The Forty Third Republic - Lockdown learning continues - when is half term?

[Staffdontblowitnow]

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

Looking genuinely likely for a snow day here, what do you think the new rules are be?

New snow day rules?
Get online you lazy workshy leftie. Always wanting schools closed. Will no one think of the children??

Our FSM children who are in just eat the school lunches. All our EYFS and KS1 children who are in are getting the universal free lunch anyway.

I think we are the only village in the country that has seen no snow all year. Our nearest small town 6 miles in one direction has snow, and another 9 miles in the other direction has. The village next door has snow.

I’m childishly stamping feet and wanting to know WHY we aren’t getting any 😩

Schools in Yorks were closed the week before last to KWV children because of snow.

Did you see some vaccination hubs in Wales had to close because of snow?

DH is also having a small tantrum about no snow, but we're Cornwall so it's very unlikely.

Re: school meals, our canteen is closed, so they're all bringing packed lunches.

Urgh just come off the main Cv board. A lot of TB out there... again. Safer here.

Did teachers do online lessons when schools were snow closed?

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

Did teachers do online lessons when schools were snow closed?

My school were sent home at 11 to do online for the last 2 periods. Kids who were at home took this as school cancelled dd included. She was annoyed when I made her log in. Was at least 20 missing from her team's meeting.

We've not had to shut this time.
Last time - ages ago - we were shut for nearly a week. Increasingly desperate emails were sent asking staff to go in to help clear the site.
Then they bought a bloody snowplow thing. Bastards.

Pupil premium funding to schools cut by sneaky change in requirements: twitter.com/smithsmm/status/1352866675931144194?s=21

I only know of primary parents in Yorks, so I don't think they did.

We had a bit of snow last week and all my friends with secondary kids at other schools with full day live lessons were out sledging. Our kids mainly attended theirs, though.

[quote noblegiraffe]Pupil premium funding to schools cut by sneaky change in requirements: twitter.com/smithsmm/status/1352866675931144194?s=21[/quote]
There are no depths which this government will not plumb, are there?

Lovely for us to have snow for first time, however
I have my first day back on the rota tomorrow and was also going to get tested for first time.... I do hope it's clear one way or the other before I go to bed tonight whether school will be open or not.

Everyone seems to have snow except us-boo!

Can I ask secondary staff if your schools have implemented anything that’s been effective in reducing 5 hours of screen time for you/the kids?

I teach teeny ones so things aren’t really comparable there, but my own DC are doing mostly live lessons. School are excellent and teachers are brilliant but they’ve asked for parent thoughts on making any improvements. I’m finding my youngest KS3 child is getting to the end of the 5th hour at the laptop, moving from her desk to her bed and then falling asleep till dinner . I wonder if shorter lessons/longer lunch/more active stuff would help, but would that just mean you wouldn’t get through the content you need to?

I think some teachers do live bits at the start and end and then the kids go off in the middle to work alone-but as this is on their laptop, they’re still at the screen.

No criticism at all-we are lucky to have laptops and the teachers are superb-just musing!

We're scrapping homework in ks3, and moving from 100 mins live online to 60 mins taught time on screen and 30 mins offline work.
My big concern with this is that those staff who haven't got to grips with marking work in books online are going to come back to a mountain of marking. I'm lucky in that I only teach y10 upwards and they're mostly now trained in working in their book, photographing it then uploading to OneNote so I can mark it.

We're becoming concerned about screen time too. Like you say, anything they do independently is still screen based unless an essay question on paper. Maths they have to keep looking to see the questions.

Snow day wise, I would let my kids out to play rather than attend live lessons. Sometimes life experience is better. (I know not everyone will share my opinion).

MrsH would there be any point in marking loads of work done at home weeks later? Beyond the kids knowing you have seen it...?
I don't back mark anything. If a book hasn't been handed in etcc, I look at the last couple of lessons. They've had whole class feedback on general misconceptions and anything more specific needs to be immediate.

I’m just listening to the press conference from home and wondering how different things might have been here if when they found one case in a school they PCR tested the entire year group and their teachers. Obviously you’d still have to self isolate but you’d probably find a lot of the asymptomatic cases.

It’s not just the mitigations or lack of them that are the issue really. If we could have got the WHO’s ‘test, test, test’ to work just in schools, we’d have been in a lot better position.

Ours have approximately 3 live lessons a day, 1 prerecorded and 1 hour in their tt to complete other independent work as set by teachers. That's across all years.

I think the balance is about right. They can access the prerecorded lessons and do the independent work at any time, though we're suggesting they attempt to do it in the given tt slot and log off completely from school work by the end of the normal school day.

Just seen this post on another thread:

Have you seen the number of posts by parents saying their child couldn’t possibly wear a mask, teachers can’t teach in a mask etc. However, I guess they might change their tune if it meant schools could open after Easter

Absolutely right!

People certainly changed their tune on vaccinating teachers as soon as they thought it might open schools sooner.

Amazing how schools being closed has actually focused minds on the issue of school safety when before people were quite happy to turn a blind eye.

I thought back to how he used to get into 'flaps' (anxiety) and impulsive behaviour, bursts of energy, and an inability to work to a deadline that was more than a day ahead, it was like 'ah, I see'. Since uni he has struggled with anxiety and depression that is also linked

Yep. You've seen me being anti coursework on here mostly because I'm incapable of sustained low level input. All essays were done the night before when I'd somehow pull out a state of hyper focus and work 12 hours non stop without food or drink.

Exams at uni were three hours long. I could not do more than 2 so I'd get myself into the right'state' and the essays had to be rapid fire streams and I was out within 2 hours without fail. It's like a special state of mind and absolute focus. I can get a lot done in a short time but that's your lot and I need complete silence and zero distraction. I do all of my school work at home generally very early in the morning so I can focus.

Even when I'm not at all depressed or anxious everyday adulting is beyond me. I was thinking I'm not hyper and I'm generally not but if you leave me in the waiting room too long or in a long queue I become manically agitated and potentially embarrassingly rude. I will put off having to phone a call centre until it's absolutely essential because being on hold and going round in circles brings out crazy in me.

In my first post someone complained about my behaviour in meetings-they took not being able to sit still properly in a chair as rudeness when in fact I just wasn't capable of sitting still in a chair with my feet on the ground for extended (and boring) periods of time.

I had my own desk outside the heads office when I was at school and ended up truanting a lot but did well in exams. Stopped and started and stopped attempts at a levels and was pretty dangerously impulsive and risk taking in my late teens and twenties. I'm lucky I was bright and some people would really like me and give me chances at things my life on paper didn't merit but they could see my potential. I could pull amazing stuff out of the bag for short periods but incapable of settled, steady, consistent performance that is required to progress at anything.

Honestly I'm a bit like hmm how come adhd never crossed my mind I have a million hard learned strategies but I'm still weird and a bit adolescent. I'm great in a crisis or landing on the other side of the world in the middle of the night without a plan but everyday normal adult stuff I really struggle with

Sorry. Wrong thread I know

But will nobody think of the children. How can they be expected to wear a mask all day? They’ll be mentally scared for life.

@Appuskidu we usually have 5 x 1 hour lessons plus a tutor time.

Tutor time now just a check in with tutors - pop in check all ok leave.

KS3&4 hwk has been suspended. We’re saying end lessons at latests after 45/50 mins and try to kept KS3 to 30-40 max. We’ve preyed to encourage a mix of lessons so you might have one longer lesson (45) minutes with more input but then next few just register, short input kids do independent work and teacher walk round their garden! We definitely haven’t nailed it but are trying for both staff and students....