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
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-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
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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

@noblegiraffe

From my AIBU poll it looks like we won't have to worry about being asked to work the summer holidays.

Daily Mail reporting that the plan would get 'significant pushback from unions' as if they're thwarting the demands of parents once again.

Justine Greening is talking bollocks - maybe she wants to go back to Education?

Full time teachers are in 1 day a week and working the rest at home obviously. TAs are in 3 days a week and not sure what at home.

Coop was packed but I have gin and low calorie reduced price ice cream in case munchies hit this weekend. If they make too many sandwiches for fsm kids they end up in the staff room and I ended up sat next to them after my kw session.

Processed white bread with processed faux chicken, yum. I don't generally even eat bread but they were very addictive. I won't need dinner tonight. Gin definitely called for though and low carb option to make up for the bread fest.

Only work three days a week but the trying to then catch my 8 year old up with all the work he's not done in those 3 days is pushing me over the edge. I'm feeling very cruel

Call me a cynical old curmudgeon but I am a bit worried about this much student voice. I doubt they are a very wide representative sample.

schoolsweek.co.uk/students-make-up-half-of-respondents-to-largest-ever-exams-consultation/

You're a cynical old curmudgeon
But you're our cynical old curmudgeon

I thought we were all cynical old curmudgeons on here 😯

From that article:
Ofqual said it had drawn in “extra resource” to deal with the deluge, with a team reading “all the responses” as they are submitted. However the regulator refused to provide details of how many people are working on it.

Gosh, maybe they recruited from all the extra staff Ofsted needed when Gav invited parents to send in their criticisms of school provision, and they did the opposite?

Yes but that argument is rubbish because I'm sure there are a similar number of secondary children with key worker parents, but the rates in this age group are going down. I always regret going on the data thread, although follow it avidly, because they hate school discussions and are really not impartial.

@JanuaryChill

Do we have any thoughts as to why rates are staying high in primary age children? Just been discussed on Data thread (which fortunately has some teachers on!)

We know 20% of them are in school but that is only 20%. So is it thebeffect of childcare bubbles, illicit play dates etc etc? Someone suggested it was important to remember those 20% aren't random, they are the children of critical workers or perhaps from chaotic, deprived, or crowded homes. So more vulnerable to infection. But I don't know if that's enough to explain it.

Sorry my last comment was in response to January.

piggy I too am worried about the student voice. Its a bit like when the 'fun' teachers always come out looking good from a student voice but end up with crap exam results because they don't actually learn anything.

I think they're slowly coming round @lonelyplanet .... but I know what you mean!

But there are 4 times fewer secondary pupils in school than primary. (20 vs 5 %). And I guess if it's true that the 'uninfected pool' is a factor, until recent months that age group were much less infected?

47,000 Y11 and Y13s interacting with a boring old school-type organisation who don't have a TikTok account, give prizes or even feed them, 🤔

What do you think an alternative explanation is Curmudgeon, sorry, Piggy?

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

piggy I too am worried about the student voice. Its a bit like when the 'fun' teachers always come out looking good from a student voice but end up with crap exam results because they don't actually learn anything.

Let's face it they are going to see "I'm in year 11/13 and think this...." and the old delete button is going to go into overdrive at Ofqual.

I guess I juts think that those students will tend to be affluent, intelligent and therefore most pro any system that they feel advances them.I can't imagine too many PP students, or SEN are having their voices heard. Likewise, the parents that have filled them in (although there may be parents of SEN)

It's one of these cases where those in education probably are the most informed.

I encouraged my year 13 to do it, but they're mostly middle class affluent.

Yes piggy you're right

I'm even more cynical and think they'll mostly be parents pretending to be a year 11/13. Bit like when you can tell that the email from a student is definitely from a parent.

Yes, that too...

@JanuaryChill

I think they're slowly coming round *@lonelyplanet* .... but I know what you mean!

But there are 4 times fewer secondary pupils in school than primary. (20 vs 5 %). And I guess if it's true that the 'uninfected pool' is a factor, until recent months that age group were much less infected?

I agree the unaffected pool could be a factor, but I also suspect that many primary kids were never tested because they didn't have classic symptoms. That was the case when it circulated in my classroom.

Yes lonely.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/55841748 - BBC Fact-check on the ONS deaths by profession report.

And definitely in year 7.

In one class I teach, we had a surge of "stomach upsets" where the dc either were or weren't in school but never got tested, followed by the same dc being off in isolation because parents had tested positive. This was a group of students all in the same class, who all sit near one another, whose parents apparently all separately contracted Covid one after another across the space of about 2/3 weeks. The dc only had headaches or stomachaches. None of them were tested. Except them one of them had an older sibling with more classic symptoms who was tested positive towards the end of this mini wave, meaning their bubble did close. I would put all my savings on the year 7s all having had Covid and having been the index cases in their households.

I'm going to preface my q with 'I'm primary'.

. They've decided already a while back that there would be no exams for her year this year and it's teacher assessments.

Off parents' eve with DD's school tonight. Was I being unreasonable/naive to think they wouldn't be attempting to assess the pupils officially on work they are learning during lockdown? DD's MH hit a brick wall last lockdown to the point of running away/police/camhs/school councillor all getting involved.

Tonight I learned that she's not keeping up as much as it seemed.

She's panicking about getting more and more behind (and is very upset tonight) and has no way of making up missed assessments that have happened during the school day and then closed at the end of the day so kids can't cheat, which I understand, and she's not seen them as she's currently coping to a degree by doing tasks from classroom etc as and when she can face doing them.

What she does submit is to a very high standard, apparently, but I don't know if this is massively undermining her estimated grades with the things she misses.

I also learned tonight that none of her teachers had been made aware of her difficulties last year by the pastoral team - not even her form teacher.

So cross! And worried.

@DrMadelineMaxwell that sounds tough. I would contact and ask to speak to HoY/pastoral. Ask them to let teachers know, as them to allow her to hand it late/maybe via email when suits etc for example.

Whilst I am harsh with those then hand it late/wrong place that cba I 100% would be totally fine with this for any student in your DD situation. I’d want to know what would help - eg longer deadlines, less assignments eg could I give half of them and leave the others etc whatever it might be.

I can’t remember how old she is. We’re doing some assessing remote but hope to finally do proper assessments once we’re allowed back somehow. Any assessments we do remotely we can’t trust fully so are being cautious with them.

DrMaxine

That sounds really tough for your dd and you.

We are continuing to assess students remotely. We know it's not secure and it won't be the only evidence we use, however as we aren't sure what the process for assessment will be, we want to try and get as much information and evidence as possible. I know for some students it is keeping them focused and means they haven't totally given up. For others it has switched them off completely.

We've been told not to mention grades or progress when speaking to parents. It's such a tricky line to tread.

Our pastoral team are shocking at communicating. The number of parental phonecalls I've made and parents say "didn't you know xyz" is so frustrating. I think it stems from a time when over sharing happened, and now we don't hear vital information.

Dd wanted me to watch Ackley Bridge on All 4 with her. The Head would NEVER have made it to HoY, let alone higher. Pathetic, indecisive, simpering and probably having an affair with the newly formed academy's sponsor .....

Apart from that, it seems OK so far.

Sorry to hear about yr DD's situation DrMad. I hate the 'confidentiality' that means no one actually gets told anything useful.