The Thirty-Third Republic - End of term and DfE threats- cheers all!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

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If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

Do you think we could put together a bid to sort this out. Only I feel we could come up with a bit better plan for a lot less than the £12 billion Test & trace have had. If you're doing their jobs, there should be some compensation.

Hope you are feeling OK, name

Yeah, I mean this is the thing- if they'd decided this at the weekend, we could have spent a week logging children into Teams, and showing them how live lessons and other remote learning tools like e.g. seneca work.

Instead, we've been doing the usual Christmas stuff, under the impression it would be business as usual in January.

I know many other schools will have all their kids set up online due to the level of self isolation- but I know my week in January is going to be a lot of troubleshooting for the kids who can't log on to Teams/access live lessons, and not that much actual remote teaching.

SansaSnark

Not to mention the % of pupils that CBA to logon and parents that won't be there to make them.

Guess the first day inset is being changed now. Quite frankly the idiots will not get enough resources for this for schools to implement.

After all who is still waiting for laptops and catch up money.

I think we need to bear in mind that we could be in national lockdown by first or second week in Jan.

So if they refuse to close schools entirely, maybe after a couple of weeks Y10, 12 and 7 swap with the exam years. Then perhaps Y8 and 9.

Oh wait, no, that would be a rota!

@FrippEnos indeed. I had some Y11s isolating earlier this term who never logged in and didn't do a shred of work I know Y11 will be in but in other year groups,there will be loads who don't log on/do the work set. That will then involve catching them up/reteaching stuff (when we are already short of time).

Staff

Oops, meant Santa

Here's the guidance. Plop.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-and-childcare-settings-return-in-january-2021/schools-and-childcare-settings-return-in-january-2021

In the guidance it suggests those students being remotely educated need to come in during their offsite week to get tested. Twice. WTAF

We had kids who hadn't done a thing whilst we were shut for years 8 and 9 and conversely parents who were complaining if things their children had done remotely were revisited in class because that was repeating things and wasting their children's learning time. It's impossible really. Yes some kids have lots of support and are very motivated and do the remote learning but no none of them are actually OU students who signed up for independent study and you can't exactly blame those who can't/won't do it at 12 or 13 years of age. So what to do?

They might as well say it's an extra weeks holiday for all but exam groups - we'll be busy enough setting up testing and actually administering 1000+ tests without working ourselves away at remote learning just to further widening the gap between students in other year groups for the sake of a week.

It's not like god forbid we'd actually get extra holiday we'd just be redeployed as test centre operatives. Which is totally what we signed up for

@Piggyinblankets

In the guidance it suggests those students being remotely educated need to come in during their offsite week to get tested. Twice. WTAF

And again no mention or understanding of transport. How are these kids getting in and out of school twice in a week at staggered times so they don't all end up sat together?

It's not like they fucked up once because they didn't understand school logistics but they've learnt from that and improved. It's just the same shit different day.

Bloody Nora, wtaf?

Just catching up with this shit show.

Why is it always so last bloody minute?!

Yeah, about 1/3 of our Y8s didn't engage at all with the live lessons we provided when they were isolating- and over the summer the take up was even lower.

Realistically, anything we teach that week will have to be repeated in class, won't it- especially for Y9 and 10 who are covering GCSE content.

And yeah, the logistics of mass testing seem almost impossible.

@Piggyinblankets

An academic on MN always reports that they were asked to do this . She said no. Maybe some areas had more NHS staff free perhaps.

But yes. Arseholes.

An academic friend said the same; she said no. She was also asked to police students walking around on campus. And said no.

She said some young idiots must have said yes as the mass testing went ahead, but I imagine enough student or teaching drs and nurse might have???

Would it not make more sense to stagger it from the start? When we did this at work it was 2 days apart. No idea why they've decided 3 here or if it makes a difference.

So Yr 11 get test 1 on the Monday. Any positives self-isolate. Then take test 2 on Weds and can be in for the rest of the day.
Yr 13 get test 1 on the Tues and test 3 on Thurs and the same applies.
Next year group gets Mon/Fri, then Tues/Thurs etc.
You time this with the start of a national lockdown. Possibly a slightly tighter one than the November one.

Better still you could have done it BEFORE the festive free-for all rather than after you've created a nationwide superspreading event, but it's a bit late for that sort of thinking.

It doesn't deal with who is doing the testing, but it would mean nobody was in school who hadn't had 2 negative tests and should at the same time reduce the chances of community transmission getting back into school after the testing. Under no circumstances should LF testing be used to replace self-isolation if your aim is to reduce the number of children needing time off school.

Also. What about the kids who inevitably refuse to be tested?

Two categories:

1. Anxious and uncomfortable with being tested by a teacher.
2. Arsehole who just refuses to do stuff routinely.

@NeurotreeWenceslas

Bloody Nora, wtaf?

Just catching up with this shit show.

Why is it always so last bloody minute?!

Also why is stuff always released on the eve of school holidays. Do they not read their own workload documents?

Nothing about colleges, I see, although we’re included in the testing plans. So we’re expected to run exams, teach all our classes in person and test all our students, just at the time when support staff are very busy with BTEC exams and mocks. God knows where the extra staff for the testing are coming from.

If you want to see the head of DfE (civil servant) get thoroughly bollocked for the ludicrous timings of their announcements and the chaos they’re creating, watch this:

www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/eb893fa5-7468-48b9-96ad-ec08ff14f21c

So fed up of the entitled kids at my school. Most are lovely kind polite. But a few think the world revolves around them. They are so rude.

I really don’t want to be sticking swabs up kids noses. I’m not trained, I don’t want to be trained and I’ve no time.

No worries @Piggyinblankets , didn't you see, they've anticipated the transport issues? All sorted!

Where children are dependent on dedicated school transport, schools and local transport authorities may wish to consider whether there is scope to run additional services during the first week of term, in order to enable children to arrive and leave for tests during the course of the day.

For some children, it will not be possible to arrive and leave around scheduled test appointment times. Where necessary, pupils may attend on-site provision on the day of their test, until such time as dedicated transport is available. Where those pupils test positive, schools should follow the guidance set out in the forthcoming operational testing guidance.

So those of us in rural areas could have about half a year group in each day of that first week, all needing IT for their remote learning. Not gonna happen.

And when exactly are parents going to be asked permission/give permission?? And tell us who'll be coming in for a whole day??

The more you think about it, the more impossible it is!!!

I think I've found a new hill to die on. I will not be testing pupils. I've spent the last 14 weeks trying to avoid them close up.

Shit day. My worst class since my NQT year made me cry today. I'm not sure I can face them again.

But a few think the world revolves around them. They are so rude

I had one kiss his teeth at me today when I politely suggested that if he didn’t want to do the quiz could he at least not take over the entire room with his nonsense.
I said “don’t do that to me, it’s incredibly rude”

He said “I’m rude? You’re the rude one, telling me to be quiet”