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

I didn't know you could mute them in the team area to shut them up altogether!? I don't think my SLT know either. I might need that teams guide...

In London on Christmas Day 1 in every 18 secondary pupils had Covid....

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pupil-infection-rates-proof-schools-19601620?fbclid=IwAR1xzli1dfgwFAkKxqRmpFkiD9khh_4aw4MK03hhl-d5ojXZ5NtEvtgrwu8

@Frlrlrubert

I didn't know you could mute them in the team area to shut them up altogether!? I don't think my SLT know either. I might need that teams guide...

I think it stops them posting in the posts bit within the team, am going to check if it prevents them from writing in the chat tomorrow. I will be able to report back at 1.30....

We have asked everyone to ensure that the students join as attendees by making the 'who can present' option to 'only me'. This means they can't admit others from the lobby or take over the presentation, or chuck others out, or mute teachers or others etc... If they are attendees then that allows the teacher to make it so they can't even unmute themselves to talk - either individuals or class as a whole. If you make it so they can't unmute themselves then in order to speak they would need to put their hand up and then you get the option to unmute them (they need hand up otherwise it doesn't show the option!).

Steep learning curve and we've had some, um, tricky behaviour from one year group today.....

For after you boot them out of Teams
www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/bbc-put-on-detention-afternoon-for-misbehaving-little-bastards-20210112204202

Not what I need when I'm in school all day with KW. Cant sleep as have horrific pain down my right arm - think it's a trapped nerve. Any suggestions on how to ease it? Paracetamol isnt touching it!

@MsAwesomeDragon

Thank you. I hadn't thought to open it as a side show 🤦. I forgot those buttons exist at the bottom.

Now how about writing on a pdf? I want to annotate an exam paper. Is snip and sketch the quickest/easiest way?

@MsAwesomeDragon I can only ink on pdf if I open it in Edge, not Acrobat. In Edge, you get a "draw" option on the top menu, choose your colour and thickness and away you go .

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Our chat is blocked. I mute them all, if they keep unmuting themselves, I boot them out. No time for fuckery.

I let them unmute themselves but I've either got 6th form or fairly sensible classes this year.

However, the boy who permanently had his hand up in class (inevitably to tell me he didn't get it, even when I'd just started explaining), now permanently has his hand up in Teams...

@MrsHamlet

I really like one note. It's become a bit of an obsession.

Same here, for all of the reasons you and Noble have mentioned.

I'm one of those who quite likes an interactive whiteboard , totally miss my enormous Promethean board from my NQT days. They are phasing Smart out at school which upsets me because all of my ks3 and 4 lessons are on Smart. Might try OneNote for teaching. I love it for working from my laptop and keeping the kids' notes organised, but in the classroom there was a lag between writing on OneNote on the IWB which I couldn't get to grips with.

I'm also snipping worksheets into OneNote and leaving gaps for working. Love it.

Yes it does, because I did it accidentally for one class and none of them could type in chat . I did it before the meeting though, not sure if it works mid meeting?

Sorry, quote fail, that was in response to does it stop them typing.

One note fans, how do the students write maths on it? We have visualisers which we use to model to them, but they're currently photographing work to upload to teams.

@JanuaryChill

In London on Christmas Day 1 in every 18 secondary pupils had Covid....

[[https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pupil-infection-rates-proof-schools-19601620?fbclid=IwAR1xzli1dfgw]]FAkKxqRmpFkiD9khh_4aw4MK03hhl-d5ojXZ5NtEvtgrwu8

And there you have it....

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation we do similar but get them to scan written work using Adobe scan (free) and then upload to notebook. I like to see their writing!

@EvilEdnasEnemiesOfEducation thanks! I teach twins today so have done it for one of them to see what happens whilst the other one can report back hopefully not muted 🤣

If you are using Microsoft 365 then my advice for scanning work is to ask them to install the OneDrive app on their phone. In that there is a little camera button that they can use to scan documents and it automatically crops them and turns them into pdfs. If they sign into the app with their school account it saves them straight into their school OneDrive and they can send it on teams super easily. I’ve been using it extensively since September as we had a total ban on collecting in paper for marking. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to kids handing me bits of paper or exercise books now. The pdfs are much better than image files for navigating and viewing, I find.

I don’t use one note though, I prefer the assignment feature. Particularly useful for tests and exam questions/essays where you can assign point because it keeps a grade book for you with all of their marks for their different tests and assignments.

They either scribe directly into OneNote or it's a combination of using Office Lens (which makes life much easier) or taking photos and uploading (usually in some random order and orientation .

You can assign pages in one note to assignments. That's how I'm collecting work now - I set up the page in the lesson and add a link to the video of the lesson + any handouts + any photos of my musings, then assign it and they add their photo of their work which I then annotate with my magic pen.
Right ... off I go to have a meeting that I could have had on teams.

MrsHamlet- that is useful to know, thanks. I may need to give OneNote another go. I really hated it when I used it before but it’s probably moved on a lot in the decade since I last seriously used it.

Well , this is an annoying article :

www.independent.co.uk/voices/gcse-student-teachers-exam-grades-b1783359.html?fbclid=IwAR0NI9iwEvDjXGobF_UeXCU7wpzP7hfEzW-gdHbZg4OSPmJy0EqTldncCaI

Anyone else follow the ALGI group on Facebook? Denis Sherwood aside, hysterical teacher bashers who have never understood the concept of predicted grades.

Now that they think their precious exams are being replaced with 'exams' they are whining about teachers marking them because we are all biased (against their white middle class children...). They are like the U4T brigade when they bleat on about disadvantage. When , in reality, their kids just don't work very hard or have unrealistic expectations, half the time. All began with the cock ups over Gav's algorithm , of course

Really boils my piss.

Yeah, that's not written by a student.

It's too good for most and too bad for the very brightest. Also filled with hyperbole and exaggerates everything from the length of the first lockdown (wasn't nine months!) to how long before they could see their friends (clue: I doubt many didn't meet up over summer?)

@JanuaryChill

In London on Christmas Day 1 in every 18 secondary pupils had Covid....

[[https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pupil-infection-rates-proof-schools-19601620?fbclid=IwAR1xzli1dfgw]]FAkKxqRmpFkiD9khh_4aw4MK03hhl-d5ojXZ5NtEvtgrwu8

This also boils my piss. Whitty saying we are not a high risk profession like social care workers. We KNEW that already. No one goes into teaching for the thrill of medical risk. If he can't see that it is an enormous stress on the profession to suddenly be nearly as risky as frontline social care and medical staff then he is deluded and arrogant. He is yet again being allowed to make a generalised comment with no call for evidence. I wish journalists would ask him. But because he is the CMO , they assume he has evidence and is correct. It's that old fashioned respectful awe factor.

I have my doubts about him anyway, ever since he appeared at the select committee and said' medical staff, like me'

Anyway, Hancock would say schools are safe because most of the children have no symptoms so they are safe.

Anyone else follow the ALGI group on Facebook?

I did back in Sept when you recommended it to me after my school was being sued by parents and I found it so absolutely upsetting that I left.

Most of the complaints were parents refusing to take the Autumn exams because ‘why should they?’ And wanting to take the legal route instead. The bile spouted at teachers and not the government who washed their hands of the debacle, was appalling.

It’s great to see so many of you using Notebook.

I really like it but I’m one of the few in my school who uses it. Some of the kids get to grips with it straight away, but others really seem to struggle with just clicking on the right tab.

Does anyone have any top tips for getting pupils on Notebook?

@RandomGrammarPun

Yeah, that's not written by a student.

It's too good for most and too bad for the very brightest. Also filled with hyperbole and exaggerates everything from the length of the first lockdown (wasn't nine months!) to how long before they could see their friends (clue: I doubt many didn't meet up over summer?)

Totally agree. Very fishy article.

John Deeks interviewed about LFTs on R4 Today Programme, ended at 07:18. Plus one Daniel Elliot from Innova. Deeks has published a BMJ paper, warning of allowing more, not less infection to spread in schools. Elliot claimed it was fine because they're better at picking up high viral load cases than the low ones which are less likely to transmit.

Neither mentioned Deeks's own trials at Birmingham, only the Liverpool mass testing. Don't know why, will try and check to see if the BMJ article does.

Deeks said he has 3 children at school himself.