The Forty Fourth Republic - primaries sort of in, secondaries out, Gormless Gav says two weeks notice

[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

@JanuaryChill Zero accent here. I live in N Wales but very close to the border near Cherser. We don't sound welsh in the slightest.

@noblegiraffe

Justine Greening needs to specify where that 4 weeks of schooling will come from and who will be providing it.

Parents didn’t want the Great Summer Catch-Up last year either.

I would have thought this too. If nothing else, surely some of them have (optimistically) booked a holiday for that time.

(I sound kind of bitchy saying optimistically, and didn't intend it that way! Just feeling like I'll never have fun plans again at this point!)

Argh - radio 4 is annoying today.

Discussing vaccinating teachers to get kids back to school.

That’s like arguing pubs can open again if we vaccinate bar staff. Totally misses the issue which is community transmission.

Parents don't want summer school because they don't want to do anything that might slightly inconvenience them. Like, they wanted live lessons but now that they are having to get their children up and organised for a certain time, it's too difficult.

(Sorry, I know a lot of you are parents, and I know it is as actually difficult, but I had a run in with a parent yesterday who basically went off at me because I dared suggest her child get up at a reasonable time).

I have an East Midlands accent - the closest I’ve heard on TV is Vicky McClure. Actually the closest I’ve ever heard on screen is Shane Meadows himself - in September I was showing a video to a class of him talking about This is England and I welled up because it was so Iong since I’d heard someone else talking like that!

I am not doing summer school. Aside from the fact that I’d like to actually spend some time with my child that doesn’t involve her whining because it’s cold/rainy/boring at home, it will cost us c£1200 for four weeks nursery over the summer.

And can you imagine how not focussed the children in school would be...

I used to do a residential summer school with y10 students at the university - it was 4 days and they paid me well. 5 kids max.
Summer school to catch up this summer? I'd rather chew my own toes.

From the Fail. Does Gav even know what day it is? Dramatic headline again.

Boris Johnson admits it will take children a YEAR to catch up as it emerges education secretary wanted schools to reopen after half term but PM overruled him

One source told the Times: 'Gavin was pushing very hard. He wanted schools to reopen after February half-term and believed it could be done safely. But in the end the data on hospitalisations and infection rates won the argument.'

Gav just wants to look good. The damage is done Gav.

Labour were bloody annoying yesterday, too. Banging on all day about vaccinating teachers when Boris already said they weren't going to do it (in half term). It's like it's their one idea, a stupid "gotcha" to sound like they care, but no other ideas. I hate to say it, but it does seem like Keir and the gang's only MO: pick one unworkable or already out of date idea and keep going "if the govt would just do this, we could..."

Worst govt of all time, terrible opposition (where even are the LDs?) and a complicit media.

Chat last night on our LA whatsapp was saying how many false positives LFT have been throwing back. Surprised me as I thought this didn’t happen - nurse had three positives over few weeks since starting but all PCR tests negative. A whole nursery bubble closed due to two positives on LFT then shown to be negative by PCR. I thought they very rarely couldn’t give false positives so this really surprised me.

You have an LA WhatsApp?!

Yeah, I thought you couldn't get false positives hardly?

Geoff B on BBC right now : he is so right when he says we need to stop catastrophising.

@RandomGrammarPun sorry it’s a reps one but we have someone from nearly all schools on there. It’s been really handy tbh!

@Piggywaspushed

Geoff B on BBC right now : he is so right when he says we need to stop catastrophising.

Teachers?

Ah, that makes sense! Yes, very handy!

I have something similar (only an email group) because of a certain aspect of my role and it's so useful knowing how 25/30 other schools are approaching things. My colleagues/Head are always asking "do you know what other schools are doing for X?"

Presumably catastrophising re lost learning time?

@RandomGrammarPun

Presumably catastrophising re lost learning time?

Phew! That makes sense. Think I have listened to my SLT too much.

I've been told by staff who've watched my recorded lessons that I should be a bedtime story teller on a sleep app. I'm quite softly spoken (but foul mouthed) and don't have an accent apparently but when pissed I've been accused of being West Country or Cornish.

Non work today and need to deal with the kitchen bomb site and laundry back log. Sadly I also have to force ds to do loads of work as he's been really slack this week.

1700+ deaths yesterday. We're a long way from being through this.

And it won't be me doing summer school because flights are rebooked.

I have been really disappointed with Kier, too.

I also disagree it will take a year to catch up for all students. We caught a lot of the content taught over the summer in about 4 weeks this year- because most students had at least some familiarity with it, but we just had to clarify the more difficult points.

This time around students are more engaged, we are doing more live lessons and whilst there will be gaps, they won't be insurmountable. The issue is the hardcore 20-30% who are just doing nothing- they will have big gaps and they will struggle compared to their peers when we return.

We didn't have lots of disruption last term, though.

I do think there will be students soon who did nothing last lockdown, had a very disrupted autumn term, have done nothing this lockdown, and have basically got out of the habit of learning/doing work. I do think re-engaging them with education will be a challenge. But they are not the majority of students- and I think strategies to re-engage them need to be well thought out, because they are not the sorts of students who will come to summer school or after school catch up or engage with online tutoring either.

No riga the public.

Did anyone catch the (usually very good) Charlie Stayt talking to a primary school HT like she was 5?

He actually meant catastrophising re mental health. In the nicest possible way I think he was asking parents not to communicate their catastrophising to their children, which we know they do.

I have very little accent too, but since living in Cornwall I say the odd word Cornish, and when I'm angry I get what DH calls "the Brummie rage" and go all "Northern". (Everything past Bude is considered Northern)