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

Yeah , more or less.

They said 'who?'

Then one said ' oh him. My mum HATES him'

They probably said... "who"?

@borntobequiet, this resonates with my Level 2 - all "failures" but often astonishingly bright and perceptive, but for whatever reason a) can't pass exams (usually because they can't write well enough or understand the questions well when written down - these students are often super sharp orally) or b) can't get themselves together to turn up and engage - often anxiety-based. The B group start to do well quite soon after starting college once they realise we give a shit, will proactively chase them up but don't ever punish unless severely necessary, just explain what behaviour is necessary for the course and why we need it. I'm not saying this would work in school as our key motivator is that we can, and will, kick them off the course and they can go to the crap college instead. The A group scrape through the BTEC exams but usually do OK with a largely coursework based subject then do level 3 with us and often end up at uni! Which from their starting point is amazing.

From a sixth form perspective behaviour and engagement has been way up this year and this lockdown. Y12 in particular who were on the whole completely abandoned by their schools in March now really appreciate the care and attention they get from us, and the social interaction of college after 6 long lonely months.

As a parent of a sixth former (actually and younger ones) I think engagement at their school is high.

The main thing my lot talk about now is that it’s so good to actually be able to concentrate now as they aren’t freezing cold! I think that was having far more of an impact than people realise-it was honestly making my kids miserable!

@noblegiraffe

I asked them what they thought of Gavin?

Gavin?

Who the fuck is Gavin?

I was going to say that!!!!

Time for a song song round the camp fire, fellow Republicans not the American kind at the moment?

Is there a polite way to point out to your colleagues that they are full time and you are 0.4 and it would be really nice if they could remember that and stop taking the piss? I could shout or cry at currently.

piggy

The mixed classes work ok for behaviour - except for year 9. Year 9 has at least 5 kids per class who are extremely disruptive.

I guess it improves behaviour across the school. You don’t end up with the “sink” classes. It’s because I’m new, differentiating is really hard, the bright kids want me to explain more challenging concepts. But some kids are still struggling with the basics.

Do you put your working days on the bottom of your emails? Might want to make it larger text and in bold

Good question. Guess the only way is to start replying "Will look at that on my next SCHOOL day"?? But I know teachers often work outside their nominal hours anyway and it's even harder to differentiate in the current situation.

I include my days and hours on my email signature as a strong hint. Maybe yours should say something like

"I am paid 40% of what you are, because I am only employed for 40% of the time."

@TheHoneyBadger

Is there a polite way to point out to your colleagues that they are full time and you are 0.4 and it would be really nice if they could remember that and stop taking the piss? I could shout or cry at currently.

I don’t think it’s rude to point out you only get paid for 0.4 days.

I’d approach the head and try and get paid for the extra days I’m working. Or am I being very naive?

Well at least I've discovered (with a little help from our SLT IT link) that, now I have downloaded the Outlook app, I can check my children's Calendars and find out when they're supposed to be in live lessons as opposed to what they might pretend.

I guess strictly I shouldn't be doing that as it's muddying work/parent boundaries, but the SLT member did instruct me! (He's not known for his "on the-ballness")

Our HT has increased some staff hours this year so it's worth a try...

I've spelt out a few things in an email. Maybe I'll regret it I am being given the same workload as a full timer and the same deadlines for the same amount of work ergo having no choice but to work on my days off in order to meet that deadline plus I seem to have ended up supporting the trainee in her planning for 2 year groups. All my hod seems to think is that I've overburdened myself by foolishly saying I will be available live in my lesson times for students but that's the core of my job - I wouldn't be ignoring my timetabled classes to sit at the front and do planning and marking - I'd be teaching them and I still want to.

Yuk. Paranoia and politics again.

the pretty silly and disruptive boys who REALLY like the status amongst their peers of being disruptive but who are really good kids at heart, are doing amazing and prompt work for me again. Like, the three who are the most in trouble in the whole year in class, and also a bit silly on Teams, are actually knuckling down and doing really good independent learning. They benefit so much more from NOT having an audience. I'm getting this as well. Some of the most disruptive pupils in my year 10 are engaging brilliantly online, obviously watching my videos carefully (I can see who's watched them, and it's obvious by the work they produce as well), and getting to grips with some tricky skills. Of course there are they other disruptive and disengaged kids who aren't producing anything at all that I can see, so they'll be miles behind the rest of the class next year, and this is the bottom set so nowhere to move them to and no funds for smaller group interventions.

Some of us have already moved to the Broom Closet, come on in!

When I moved to remote learning over the first lockdown I found that I generally got better engagement from brickies, chippies and motor vehicle apprentices than business admin, TAs and Marketing ones - which was not what I necessarily expected, especially as the trades apprentices were mainly teenage boys and the others older and female.
The lads really seemed to appreciate the individual attention, were well organised and responded very positively to feedback.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/4136271-The-Forty-Second-Republic-Lockdown-3-online-learning-struggles-continue?watched=1

42 at the ready