The Fortieth Republic - Schools are safe but they are vectors so go online

[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

@DrMadelineMaxwell

Is this a kickback against the teacher and unions? The gov didnt want us to shut. And they are the ones publishing huge lists of pupils who qualify for key worker places. I mean, not having a quiet place to work ffs.

Either say all key worker pupils can come in or knock that on the head and say all vulnerable ones can't but we cannot fit both and still stay any safer than when we were fully open.

We've been told that in theory we have an aim for 10% of numbers in. And in some classes we are as low as 12% but I have 25% of our year group in.

I just came on to post exactly this. It’s a punishment. ‘They said they’d only look after Kw children, so that’s what we’ll give them! We’ll set Ofsted and parents on them over their remote learning as well! They won’t have enough time to complain, they’ll be too busy!’

Why is a laptop needed? You can log into Teams from an Xbox or PlayStation and more kids have those than a laptop.

Or a tablet.

Why a sodding laptop?

@ineedaholidaynow

Do you think pupils will just turn up if they don't have a laptop?

In theory, I think your school should have some kind of system where they register for key worker places.

At my school, unless a student was in real distress, if they turned up without registering for a place, they'd be sent home for that day at least and parents called to organise a place.

I sign in as myself on my laptop and IPad, and share my screen from the iPad as I write maths bits on OneNote slides (got a cheap stylus).

You just have to be careful to mute yourself on one device otherwise you get feedback.

@noblegiraffe

Why is a laptop needed? You can log into Teams from an Xbox or PlayStation and more kids have those than a laptop.

Or a tablet.

Why a sodding laptop?

Or a smart phone. I think I know two kids I teach who don't have one of those.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Sorry, if you are using a phone too, are you signed in as yourself on both devices? I really have some playing around to do tomorrow.

Yes!

@Cantaloupeisland

I agree - so to the wider world schools are closed but the reality is massively different. My friend rang me up yesterday and was surprised when I said I'm at work- she thought closure meant we'd all be home. Once again the media picture is lies and spin

Yep, two friends were both very shocked when I told them I had to go to work yesterday.

I described the reality of being in school to one of them who has been working from home since March and he was horrified!

I was doing parent calls today and was speaking to one parent who lives opposite a different school. This school is part of a MAT who are bastards. She said they had children going in on Tuesday!

She said they had children going in on Tuesday!

Going in by themselves? We had KW children in.

Our school isn’t overburdened with laptops so sending a bunch of kids in because they don’t have laptops isn’t going to ensure they get any more access to the work than they would have at home.

@PumpkinPie2016

I had a technical glitch today during my Y11 lesson as my mic suddenly stopped working. Couldn't sort it so had to get them doing seneca while I called IT to come and help

No idea how it happened -that was my 4th lesson of the day with no issues in any other lesson

I am using the chat thread quite a lot for checking in. My Y10s have got into the habit of writing 'done' when they have completed a task.

I have also used Microsoft forms to create question quizzes and posted links for them. That worked quite well as I could check who responded and their answers.

Setting a small, relevant section of seneca has also worked well.

I have tried some verbal questioning but some go quiet bless them!

It's a bit trial and error this week I think because it was all so uncertain as to exactly what was happening.

I am finding 6th form to be the most difficult as they are silent it's so hard to get them to say anything (they are not like this in class!). It's honestly like talking into the abyss!

I really like microsoft forms- it has a lot of functionality and you can do a mix of automatic marking and you can also mark some questions yourself.

We used it for end of topic assessments last year and I really liked it.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Sorry, if you are using a phone too, are you signed in as yourself on both devices? I really have some playing around to do tomorrow.

Yes, if I remember rightly, when you sign in on the second device it asks you which one you want to mute? Sorry, last time I did this was last term, so I need to remind myself on Friday.

Robert Winston on Newsnight quoting the NEU stats on teacher infections saying that needs to be taken much more seriously.

@noblegiraffe

Our school isn’t overburdened with laptops so sending a bunch of kids in because they don’t have laptops isn’t going to ensure they get any more access to the work than they would have at home.

Mine neither. We do have a few computer rooms with desktops, but if we use all of those plus the laptops, ensuring social distancing, we can accommodate about 60-70 kids. In a school of about 1500.

Although, one of my sixth form class was in school today, so that must be sure to tech issues, he can't possibly be in for childcare!

Have used PC and phone in school. App works well on the phone. Present from PC, monitor chat on phone with app session muted.

@noblegiraffe

Our school isn’t overburdened with laptops so sending a bunch of kids in because they don’t have laptops isn’t going to ensure they get any more access to the work than they would have at home.

Yeah, we have one class set of laptops plus 5 computer rooms with 10-20 desktops in each, but obviously using all desktops means that social distancing isn't possible.

We've also got a small bank of computers in the library.

Realistically, I think we could accommodate about 60 children in school, assuming social distancing.

I think most primary schools have less tech as well, although I might be wrong?

Although, one of my sixth form class was in school today, so that must be sure to tech issues, he can't possibly be in for childcare!

We have a lone sixth former in too- I don't know what the justification is, but he's working alone in the sixth form area, so not much of a risk, I guess.

My main worry is that we might forget about him in the event of a fire as I don't think he's being directly supervised by any adults.

What's the quote about Never ascribe to conspiracy what can be ascribed to incompetency? I think that is relevant here. I don't think they understand enough about schools to know that having 100s of KW/"vulnerable" (quotation marks because not having a quiet space and a Chromebook isn't necessarily 'vulnerable'!) kids in will make remote learning v difficult for teachers.

I think they just expanded the vulnerable definition in response to the horror stories from last time, of single mums with 4 children all trying to use her phone, etc, supported by Anne Longfield, MH research etc.

And there is the point that telling parents they can send kids into school if they don't have the tech might deflect awkward questions about why they haven't supplied all the laptops they promised back in April:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/19/disadvantaged-pupils-are-given-laptops-to-study-online-while-schools-are-closed

Yeah, I don't know what the justification is for this sixth former either. I have no idea where he's working or how he's being supervised, so the whole fire alarm thing hadn't occurred to me. We do have a few sixth formers who are actually vulnerable (as opposed to "vulnerable" to get a school space), and I wouldn't have been surprised at all to know one of them was in school, but this one isn't vulnerable to my knowledge. I'm assuming internet connection issues at home until I'm told otherwise.

@noblegiraffe

Why is a laptop needed? You can log into Teams from an Xbox or PlayStation and more kids have those than a laptop.

Or a tablet.

Why a sodding laptop?

I didn’t know that. Interesting.

Our class laptops have been handed over to children at home who don't have laptops, so now the children in school can't access the work on google classroom. You couldn't make it up! So if any other children turn up wanting to use a laptop they will be very disappointed.

We have maybe 35 laptops in my primary school. They are old and temperamental with very poor battery life.

We have so many KW/V children in that social distancing is impossible. Classrooms are nearly full. We might as well be open.

In school, the kw group watches the lesson vids on the big screen.

[quote JanuaryChill]What's the quote about Never ascribe to conspiracy what can be ascribed to incompetency? I think that is relevant here. I don't think they understand enough about schools to know that having 100s of KW/"vulnerable" (quotation marks because not having a quiet space and a Chromebook isn't necessarily 'vulnerable'!) kids in will make remote learning v difficult for teachers.

I think they just expanded the vulnerable definition in response to the horror stories from last time, of single mums with 4 children all trying to use her phone, etc, supported by Anne Longfield, MH research etc.

And there is the point that telling parents they can send kids into school if they don't have the tech might deflect awkward questions about why they haven't supplied all the laptops they promised back in April:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/19/disadvantaged-pupils-are-given-laptops-to-study-online-while-schools-are-closed[/quote]
I guess the reasoning almost doesn't matter when the consequences are the same.

I suppose it depends if having an education secretary who is anti-lockdown is conspiracy or incompetency.

I do think elements of this are ideological.