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

I suspect so pud .

Matt Hancock has just been on somewhere saying he 'doesn't want to steal Gav's thunder' Haha... that man doesn't know what thunder is.

Primary won't change.

We're having conversations about how to do house logistics WHEN I catch it. My partner has two things that make him vulnerable.

salty they want to take holidays off us AND have us teach online in January. They view teaching online as a holiday, it seems.

I will resign if I lose my summer holidays - it's good they are announcing it now, plenty of time to resign before Easter. I'll be able to get a job next year no worries. We can afford for me not to work for a bit.

We're having conversations about how to do house logistics WHEN I catch it. My partner has two things that make him vulnerable

Same here. I get to sleep in my study, woohoo.

Although my plans were based on our primary school kids being less likely to transmit it. New variant has kicked that (already pathetic idea) into touch.
Just got to hope for the best.

I will resign if I lose my summer holidays

I always liked the idea of less holiday over summer (not losing holiday just moving it around).

So you would get 2 weeks off in October. 2 weeks off in June and then only 4 weeks over summer. I’m pretty sure I’m alone in preferring that though.

And extra 2 weeks holiday at the start of January is not good.

4 weeks in the summer would make me very sad.
Marking contract this year is til the start of august which realistically means at least another week. And that doesn't leave long enough for travelling for my liking.

I know markers want marking money (possibly even need) but SURELY cancelling exams is in the offing soon??

They are moving the deckchairs on the Titanic in a desperate attempt to avoid the issue. As with The Titanic , it's too late. The iceberg has hit.

MrsH my marking contract seems to have the same ish deadline as before with a 2 week later exam date! Bizzare how they've done things.

I still think they can announce what they like today: by Sunday, when we're getting figures through post Christmas mixing/ stories of people basically dying because hospitals have run out of oxygen/equipment they'll have to change the plan again.

But I know that's no consolation for all on here who have to plan 💐

Am I allowed to do that thing that we did in real staffrooms - when they were open? Fling the door open, say something unprofessional, inexcusable and unprintable about something / someone, put your game face back on and re-emerge like nothing has happened?

Right. I am willing and happy to care for the children of front line workers in school - those parents who are nurses, police, fellow teachers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers, those who work in electricity generation or sewage, who HAVE to be present in their workplaces in person, and who MUST be at work for the country to function even at a lockdown level.

I would fight for vulnerable and SEN children, and those with significant MH difficulties, to have access to physical schools, and also to all the specialist services who 'aren't doing face to face work because it's too risky'. I will also willingly give up hours and hours of time to making sure that families in poverty, hunger or other need get all the help that they need.

I am NOT willing to risk my own and my family's safety, and to continue to miss the final months that my very elderly mother has undimmed too much by dementia, just so that someone can work Covid-safe from home a little more productively, or to work in offices unnecessarily because 'their boss prefers it'.

Thanks. Consider game face back on, and professional face restored. As you were.

@MrsHamlet

4 weeks in the summer would make me very sad. Marking contract this year is til the start of august which realistically means at least another week. And that doesn't leave long enough for travelling for my liking.

God, is it? I haven't read it yet.

@Piggyinblankets

I know markers want marking money (possibly even need) but SURELY cancelling exams is in the offing soon??

They are moving the deckchairs on the Titanic in a desperate attempt to avoid the issue. As with The Titanic , it's too late. The iceberg has hit.

I have applied for tuition with the National Tutoring Programme. I'm working on the assumption that I'll be doing this instead of marking.

PumpkinPie2016

Its far to soon for the government to give any information out on schools.

We would have almost 5 days to sort something out.

@cantkeepawayforever exactly that.

@cantkeepawayforever

Am I allowed to do that thing that we did in real staffrooms - when they were open? Fling the door open, say something unprofessional, inexcusable and unprintable about something / someone, put your game face back on and re-emerge like nothing has happened?

Right. I am willing and happy to care for the children of front line workers in school - those parents who are nurses, police, fellow teachers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers, those who work in electricity generation or sewage, who HAVE to be present in their workplaces in person, and who MUST be at work for the country to function even at a lockdown level.

I would fight for vulnerable and SEN children, and those with significant MH difficulties, to have access to physical schools, and also to all the specialist services who 'aren't doing face to face work because it's too risky'. I will also willingly give up hours and hours of time to making sure that families in poverty, hunger or other need get all the help that they need.

I am NOT willing to risk my own and my family's safety, and to continue to miss the final months that my very elderly mother has undimmed too much by dementia, just so that someone can work Covid-safe from home a little more productively, or to work in offices unnecessarily because 'their boss prefers it'.

Thanks. Consider game face back on, and professional face restored. As you were.

👏 👏 👏 👏

Yep. Exactly.

I hear ya cant

All lockdown it really wound me up watching dads having a lovely time walking their kids to primary school , clad in their shorts, to go home and WFH while teachers took risks in unnecessarily crowded schools. I still see it actually. Minus the shorts. Huge numbers of workers in my village are public sector admin (biggest employer in my area is NHS) and WFH.

The selfless part of me thought that was nice for the dads, and for their kids. Most of me felt cross and envious, though.

In addition most of the hygge of first lockdown has gone and now everyone just resents each other. Some of the nastiest stuff I ahve seen on here has been swipes at actual essential workers and their kids for being at school and 'being taught' from EFH parents.

I would also add there has been ZERO research into the adequacy and effectiveness of remote learning provision : mainly because it is impossible to tease out what might have caused and lack of progress and because provision varied so much.

EFH, piggy?

If primary is in as normal I will be so upset.
So difficult to manage my class with the COVID unpredictability and staffing limitations.
I had planned to stay til the end of the year, but am now considering resigning in Feb.
What are the implications for future job hunt of leaving mid year?

I've seen posters on here saying they were able to get a key worker space as they worked in finance.

Our largest local employer - by far - declared themselves key workers part way through the pandemic. On a school level, it meant that over 50% of our children were potentially keyworker children, which meant we couldn't physically accommodate them based on the guidance in force at the time.

Luckily, a significant proportion felt that their employer's decision was unreasonable - that while a small proportion of the staff DID have to go to work (for really good reasons that i have no issue with), declaring that those who were wfh without issue also needed to have their children in school as keyworkers was not right.

However, with the evaporation of goodwill as it has been, I suspect that in fact even if we 'close except to keyworkers and vulnerable children' this time, we will end up with classes 70%+ full, of which all bar 10% or so will have the keyworker parent working from home.

The survey we had asked if you were working at home - the expectation is that you can't get a place unless you (and other parent if applicable) both work outside the home and are part of the war effort, or something like that. I don't think they would accept an employer's say-so on who is a key worker. Also only applies up to S3 in secondary here. If 70% ended up in there'd be no point, would there?

@cantkeepawayforever

Am I allowed to do that thing that we did in real staffrooms - when they were open? Fling the door open, say something unprofessional, inexcusable and unprintable about something / someone, put your game face back on and re-emerge like nothing has happened?

Right. I am willing and happy to care for the children of front line workers in school - those parents who are nurses, police, fellow teachers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers, those who work in electricity generation or sewage, who HAVE to be present in their workplaces in person, and who MUST be at work for the country to function even at a lockdown level.

I would fight for vulnerable and SEN children, and those with significant MH difficulties, to have access to physical schools, and also to all the specialist services who 'aren't doing face to face work because it's too risky'. I will also willingly give up hours and hours of time to making sure that families in poverty, hunger or other need get all the help that they need.

I am NOT willing to risk my own and my family's safety, and to continue to miss the final months that my very elderly mother has undimmed too much by dementia, just so that someone can work Covid-safe from home a little more productively, or to work in offices unnecessarily because 'their boss prefers it'.

Thanks. Consider game face back on, and professional face restored. As you were.

Yes! 👏👏👏

Scotland was much stricter its hence the occasional howling form Scotsnet/ You4Us .