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

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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.

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

@NeurotreeWenceslas

Stress eaten 2 packs of smarties...

My diet is out of the window too. Mmm love smarties.

piggy We're doing a lot of doubling up due to absence. Previously we've done a half lesson from one teacher and then set independent work. We don't have capacity to live cover everything even with doubling sometimes.

Just checking in.
Today was ok. 2 year groups together. All teachers are covering 2 days a week. All support staff in at the moment but the hope is that once the numbers settle they will reduce the numbers for safety.

@Frlrlrubert

Monkey was it a Mac compatibility issue? I just had to download chrome so I could change meeting settings. I'm a bit worried my first Teams lesson from home might be a bit of a shit show on the MacBook!

Yeah, I wonder if that's a Mac thing. But in Windows machines, even when "share screen" sometimes plays up, you can still usually share a ppt or word doc if you have it open already and minimised.

Reckon it will be gone 1am again (like in the last lockdown) before I can get cracking on my sunbathing, repainting the house, lounging around drinking g and t and then posting selfies on fb.

Haha. When are you going to be down the allotment? That's what they were accused of around here.

Just had a message from a colleague saying they've JUST got home after delivering home learning packs. I got invited in for a cup of tea at one place I dropped off to today.

I discovered that it's possible to teach whilst recumbent in a hammock. It's a little chilly for that now.

Was anyone else on the NEU zoom call just now?

I thought their position on things around being forced in when unnecessary and excessive numbers of children in were really useful.

@SansaSnark

Was anyone else on the NEU zoom call just now?

I thought their position on things around being forced in when unnecessary and excessive numbers of children in were really useful.

I liked the idea that the government needs to issue new guidelines based on new strain and risk assess around that. It's crazy the numbers we have.

@Piggywaspushed

Can I ask a question of those of you who have prior experience of online teaching /live lessons? I am curious to know what your school does if a member of staff is unable to teach their lesson live online (SI/got an appointment/ childcare etc).

In my school, instead of their class teacher putting up some work for the kids to do, they insist it is covered by another teacher, either by the class teacher providing work for a cover teacher to deliver, or by 30 odd kids piling into someone else's lesson for babysitting.

I am sure we overly fret about potential parent complaints.

Last summer, we did live lessons, and staff signed up for times they were available to run a live lesson. We didn't run to timetable.

When students were off, all staff were still in school, so it was less of an issue.

We ran live lessons for large groups and it worked ok- I think the expectation of having live lessons with a teacher per class is possibly an issue in itself?

We are planning to run with a mix of live lessons + online work all term, but our live lessons are not well attended, and I actually think if we offered live lessons only, we'd get more complaints.

All staff are in all day every day with the KW/V pupils from our own classes in our usual classrooms. 53% of my class are in. Hurrah

@InspectorAlleyn

All staff are in all day every day with the KW/V pupils from our own classes in our usual classrooms. 53% of my class are in. Hurrah

Seems like its quite a common theme. We have to be in though even in an empty class.

I'm really glad we're not expected to teach live lessons. My neighbours are really loud, so my poor classes would be exposed to loud swearing from next door's garden. They had friends round every day during the first lockdown, and I thought it would be different this time because it's colder (in the negatives, gardens are iced over), but no, they've built the biggest shed they can build without building permission. So this afternoon there were 5 friends of the man next door drinking in their big shed I can't quite believe it, but I'm not sure why I'm stories. N

It's really shocking how many kids are in primary schools as KW/V. I don't know how many are in from dd2's class, but in June they had quite a high proportion of kids going in as KW.

There's more kids coming into secondary this time around, I think too (based on a sample of one day).

Obviously it's not to the same level as primary, but we have a lot of kids coming in who didn't last time around, and about double the number of Y7s.

I can understand it's earlier in the year, and people don't want to leave their Y7 children alone. We did have some of the booked Y7s and 8s not turn up today, though.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot bugger! Thanks for reminding me. Forgot about the allotment. Watering my organic potatoes is now in the diary for 3.30am. Anyone got any professional outdoor lighting I can borrow?

Hello!

What have I missed?

@flumposie don’t feel shit. Hopefully it will get easier for you soon.

My school all teachers encouraged to wfh but we can teach from school if we need to. Encouraged to get off site asap though if in. The kids in are covered by SLT with LSA back up... I’m guessing we don’t have that many at the mo.... once we start live teaching next week I think we’ll end up getting more in who can’t access from home but we will see!

@Appuskidu

Lots of talk on the NEU meeting about nurseries and high numbers of parents requesting places.

They don’t want to make a set size to cap class sizes on as all schools are different.

They said though, that if you’re in a class and it’s not half to a third the size of normal, then something isn’t right.

We have capped ours at 10 per classroom.

However we are ‘lucky’ to be in an area with very low demand due to the high deprivation. We have about 5 KW children out of 600+. Lots more vulnerable but we are really struggling to get them in. Some children I am very worried about.

Today we had about 3 children per year group so will probably combine into phase groups unless there’s any more demand.

MsAwesome that's shocking!

We were mostly closed from March to June ( my school was closed by the LA before Boris shut the rest) and hardly any Law children in. School insisted on 1 teacher and TA per team. I volunteered but there weren't many volunteers. After half term we had a reduced rota in.

Still waiting to find out what will happen this term. I've joined in some online sessions with the class, going in for my Covid test tomorrow. Section 44 gone in! We were due to open on Friday originally.

I have a Y 13 who is being very good about the A levels, he did want to do them. Luckily he is very motivated, and was very happy with the remote teaching last time. I'm very, very grateful to all his teachers!

Can someone summarise the NEU zoom please? I was sorting the kids tea out at the time.
My kids' school has been overwhelmed with requests for keyworker places apparently, so they've had to go down the lone parent or 2 KW only line. So no KW place for me - which means my smallest child will continue to try to get in on every video lesson... The only door in the house with a lock is the downstairs loo, and I can't really teach from there!

@InspectorAlleyn

All staff are in all day every day with the KW/V pupils from our own classes in our usual classrooms. 53% of my class are in. Hurrah

Yes pretty much same here.

Well I'm as ready as I can be - in school with the KW children tomorrow (expecting 10 from my bubble) so lets see what happens.

Anyone who says on the other boards that 'schools are closed' is likely to get a virtual smack in the mouth!

@InspectorAlleyn

All staff are in all day every day with the KW/V pupils from our own classes in our usual classrooms. 53% of my class are in. Hurrah

That's ridiculous - aren't your SLT going to do something to get those numbers down?

I missed most of last night on here, but I’m
checking in today. We’ve received a letter from youngest’s primary that implies people are taking the loss with Keyworker provision this time. I feel really sorry for primaries.

Taking the loss? Taking the piss I meant! I blame Covid!