The Thirty-Second Republic - Christmas count down - end of term in sight

[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

Freezing fog was drifting through my windows and external door today. It was like teaching in a cloud.

Even so, I am still oddly warm because my menopausal flushes mean I am always boiling sporadically and my tiny classroom crammed with kids still manages to set off the CO2 detector for me to switch the fan on. Because of all their lovely breath. Mmmm, lovely warm breath and adolescent soup.

The head said they were disappointed with our year 6 data today. Well, you can be disappointed I guess. I'll just be honest and face up to the fact that the department staff won't get their wage increase and will take the fall for the pandemic. I couldn't give less fucks frankly. SATS mean fuck all this year when I am daily dealing with social services (remotely of course.....) child meltdowns, depressed kids and kids with the concentration of gnats as well as those whose behaviour was bad before lockdown and is now exponentially worse. I'm expecting that my argument that the delightful "difficult" child who routinely spat at another child today on purpose should be excluded to be ignored and for him to be merrilly spitting away again tomorrow.

I brought my maths books home but I am not marking. I am making a pasta bake and watching all of The Magicians again from season one, so there.

@Piggywaspushed

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-can-take-inset-day-on-dec-18-so-contact-tracing-stops-on-xmas-eve/

What a lovely present for heads....

Our head must feel like he's on a see-saw.

He was 'all for closing a week early' - DfE said no.

Two days ago he told my HoD we would not be finishing at lunch on the 18th (missing one lesson, we often do this on the last day of term) because they 'need every second of teaching'.

I wonder what he'll make of this?

I don't want an inset next Friday, I need my y13 students in school, their real exam is the second week back so I need my lesson to teach them the course, we are very tight for time. Although an inset day with just them and me in school in the hall socially distanced would also be fine with me - especially if I could have a longer lesson with them...

Holy crap they cancelled the Nat 5s and Highers

Child in my class tested positive so that's me self isolating- I am selfishly delighted because it means I will be released on the 22nd. HT told me not to bother coming into school for the day, which means I can go to my parents' for Christmas.

Brilliant, DollyMixtureLulus ! 🎊

Selfishly, I don’t want A levels cancelled in England for DS’s sake but I realise that for many young people it would be best. So.....conflicted.

I think my GCSE lot will do better if they actually sit the paper. They are so demotivated at the moment I don't have anything to show that they deserve the grades they should get. I'm hoping once exams start looming they pull their collective fingers out. Otherwise they are going to do very badly.

Does anyone know of a device that I can plug into teams and write like on a white board so the kids can see it?

We have just lost y10. Head said he is dreading telling any years next week they will have to isolate.

Having just marked the mocks for my year 11, I now have enough evidence to show that two thirds of them are on track to achieve their targets because we lowered their targets at the start of year 11 due to no work done in lockdown. The other third have a lot of work to do by the summer if exams go ahead, but I have a lot of faith that they will pull it out of the bag and do it by then. My nurture group will all end up with a grade 1 in these mocks, but some are really close to a 2, which would be phenomenal from their starting points. There's no telling them that though, they are convinced that if they don't get a 4 they have done appallingly badly.

I've had a much better day today, and almost feel positive . That may just be the cold making me delirious though, as the heating gave up at 2pm so we've got steadily colder and colder all afternoon.

@phlebasconsidered that's rubbish. Data isn't likely to be spectacular this year with all that's going on.

I have a KS3 data meeting next week. Our data is ok but my KS3 co-ordinator is still stressing about it I have reassured him not too.

Meeting with my NQT today largely turned into us having a chat which was actually really nice

Had nice lessons today, although one Y11 did say 'Miss, you look tired'. Yep, I definitely am!

I think my Y11s will do better if they actually sit the exams as that will motivate them more. Y13s would probably do about the same either way as they are working hard.

Everyone is tired now and all just desperately trying to reach the end of the term! I am attempting to be productive so that I can have two weeks completely 'off' over Christmas. Not sure I will manage this!

Hi Dolly, wondering what my higher class will make of this - maybe they will do more work? Who knows. Hope you haven't been exposed - how did you manage to need to isolate, none of us ever do as we are all keeping (ahem) over 2m away and never for more than 15 mins.
DFM promised some form of extra payment to teachers for the marking. The SQA must have saved thousands over the last two years.

2/3 NQTs now signed off; one to do tomorrow if the mentor can pull his finger out and do the bloody paperwork. I'm sick of having to ask him three or four times to do his bloody job.
I'd really rather exams go ahead - I simply can't say with any honesty that many of my y11 or 13 would get anything close to target at the moment.
In other news, second maybe vaccine today. I feel odd. Don't know if that's maybe vaccine, drama queen reaction to placebo or other.

How did you manage to need to isolate, none of us ever do as we are all keeping over 2m away and never for more than 15 mins.

I don't know if that's secondary vs primary (although god help you all, it shouldn't be). The whole class and myself are away, no other questions asked.

DD's school is still limping along. Their y9 are out (again) but her y11 are still in and they are doing lots of QMAs and she's coming out with A/A* equivalent marks (Wales, so still letters not numbers!). And she's happier going into school. Exceptionally tempted to let her have a few days at the end of the week next week at home to help avoid her being told to isolate over Christmas. Am sure that would be hugely frowned upon by some, but it would be just sods law, as a lot of us feel, for a case to trip a yeargroup out very last minute and spoil their holidays.

Another of my class SI this week. But no symptoms (so far). Not sure if he was in on Monday, but I wasn't so that's me clear if he starts and we have to isolate.

And I have notified work that I won't be in for the week. I did gift-wrapping earlier as it gave me something to do while waiting for the coroner to call us back (how long can it take for them to decide whether to sign the cert of death or to ask for a post mortem????). I never mind the craziness of the last week so will be glad to be back to normality by then.

Of COURSE the DM would report it like this! Just so that all the replies will be from fuming people who moan about lazy teachers whose holidays are already far too long, unlike the lovely NHS (who deserve claps).

The article says the schools' minister, Nick Gibb, has caved in to appease bully-boy union bosses.'I sympathise with hard working teachers but I sympathise more with under-privileged children for whom school provides the hope of a future.'

Oh, fuck off, Nick Gibb.

Well, Nick can sympathise if he likes. We all actually work with them. He represents a party who routinely shaft them.

I think people need to understand how close teachers are to breaking point. I have seen so many people cry, or just be really stressed out compared to last year.

2 days is nothing really, in the grand scheme of things, and they probably the 2 days when the least work gets done (on average). But actually, not having to contact trace on Christmas Eve will make a meaningful difference to school staff, and extra day off at Christmas would be a really nice bonus.

I did a live lesson today for our Y8s who are out- the internet cut out at one stage which wasn't great, but I think those who attended got some meaningful work done. I'm not sure what more we can do for those who aren't attending live lessons, or doing any of the work set via SMHW- and I just don't have the energy to chase!

@Appuskidu

Of COURSE the DM would report it like this! Just so that all the replies will be from fuming people who moan about lazy teachers whose holidays are already far too long, unlike the lovely NHS (who deserve claps).

The article says the schools' minister, Nick Gibb, has caved in to appease bully-boy union bosses.'I sympathise with hard working teachers but I sympathise more with under-privileged children for whom school provides the hope of a future.'

Oh, fuck off, Nick Gibb.

Saw that Appu! Wish the media would stop villifying us.

@RigaBalsam - I bought this, brand of which was recommended on here. I think the actual model recommended here was a better version than this one, but this one does the job. I'm using it at school now too - plug into desktop, stop being annoyed by dodgy interactive whiteboard.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078Y52K1M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_vg8ZFbHB53TD9?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Thanks rule.

@Piggywaspushed

Well, Nick can sympathise if he likes. We all actually work with them. He represents a party who routinely shaft them.

Also this.

If Nick cares that much, maybe he could go into a school and provide cover?

And already there is more than one thread on MN saying "schools closing on 17th, thought people would want to know". So Heads who don't will get complaints. Again.

I think people need to understand how close teachers are to breaking point. I have seen so many people cry, or just be really stressed out compared to last year

I was nearly in tears in school today (after the kids had gone). It’s all behaviour and workload.

I’ve got to fill in a form later about well-being. That should be fun. I’m at the stage where I’m just going to be honest.

There’s no bloody point offering me all the support in the world. What I need is my workload reduced.

A local primary school had already announced the Friday as an inset. That was quick.

Very quick!

Weekly DfE attendance figures out:

From Thursday 5 November, there was a steady increase in the number of schools reporting that they have had one or more pupils self-isolating, who had been asked to do so due to potential contact with a case of coronavirus inside the school, reaching 36% on Thursday 19 November. This figure has now fallen for two consecutive weeks from 33% on 26 November, to 28% on 3 December. Note that the vast majority of these schools remain open to most pupils. This equates to:
• 63% of state-funded secondaries. Down from 68% last week.
• 22% of state-funded primaries. Down from 26% last week.

It also says:
1 December 2020: Further breakdowns to be provided within the publication “Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak” scheduled for 15 December and subsequent releases
From 15 December we will include local authority breakdowns including by pupil attendance and an update will be provided half-termly. Additionally school workforce data will be published in the new year.