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

@Piggyinblankets

I know nothing other than the fact that I look for myself. I periodically WhatsApp my friend who has DDs at my school to find out what our head has told parents. He doesn't tell us what he ahs told them. The union reps complained about this a while back and he remembered once to copy us in to comms home and not since.

We ahve no social media at all.

It's an embarrassment.

My dd is at my school I often get emails that the staff don't get too. We have had the email about the 7-10 on Teams though to be fair.

@Piggyinblankets

So many anxious parents worried about heir kids being 'behind' because previous online provision wasn't academic enough. They really don't get that behind is a concept , not an actual thing.

Yup.

Our head likes to tell the parents stuff and then us. It's been suggested that it would be better to let staff know things first but that's not come to pass yet.

The more I think about it the more I think it's stupid not to vaccinate teachers soon. My Gp mate said as much yesterday.

For the basic reason that we are clearly needed to keep schools open for childcare and social services.,

We don't get told stuff. The day our first bubble closed, the kids told us. Super.

Agreed neurotree

My GP friend is getting it despite doing on average 3 f2f consultations per day in full PPE. The reception and admin staff in her place are getting it too. I don't begrudge them but even I can see how much more at risk I am than they are.

He also said they had a missed appointment and a spare vaccine so he rang his wife and she had it. She's not working at the mo.

@NeurotreeWenceslas Completely agree. If it’s so vital for schools to remain open, then they need to minimise the number of cases among the adults who staff them! It’s absolute folly.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

We don't get told stuff. The day our first bubble closed, the kids told us. Super.

Know this feeling only too well.

We did get told stuff - but that has slipped, I only know 2 bubbles burst since the end of term because a colleague/friend has children in those classes - no information about that has gone out to staff at all. I get the impression they have been given instructions to share ‘less’ across the local school pyramid as had a letter from my sons middle schools a week or so before the holidays saying under direction from PHE they would now only be informing parents of close contacts rather than letting all parents know there had been a case. (This was always done in a really general way in order to avoid identification so it’s not for data protection reasons, I can only assume they decided they didn’t want parents/staff scared into thinking for themselves....) I would personally prefer to know how ‘alert’ I need to be, but seems like we can’t be trusted!

They started out telling us who was off and which bubbles closed. That stopped at some point in the autumn.

Yeah, I wondered after I posted if the teacher posters on the other thread were primary or SEN.

Comms is good at my school but obviously still no full plan for first week back as we wouldn't even have known how many KW children were expected in straight away, as obviously a new cohort of 7s since last year.

I can't actually talk about the poor communication. It will cause me to rage so I'm breathing deeply now to get over it.

We might have had bubbles close over the holidays, but no word from anyone. I'm on the slt WhatsApp group, but nothing there since July. I try to find it amusing.

@KnowingMeKnowingYule

I can't actually talk about the poor communication. It will cause me to rage so I'm breathing deeply now to get over it.

I have wondered if it's been a deliberate ploy by local authorities to dampen down true impact of bubble closure etc.

Partly due to the brtus maps.

There was a sudden halt to any new news reports in my LA and any links to publicised letters on websites etc.

Cv board is going school / what gove said nuts.

I'm going to have to minimise mn usage for a few days in order to Get Shit Done.

I have to be on top of planned work deadlines (also external deadlines eg grant applications etc) in order to be able to in any way cope with this next term's chaos and kids at home. And I'm only very part time

Morning lovelies! Has anyone else read that Sir Jeremy Farrar from The Wellcome Trust has said keyworkers, inc teachers will be in line for the Oxford vaccine? Very happy at that news if true!

Just refreshed this and they've added the bit about caving in...

Looks like we are all getting the blame again

@Piggyinblankets

So many anxious parents worried about heir kids being 'behind' because previous online provision wasn't academic enough. They really don't get that behind is a concept , not an actual thing.

Absolutely! The past few days if written on a few threads that my 5 year old did pretty much no work during the day for just over a month but I did some in the evenings (like reading) with some catch up at the weekend and no one, who has complained that they ‘can’t teach their child whilst working’, ever comments on what I’ve put and ignores it!

It’s as if they have decided not being physically in school has to mean catastrophe!

The childcare issue is still a big worry but this should be down to the government to sort out and parents to find out what’s available to them-it shouldn’t be on schools to sort it. Schools should really be focusing on the education part (notwithstanding SEND, vulnerable etc)

@ChloeDecker

Morning lovelies! Has anyone else read that Sir Jeremy Farrar from The Wellcome Trust has said keyworkers, inc teachers will be in line for the Oxford vaccine? Very happy at that news if true!

Great news if so!

Yes Yule that Martin Robinson reporting is obviously a ‘teacher basher’ in how he has written that article-completely ignoring the fact that this is not a new decision from Gove and was nothing to do with the unions!

And is anyone else getting the chills reading the line that there are some Tory MPs think that all classrooms should stay open regardless of even if the R rate rises?

That’s absolute proof of what we have all been saying all along, that the govt are happy to put us in the firing line as long as children are physically in school. They really couldn’t give a shit.

And is anyone else getting the chills reading the line that there are some Tory MPs think that all classrooms should stay open regardless of even if the R rate rises?

I felt sick reading that.

Am so cross today-so presumably I’m back to my primary a week today, despite things being so bad here we couldn’t see anyone all bloody Christmas.

www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-uk-government-scientists-close-schools-january-boris-johnson/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

SAGE recommending schools should be shut and we need a stricter lockdown than January.

Presume policy is to keep insisting school are opening as normal until the 3rd when they’ll decide they aren’t.

It's all so rage inducing.