The Forty First Republic - Gav encourages parents to report schools to OFSTED

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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

You ok Riga? I don't understand what you're asking - are you the better off in or better off out one? I'm fortunate to live close to school so that I can balance a bit of both and be seen to be in sometimes and do a bit of kw care but can scarper off home other than that.

Interesting point re marking and directed time.

The CAG process took hours last year, never any allowance made for that....!

One possible easy way out for the government is to end all y11&13 teaching from May half term. Then use gain time as TOIL... I'm sure there are problems with this as a plan though.

No honey am not ok really. I am better off out but we all have to be in. Apparently loads of people said they prefer it and they said it's better for our mental help that we go in. They have kids in for the same but I don't begrudge then that even if y11.

If they want teachers to submit standardised work for external moderation, they're going to have to a) come up with something quickly and b) think about timescales.
I used to get my first folders from centres in early May and moderate well into June. Some years took much longer because the marking was inaccurate - which is highly likely to be the case now because of the way it's all being set up.

But they have no right to proclaim your mental health is better if in, Riga! Not if it isn’t.

@RigaBalsam I'm with you - better off out than in. I am dreading having to go in to sit alone in a classroom teaching online when I can do the same job from home. That's way more isolating than being at home on my own.
Can you talk to your SLT about it?

With my iPhone I can also scan using the Notes function

Thanks both. I am going to talk to them tomorrow but don't want to be a target or let colleagues pick up the slack.

for you Riga and MrsH too. I am much better at home. It's cold and a bit lonely, but not as cold and lonely as I would be going in to school and teaching from an empty classroom. Riga are you in a classroom with the KW/v kids or just you on your own? Either is bad for MH really. Have you spoken to your SLT?

I hate that we're all conditioned to feel so guilty when we say "I'm not coping with this". It's not right at all. We're supposed to support kids but where is the support for us?

We’re picking up the slack for the whole damn country, Riga, is where I’m at now.
Bottom line is I don’t need to do that for piss takers whose dc don’t need to be in school, I don’t need to do it for SLT tucked away in their ventilated offices only venturing out to waft on about 2m distancing while wearing a visor and I am fast reaching the point where going off with stress is an appealing option.

Riga You should be given the choice. I'm choosing to do 3 days in school and 2 at home. This works for me and our situation with children etc.

What would colleagues be doing that you can't do from home? (aside from KW care which should be a rota).

Agreed re plan for moderation ASAP. Moderation looks so different for each subject too. Maths there's not much wriggle room on exams. The mark scheme is the mark scheme. But how you then grade from that and accurately compare to other years and take into account the disparity for isolating etc is beyond me!!

@Saucery

We’re picking up the slack for the whole damn country, Riga, is where I’m at now. Bottom line is I don’t need to do that for piss takers whose dc don’t need to be in school, I don’t need to do it for SLT tucked away in their ventilated offices only venturing out to waft on about 2m distancing while wearing a visor and I am fast reaching the point where going off with stress is an appealing option.

This. Absolutely and completely this. We have all staff in, all the time, to cope with the massive influx of KWV children. This means those at home are never going to get the same level of quality teaching that those in school are getting, because I'm run off my feet.

If everyone (or even the majority) were at home I'd be freer to provide top quality online learning. And I'd feel safer as I wouldn't be in a jam-packed classroom with nothing to protect me and no possibility of social distancing.

Plus my own children would get some support themselves. At the moment I'm in school 12-13 hours a day, DH is out working FT as well, and my DDs are left home alone to get on with it. It's shit.

Have just logged ds onto teams from his console. He is going to be so happy!

to Riga and MrH

Thanks all. We are in teaching with the Kw kids infront of us probably a max of 3 per class but still.

It's awful for a lot of us.

Hi Harriet,

I agree with you completely.

The children working from home are going to get left so far behind - last Lockdown I only had 3 children in my class - So on the days I was in the children did the home learning packs each mornings and then the afternoons were filled with games etc.

However, I am currently having to teach 21 children in a classroom - Its so unfair on the children who are at home whom are pretty much getting none of my attention right now.

May half term is when their teaching would finish anyway. CAGs were time consuming last year but we weren't teaching live.

Not all schools get much gain time after May. Any teachers who leave often leave at May half term and aren't replaced until September in my place and we have a rollover timetable. My SLT will plough on with that , I am sure.

piggy we don't usually let them go until their last exam so may would be lots more time for us. We don't do a rollover TT either. How does that work with new staff?!
Perhaps start of May then? There needs to be a cut off date, after which stuff doesn't count. But making that date now is so wrong.
I

We start the new timetable 4 weeks early. New staff are invited in if they can. Old staff cover them for four weeks. It's not ideal.

@noblegiraffe

What happened with nurseries in lockdown 1?

My concern is a stupid thread about Kier. Strava saying should only open to parents with 2 KW.

the all in the shit today.

@RigaBalsam

Some people struggle with mental health staying at home. Some people struggle to go into school because of their members health. The former trumps the latter because its my job. Right?

Ugh I feel sick.

What I've been saying for months.

With our rollover , existing staff cover for staff left/not yet in place.

And yet the whole idea of bringing it in was consistency of teachers!

I had an hour’s informal meeting with my partner teacher (who is also a good friend so we don’t mind working together at the weekend) over Teams this morning.

We discussed how we have to change the briefs for the CTEC Media course because we can’t ask them to do the practical work we had planned at home. We can get up to half term Ok but then we run into real issues and if they have to complete even our adapted work from home some students are going to be at a massive disadvantage. Horrible to know that and also that we can’t really do anything about it.

We also discussed how much we are gaslit routinely by SLT and made to feel like picky/whingy/anxious worryworts when we don’t want to go into college to teach or to bring groups of students in to do practical work (!). The town has just gone into purple on the cases map, but nah, it’s all fine...anyway it does help to reassure each other that we’re NOT WRONG.

Hmm. I think my school is doing a fair bit right. Kw kids are not being taught - they are doing the same remote learning as everyone else with supervision from teachers. They are certainly not spread across the school in dribs and drabs with teachers moving - which sounds like madness to me and forces the need for far more staff on site than necessary.

Ours in year groups in various IT rooms or large space rooms such as the library. Full time staff are expected in for one day a week during which they may have one or at most two slots (of an hour) for keyworker provision and are also expected to help with duties such as making sure they get on the buses but very 'light' duties obviously. I'm part time and voluntarily doing two slots mostly because having ds go in when I'm in means he gets all of his remote learning done at school and we don't have to fight about it at home and he prefers it that way as he is very school=work, home=home.

Our definition of 'live' includes a pre recorded lesson and being present and available online for help via email, chat or meeting - this is what the guidance says. By that definition all of my lessons are live. Form tutors are doing live form time via google meet.

I'm bemused as to why schools are trying to make their staff so miserable! Our original plan was all in but as soon as the union stuff happened re: section 44 the head emailed and said they would need staff in school for keyworker provision on rota but other than that people could choose whether to work at home or in school.

I am so sorry that other secondary schools aren't doing the same. It makes no rational sense to me and having kw kids taught sets up inequity of provision and raises demand for kw places surely.

I'm sorry Riga - I don't think it's at all fair. You could go down the path of you don't want to end up getting signed off but your mental health is really suffering at being made to come into school etc and see where that gets you but only you know your slt and what the repercussions are likely to be and whether you care.