The Forty Second Republic - Lockdown 3 online learning struggles continue

[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

Appuskidu and Enemy yes I think you're right. We have up to 15 children in a class at ours, so probably similar in other local primaries.

I sympathise Monkey - I have diagnosed myself with lupus today because of the weird red rash across the bridge of my nose and cheek bones.

monkey

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-says-mass-testing-in-schools-will-still-go-ahead-despite-fresh-concerns/?fbclid=IwAR1RSLp5UsxQPqdBcQcyyJ0D5GqXP6kWzfft9WO2nMeZlcdKy3iBNWSH6hY

[quote RigaBalsam]schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-says-mass-testing-in-schools-will-still-go-ahead-despite-fresh-concerns/?fbclid=IwAR1RSLp5UsxQPqdBcQcyyJ0D5GqXP6kWzfft9WO2nMeZlcdKy3iBNWSH6hY[/quote]
What the actual ?!!

I am speechless.

That's just the mass testing of non contacts/no symptoms kids. Don't panic.

LFT instead of isolation is clearly denounced in that article and elsewhere - I really can't see the government going ahead with that gem without being totally humiliated in the spotlight by all medical bodies and unions. They will hope to let that quietly die away and pretend they only ever intended it for mass testing anyway imo.

Hopping in

I didn't do google meet. I've played this game before with people who manage to avoid addressing anything awkward in writing. She can put it in an email.

Are you me?!? 🤣🤣🤣 I do this too.... if forced into a meeting I then say as little as nothing other than “if ok I’m going to make notes so I don’t get anything wrong!” And then follow up with and email saying “so just to confirm following our meeting earlier you are asking me to....” and then add the bit I said earlier about time!

This MHRA thing is beginning to smell rotten to me. I smell a cover up.

I think that's the right thing too, Honey.
Have also emailed re workload today, will see what comes up. Does anyone else has pinging all around them? There are four people in the house all currently working from teams and when it beeps we just look at eachother - who was the that? Is it important? Is there something else I have to do?
Really pleased that the ping I just heard turned out to be a calendar notification that my online shopping is coming!

@Piggywaspushed

This MHRA thing is beginning to smell rotten to me. I smell a cover up.

I hope the MHRA don’t allow this to be covered up.

LFT instead of isolation is clearly denounced in that article and elsewhere - I really can't see the government going ahead with that gem without being totally humiliated in the spotlight by all medical bodies and unions. They will hope to let that quietly die away and pretend they only ever intended it for mass testing anyway imo

I really hope you’re right on that. I hope LEAs just refuse to have anything to do with it and SI as a policy continues.

Ugh, just had teams basically crash on me during a teams lesson- incredibly frustrating and ended up having to leave the lesson early.

I think the issue might have been the volume of messages in the chat (well over 1000%) or possibly school server related (not sure if this is relevant as I'm at home, but the recordings are on the school server I think).

Anyway, I think I'm about ready to jack it in for the week.

Teams in the app crashes for me every time I start a video lesson - works OK in the browser but I can't blur my background or see people as tiles or basically anything useful.

committees.parliament.uk/work/202/the-impact-of-covid19-on-education-and-childrens-services/news/138517/education-committee-scrutinises-the-science-behind-school-closures/

No doubt this will be interesting. Viner who published that study way back at the start of lockdown 1 saying school didn’t spread covid and Jenny Harries who lies and thinks children wouldn’t share food.

No doubt schools would be open full time the next day if it were down to them!

I record all scheduled meetings, citing my age-related forgetfulness. It has the added advantage of preventing me from shooting my mouth off, which I’m prone to do.

@chocolateisavegetable

I've just looked at how many schools within our county council have reported cases within the last 10 days. It seems like a lot, but what I find really interesting is that less than 10% are secondary. I realise that it could be staff - but why would staff in primary be more likely to get it than secondary. I also realise that there are less secondary schools than primary, but that ratio does seem particularly low.

In addition to the larger class sizes mentioned by others, we aren't able to social distance in the same way as secondaries. The kids don't wear masks in the hallways, and especially in the lower years we can't expect them to put on a plaster or anything like that for themselves (and I tend to have to do at least one first aid per day on our kids even at reduced numbers). We also usually have someone crying a few times a week, and for a kid that little you can't really shout 'there there, go get a tissue' from 2 meters away. I wear a mask when I get close to a kid's space now, but keeping them at a distance just isn't always possible, and masks are largely for protecting those around you.

May also just increasingly reflect the way that the new variant affects younger children equally?

Sometimes deleting the app and reinstalling helps. Also checking it for updates.

@SansaSnark nightmare but nice early Friday finish?!?!

@JanuaryChill

May also just increasingly reflect the way that the new variant affects younger children equally?

Gosh I hope not but that would back up some of the stuff I've seen reported.

OMG you couldn't have a MORE biased panel than Viner and Harries!!!

Have discovered Friday is possibly the short straw for KWV supervisions, they've all finished the work set during the week so have nothing to do if not many live lessons.

I had all our Y9, 10,11 in the library, it was hard going by the afternoon.... especially as the Y11 girls were apparently all quietly upset with me for "interfering".... not that they said anything directly of course.

And not an educationalist in sight...

I knew it! What the fuck is wrong with the DfE?!

Secondary guys:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/952865/How_GCSE__AS_and_A_level_grades_should_be_awarded_in_summer_2021.pdf

May also just increasingly reflect the way that the new variant affects younger children equally?

If it's a similar picture across the other councils, then definitely

In addition to the larger class sizes mentioned by others, we aren't able to social distance in the same way as secondaries.

Very good point