed so much. Think todays case tipped it over though and given how many of them were having to isolate as close cases there weren't that many left anyway.

It is incredible how fast things change - we were literally absolutely fine and I was beginning to think we really did have the covid repelling forces until the last week before half term. Then sort of ok till a week ago and then everything turned to shit at superspeed.

Piggy you will be fine with those. I got snowed in for four days before Christmas a couple of years ago and subsisted on mince pies, Stilton and red wine throughout, depleting my festive store. Naturally I then restocked, but went away for Christmas, so when snowed in in January too I was able to once again able to eat mince pies and Stilton and drink red wine. I have avoided these items since. If I’m snowed in this year it will be stollen, Camembert and champagne.

Your school current situation is very similar to mine @TheHoneyBadger.

Interesting August.

It's hard to get a sense of what is 'normal' with the media silence and government spin. Our head teacher has been assured that they'd have expected us to have had even more cases by now for a school of our size and type but if you look at the portrayal in the media it seems we must be doing extraordinarily bad in comparison.

The plan is that it's all back to normal on December 7th but who knows? Cases in year 9 are being phoned in too in a steady trickle. They've been out for a week now after a couple of cases mostly due to staffing issues but hopefully it also puts the breaks on what was clearly becoming a major outbreak there too.

3 weeks till Christmas holidays. Wonder how much can happen in that time

Hope dc feels better Riga.

As I’m on my lunch break due to our staggers lunches, I came across this very recent study. It is an extremely large study of children and confirms that they are spreaders and can be superspreaders

www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/30/largest-covid-19-contact-tracing-study-date-finds-children-key-spread-evidence?fbclid=IwAR1zVrfCLHOSIZEtmO9voMvQoOJgYwpcrMnZYyN2gAgbxXfqBMNELWkV1Lc

Just seen this on Twitter-what new guidance??

Ofsted???

Well, I broke again today. Email from HT yesterday saying how disappointing it was that staff weren't distancing properly (bc of course magic covid forcefield from classroom doesn't work in the staffroom), news about tier restrictions mean I won't see any of my family for months longer then this morning had a TA not turn up for a lesson. Sent home as couldn't stop crying. Fuck my life.

@Appuskidu I had an email from DfE last night with new guidance for special schools... although it looked at a brief glance exactly the same as before. Perhaps primary guidance also came out?(also probably the same as before).

@Stepawayfromtheminirolls DH and I feel like that. One step away from breaking down x

Hugs stepaway.

Stepaway what on earth are these heads thinking when they are trying to blame staff. What do they think they will achieve

Oh wow can’t wait we were due ofsted this year so that will be fun if they come in January. Given we have two classes currently out I wonder how many classes would be in for them to observe.

Thehoneybadger sounds like it’s really sweeping through your place. So true it literally just happens overnight.

[quote monkeytennis97]@Appuskidu I had an email from DfE last night with new guidance for special schools... although it looked at a brief glance exactly the same as before. Perhaps primary guidance also came out?(also probably the same as before).[/quote]
I get the updates sent to my by email and haven’t seen anything! Odd?!