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

[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

Sorry I should have said that 6th form and year 11 are having actual live live lessons more. I forget because I'm not teaching exam groups this year (which is a big bloody relief with the way things are).

Thanks honey. I think its my only option.

Draft an email today but don't send it and sleep on it. Read it again in the morning and see how you feel. I'm learning to do this rather than just firing stuff off! I'm sure they'd rather have you working remotely than signed off completely.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-legal-fight-looms-over-lack-laptops-poor-pupils?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Interesting!

@TheHoneyBadger

Draft an email today but don't send it and sleep on it. Read it again in the morning and see how you feel. I'm learning to do this rather than just firing stuff off! I'm sure they'd rather have you working remotely than signed off completely.

Funny you should say that. I wrote one in my notes yesterday. Have sent to my friend, sister and dh. I keep reading it.

I am holding off but don't want to regret not sending it either.

Thanks honey

The other one that has irked me this time, is social workers saying they are using a KW place because their children can't hear the sort of stuff they have to talk about on video calls. Erm, if you'd actually been in people's homes, been in schools and you know, doing your actual fucking job since last March, there would be less of this stuff for you to be talking about. Instead you've been staying home waiting for vaccines, which apparently you'll be getting before teachers.

The KW use at my child's school is kicking right off. One parent who is a teacher... a yoga teacher, is using the KW provision, even though her partner is at home. That vital online yoga stuff. Also a dog groomer is putting her kids in because she is 'animal care'. She has one of those trailers like a mobile dog shower. Ha.

Meanwhile, my 73 year old mum, who is still working full time, has been asked to go into people's houses to measure up for curtains, and the client got cross when mum said no.

I'm not sure that the whole 'community support' and 'be kind' thing is going to work this time!!

@Appuskidu

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-legal-fight-looms-over-lack-laptops-poor-pupils?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Interesting!

Very interesting. I hadn't thought about that inequalities angle, I must admit.

SW need to talk to their employers about those confidential calls. There must be a way round it. Headphones for a start.

COVID-19: Teachers to be considered for next vaccination wave news.sky.com/story/covid-19-teachers-to-be-considered-for-next-vaccination-wave-12184134

Ah well nice to be considered. I'm guessing it's a peace keeping ply tbh.

*Ploy

And it removes one plank of the teachers' arguments against opening schools, possibly the one which the government believes to be the main motivation of the unions.

Riga, I know my advice often isn't of much use as I'm in a different country. We absolutely do home learning or cover keyworker dc, we don't do both (ie you might go in one day on a rota for the keyworkers, you wouldn't teach your other classes while you were doing that).
If you feel it's not safe to be in, what we would do here is ask for an individual risk assessment. This can include medical info but also anxiety is perfectly appropriate to use as a reason. But firstly no one is to be in our schools who isn't directly required for supervision. And we don't have stupid rules about only needing one keyworker etc.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

The other one that has irked me this time, is social workers saying they are using a KW place because their children can't hear the sort of stuff they have to talk about on video calls. Erm, if you'd actually been in people's homes, been in schools and you know, doing your actual fucking job since last March, there would be less of this stuff for you to be talking about. Instead you've been staying home waiting for vaccines, which apparently you'll be getting before teachers.

I put in the broom closet that one of our year 10s is in every day because his mum is a social worker who can work in the office but has decided she prefers working from home than having to drive into work and then is using the 'confidential' bit to justify telling him he has to come into school every single day. She also can't be arsed to drive him in so the poor sod is walking a mile and a half each way five days a week so she can work in her slippers.

I suggested he tried negotiating with her that maybe she could go to the office Tuesdays and Thursdays so he could stay at home those days and they could share the load but that was when he told me she couldn't even be arsed to drive him in. Poor sod. I'm fairly sure she could work with headphones and close the door anyway. He's literally stuck in the same room at school 5 days a week at a computer.

Thanks mist.
That sounds reasonable. It's really strange as they were so good in the first lockdown.

This is why I don't understand the envy about kw places - I feel really sorry for the ones who are stuck there all the time. I wouldn't make ds do it full time and wouldn't have made him do it at all if he hadn't been up for it.

Obviously he's 13 and I'm secondary and it's very different with primary age but teenagers stuck in school every day is pretty sad and I think a lot of the staff just assume they're all at risk or something. I had to have words about everything being labelled as being for "the vulnerables" on emails and registers etc. My son goes ffs and most of the ones we have are kw kids. Sometimes leafy schools are a bit dim on what is acceptable.

I know I'm always banging on about unions but really, what do they say about this? They don't necessarily know what's happening in your school without someone complaining.
Our secondary keyworker dc all need to be 2m apart so that reduces the numbers that could be in one room. Doesn't apply to primary though.

@Piggywaspushed

This si what Hancock said about safe schools. is anyone as confused as me? It sounds like something a confused MNer has said:

"But the challenge is that because children often catch it asymptomatically – I mean adults do too right, a third of adults who get Covid don't have any symptoms at all but do pass it on.
"With children that proportion is much, much higher and so schools can still cause spread while being safe for the children who are in.
"So that's the precise explanation for why the prime minister was right to say schools are both safe but they do contribute to the spread which is why unfortunately we have had to close them."

Isn’t he just trying to cover up for the fact that Boris has been using safe in a very ‘specific and limited’ way when schools are an issue for multiple reasons.

They could probably explain it in a way that was clear if they weren’t tied to explaining all their policies in 3 word slogans.

@Mistressiggi

I know I'm always banging on about unions but really, what do they say about this? They don't necessarily know what's happening in your school without someone complaining. Our secondary keyworker dc all need to be 2m apart so that reduces the numbers that could be in one room. Doesn't apply to primary though.

Ours are so not 2m apart. 20-odd per computer room.

Consent letter from my school has come out and it does indeed say LFTs will stop the need for students or staff to SI.

It is disappointing that the unions have gone quiet on this.

I am not going to consent for the meantime. When I go to school I literally do not go near anyone all day. There also doesn't seem to be anyway to consent to the mass /weekly testing but opt out of the contact testing.

Still no one has explained why schools ahve to do nose and throat.

You can at ours, Piggy. I've said yes to mass testing but not instead of isolating.

Honey - that's bizarre that your school is referring to them all as Vulnerables. We're doing the opposite and calling the whole group the "Key Workers" even though it's about 50:50. Just seems politer/more sensitive.

It's ignorance. I pointed out by email the problem to the slt member who was leading the charge with it and reminded him my son was one of them. I didn't get a response but noticed he's changed his language to kw and v. It is not news to me that he is a dickhead.

I've had to address assumptions about pp students before too. Up until this year ds was on the pp register because I was on disability benefits and he on fsm for part of his reception year. Conversely I've had to highlight that kids of the working poor won't be on the pp register and don't assume it's only pp kids who don't have printers or disposable income for revision guides or overpriced trips etc.

I've just remembered ds coming out of primary one day with a sticker on his chest saying, 'I haven't paid for my trip yet' I literally couldn't believe my eyes and that the staff thought it was ok to LITERALLY label him.

I so know what you mean Honey! My two are PP also.

PP is a very rough guide to who might be from a disadvantaged family, and the reasons for that disadvantage can be many and varied.

at the label!