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.

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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

@noblegiraffe

Hate someone deserving instead, gleaming, like Gav or Gove or Noel Edmonds.

Noel Edmonds 🤣🤣 know Mr Blobby was bad, but surely Gove was on a different scale?

I'm here gleaming. You can talk to us as much as you need to. Does distraction work for you? I can tell you some really rubbish jokes.

What's the difference between a snowman and a snowwoman?

. ..

Snowballs!!

And I have no family left that gives a crap.

You’ve got other people who give a crap though x

Winging lessons to get by is fine. Using other people’s resources is fine. That’s why people upload them!

Keep posting Gleaming.

Oh Gleaming talk away , sorry to hear this has caused a resurgence in your self harming.

Fuck me, I NEVER write my own stuff if I can steal something decent from somewhere else. I mean...why? Why is it supposed to be better to do THE SAME THING again? You teach the lesson differently depending on the class anyway, so why not make life easy on yourself?

I am very lazy though.

Deep breaths.

Thanks you lot are the best. Loved the joke. Done some grounding. About to do some yoga.
Feel much better and didn't cut.

I relate to everything you just said gleaming, other than the 4yo because I don't have one of those, I have a 10yo who is a strange mix of incredibly needy one minute and fiercely independent the next.

Sorry for my bad joke. It doesn't sound like that's what you need. My sister needs to be distracted by nonsense when she feels like you, but dd1 needs to talk things through and get it all out of her head. I am getting quite good at both techniques, but don't always pick the right one at any given moment.

I was about to post the Mr Blobby Christmas no. 1 song to prove that Noel Edmonds is worse than Gove but yoga is probably a better idea.

Initially I thought each child having their own curated pack would make my life easier. A pouch with a pencil case (pen, pencil, sharpener, rubber, coloured pencils), glue stick, short and long ruler, protractor, laminated spellings , whiteboard and pen. Then some kids got X squares and numberlines taped to desks with packs of manipulatives. EVERYTHING had initialled stickers. What could possibly go wrong?

Fucking everything. How can you lose a pencil when it has you initials on and it's in your pouch? Why does Bob have all your pencil crayons? What the fuck happened to your rulers? Is there a ruler black hole? STOP SHARING! Now I can't get any other supplies from the office because "every child had their pack". And you, Kyle, got through your glue stick in 2 days! NO DON'T SHARE YOURS WITH HIM! Ffs. And yes, I know you have swapped rubbers because you, Shannon, have been conducting operations on yours with a pencil whereas Oskarus has just drawn a knob on his and you're all mixed up.

I may as well go back to just sorting things as normal.

Life is way too short to be reinventing the wheel every time you plan a lesson. If it’s there and it works, use it.

Ok so I can't cope with recording lessons. O link to a relevant YouTube or oak Academy instead, plus the PowerPoint I would have used,s plus the BBC Bitesize pages . And then ask them to make notes or work through vthe tasks - whichever they choose. Then they all have to do a quiz or exam style question to check understanding.

That's ok, isn't it?

Sounds fab

And ive put on about 2 stone since this time last year.

Is this something you are able to deal with yourself, or something you need help with?

And I have no family left that gives a crap.

This sucks. Do you have other significant people?

And my 4yo seems to be turning into a bully and unpleasant person.

4 year olds can be total cocks. Really. What do you think is going on for them?

And my department at school leave me out of stuff so it must be something about me - maybe I'm just a needy parasite, or just crap. I don't know. I wish someone would tell m e then I could work on it.

Some departments are toxic. Do you have a good relationship with individuals at the school?

So yeah confused

😘

Oh, I've got tons of jokes if they actually help!!

I don't write my own stuff very often. Who has time for that shit?? I mean, I do sometimes, when I can't find anything that's exactly what I want, but most of the time I find a textbook exercise or a worksheet from tes.

Initially I thought each child having their own curated pack would make my life easier

I read this as custard pack, and yeah, I can see how that would make life harder.

Missed your posts @GleamingBaubles so I may seem tone deaf but my goodness, please do kerp posting. You sound lovely to me so I'd wager it's your department struggling . Do you have a good, reliable friend who isn't a colleague to download on?

And it's not you with your 4 year old. Both my kids wers asshats at that age.

@GravityFalls I do want to give them a custard pack now though. Dig your pencil out of that yo fuckers!

Sometimes I want to go all full metal jacket on them. This is my pencil. There are many like it, but this one is mine...

YY to 4 year olds being asshats. Is he in reception or in nursery still?

I don't write my own stuff very often

I once

Exactly what @SmileEachDay said. You’re doing all you can and that’s plenty good enough. Parenting four year olds is tough. They can be complete arseholes. Luckily for most of them it’s just a phase.

Keep breathing. This will pass.

phlebas my dd is in year 6 and I have had so many tales of woe about "X stole my ruler, but I can't tell Mr y" or "A keeps stealing my pencil and only gives it back when Mr y comes over, so I look like I'm making a fuss about nothing". It all sounds much more fuss than when they had shared stuff in the middle of the table.

. When I was in the US it all came in handy teachers guides. You could just pick it up off the shelf and turn to the right day if you wanted.

@HarrietDVane In theory we're supposed to but it's one thing we really don't have time for. I pass on names to heads of year and that's it. I think there needs to be a culture shift towards the students actually doing the work, and if you don't then it's you that's left behind. Understandbly the culture of accountability, exams results etc means that we can't do that all the time.

Gleaming Not much to say other than sorry you're feeling so crap. The anxiety about the return is tough. My friend challenged me to write down 100 things I was thankful for in 2020 and I managed it and realised this year hasn't been all bad. Might help take your mind elsewhere for a while.

I have an almost 4yo and they're tricky. Being at home with just us all holiday isn't really helping him. He's desperate to see friends. I (selfishly) hope he can go back to nursery for his wellbeing.

[quote SmileEachDay]I don't write my own stuff very often

I once

4yo is in reception. He's stupidly bright academically (maths and engineering wise), but has no theory of mind yet. Hes strong willed and intelligent and infuriating!

Thanks everyone, I really don't want to hijack the thread.
I've done the yoga and inflicted good pain in that way instead
Omg I feel the pain over individual packs just within my own 3! At secondary I try not to have anything that needs cutting or sticking or needs resources unless I need a lesson doing make work as I just feel we get nothing done!

My department are individually lovely, but pretty clique, and I came in as a supply over several occasions... Soooo...

Also resources like oak, bitesize, white rose have all been created for this purpose. It would be more crazy to constantly recreate them.