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

Agreed, @FiggyPuddingFiend. I'd be far happier someone with an interest in medicine/veterinary science and an eagerness give my son a test than a random volunteer.

Can anyone tell me if I'm correct? I saw my partner yesterday who lives with his family. His brother has spent the morning vomiting and then got a call from his workplace saying he had been in contact with someone who tested positive on Christmas Eve. He did a lateral test today and it came back positive.
My partner feels fine but needs to isolate, but do I? I don't think so, unless he/I develop symptoms?

You're correct,@Butmiss (love the name!).

Hope all of you are OK.

I have a double with y12 chemistry first thing Monday morning. Could get 15 students to come in and do processing of tests - could assess them against CPAC objectives, specifically following written instructions and carrying out practical work safely.

Noble it was when someone asked if you had any takers on yr thread... now realise they were referring to an old thread. Glad you're taking a break for Christmas

I'm pretty much redundant now. There's no possible permutation of a school thread that I could start that isn't already running.

It's quite relaxing not having to 'host'...

Thank you @DecemberStar! We are okay, it's just getting scary around here. We moved into tier 4 last week and it shows.

I'm not sure how they can see data like this and not be doing a proper shut down - I don't want one, but it really doesn't look good.

What did your sister do? It's nauseating that so much is expected for nothing when the Tories spaff millions on their mates' dodgy enterprises.

Not going to give her exact role but she’s an experience critical care nurse and was there from setting it up to packing it up with very few days off over those 4 months. It sounds like she got paid her typical standard NHS salary but nothing extra for the longer days/late nights and 5 days a week and at least 1 day nearly every weekend.

It really shouldn’t surprise me given the disdain this government have for public sector workers but I think I’d assumed you’d get paid for at least some of the extra hours. I’m not sure she’d have minded if it weren’t for the patronising ‘this is your gift to the NHS thing’.

Anyone want a magic eye challenge.

I wonder if there's going to be a big announcement, either tomorrow with the newly updated figures for all four nations after Christmas, or on Wednesday, following their release.....

And of course what we and more importantly, the government, have to bear in mind is that this is before we see the effects of Christmas Day mixing.

Go on Riga

Oh bloody hell @RigaBalsam I can't read that😂

Basically says nothing was decided yesterday and SAGE want to close secondary for Jan or R will not go under 1. Also other stuff reported today. Nothing that new just that it's still going on.

World Tonight saying number of covid patients in hospital is higher than at last peak.

@FiggyPuddingFiend genius, will try to follow
Should have y12 for 3/6 lessons Monday 4/1, including a double practical session with one group. The opportunity to tick off some CPAC Skills is appealing.

I just subscribed (free trial) as am so desperate for news! They haven't decided, which I suppose is something. Gav totally wants to forge ahead:

It is understood that Mr Williamson is fighting a rearguard action with other ministers to keep schools open.
"His department is pushing heavily for schools to return and mass testing to be rolled out," said one source. "Others around the table were saying schools have not had enough time to prepare for mass testing so implementation would be patchy

The times is easier to see.

Why is it that Scotland can just extend the school holidays for a week and then go online for a week without endless ‘battles’ in the press?

@Achristmaspudsskidu

Why is it that Scotland can just extend the school holidays for a week and then go online for a week without endless ‘battles’ in the press?

Because they don't do this stupid leaking plans bit. They make a decision and then announce it.

I would rather we didn't extend the term into the holidays, Gove, but thank you for the suggestion. All this obsession with children catching up is crazy.

[quote Loshad]@FiggyPuddingFiend genius, will try to follow
Should have y12 for 3/6 lessons Monday 4/1, including a double practical session with one group. The opportunity to tick off some CPAC Skills is appealing.[/quote]
I bet we could get it to fit some other CPAC criteria too - they could research methods and compare them, write a risk assessment and choose suitable PPE for each role, record data and analyse. It would probably work for A level biology too.

One would have thought that Gavin doesn't hold a great deal of sway at No. 10 these days?

@Butmiss

I would rather we didn't extend the term into the holidays, Gove, but thank you for the suggestion. All this obsession with children catching up is crazy.

Hmph! The only way they’ll get me to ‘extend into the holidays’ is by extending my holidays now. If they’re expecting me to work remotely or face to face or do some sort of insane hybrid of the two (as they did throughout last term) then I shall be taking my holidays at the usual time, thank you very much.

Why is it that our contractual holiday entitlement is so quickly dismissed by these charlatans?

What I don't get is why all the focus is on how we're doing this mass testing, when by all accounts the tests are less than useless and sound like they'll have the complete opposite effect by encouraging people with false negatives to stay in school

Surely though with all this 'pressure' on Johnson and the hospital figures etc they can't just chuck us all back in? There has to be, at least, some sort of compromise?