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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

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

999 replies

Staffdontblowitnow · 20/01/2021 21:25

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

OP posts:
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ChloeDecker · 26/01/2021 08:02

5 lesson day followed by 3 hour parents' evening. Am destroyed.

That’s exactly what I have in store for me today! Just gearing up for Form time in a few minutes.

Well done on surviving yesterday and sorry you had that rude parent.

Stepawayfromtheminirolls · 26/01/2021 08:04

@Fossie I have an xp pen deco01 v2, slightly more expensive than the one MrsH has (£60), only difference is it works with android phones as well. The writing space is A4+, sensitivity is great and I'm using it to give feedback on maths work.

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 08:09

GravityFalls It's true, though.

People do want their children back - and working from home plus schooling is hard.
However, people don't want transmission spiralling.

People want safe opening for schools.

That's both the strength of U4T - they are organising around the first part of this sentiment.

And it's their Achilles Heel - they can't and won't organise or promise a safe return.

The Mumsnet survey just highlights how hard people - women mainly - are finding this.

U4T can use that as a recruiting tool - but their flaw, which needs to be highlighted, is that most people don't want an unsafe return, with figures spiralling, and yet more lockdown.

People want an end to this - not a never-ending cycle, with a vaccine-resistant virus.

The MN survey also touched on how the problem of the demands of work have been rendered invisible - pushed into the home - and people (mainly women) are bearing a really heavy cost.

So, it mainly tells us that the government response has failed.

When you have a situation like this, people are looking for a narrative - to explain the situation and to offer a plan to change it.

It's no surprise that a group like U4T will spring up, offering a narrative.

I guess our job is to explain why their narrative is flawed - and to offer a better narrative.

Sadly, we don't have the heft and backing of U4T.

But, again, that disparity is suspicious, can be pointed out, and may yet become an Achilles Heel, too.

You know, it is extraordinary that U4T have greater resources to push their narrative than a major Union like the NEU. Because, of course, the NEU have had a good narrative for almost a year - safe return, with lots of detail.

It's extraordinary to compare how hard the NEU worked to disseminate that narrative - and yet, despite that, very few people know it.

Compare that problem of 'reach' with U4T - a supposedly grassroots group of Mums.

Wild.

Fossie · 26/01/2021 08:15

[quote Stepawayfromtheminirolls]@Fossie I have an xp pen deco01 v2, slightly more expensive than the one MrsH has (£60), only difference is it works with android phones as well. The writing space is A4+, sensitivity is great and I'm using it to give feedback on maths work.[/quote]
Oooh. Many thanks both.

Just to add to the conversation, uni DD says no one she knows thinks schools should be fully open right now. I know her age-group have nothing to lose saying that but it was refreshing to hear.

RandomGrammarPun · 26/01/2021 08:19

Consultant on BBC News this morning in a hospital in Mansfield: "peak in hospital capacity this region is still expected to be early February."

This thing is nowhere near close to being over.

Cracklefraggle · 26/01/2021 08:22

Urgh - slept through alarms, just up now and 'on' at 8.45. Was awake at 3 after another wierd dream (been having LOTS) and couln't breathe properly so got up for inhalers and ended up marking until 5.30am. Did the classic 'I'll just go back for an hour' Angry

Iamthemilitanttendency · 26/01/2021 08:24

Gosh, I hope you aren't talking of your Amazon buys. Putting warehouse operatives and delivery drivers at risk with your selfish self financing of remote education.

phlebasconsidered · 26/01/2021 08:27

2 teachers asymptomatic, 1 very ill quite suddenly hence the panicky roll out of lft to staff yesterday!

ItsIgginningtolooklikelockdown · 26/01/2021 08:27

Well I was popping on to ask if anyone had bought a headset/mic from Amazon and could recommend one, but I think I'll leave that till later!

SansaSnark · 26/01/2021 08:32

I think it depends who you talk to in terms of who has heard what narrative- a lot of my friends who don't have kids haven't heard of U4T, and don't really understand why people are pushing for schools to go back ASAP with no mitigation. I think there are a lot of people out there who don't want schools to go back because of the risk of cases going back up, and everything else being locked down for longer.

Locally, there's a real fear of losing another Easter- a lot of tourism based businesses are barely hanging on. I think a lot of people locally would priorities the tourism trade over a full school return- which is pretty much the opposite view to mumsnet.

I don't know if it's relevant that our cases locally are super high compared to last term (albiet coming down), but people around here are scared. We have parents refusing key worker/vulnerable provision (secondary).

Also just found out that a child in school tested positive yesterday on lateral flow- so we've closed a whole bubble of keyworker provision. I know local primaries have had bubble closures too. Things like that obviously make people nervous about school reopening- whereas in areas where maybe that isn't happening it feels different?

I think we need to get the message out to the wider population- i.e. people with no stake in education. They care about their communities being more unsafe, and aren't struggling with having children at home. Most of them have some empathy with teachers wanting a safe working environment, too!

SansaSnark · 26/01/2021 08:34

Sorry, that should say prioritize, in my last post.

DreamingofBrie · 26/01/2021 08:39

Honey, sorry to hear about your flights Sad.

EnemyOfEducationNo1 · 26/01/2021 08:45

Oh my god - just weighed myself. I knew I'd put weight on but didn't realise is got up to the highest weight I achieved while 9 months pregnant!!! I am very nearly obese and have put on exactly 2 stone in one year SadBlush
I have also just woken up. Dd2 kept sleep walking (4 times) and Ds wanted to get up at 2am as he was convinced it was morning

Big hugs to everyone. Sorry to hear about your flights Honey.

Appuskidu · 26/01/2021 08:58

God, the troops really have been rallied this morning, haven’t they?!

If Bojo decides to announce before half term that schools (primaries?) will have to open after half term, I wonder how many people will opt to resign at the end of Feb. It’s tempting.

Fed up with it all again-nothing will change, schools will open as before with no different measures and it will start all over. But teachers should ‘suck it up’ and T4T with their twatto Tory backing will win. They don’t give a shit about kids and mental health and they never did.

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 08:59

@ItsIgginningtolooklikelockdown

Well I was popping on to ask if anyone had bought a headset/mic from Amazon and could recommend one, but I think I'll leave that till later!

I'll amplify that for you.

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 09:05

Honey I know. Optimistically, I bought tickets for 2 music performances. Both cancelled.
I know it's not in the same league but a little bit of me crumbled with the cancellations.

EnemyofEducationNo1 Me too. I think it's the fretting - it seems to lead me to biscuits. I'm trying to be more organised about really forcing myself to go for my walk.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 26/01/2021 09:34

I've got a thousand pounds tied up with a festival booking - that'll be cancelled won't it?! How long is it OK for a company to have loads of money tied up 'just in case'?

up to the highest weight I achieved while 9 months pregnant

This is me too. Actually, it's not - it was in September, I'm a bit better now.

Anyway... came in to share some nice things:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the job you are doing with the class. In these extraordinary circumstances we feel you very close and the job you are doing is amazing. The daily meetings you are organizing with the children are helping Bill to keep him focused and to understand the things he can't understand alone.

Thank you for your feedback last week (was an excellent learning opportunity for the entire family)! Looking forward to receiving your comments on the work for this week too!

thank you so much for all your hard work and support!

That is what the vast majority of parents are thinking.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 26/01/2021 09:40

Wild.

This is how I feel about it all. I'm in this weird mood spiral of being furious about it all, and being almost excited about how fucking crazy it all is, and how it really can't be sustained. This level of corruption and failure. It's like a film.

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 09:55

That's a lovely email. Rule.

And that description of how film-like and unsustainable this all feels resonates too.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 26/01/2021 09:59

That's 3 different emails - considering I'm only hearing regularly from 5 parents, that's a majority. Ha.

I've just done my day's input to the crazies on health, staying off now!

The whole 'get back to school' thing has gone fucking mental again, hasn't it!! Why all of a sudden? It's so obviously organised. Or maybe 4 weeks in parents are at the end of the tethers!

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 10:04

Rule in another thread, RedToothBrush has suggested the timing of this sudden, spontaneous burst of interest is down to the fact Johnson's coronavirus measures come up for another vote at the end of March.

So this is all about building pressure for that.

The CRG will be trying to get MPs to vote against Johnson.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 26/01/2021 10:20

Oh OK.

Rock and a hard place for Johnson. Couldn't have happened to a 'nicer' chap.

Cantaloupeisland · 26/01/2021 11:05

It is bizarre isn't it how there's suddenly been an explosion of schools coverage.
I'm getting so sick of the 'mental health' line - I'm sorry if it sounds callous but some of the hyperbole around it is ridiculous. Children in Syrian refugee camps are suffering. Children without a roof over their heads are suffering. Kids having to do their school work online for a bit instead of in school are not. Obviously it's not ideal but this narrative about how their lives will be ruined forever is ridiculous. Have we learned nothing? If the government bow to pressure from us4them, tory mps etc and reopen too soon we'll just be back to square one. Why can't people put their own bloody entitlement to one side for a bit?

SansaSnark · 26/01/2021 11:14

The mental health line really annoys me too because I had a lot of students struggling with their mental health last term too. The uncertainty of being in school, but knowing they might be sent home or get ill, or things changing a lot during the term was not great for students with eg anxiety.

And some of those students are doing better now.

But the mental health of those students apparently doesn't matter?

thecatfromjapan · 26/01/2021 11:23

Oh, the mental health issue is very real, unfortunately.

My offspring are worrying me.

But how the answer to that is something that doesn't include addressing the pitiful under-funding of actual, real mental health professionals and organisations, I don't know.

I think there's no way of dismissing the mental health effects. They are too real. And they are pretty bad.

But there is no way on God's earth that the answer is to re-open school's unsafely and perpetuate this awful situation.

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