The Thirty-Fourth Republic - Time to recharge our batteries and make the best of our festive break

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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

This cheered me up:

Breaking News.

Apparently the whole of Cornwall has been placed in Tier 4 after hundreds of Pirates returned to Penzance to spend Christmas with their families.

The Arrrrrrrr rate has increased dramatically.

@Hercwasonasnowball

honey completely agree re lower years and particularly year 8.

My school is very "throw every intervention at year 11" whereas if they invested in key stage 3, in a couple of years they'd have a bloody good cohort of students.

Do we work in the same school? We actually have timetabled intervention in year 10 - it's roomed and staffed but there are no students. Hoy wants a handful of kids in now but HT says it's too soon. Because letting them fail more subjects for longer is a winner. Meanwhile in y8 we have kids in literacy intervention because another subject is "full". Some of them don't need intervention at all but it apparently can't be changed.

We look similarly bemused in our maths department.

People don't really understand differentiation in maths unless they teach it I find. I jump through hoops in observations to make it blindingly obvious but must, should, could or BSG are mostly bollocks.

Feel better luckiest

Its 2.5% which is what is on one of the charts.
Primary is about 2%.
Does kent and london have more school age kids?
Or if there are just generally lower older people then there would be more with higher rates.

I'd get rid of all intervention outside the classroom if I was a head (aside from pastoral interventions and possibly stuff for very low prior at tanners).

I'd put the resources (money, staff, etc) into sorting out the behaviour of the kids so that all lesson time was productive and a proper sanction system for homework was used. The time staff save form the 'voluntary' period 6s or revision lessons could be used to plan better lessons.

Out of lesson and after school interventions give the wrong message to students. In our place they're "fuck around all day and catch up after school" sessions.

Yeah, I see that now. Just surprised to aww the press publishing that star rather than the "tested" stats which might have the rate at, I don't know, 400-600/100,000 (double-triple the England average).

Anyway, I fear we've been very Anglocentric of late... How are our Welsh colleagues' areas looking? It sounds like there are huge issues in S Wales which are barely getting a headline.

At tanners should say attainers.

Was wondering about Wales. Did the fire break not work or was it not adhered to? Or is the truth that it didn't work because schools were open?

Out of lesson and after school interventions give the wrong message to students. In our place they're "fuck around all day and catch up after school" sessions.
We have some year 11 who have 6 doubles a week of "intervention" on their timetable. If anything it's made them worse.

WILF was What I'm Looking For.

I love the pirate joke, but I'm a bottle of rose in

Seen on other thread: new announcement tomorrow, press saying either more areas into Tier 4, or full lockdown, from Boxing Day.

(That took me a few rereads dolly, an accent on the e of rose definitely matters there ) Happy holidays to all Scots on here!

@RigaBalsam

We are learning today. Can't remember the other.

What I'm Looking For.

I hate these acronyms and abbreviations. I was once in a staff meeting where we had fifteen minutes on whether we should use LO (Learning Objective) or LI (Learning Intention). I kept quiet but wondered if we can't just get the children to write a title like I used to. Why does it have to be a question or have 'I can' in front of it or whatever? middle aged moan

I am incensed about that data. 2,500 in 100,000?! And some places are in Tier 4 lockdown for having around 300 in 100,000. I'm pissed off the media are reporting it as "Maybe teenagers are hanging out too much outside of school. Let's not close schools because then they'd have MORE time to hang out with each other and spread it more." FFS. Can't they see what they're saying?!

Oh god.

Think I need to log off and try and cheer myself up with some netflix or such.

Have a good night everyone.

I like the pirate joke too, and I haven't even been drinking. I love a bad joke, and there are loads of codebreaker worksheets around for maths that give really awful jokes and the kids groan every time they see one.

We're all about the 'four part lesson plan' at the moment. They keep changing what the four parts are though. I think they're connect, activate, demonstrate, consolidate at the moment.

Basically 'give them something to think about for five minutes so the kids coming from Spanish can get across the school, tell them the stuff, get them to apply the stuff, check they know the stuff'.

We're doing the whole EDSM thing to year 7 at the moment, but backwards, so we're using existing content and tests and forcing an EDSM framework around them, so basically making it up and then applying it as we see fit (me and the other y7 teacher are meant to QC each other's grading at some point). Also they're 'meant to stay in their band' tough tits, they get the grade they deserve from me, band or no band.

god, I couldn't even have told you it was a Tuesday. It feels like a Friday.

Thank you. Some councils still in tomorrow

I'd put the resources (money, staff, etc) into sorting out the behaviour of the kids so that all lesson time was productive and a proper sanction system for homework was used. The time staff save form the 'voluntary' period 6s or revision lessons could be used to plan better lessons

Absolutely herc this has to be one of the most sensible suggestions on mn I’ve ever read.

Government scientific advisers are concerned that teenagers mixing on the way to and from school are spreading the virus to each other, leading to dilemmas about whether shutting schools will prevent this or increase transmission by leading to more unsupervised socialising.

What nonsense. It should say:

A panicking Government spokesperson, sweating profusely and with fingers crossed behind his/her back, gabbled “Government scientific advisers are concerned that teenagers mixing on the way to and from school are spreading the virus to each other, leading to dilemmas about whether shutting schools will prevent this or increase transmission by leading to more unsupervised socialising”. He/she then backed away gibbering “It’s true, I swear, oh God they made me say it”.

@DecemberStar

This cheered me up:

Breaking News.

Apparently the whole of Cornwall has been placed in Tier 4 after hundreds of Pirates returned to Penzance to spend Christmas with their families.

The Arrrrrrrr rate has increased dramatically.

.

MsAwesomeDragon, I like Andy Lutwyche's codebreakers on TES. They're not great for the students showing their working, but he's got hundreds and they always elicit a groan!

Friend just sent me this re. Wales .

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/worst-covid-coronavirus-rates-world-19506904

Frlrlrubert We're doing EDSM at ks3. It's a disaster in maths. I also read EDSM as BDSM which doesn't help me treat the process professionally

whenshe Viva la revolution!

@Hercwasonasnowball

I'd get rid of all intervention outside the classroom if I was a head (aside from pastoral interventions and possibly stuff for very low prior at tanners).

I'd put the resources (money, staff, etc) into sorting out the behaviour of the kids so that all lesson time was productive and a proper sanction system for homework was used. The time staff save form the 'voluntary' period 6s or revision lessons could be used to plan better lessons.

Out of lesson and after school interventions give the wrong message to students. In our place they're "fuck around all day and catch up after school" sessions.

A thousand times this.

One of my year 11s asked me if we are doing intervention this year, after doing nothing all lesson.

They think they can do fuck all for four hours a week but it'll be ok because they'll catch up in intervention, one hour a week for two terms before their exams.

Also I don't think we call it intervention, because that's negative or something, I think it was 'study sessions'

BBC news ,just seen the teacher from my area who has lost 4 limbs due to covid talking about taking this virus seriously, very powerful .

See, I feel like EDSM (BDSM thoughts here too), could work really well for science if we overhauled our (quite honestly a bit shit) KS3 and designed the criteria and the content and the test to match up. In a normal year we could even do some outside-of-test assessment.

However, looking at the questions on an existing test, and then reverse engineering EDSM criteria from them, is an exercise in futility IMO.

We're holding off a full science KS3 redesign (again) because we're meant to be joining a MAT and don't want to bother if we might have to use their stuff anyway.

herc I use a lot of those. I love them for the jokes, but often the kids start to guess the words for the jokes without even vaguely attempting the maths. So I have to be quite strict with how much working I require for each question.

What's EDSM? I told you I don't understand acronyms. Is it something I'm likely to be doing anyway? I'm going to guess it's emerging, developing, secure, mastery of something like that. Am I right?