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

[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

Remember the stated priority to keep schools open?

And like that , it was gone.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4110573-No-longer-a-national-priority-to-keep-schools-open

We have lunchtime supervisors. They are worth their weight in gold! We have 3 staggered lunchbreaks. During Covid we have them working all the split break times as well. The school wanted to get teachers to volunteer to supervise lunches and be 'paid' with a school lunch. Both teachers and lunchtime supervisors are NEU in my school so we all refused to safeguard their jobs.

@Achristmaspudsskidu

I’m aware this might be a thread about a thread so sorry if I end up deleting the whole republic but I was just wondering how many secondary schools have midday assistants supervising children in schools at lunchtimes now? I haven’t seen or heard of one for decades in secondary.

We don't, under normal circumstances lunch is covered by SLT, pastoral and the PE staff (they don't do break duty instead). We have kitchen staff who make and serve the food.

Currently there are also volunteer teaching staff helping out on a rota due to bubbles.

Well, as I said noel, in my previous message

We have made it clear that education of our children is a national priority. Chris Whitty provided very clear evidence that the risks to children of missing 3 days of education outweigh the benefits of seeing grandma. Our plans to roll out reliable mass testing so that all secondary children can attend education and never have to be absent again have been rushed through especially to stop you complaining to support us in our stated national priority.

@MrsHercYulePoirot

My then just 5yo told DH to ‘stop fucking about’... I mean it was in context....

Makes me feel better about the fact that when my now 5 year old was 2.5 she dropped her jigsaw and said 'oh shit"

Seeing the stuff about the priority shifting from schools remaining open to education remaining open...I'm having a small panic.

Sen schools will still remain open right ? I don't want us to ever have to shut the fall out would be too great. eCV I may be but I want to go to work, into work, to teach my PMLD/ASD class....

If anyone has any insight or reassurance... Would be welcome. We did stay open throughout all lockdowns so I'm hoping this will be the case still....

I think so, certainly to those most in need. There was separate guidance for us.

So far, OpheliasCrayon, SEND and vulnerable children have been allowed to physically go to school and I wouldn’t assume that that would continue, alongside the keyworker children. Fingers crossed!

Feeling very scared I'm not going to be able to see DS again... oh fuck

Like I said in another thread - primary schools and cockroaches will be the only signs of life in the post covid world. I'd say that applies to SEN schools too.

Although locally, the SEN schools have been the only ones that closed completely at any point in the last term.

My child also said 'oh fuck' when she fell off a paddleboard over the summer. This is all my fault.

@ChloeDeckTheHalls

So far, OpheliasCrayon, SEND and vulnerable children have been allowed to physically go to school and I wouldn’t assume that that would continue, alongside the keyworker children. Fingers crossed!

I hope so! We have remained fully open throughout. We have done absolutely everything we could to stay open to anyone who wasn't isolating these last few weeks, including having to really push ourselves with staffing etc but we managed it.

I am just desperate for us never to have to actually shut. For my kids and their families

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Like I said in another thread - primary schools and cockroaches will be the only signs of life in the post covid world. I'd say that applies to SEN schools too.

Although locally, the SEN schools have been the only ones that closed completely at any point in the last term.

My child also said 'oh fuck' when she fell off a paddleboard over the summer. This is all my fault.

To be honest it looked very very very close for us to shut this term but it was due to staffing numbers due to isolating members of staff. If we'd shut that would have been why

We didn't have any non-contact SLT in the building for the whole of the second lockdown due to shielding. It felt quite unsafe by the end.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

We didn't have any non-contact SLT in the building for the whole of the second lockdown due to shielding. It felt quite unsafe by the end.

We got very very close to that.

What is that you teach @RuleWithAWoodenFoot ?

Also so glad for this thread thanks for the add @noelgiraffe

I just want to chat with teachers without all the other drama on the covid forum so finally good to be here !!!

@OpheliasCrayon - fellow staff always welcome in the Republic. It is the one place that has kept me sane on MN. Other areas rapidly descend into a battle as unsavoury types turn up to push their agendas

[quote SantaAssociationRepresentitve]@OpheliasCrayon - fellow staff always welcome in the Republic. It is the one place that has kept me sane on MN. Other areas rapidly descend into a battle as unsavoury types turn up to push their agendas[/quote]
Yeah. Now I've been shown here I won't bother with the covid boards. I only ever want to see the education threads but then there are the age old banana hammocks blaming us for the sole reason that covid will sink the British isles into the sea because we can't add testing kids to our workload

Email has come through from the Head. He has ‘attended’ briefings and received stuff from DfE and PHE. It is the usual frustration in that their stuff lacks detail and makes clear that any detail given between now and the start of term will change. On a positive note at least we have an INSET to pull in all together

Oh I just feel for HTs. I've never wanted to do any sort of SLT or management, I'm happy plodding on year after year as a classroom teacher lol. I have Adhd myself so I don't think I'd be very good management material! But goodness me...I don't know how HTs and management are coping right now.

Primary - big inner city school with a resource units for S&L and a reputation for dealing with challenging behaviour. The behaviour thing has been a 'thing' this term. Lote of children on part time timetables etc.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Primary - big inner city school with a resource units for S&L and a reputation for dealing with challenging behaviour. The behaviour thing has been a 'thing' this term. Lote of children on part time timetables etc.

Sounds like your guys won't necessarily be coping with learning at home then?

We just can't do it at ours. If we have to isolate as a bubble there would be nothing that I could do or set. I have no idea what I'd do. I often add in some little craft things along side my sensory activities (we follow mainly pmld learning ) with some fine motor, or cutting or coordination skills so I think that's all I could really send home to parents. I don't want to be asking them to set up all the messy sensory stuff we do at school as it doesn't feel fair or practical!!

I don't think SEN or primary are likely to close en masse unless there is actual chaos (such as the collapse of the NHS). The previous school tier system had them open until tier 4, and I think SEN were open even under tier 4.

I also feel that in general parents who gave fought to get their child a specialist place are more likely to try and help keep the school open by following the guidelines closely. And I'd imagine that most children in SEN provision are unlikely to be mixing in large groups outside of school. I could be completely wrong about this though...

We have a second layer of L - an extended LT - of which I'm one. There are 4 of us, one for each phase - one of whom should have been at home but instead shut herself into her classroom bubble. With no SLT in the building we had to step up - despite having our normal classes. Was a fucking nightmare. Then the vulnerable phase leader's class went off first. She didn't get it though, despite her daughter having it (also works at our school and lives with her). It's such a random virus.

Not sure what Tier 4 means for secondaries - maybe exam year groups in only.

@FiggyPuddingFiend

I don't think SEN or primary are likely to close en masse unless there is actual chaos (such as the collapse of the NHS). The previous school tier system had them open until tier 4, and I think SEN were open even under tier 4.

I also feel that in general parents who gave fought to get their child a specialist place are more likely to try and help keep the school open by following the guidelines closely. And I'd imagine that most children in SEN provision are unlikely to be mixing in large groups outside of school. I could be completely wrong about this though...

You'd think parents would yes.... Unfortunately I can confirm to the contrary and have several examples from various families

We have had numerous secondaries and primaries fully shut at various points and for various reasons but it does seem that, once its in a school, the special schools are most likely to fully close for a short while (unavoidably, on their part).