The Thirty-eight republic - Covid Carnage - Schools still waiting for test kits

[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'm ok with the mRNA vaccine (bearing in mind I, shocking i know, am pro brexit and say no thanks to the flu vaccine so if an ignorant monster like me agrees to it it must be ok lol). It actually sounds less problematic than a traditional vaccine and so long as you understand that things only flow in one direction and can only create downstream reactions not go 'backwards' and effect dna (total layman) it seems logical and safe.

I'm not up for mix and match though - that is not what was designed or trialled - and to be honest I'm not fussed about having a vaccination urgently and would pick social distancing and proper infection protocol in school over a vaccine any day.

Just whipped to the coop and bought reduced prawn sandwiches and estrella lager. Diet will have to wait till tomorrow.

[quote HarrietDVane]@phlebasconsidered I was just thinking that! There are obviously a lot of crime fiction fans in the world of education![/quote]
I like historical crime... Matthew Bartholomew being my favourite!

Thanks for posting that January.

Really bizarre the whole thing.

@GuyFawkesDay

I'm NASUWT.

Crickets from them. I'm tier 4, rapidly rising case numbers and we are due in for full staff in hall inset on Monday 😱

I’m very seriously considering changing to NEU, tonight.

smile there are posters angling to get teachers banned. Don't do it

But I’m so ANGRY 😡

@Jinglingmod

Yeah, my supermarket delivery driver refusing to take plastic bags back again "because tier 4..."

I have no problem with the driver not taking the bags and getting me to unload the crates. His employers are doing what they can to keep him safe.

I'm primary, tier 4, cases very high in a neighboring area (800+) (I know some of my class live there) and where my school is they're rising rapidly. I'm in the NEU and going to the Zoom tomorrow.

Reading the NEU letter (and using my common sense) it seems I'm ok going in on Monday (Inset, in separate classrooms on teams, with just 2 or 3 adults per classroom) but after that I don't know what to do.

Presumably if I decide to send that NEU letter, I could wait till Monday to send it/finally decide? My year group partner is equally undecided, I haven't spoken to our rep yet.

I don't think schools should be open but I don't want to make my colleagues or pupils lives more difficult!

Here's UNISON on Fb:

Colleagues, we have been in discussion with other unions about the re-opening of some schools on Monday. We are all concerned about the safety of schools and are currently taking legal advice. We feel that full re-opening is unsafe and those schools due to re-open should only do so for vulnerable children and the children of key workers. Therefore a full re-opening would be risk to staff and we will advise that other staff not needed to look after those pupils should not return to work on Monday. further advice will follow.

("What do sentences always begin with, UNISON?")

Smile don't rise to it. Maybe through exhaustion or the context of hearing about children potentially being more represented on covid wards etc I found myself totally ambivalent/quite amused by our visiting troll last night.

The tide has changed people are understanding the risks and u4t time voices are sounding more and more removed from reality and unhinged.

Well done, Unison. Only those needed to look after those children.....er, that would be me, then. And my colleagues. But you carry on like fucking Reg from the Judean People’s Front holding useless meetings. 🤦‍♀️

I keep thinking I'm at work tomorrow. My brain will not register that it is Saturday not Sunday!

Why am I raring to go? What the hell happened to me?

I'm definitely a crisis worker. I've done rescues of lost scuba divers and been first on scene at rtas - it seems I'm better at this stuff than day to day drudgery that has me on my knees. Is it just me?

@SmileEachDay

smile there are posters angling to get teachers banned. Don't do it

But I’m so ANGRY 😡

Time to take a break then. Honestly. Go for a walk or watch cat videos on Netflix.

I did a Joe Wicks workout earlier when I felt particularly pissed off and it did help. Maybe you could borrow Ange's Rosemary Conley tape?

Here's a rather more prosaic reason you might like to consider, honey: we're still in that weird period when no one knows what day it is!

@AFallingStar

I'm primary, tier 4, cases very high in a neighboring area (800+) (I know some of my class live there) and where my school is they're rising rapidly. I'm in the NEU and going to the Zoom tomorrow.

Reading the NEU letter (and using my common sense) it seems I'm ok going in on Monday (Inset, in separate classrooms on teams, with just 2 or 3 adults per classroom) but after that I don't know what to do.

Presumably if I decide to send that NEU letter, I could wait till Monday to send it/finally decide? My year group partner is equally undecided, I haven't spoken to our rep yet.

I don't think schools should be open but I don't want to make my colleagues or pupils lives more difficult!

I think you could send it at any time- so you could even work on Tuesday, change your mind and send it on Wednesday if you felt unsafe?

Hopefully the zoom will clarify!

The head of my trust has just emailed and said it is their intention to keep as many primaries open as possible but that of course we must decide for ourselves. They actually put it in bold after a big diatribe about how important it is to stay open etc etc.

He's a massive wanker.

That's interesting from Unison, because if their action closes the school, teachers can't go due to OHS.

I've seen this before, back in the early 2000s, when teachers had to drive up to the gate, wave at SLT with a clipboard and then go home.

I've done rescues of lost scuba divers and been first on scene at rtas

Oh Honey you always sound like you've had such an interesting life. Definitely a good person to know in a pinch!

You know what gets me about so many posters on the school threads part from the trolls, is how dismally uninformed they are about strikes, furlough, how schools work, how teachers work.

@phlebasconsidered

The head of my trust has just emailed and said it is their intention to keep as many primaries open as possible but that of course we must decide for ourselves. They actually put it in bold after a big diatribe about how important it is to stay open etc etc.

He's a massive wanker.

I've yet to meet a trust head who isn't.

Just another reason why I'm anti-academisation.

I can’t believe I haven’t joined these threads until now. Thank you to @SmileEachDay for alerting me to them!

I wish I could stop getting drawn into these awful threads of people being so horrible. It’s so disheartening, I’m in my NQT year and I know everyone here will relate to the work-eat-sleep-repeat cycle I’ve had going on since September. It makes me so, so angry when people say the stuff they do.

honey you've had an interesting life!

Total silence from anyone at our place. Not emailing my head yet as had nothing from NASUWT yet.

Email from union rep - head is considering letting us work from home next week if we have a compelling reason but expectations will be higher than in lockdown.
What an arrogant twat!
I angry baked so please help me out...

@TheEchtMeaningofChristmas

You know what gets me about so many posters on the school threads part from the trolls, is how dismally uninformed they are about strikes, furlough, how schools work, how teachers work.

Certainly a lot of them are very happy to tell teachers to "just quit" - I don't think they've thought about what education would be like if that actually happened.

Where did my angry baking go??

oh darn it - another thread deleted! I was starting to enjoy a furlough thread.