The Thirty-Sixth Republic - New Year approaching, no clear idea of what is happening next week and has Gav been sacked yet?

[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

@Hercwasonasnowball

Does everyone else have the experience that even if you trim a worksheet so that it fits into the exercise book, the children will still always trim it a bit more?

Yes. It boils my piss.

This ^

Yup

Furlough sounds good to me 😃 I could focus on helping dd1 with her MH, and I could properly homeschool dd2. Dd2 has her fingers crossed that primary schools will be shut, she was so much happier in the first lockdown. I mean, she didn't do a huge amount of learning because I was busy attempting to teach the kids from school, but she was massively happier when she didn't have to deal with the constant socialising of school.

I have a systematic system which works

What is it? I love a system!!

Class of 24. 18 have been attending regularly.

4 are on track for age related in writing
7 in maths
11 in Reading

Yay!

I would snap the hand off a furlough offer. Even for 50% salary.

Quite frankly yes I would love a bit of furlough at the - no planning, no marking, no assessments, no dealing with parents queries at all.

@DecemberStar thankyou!!!! I think / hope!

Just saying...
Learning how to fold and stick stuff in was invaluable when I worked in the local Planning Dept (years ago)...Who knew folding an A0 plan down to a fold-out A4 size with the legend (bottom right of the sheet) on top would be an artform 🤯😂 now that is folding!
for you all

[quote HarrietDVane]@cantkeepawayforever
I hate that! Why do they do it?? I order the A4+ sized books and model my expectations to death in every lesson purely to stop the insanity but it STILL happens. I had one child a few years ago who managed to stick a single A4 sheet across 6 - 6! - pages, concertina style. I took photos to prove it to disbelieving colleagues [/quote]
One of my year 10s has managed to stick 5 (yes five) A4 sheets (pre trimmed to fit one per page) stuck to one page of his book origami style.

Best thing - he's not completed them (they were a revision exercise), just stuck them in never to be looked at again.

Another trimmed off the space for answers, stuck the sheet in and started the next lesson directly below, so fairly obvious what he thinks of me trying to help him revise.

@SmileEachDay

I have a systematic system which works

What is it? I love a system!!

First number all the pages. Make the last page the contents page. Left hand pages are for stuff we need to come back to - so mark schemes, exemplars, chapter summaries, wider reading, revision notes etc. Right hand pages get marked. Left hand ones don't. If we're doing an essay on Lady Macbeth, the title goes across a whole double page. We plan it together on the left and the model goes on the left, then we write on the right and the next right and so on. Anything on left pages goes in the contents page so we can find it again easily for revision. It means the book isn't chronological but logical is way better if you ask me. Some kids loathe it.

I also colour code stuff. Context is on green sheets. Revision is yellow (chapter summaries). Exemplars are blue.
I'm deeply deeply sad!

MrsHamlet

There are times where I think that you might be my spirit animal. I've wanted to do numbered pages and contents in some of my books for a while now. I haven't because I thought it was just me being... me and I'd be called anal at the next book look.

I wish they’d offer to furlough me. It would be like maternity leave with better pay.

I have trained my 6's to write a numbered code in the margins for when they think they have used various grammatical structures, sentence types, devices or authorial voice so if moderated I can just show them that. They also colour in statutory spellings. I am a drill sergeant!

If go for furlough too

Plus you could do other stuff. Maybe I'd find a way out of teaching. That other thread has thoroughly depressed me. Why do people hate teachers so much.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

I would snap the hand off a furlough offer. Even for 50% salary.

Snap. DH and I.

@phlebasconsidered

I have trained my 6's to write a numbered code in the margins for when they think they have used various grammatical structures, sentence types, devices or authorial voice so if moderated I can just show them that. They also colour in statutory spellings. I am a drill sergeant!

Yes! For pieces I think I might use if moderated, they fill out a sheet with each of the assessment criteria and where they think they've met them. In fairness, I do sometimes disagree with their decisions but it does force them to think about standard by which they will be judged.

I'd love to be furloughed! Getting increasingly cranky with dp who is working from home for the local authority and seems to have a very relaxed time of it!

I have used much less glue this year giving them a glue stick each instead of having communal ones. In fact they have loved having their own pencil cases and equipment and have actually taken really good care of it.
Missing pages🙄 - mine grass each other up too. 😂

How is yr DD @MsAwesomeReindeer ?

I'm so anal about stuff that I'm the only one in the room allowed to sharpen a pencil.

Anyone seen this one:

twitter.com/HeadsUp4HTs/status/1343950364580720646?s=20

Dh has done an excellent job of convincing everyone he's working to breaking point from home.
He gets up after I leave the house and has a leisurely breakfast in bed whilst watching TV, factors in a (chatty and loud) Zoom meeting for around the time I get home (so CAN'T be disturbed to make me a cup of tea), and frequently lets me know that he "hasn't stopped all day." How could he possibly have unloaded the dishwasher? He's been WORKING, ffs!
Yet I happen to know he has managed to do two (only one is strictly necessary) long dog walks (which is not the chore he makes out, as he loves them) and either a trip to the gym (pre-Tier 4) or an hour-long bike ride.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

I'm so anal about stuff that I'm the only one in the room allowed to sharpen a pencil.

I have an electric sharpener machine.

No fucker is allowed to TOUCH it other than me. I have labelled it such.