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

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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

Also I too recommend Hamnet but I enjoyed the Strike books (Robert Galbraith) recently.

"I've finished the page. What shall I do?"

"Hmm, well, you could either write over the top of what you've already written OR, how about turning over?"

"What do I do now?"

"Someone who was listening, please tell Susie what comes next."

@Jinglingmod

I would take furlough on 25% honestly.

Yeah so would we.

@FiggyPuddingFiend

At what age do children change from sometime in primary where they can be trusted with glue stick to secondary where they can't because they use a ruler to flick glue at the ceiling or at each other? My y9 and y10 classes are not allowed glue unless being directly supervised

I would suggest that the children do infantilise when they start Year Seven. They go from being the oldest in the place (whilst behaving as such and being seen and treated in that way) to being the youngest (whilst behaving as such and being seen and treated in that way).

We did some work with the local secondary during which several members of their leadership team came to watch the Year Sixes. They were genuinely astounded by their behaviour, attitudes to learning, level of independence and the quality of the work.

[quote RuleWithAWoodenFoot]Anyone seen this one:

twitter.com/HeadsUp4HTs/status/1343950364580720646?s=20[/quote]
They don't give a fuck about teachers so why would they care what they think?

Unpaid leave? With guaranteed job back in September? I'd take that too.

Only thing that stops me leaving is the arseache of getting another job - and the fact that I quite like my current school. I'm not sure I could fake the enthusiasm for a job interview right now. Or at all for the rest of this year.

I've given up and am doing some work. So fucking bored.

I can't get motivated to work. Need to know what's going on

They're the fuckers moaning loudest about schools closing, I bet.

But.. but... they are MANAGERS V important don't you know.

We’re told that the army will be on the other end of the phone to offer advice. But what they [the DfE] are doing there is a bit disrespectful, really. Yes, the army can draw up schedules and plans, but it’s also what we do all the time. Plus have they ever tried organising Christmas dinner for 1,300 kids?

🤣

From the guardian article!

I'd take furlough or unpaid leave in a snap.

@DecemberStar

How is yr DD *@MsAwesomeReindeer* ?

Thanks for asking. She seems ok at the minute, but that's by her standards. So she's in her bedroom most of the time, only coming out to eat and she's been out to see friends twice. She hasn't had to deal with uni stuff over Christmas though, and that's the stress flashpoint.

I'm dithering about putting up a list of 'stuff you'll need to complete this term at home' on my year group webpage. I'm sure it's not 'OK', but if they had things like copies of the books we're going to use, some basic packets of seeds for science, some pastels for art etc, then they might be able to have a reasonable home school experience.

This assumes we're not all at home. Just thinking about my nervous parents.

Must also look at Oak for the spelling stuff for this term.

Evening!

I've given up on even trying to keep on top of worksheet regimes now I'm stuck at the front of the room and going from room to room and not having glues in half the rooms. They're all meant to have their own glue since covid but few do and some are just lazy.

I do check point marking with a sturdy stapler at hand and staple them in as I go through their books - the advantage being they don't need to have left a page as I can just staple to the corner of the page it corresponds to.

I recorded another lesson today. Infuriatingly the first time I did it I didn't realise I hadn't hit record on the final dialogue box so I'd just been performing my lesson into the ether. The second attempt I managed to hit delete instead of save somehow when I finished On the third attempt I had the most tickly throat and had to apologise for my coughing and explain I'd already tried twice to record it so they'd have to deal with me coughing. So then I spent the whole recording trying not to cough and trying not to convince myself my crazy tickly cough was covid.

So I've recorded the first lesson for years 7 and 8 (and messaged the person whose tasked with year 8 remote learning to let her know I'd done it because I don't have exam groups so didn't mind doing a bit extra). I'll probably create a bridging lesson for each of them too so they'll have one recorded and one bridging so at least a weeks worth (3 lessons a fortnight for ks3). Then I may do a recorded lesson for year 9 too as the colleague who has been landed with that responsibility mostly teaches year 11 and 13 so it doesn't seem very fair for her to do the whole provision for year 9.

Hopefully I won't piss anyone off or tread on toes and they'll get that it's me trying to help but paranoia and weirdness levels have been pretty up and down since September so I may manage to offend someone whilst trying to make their lives easier

However when I came to this magnanimous decision to do more than my share I thought it was only going to be 1 week remote learning and then all back in on 11th. Not sure I'll be carrying on if it drags out for longer.

As for the mythical idea of being furloughed a 20% pay cut for doing 0% of your job sounds pretty damn good in theory. In reality I'm not sure it would be great for my mental health, my liver or my attempts at weight loss. If I was full time I'm sure I'd be another 'snapping the hand off' of a furlough offer.

@FiggyPuddingFiend as someone who has taught both sectors i'd say they go back a bit in year 7 from year 6 and then again in year 9!

You'd probably all hate me primary teachers for 'training them up' pointlessly. I never have headings, never know that the date is and couldn't give a shiny shit if sheets are stuck in. No time in my lessons for sheet sticking! I also don't have LOs

I also cannot stand the pointless faffing of girls with glue sticks trimming and sticking stuff in. Gives me the rage.

Sorry for that 'what I did today' post. Just give me a pat on the head and say, 'good girl badger'

I don't do titles unless it's the question.
I barely know the date, much less write it in.
I never make them write in the objective (and it gives me the rage when I observe lessons and that's the only thing they wrote in their book)
The objective on the board might well be from last lesson/yesterday/the A level Physics class who were in here before.
But stick the sheet where I told you, like I told you and DON'T BLOODY TRIM IT!

I can’t find the motivation to do any work. If we’re in as normal I’m pretty much ready to go, barring a couple of foundation subjects that I teach in different year groups.

If we’re not, it’ll mean a fuckton of work creating online-friendly resources and paper alternatives for the vast majority of children and parents to completely ignore. I just can’t summon the energy to start creating all that until I know I’ll need it.

Good girl, badger
Can I work with you please? You're clearly not a k, unlike most of my dept.

We have definitely had this conversation before

To be fair @Piggyinblankets when I taught secondary I didn't give a shit either! My gcse and A level students just kept their own folders. I never even used to write the date up. Happy days. Primary is a bit mental about these things I find.

I also think we would be better off teaching touch typing in year 6 than insisting on handwriting (although it is a moderation requirement, crazily).

Kids are always stunned when they see me touch typing. It was one of the useful things I learned at grammar school. Walking with a book on my head not so much (although it's a good party trick to shut a class up)

We have lesson titles that are a question and that's all they need to write (though we talk through the more detailed objectives). So eg. 'why did William win the Battle of Hastings?' clearly means the aim is to be able to answer that questions.

Kind of drives me bonkers that the student makes them write down really long learning objectives - seems like a waste of time to me and I've explained our departmental approach. We have recall q's and a starter to do I don't want them to use another 5 minutes writing down bloody LOs as well before I get into the main parts of the lesson.

Thank you MrsH. A little pat on the head, that's all I need. You don't get much of that in our line of work I find.

My class are so damn slow at writing that I’ve taken to printing out the LO and date for most lessons for them to stick in madly otherwise nothing gets done. I don’t know if it’s a hangover from lockdown but this year they seem particularly lacking in stamina when it comes to writing.

And yes - definitely had the worksheets conversation before. You are all a bit obsessed me thinks

I may have to introduce the 'shake a book' trick but it's too late for this year as the damage is done.