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

Bloody good point!

Better come with a wack load of ppe.

I spoke to someone working on a Covid ward since March and she's not caught it yet at all. Due to how well the ppe has worked.

This was exactly one of the issues the head raised when he said no to it.

I do think regular tests available for staff is good though.

In my setting that is. I am so aware of how closely I work with a lot of staff.

I am guessing it'll have to be SLT as they are the ones who round up close contacts.

The Guardian says training and webinars and equipment is being rolled out in first week of Jan.

How do the lateral flow tests work? Physically I mean?

I'm just remembering when we had to attempt to give a child with a raging fever calpol in March (parents wouldn't collect him and tbh we felt he was safer in school. ) It didn't happen.

Spitting would be ok. We have plenty of spit...

Daily email from the DfE says this -

Teachers and pupils will have access to rapid testing from January.
Staff who are in close contact with cases will be eligible for daily testing, eliminating the need for immediate self-isolation. Only if a daily test returns a positive result will the staff member need to isolate.

Testing will roll out as rapidly as possible from January, starting with staff and moving quickly on to serial testing of students.

It is the decision of the individual school or college when they would like to begin accessing this new dedicated testing capacity.

It's a nasal swab. No back of throat though so that's good.

Pretty sure it's the nose swab. That's what it was for the PHE testing schemes in September.

We could actually harm these kids...

Sorry if I sound alarmist but I am concerned about our ts and cs. They say 'anything your head reasonably requests'. is this a reasonablerequest??

noble shared this elsewhere.

Now we see why Gav is preventing closures. It's his target isn't it for his PM?

explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

For secondary students wouldn’t they just do the nose swab themselves? Certainly I have no intentions of sticking anything up anyone’s nose.

@Piggywaspushed

Pretty sure it's the nose swab. That's what it was for the PHE testing schemes in September.

We could actually harm these kids...

Sorry if I sound alarmist but I am concerned about our ts and cs. They say 'anything your head reasonably requests'. is this a reasonablerequest??

Ha! No it won't happen to many. Also I think some parents would resist.

But more testing for staff I welcome.

I think it is another thing that will cause behavioural issues in schools.

I do want to know how a certain poster feels about this new level of brainwashing hysteria, however.

When I last tested a child, the nose swab came out with blood on it. Imagine doing that to a pupil? I don't think we would be asked to.

I'm not sticking things up kids noses. Social workers, psychologist, probation officer, knife crime and terrorism prevention maybe but I draw the line at sticking things up noses.

Not happy about relying on tests that only pick up 50% of positives being my 'protection' either.

January is going to be even more 'interesting' than thought.

High neuro. There's a party? I'm afraid I drank all the black currant gin I made.

Where is the info about staff being expected to do the swabs? I know NASUWT are saying we must not be asked to.

I get the heebee jeebies just thinking about swabbing a child!

Schools will be given the equipment and materials to deliver the testing.

I.e. not the manpower.

IME kids are pretty good at sticking things up their own noses. They probably don’t need help.

And what are these existing INSET days : lots of schools just moved that to Dec 19th!!

Again , where the FUCK are our unions??!

We have an inset on 4th January. But we've got training already booked, someone from the LA is coming in to talk to us all (in person!) about Ofsted. I don't want to do that, especially in person, but I'd rather do that than be trained in taking nose swabs from teenagers

@GravityFalls

For secondary students wouldn’t they just do the nose swab themselves? Certainly I have no intentions of sticking anything up anyone’s nose.

We were told that the expectation is that school staff will test them. Whilst simultaneously online teaching those not lining up in the car park. It's one reason the head said no.