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

[SantaAssociationRepresentitve]

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

I sometimes think, for all the foundation subjects, apply that method to PE and can you do it? No. So why do it?

Agreed!
Bit like all the "cpd" I get from an English/humanities perspective that doesn't apply in maths at all. 2 hours on literacy codes for marking I have NEVER used.

Ah no Figgy. I've had on and off mild cfs for years. That's so hard.

Have you ever been checked for perimenopause or tried anything to help with boosting hormones? I do find theres a link there to my exercise tolerance.

[quote SquashedFlyBiscuitsForSanta]@fuckweasel very best for today, I think you may be the last poster on the thread who is still in. May your gin be large and your sofa comfy tonight.[/quote]
Thank you! The gin will indeed be large. Lots a pupils said yesterday that they wouldn’t be in today.

Article in Times today doesn't cite the figures that were circulating last night. Instead it focuses on the panic sown by Patel and Johnson and - like the Fail- quotes a parent off MN.

What is it coming to when the mainstream media have junior employees trawling MN for quotes? Hardly scientific research and out of context with the frenzy whipped up on the thread. I am guessing that thread was started by a journalist.

Never quote us about the shitshow in schools though, hey?! Or quote the posters who broadly support blended learning/rotas or even closures.

I think many threads started now are flagpole threads by government /media and we should stay off them. They are using them -unreliably- to gauge public opinion.

I reported one thread , to no avail.

Can I mention the survey last week that had us as the third most trusted profession? Don't be fooled by the likes of user5432198765432u321i2i3u4545463 telling us and MN otherwise.

We have never used any acronyms or pen colours in my school! Individual teachers have but no ruling. Advantage of not being a MAT I suppose.

Absolutely Herc, I could say more but it would be v outing!

There's been a bit of an attempt in primary to treat all the foundation subjects in the same way; their pedagogies are fundamentally different and so some blanket approaches don't really work.

Topic approaches don't always allow progression in some subjects as some are then shoe horned to fit the topic. (It's different for pmld.) we tried that for a while to fit the Tory history requirements and it meant all we did was history.

Again, you can rarely fit PE into topic unless it's a dance theme. But that's tenuous.

@fuckweasel yes, good luck! Can't believe you're still in!

Hadn't thought of that piggy.

Also local to you Piggy and Halifax, the teacher in the news ( not sure if we can name?!!) was one of my teachers when I was at middle school! Read about her story early on when it was on social media and I can't believe what she has had to go through and how we are all still so unprotected in school

@NeurotreeWenceslas

Ah no Figgy. I've had on and off mild cfs for years. That's so hard.

Have you ever been checked for perimenopause or tried anything to help with boosting hormones? I do find theres a link there to my exercise tolerance.

Yeah I've been ill for years, since being in secondary school. It has been much better recently and I enjoy being a teacher, I don't want a relapse to take that away. At least it is the holidays so I don't have to make tricky am I well enough for work decisions.

I'm a bit young to be having menopause type symptoms but I do have hormonal issues - PCOS.

Jenrick still saying schools will be open. I really, really do not want to teach online, but even my West country primary school was chaos in the last week. God help us all in January.

Figgy, ah I'm sorry. Perhaps you should take your symptoms v seriously and take more time off? You sound like you're low on beans / spoons.

clock gosh so sad.

Which thread has the times quotes?

This one.... somewhere yesterday evening

Can I come in for refuge. I'm not dealing well today with the keep primaries open and then teacher slagging to justify it. I don't want to teach online but spent yesterday planning in school and online versions just in case. I know we won't know until the last minute and then parents complain will when they don't get all singing and dancing online baby sitting (as that appears to be all they really want). I wish I could walk on past but keeping popping in to see if anyone is being kinder. The worst thing is I can hear the voices of parents in my school and faces pop into my head.

Good luck for today, Fuckweasel.

Sorry to hear you're feeling some post-viral symptoms, Figgy.

Re Patel on Sky and then quoted in the Times, pretty amazing that of all the cabinet, she's the one to first protecting teachers (alongside the wider community) in the decision process to open schools in January. I was gobsmacked, really.

Absolutely Lonely I agree I wish the whittering and moaning would stop its not our fault there is a new strain.

Figures on this thread:
The infection rate for pupils last week was 2,509 out of 100,000!!
Apparently removed from this morning's version of the times.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c56b3cfc-4496-11eb-901d-af02e798b787?shareToken

@lonelyplanet

Can I come in for refuge. I'm not dealing well today with the keep primaries open and then teacher slagging to justify it. I don't want to teach online but spent yesterday planning in school and online versions just in case. I know we won't know until the last minute and then parents complain will when they don't get all singing and dancing online baby sitting (as that appears to be all they really want). I wish I could walk on past but keeping popping in to see if anyone is being kinder. The worst thing is I can hear the voices of parents in my school and faces pop into my head.

I need to get off MN or at least just stay here too, lonelyplanet. Hope you're ok.

What I'm seeing is people who are scared and angry that they can't control the situation, and I'm hoping that is making them behave worse than they normally would - at least I hope.

Might try to shut out the world today for a bit and try to finish my y8 planning. Think my dd might be old enough to start watching Father Ted with me .

Thank you Riga, no and we're all doing our best. I don't think we were helped by the DfE (are we ever), popping in a few weeks ago to comment on a thread. Now everyone thinks they need to get their voice heard.

@lonelyplanet

Figures on this thread: The infection rate for pupils last week was 2,509 out of 100,000!! Apparently removed from this morning's version of the times.

Screenshot.

I feel sorry for all the detailed, multi pen marking you have to do! Sounds intense. I'm lucky if I can find a single pen that works never mind needing to have them in specific colours to mark with!

@Frlrlrubert it's like the kids that just turn up for a few after school revision sessions then just think they're done. Worst possible way of revising as far as I'm concerned, let's ram 6 weeks of leaning into an hour and race through it at high speed. I think they're totally pointless and probably reduce outcomes for a lot of kids

@DreamingofBrie yes definitely the mixing on the outside walk to school. Not the sat in classrooms all day. Do people really believe this shit?