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

Language a level needs research skills. I had to explain to one student a couple of years ago why we were needing to use percentages and how to work them out. It was painful.

Yes sorry Cat. I'm doing a generic reaction rather than the actual research at hand.

I was similarly annoyed when they'd also say children of single mothers have lower life chances - as if just having a parent whose single and not living with a man magically made you less successful. In reality if you added in that the mother had a degree or above OR earned 40k plus a year there was no disadvantage whatsoever.

I hear you Honey.

children of single mothers

Why is it never ‘children of absent fathers’?

What does the data on single fathers say?

I understand,Honey.

I think I'm being a bit plodding about it because I am quite concerned it will be turned into school-blaming. ☹️

The 'master status' is usually taken to be poverty.

Pupil premium surprised me. I thought it was a bit of a broad brush but it does seem to genuinely identify a group of kids who are less likely to achieve than others. Not all PP students of course, but enough to be a useful indicator.

@noblegiraffe

children of single mothers

Why is it never ‘children of absent fathers’?

What does the data on single fathers say?

I know this!!!!

Most single parents are mothers.

(Surprise!!!)

Statistics fir outcomes of children of single fathers are far, far better than for single mothers.

Lots of reasons: single fathers tend to be widowed, get more support, and be higher earners (with the concomitant implication they're not doung full-time caring and children are older).

Single mothers tend to be poorer. Children younger, cause of being single mother is relationship breakdown. Often because of health issues in the child - which often means greater care needs and thus less ability to work/earn money on mother's part.

There's lots more to it - but, yes, there are far fewer single-parent families headed by a father and they tend to be far better off.

And, yes, noble, those 'absent dads' get off very lightly.

Ugh... my sixth from have just whined at me in chat about setting homework to them. 'Miss,we can't keep on top of it all' ; 'Miss, it's too much screen time'...

They have , on average, three hours of frees a day!! I have three this week...

I thought PP was a proxy indicator. So it isn’t the poverty itself that leads to the low attainment, but there's a whole bunch of factors that can lead to low attainment that are also correlated with poverty. The PP criteria is just a more efficient way of trying to identify most of those children and schools where extra money might be needed. It’s why the general potbif PP funding isn’t child specific.

I could opine at length about the single mothers issue, especially as it is flagged up in panic-stricken tones by the right wing (often Evangelical) in the States.

I realised a few years ago that any problems, especially MH-related but

Aargh

MH but almost anything that is laid at the door of "broken home", "single mums" etc, in at least 50% of cases (my educated guess!) is rather more to do with the reason the "broken home" came into being, eg domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug dependency etc etc.

Even when one parent is protective and competent, and "escapes", the ongoing effects of the abuse or whatever, plus damage that's already been done, lead to problems for the children.

Tenuously linked to the subject of single mothers vs single fathers.

The whole ‘lockdown and school closures are causing harm to women’s careers’ argument. Yes, maybe. But it’s not the root cause, is it? It’s exacerbating or highlighting a pre-existing issue. Namely that while there are more women working the majority of responsibility for children is still falling to women.

In summary of what I was saying earlier, traditionally women are blamed for problems cause in the large by men!

These last few posts have been like an entire sociology lesson on the Triple Shift and the policy making of the New Right!

@Piggywaspushed

Ugh... my sixth from have just whined at me in chat about setting homework to them. 'Miss,we can't keep on top of it all' ; 'Miss, it's too much screen time'...

They have , on average, three hours of frees a day!! I have three this week...

I have a year 8 tutor group. They where whining about workload so I sent an email about how to prioritise if they were struggling, what to focus on and what to leave. One girl replied to basically say that there really wasn't that much work and they were all being disorganised lazy slackers if they couldn't keep up. I think I love her!

Positive numbers under 20k. 'Good' news

[quote MrsHamlet]@Saucery a huge thank you to you... the Novavax trial is looking like it's going to become a crossover trial so it means I'll definitely get vaccinated!!! I feel quite giddy[/quote]
Well, a huge Thank You to you for putting yourself out there and doing it!

Piggy, Triple Shift : enlighten me?

Oo new thread needed... off to prep in Broom Cupboard

• peep!

Duncombe and Marsden found that since rise in feminism and things like Equality Act this had seen women more financially independent and in workplaces. But the unforeseen huge negative consequence was no appreciable fall in chikdcaring responsibilities or household tasks so ultimately women do 3 jobs. Now 4 I guess since we can add home schooling. This hoes a long way to explain why a lot of posts on MNexpress exhaustion and bewail no time to do chores, even from SAHM who have resisted paid work for many reasons and are feeling a huge new burden.

@Piggywaspushed

Ugh... my sixth from have just whined at me in chat about setting homework to them. 'Miss,we can't keep on top of it all' ; 'Miss, it's too much screen time'...

They have , on average, three hours of frees a day!! I have three this week...

I have been told not to set homework at all right now. I get it for the younger kids, because honestly it's difficult doing 5 lessons of work independently when you're 11!! I am less understanding of the sixth form (and y11 if I'm honest), as surely they should expect to be working really hard. They also have about 3 "study periods" a day each, so why can't they spend an hour on the stuff I'm setting for my lesson, and then a couple of exam questions for homework. The homework I was setting was about an hour's worth of work, a week, for 18 year olds. That's not too much.

Not at all, considering in normal times the expectations would be circa 5 hours of lessons and 5 hours of hmwk per subject at A level.