The Thirty-Fifth Republic - Covid - the gift that keeps on giving even during the Christmas 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

Draft in rather than draft. Not at the stage of offering the King's shilling to recruit testers. Yet.

@DecemberStar

Morning all and Merry Christmas Day. Our church service live on Zoom was lovely and hilarious. It included a surprise doorstep present delivery for the new curate, who turns 30 today. He did very well to keep going with leading it, it's also his first as "Daddy Bear", as his new jumper (possibly PJs?!) proclaimed, and babe did a beautiful loud trump at one point for us all

(They've had to draft more army to help at Dover. Just sayin')

I read that! An extra 800 military personnel down there today, so about 1100 there now in total.

Yet secondary schools will be able to do it with just 1, 2 or 3 teachers (whilst teaching!). Yep-Robert Jenrick, can’t see a problem with that!!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Had to double take at this on twitter.

@Piggyinblankets

But do you have brie , dreaming ??

I have more cheese than I can possibly eat , including brie!

We've had a lovely walk and spoken to family. Cheesy bagels for lunch.

Enjoy the weather! Storm tomorrow.

@noelgiraffe

Had to double take at this on twitter.

.

Merry Christmas all .
I have acquired a lot of gin and a toy slug... it must be pigs in blankets time

My God I'm going to burst!!🍗🍷

Love to everyone. You are such an awesome bunch, hope you are all having a lovely day! Xx

Merry Christmas everyone! I am drinking Fizz and have sent the husband for a Covid test!

@KnowingMeKnowingYule, you know what? I'm really pleased for everyone who is having a good Christmas (despite everything) but I can honestly say I'm more pleased about you and your lovely ds than anything.

Happy Christmas. x

@CallmeAngelGabriel Don't! You'll set me off! Thank you lovely x hope you are having a great day! Other DS is at his girlfriend's (he lives there) parent's house. We had a lovely family concert earlier on zoom with my nieces and nephews which was fantastic. A brilliant day❤️❤️🎶

Yule's news is definitely the best news

Agree MrsChristmasHamlet. It’s still making me smile every time I think about it.

Wishing you all a deeply relaxing precious Christmas. You all deserve it.
yule especially

So full of wine and food I may burst. I have escaped from the family post dinner walk by staying in with toddler (who really needed a nap!) Anxiety wise, today has been my best in months - dh keeps smiling when he looks over and sees that I'm still chilled!

I hope that everyone is having a nice day, and @KnowingMeKnowingYule I'm so pleased that you got to have DS home for Christmas!

@MsAwesomeReindeer didn’t go out, but it did mean MIL was able to come over as planned. She has dementia and lives alone (carers go in twice a day) so DH does all the DIY etc... we have kept away as much as possible to be safe, and she doesn’t really have any idea about anything! Anyway she was able to come and have lunch, and we zoomed all the others in the family as none of them have seen her for most of the year. She’s just left so now it’s just us relaxing for rest of day!

Bad flooding round here means people have had to put people up in each other's houses : the police gave them all a bit if paper... in a feat of magnificent organisation there are no sandbags.

Just been for a tier 4 walk. Lots of people visiting each other. Oh well...

We went for a frosty dog walk late morning. Loads of people out walking, wishing each other Merry Christmas, but also saw a lot of people having socially distanced drinks in gardens and even more in cars on the roads as we headed towards lunchtime.

Know we're in same part of country piggy, yes awful floods and stories. But didn't understand what you meant about police giving people bits of paper?

I decided at the last minute to go and see my brother after all, just returned, am glad I went.

Dd says that 6 in her form (y11) have covid. Thank goodness they went remote learning for all of last week or our plans would have been ruined - can only mix today and only with one household but that's better than nothing.

Lovely quiet day with just the four of us at home - very chilled. DDs slept until 8.30 - so unlike the early starts we used to endure - but the tradition of bringing their stockings to our room to open on our bed continues. The Christmas dinner went off with military precision (it almost never goes that perfectly when we have guests!). DH has bought me a selection of new books so I’ve been spoilt for choice with those this afternoon.

Still no Covid test results so it looks as if I’m staying home for a while longer.

Glad to hear that everyone is having a calm and restful day, that all test results received are negative. Raising a glass to you all in thanks for your wisdom and support in these crazy times.

I'm in the middle of a mini-crisis. My oven has just stopped working!!! I've got roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets in there!!! And the oven giving up tripped the fuse for the whole house. We've now got most of the electric back on, but no oven!! I think I can salvage the pigs in blankets with the foreman grill, but not so sure how to save the yorkies or toasties. Combined with no cheesecake (because I forgot to buy cream cheese) this is shaping up to be the most disappointing Christmas dinner ever. I may just eat cheese instead.

Oh no Awesome!!

Depending on how far along they are, you could crush roasties and stick them in a big frying pan?

I'd go for just eating cheese - but if you were close I'd offer you my oven!

Oh no @MsAwesomeReindeer! I hope you can rescue the roasties! I’d probably bung them in a frying pan (if the hob’s working!) and hope for the best!

Oh no awesome ! I feel your pain: this happened to me twice in the space of five years!