The Thirty-ninth Republic - Covid Carnage continues and spring term is just about to start

[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

Article here
news.sky.com/story/covid-19-national-lockdown-must-be-imposed-within-24-hours-says-labour-leader-12178438

PUAUS also said he said "schools should be last to close but it's inevitable"

Yes, I am going to switch it's just that I won't get support from them for anything other than Covid and i'm pretty certain if I stand my ground over this i'll be on capability soon as blink! I am awaiting a reply from them to see how long I need to be a member for full coverage.

I'm surprised at our lack of unionization too. I always found secondary was great at it. We had a good rep and a county rep when I taught secondary. Primary is so different. It doesn't help that i'm in a very rural VERY blue and narrow minded part of the country. I cannot believe what comes out of the mouths of some of some of the staff sometimes. I used to think it must be impossible to be a right-wing teacher if you had a brain, but round here I am the exception.

Anyone who works in a school without being in a union needs their bumps felt, in my view!

I sat down to proof read something that needs to go out to year 11 tomorrow. I had done the first version and sent it to my class share colleagues to add to. I wish I hadn't bothered. I've just spent 2 hours fixing it 😡🤬

My school is opening as normal. Our council have advised against closing but said the decision lies with the school. Utterly spineless. Also need to work out how three dc can share two laptops when they start online next week.
Ds staying home from uni for now doesn’t seem much point going back.

Piggy the guy who posted that doesn't appear very authoritative or knowledgeable from his twitter feed, mainly about footy and beer! Who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

Figures aren't obviously worse than last few days (which are obviously dire anyway) but of course there's another flipping bank holiday to factor in. Very difficult to interpret the stats at the moment.

Of course closed schools will to some extent result in fewer children getting tested again, unfortunately.

Isn't joining a union the very first thing they tell you to do in ITT? Along with an explanation of why it's important.

We used to get the unions in in week one when I ran a Scitt. Some of the trainees were vocally anti union but I'd put money on those being the ones most in need later, judging by some of their antics.

I think everyone I trained with joined a union. I hope they did anyway, bloody stupid not to.

With regards to working from school for online leaning, they tried this at my school (abroad). Insisted we all had to teach from school despite many teachers and tas doing 90 minute commutes by public transport. Even had the cheek to say it was better for our mental health. Me and a few others (unofficial union/cabal of trouble makers depending on your viewpoint) wrote a group letter in support of working from home acknowledging that whilst school's covid protocols were good, public transports werent AND the government was staying work from home if you can, and by allowing this the school would show a more community minded approach. They relented and kept school open for those who wanted to go in (and, tbf, to avoid having to furlough maintenance and cleaners who didn't want to be) but allowed working from home for anyone who requested it. They even ended up boasting on Facebook about how adaptable their teachers are...
I know it's harder in the UK with some SLT teams and so many teacher bashers around, but using the public transport argument might get you some support I suppose.

Statement from Liverpool cabinet member for education, Cllr Barbara Murray, and Director of Children and Young People Services Steve Reddy:

“With less than 24 hours to go, we are not asking schools and parents to change their plans. As a Tier 3 area which has a lower infection rate than others, the schools that are scheduled to reopen this week should do so, including primary and special schools as well as secondary schools for vulnerable and key worker children.

“As we do have concerns with respect to the dramatically increasing infection rates, we will closely monitor attendance of staff and pupils over the next few days. We will support families and staff who chose not to attend school tomorrow and will manage the situation on a school by school basis to ensure safety at all times.

“No parent will be fined if they keep their child away tomorrow for safety reasons. All teachers and pupils are encouraged to use the free Covid testing service for people without symptoms – details are at www.liverpool.gov.uk/smarttesting.

“We will work with school leaders and teams to ensure risk assessments are reviewed and updated if necessary, and shared with staff."

From this article: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/merseyside-primary-school-stay-closed-19555854

We need more LEA's to do this. Totally out of order for parents and staff to not have local gov have their back.

Might be worth a shot Ulelia - thanks
The school risk assessment, which is laughable, specifically says we mustn't car share.

No parent will be fined if they keep their child away tomorrow for safety reasons

Hugely sensible.

Just stumbled across this - what do they actually think they'd be allowed in schools to do???

usforthem.co.uk/our-campaigns/parent-army/

It'll be interesting to see what their attendance figures are then.

Oooh what a splendid idea. The recycling bins are always overflowing so they could deal with those. Maybe help me tidy my office. Carry my heavy bags all round the site all day.

🤣

My prediction....new Tier 5 created, which just so happens to include areas where primary schools are closed. That will stop other Tier 4 schools saying "but we're the same tier, why aren't we shut?"

@Lancrelady80

My prediction....new Tier 5 created, which just so happens to include areas where primary schools are closed. That will stop other Tier 4 schools saying "but we're the same tier, why aren't we shut?"

I suspect you are spot on.

[quote JanuaryChill]Just stumbled across this - what do they actually think they'd be allowed in schools to do???

usforthem.co.uk/our-campaigns/parent-army/[/quote]
We know we're not teachers but we're better than zoom.

So those signing this believe that anyone (with no experience) in the classroom is better than a qualified teacher delivering education remotely. No wonder they don't have any respect for teachers.

We know we're not teachers but we're better than zoom

I would honestly pay good money to watch a random U4T person teach a tricky year 9 class.
Hell watching me trying to teach Year 3 English would be a car crash.

I will not have my children in a classroom with Us 4 Them nutters calling themselves a fucking army.

Ok things starting go to happen locally.

Apparently at least two middle schools closed, I think they're classing themselves as secondary?

Ps, massive bravery hugs to January for your sure start experience. Goes to show how valuable they were.

I did lol at 'we're not teachers but we're better than zoom'.

Half these people are only in U4T because they had problems homeschooling their own children.