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

I'm wondering how much impact this will have on our staffing if they have kids in y7/8.

Some may not feel able to leave them at home.

@namechangedyetagain

Blimey just woken up from another sleep and thought I'd check to see if there are any updates about primaries and I'm confronted with a festive looking specimen

Just trying to work out what to do with y8 ds assuming I'm back in training next week. According to his school only NHS workers qualify for a key worker space. Ive left him alone for a couple of hours before but never from 8 til 5. Though actually I can't see myself being well enough to get through a school day at the moment. Not sure what effect that will have on my training though?

There's usually some slack built into the number of days you spend in school. My uni had 2 weeks "spare" built in to cover illness etc and also 2 weeks at the end of the course you could use if you needed to get extra days in school.

This year, with self isolation and everything else, I reckon if you can evidence the teacher standards, you'll be fine.

If you do have to go in to school, I would explain you have childcare issues and need to leave earlier- it may not go down brilliantly, but what else can you do?

@Piggyinblankets yeah.... hmm....

@Piggyinblankets

Does anyone think this famed meeting actually happened today? It has not been mentioned in any media at all.

I’m starting to wonder this as well.

It reminds me of the date in the summer when we all thought new guidance was going to be released. 13th July, I think it was. SLT talked about it for weeks and it never even happened!

There are definitely some Y7s in my tutor group I wouldn't feel fully comfortable leaving at home alone all day every day. One with diagnosed SEN and a few who are just immature. Hopefully we will be able to offer them key worker places if necessary- last time we had a pretty small number of kids in, so I think we will be alright.

I think lockdown etc, means that this Y7 are a bit lacking in maturity in general- they haven't had so many chances to go out and socialise independently, for example.

No, Smile, I haven’t, which surprises me as I read a ton of weird/horror anthologies in my teens. I’ll see if I can get a copy anywhere) .It’s really interesting to see the influence of stories like that on the likes of Stephen King (he does acknowledge the debt he owes to writers of that period, particularly with stories like The Jaunt and novellas like The Long Walk).

DS’s PHSE teacher in Yr7 spent a lesson telling them why Disney is largely a pile of sexist shite.

Slightly confused/confusing head from London on R4 at present. Says he's ready (to test) but then said doesn't know who's going to do them....

They said in a few minutes there's going to be something on exams.

docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=a3RzLnNjaG9vbC5uenxrdHM3OHxneDoyN2YxMjVmMzExYmQxNDQ5

There you go Saucery

I'm wondering if they are waiting for the Oxford/AZ news to then bury the school news behind.

Our county aren't deciding what to do about reopening fully until the 6th. Looking at the numbers, it isn't looking good.
They currently don't expect all Welsh schools to be fully back in until the 18th, but did say they want MOST in by the 11th. I'm expecting the 18th as a bare minimum for DD's secondary.

What I want to see data on is the new rates of infection in kids. If normal work places aren't allowed to be open without proper mitigating circumstances, then I think their argument that schools are safer and we only need to keep 2m away from other adults (in primaries) is a flawed measure if the kids are more likely to catch and spread the virus.

I just saw a tweet with a number of deaths of school staff from covid - from the April report. Just going to put it here for when someone says 'how many... ' I threads:

The only ONS figs so far are as of April 21st, so v out of date, but in that short time it was: 17 secondary school teachers, 7 primary & nursery teachers, 2 SEND teachers, 10 teaching assistants, 6 school lunchtime supervisors & school crossing patrols and 2 school secretaries.

I can’t see much mention of any meeting on twitter and ritually everyone is talking about schools.

There does seem to be a consensus among different bits of my twitter timeline that schools won’t be opening in Jan but that the government will insist they are until the last minute.

I assume even if there is a meeting the result will be schools are safe they’ll be opening with a staggered start next term as planned.

One of our science teachers is DrThing. She got married mid term and changed her name to DrOtherthing. A student referred to her as "MissThing" so I said "no, she's got married. She's DrOtherthing now".
Oh, he said. Is her husband a doctor. He simply could not grasp that she might be a doctorate in her own right.
Incidentally, all of our staff with PhDs are women...
One of my best students two years ago did a gender analysis of Disney for her a level coursework. It was brilliant.

@SmileEachDay

docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=a3RzLnNjaG9vbC5uenxrdHM3OHxneDoyN2YxMjVmMzExYmQxNDQ5

There you go Saucery

Thank you! I’ll have a read later. Actually, you’ve reminded me there’s a biography of Shirley Jackson I had my eye on but wanted the physical book rather than the Kindle version. Got vouchers for Christmas so I might go and buy it!

I see Parliament has called for their recess to be extended until the 11th Jan to limit the spread of the virus - but schools back on the 4th. One rule for them....

I'm very glad that you lot are here. Helps me feel less alone and wrung out. I am a HoD and struggling with this whole nightmare

Where's Wally?!

Robert Halfon has just said he really wants teachers to be vaccinated as a matter of urgency (paraphrase)

@oddsbodkins

I see Parliament has called for their recess to be extended until the 11th Jan to limit the spread of the virus - but schools back on the 4th. One rule for them....

I’ve just come to post this!

Appalling

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

I just saw a tweet with a number of deaths of school staff from covid - from the April report. Just going to put it here for when someone says 'how many... ' I threads:

The only ONS figs so far are as of April 21st, so v out of date, but in that short time it was: 17 secondary school teachers, 7 primary & nursery teachers, 2 SEND teachers, 10 teaching assistants, 6 school lunchtime supervisors & school crossing patrols and 2 school secretaries.

Evv

Hi @Evvyjb

If a top club like Man City with all their rapid testing and bubbling and masks and restricted access can't play a match because there is an outbreak, what hope for schools?

I can find lots of news reports from yesterday about there being a meeting today but nothing to suggest it will actually happen. I just want to do some planning, after having planned once before the "only open to years 11 and 13" announcement

You can have my language and gender stuff if you like. Good test of whether anyone is paying attention!!

Only this from sky at 3.30

The government is pushing ahead with plans for primary school and older secondary school children to return to classrooms next week, despite calls for a delay following the discovery of the new COVID variant.
Officials from Number 10 and the Department for Education were due to meet on Monday to discuss the impact on schools following evidence the new coronavirus variant spreads more quickly than the original strain.

Millions more people in England entered Tier 4 restrictions on Boxing Day after ministers acted to try and dampen infection rates - although schools can still remain open under the highest level of COVID

Just usual