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

They're being incredibly heavy handed with schools and local authorities and local health directors etc.

Given how little funding they get from central government these days and how increasingly burdensome council tax bills are becoming (don't know if that's nationwide but here it's ridiculous and for a 2 up 2 down house with a drive and no garden I pay £1650 per year which is more than 10% of my gross income) I feel like local authorities should be standing up to them. It shouldn't be up to individual heads to worry about legal costs. We had £90 added as a separate new charge for every property towards social care last year because of central government funding cuts.

Local authorities should be making judgments that are best for their locales and putting themselves between Westminster and schools. It shouldn't be a school being threatened with legal action but a local authority.

This is very outing but whilst my district council is doing ok my county council is beyond bankrupt. Suing them would be pretty fruitless

But my area still has much higher rates than those areas and we've not seen a peep of a mass testing offer.

I agree! We are in an area that they have just started mass testing in-the local FB page is going bonkers with it all. We are Tier 2 and were Tier 1 before lockdown 2-the priorities here are crazy!

I keep getting DgE ads on my FB stream saying that it's vital for kids to be in school this week. Almost as if they've read my mind and seen my plan to take my own kids out when I finish teaching!
The comments are all along the lines of 'why? To ensure granny catches COVID for Christmas?'.
Can't upload screenshots for some reason.

I'm getting loads of those ads on Twitter too. I reply to all of them. Ha.

@monkeytennis97

DS is home again❤️❤️😊 He is supposed to be going back to school tomorrow but I've asked his home to keep him off...

Yay! I do hope they say yes.

I wonder what people think their agenda is in being determined that no one should be allowed to make Christmas safer by keeping their teenagers home to isolate first?

I can't think of an innocuous let alone positive reason.

I suppose they're not prepared to go all the way and say "Schools are places of infection, keep children out if you plan to meet others at Christmas", and they cannot say to all parents "It's your choice."

I had a dream last night that MNHQ came onto a thread to announce that they had banned some of the more obvious trolls.

Except as I had had a bit to drink last night I wasn't sure if it was a dream or a blurry memory. I did a search and was sadly disappointed.

Don't MNet just before bed, folks.

But they're not just passively saying nothing august. They're actively threatening legal actions against schools and using ads telling people they must send their children till Christmas.

Yeah I know...

There's also the possibility that they need to make themselves feel like they're in control and that they're the wise ones.....

Honey look in yr Inbox

Usually agree that actually incompetence is more likely than malign intent but it reaches a point where you're like how incompetent could anyone really be? It goes beyond credibility unless you're ruled by the teletubbies or something.

I'm drinking port and looking at old clips of ds dancing as a toddler thanks to fb memories sending me there.

Looking forward to counting down to the end of term. I'm annoyingly jolly at this stage announcing things like only 20 lessons to go from the front of the classroom. Generally just trying to cheer myself and the kids along to the end at this stage in a normal year let alone this one.

I’ve got 2 of my own 3 children now off self-isolating until the end of term. Not sure what to do about number 3.

Send them into a covid riddled school and take our chances-risk them getting sent home to SI and do nothing for the whole holiday and have no chance of seeing my 80+ year old dad.

Lie and say she is ‘non-covid’ ill.

Tell the truth and keep her off and face a fine and her not be able to access the work.

What I want is to keep her at home, not damage the school’s attendance as much as possible, and let her access the remote work-which is all being set as so many other sixth formers are self isolating after a positive case in Y12 on Thursday.

I hate all this. Going online for the last week for all secondaries (primaries too, if I’d had my way) would have been so much more sensible.

She could have symptoms?

Honestly I think our guilt and work ethic has been very impressive this year but everyone else, ok exaggerating there but lots of people, is doing what's right for them as a family.

I'm well aware that my school might have had me in the oh she'll probably take loads of bs time off category because yes I had major emergency surgery in June 2018 and only took a month off and then had complications by early this year and had a nightmare accessing consultants and imaging especially once Covid arrived so was off for months waiting dx and treatment.

In reality I had one day off whilst awaiting a test result since September. My attendance before was poor because my health was screwed not my ethics despite the awful attendance management and systems you have to go through and hopefully this year has proved that no I'm not a piss taker and I absolutely do want to be there for the kids even when I'm stressed and exhausted and my own child isn't allowed in school.

Long waffle but it's ok to put your family first sometimes

Have realised that post was inspired by that awful lady who claimed to teach in a small London indy and said she'd quit teaching if kids had to wear masks. I remember her saying schools would know exactly who was going to be taking time off to'isolate' because they were totally aware who their malingerers were

I clearly let that bother me and make me feel paranoid that schools think people with health issues are naughty lazy types.

it's ok to put your family first sometimes
Absolutely. I would be weighing up the needs of seeing vulnerable relatives v that last week in school. Work can always be caught up, even A level work.

Feeling very anxious and a bit under the weather today. I suffer from anxiety at the best of times.
Covid is ripping through our school with at least 3 staff members with it and lots of kids disappearing yet officially we have had 1 case. I'm scared we won't be able to see DS at Christmas because either he or us have to isolate. This is so fucking shit.

@BreadSaucery

it's ok to put your family first sometimes Absolutely. I would be weighing up the needs of seeing vulnerable relatives v that last week in school. Work can always be caught up, even A level work.

Yes, I’m veering towards that. I’m just not sure of the best way to go about it.

How do you reckon her school would react if you were honest @Appuskidu ? Going on the varying treatment reported by members of the PUAUS /BRTUS group there's a wide range of positions and consequent actions.

@Augustbreeze

How do you reckon her school would react if you were honest *@Appuskidu* ? Going on the varying treatment reported by members of the PUAUS /BRTUS group there's a wide range of positions and consequent actions.

I don’t really know as it’s a new head, but they seem pretty sensible so far. I just don’t want to get fined! Can they fine you for absence in sixth form??

I’d go with honest, too.
We’re doing this, because xxxxxxx, all work will be caught up with, we guarantee that
I mean if some mismanaged, half-arsed govt lack of foresight and clear policy can see some secondary children missing out 6 weeks + due to constant self-isolation, then fuck it, really. A decent school will understand.

6th formers aren’t compulsory school age, are they? They certainly aren’t as far as providing (paid for by parents) school bus places in my LA so I’d love to see them try to fine me for an 18 yr old’s absence!

Oh yes presumably they cannot fine for sixth form. I imagine the only negative possibility is a threat to thrown persistent absentees out.

There are no fines for sixth form absences, no EWO involvement and off-rolling persistent absentees is illegal in a school that has students of compulsory school age. It would be an illegal exclusion to attempt to throw someone out on the basis of attendance. I’m a Head of Sixth Form.