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

[Staffdontblowitnow]

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Today Kirsty was talking again about the youngest (foundation/ks1) pupils maybe returning first

I keep seeing this, and it does worry me. If our P1s and P2s all went back (R//Y1), we'd have to take at least 6 people off the rota for KW. I'm really concerned about workload in that scenario.

MrsH you definitely did the right thing. Sometimes, it just has to be done.

Monkey for you. It must be so difficult

HoneyBadger I see it more as a. Doing something necessary (that many of us are doing, anyway. But publicly now) b. Shaming the government: this is necessary because the government aren't doing it. C) protecting members by positioning us alongside children and taking the 'we care about kids' narrative away from the U4T people, the Daily Mail and the anti-lockdowners.

In a way, it has to be done to support the S44 letter.

Monkey It sounds really hard. 💐💐💐

If YR and Y1 were to go back fully at my school -that is virtually all of the school.

Yet the junior school up the road would be virtually empty!

Mental health links for the kids (aimed at Secondary):

youngminds.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzIKu0uq27gIVh57tCh3tyAH8EAAYASAAEgKc4_D_BwE

www.liverpoolcamhs.com/childrens-mental-health-week/

Might help.

Yes I get it but not quite sure it meets the hype of the big announcement hype and yes it's a good pr idea but only if it's publicised and contextualised well and gets the attention in the msm and the message (eg gov aren't even ensuring kids have paper let alone laptops?) carries.

honestly I'd prefer a campaign advertising how deeply camhs and ss have been cut and how if we really care about disadvantaged kids those areas need serious funding rather than pretending a school place can replace ss level safeguarding interventions and specialist mental health support.

My county's child protection services failed ofsted and were deemed incapable of keeping vulnerable children (whether at risk or already cared for) safe.

I think the sudden, albeit cynical at times, interest in disadvantaged kids could be used to highlight the collapse of childrens services through underfunding.

Paper seems a little trivial in the face of that

Trivial and short term

It's the give a man a fish thing. Giving them paper today (ironic given the paper over the cracks use of schools to hide the collapse of ss and camhs and send places) does fuck all for tomorrow tbh.

I feel like I am really struggling at the moment. Not sleeping properly, having the weirdest dreams when I do (which throw me for the day). Kids (I teach) are struggling too so trying to make time for them apart from teaching them. Just feel like I want to go somewhere without people (mountain / beach??) and SCREAM!!!

It's not even demands from school or kids or parents (all are being beyond reasonable), I think it's just the 4 week dip .

I agree honey. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out in the MSM and in Parliament. I wonder could it even be Keir's idea, and he'll use it?

But yes I thought, imagine if primaries now go back in 3-4 weeks! They'll only just have delivered the pencils to the kids by then.

Although I also agree with cat's points - typical me, indecisive!

How's the cake honey?

HoneyBadger I think we really need a MH campaign.
Perhaps we should start organising one?
The problem is that it's a huge thing to organise - whereas raising money for supplies is far, far more achievable.

(I'm quite serious. I have thought about starting such a campaign and stopped because it was daunting. I mean, what do you make as your initial demand? Who do you talk to? MH practitioners take years to train, so are any immediate fixes possible ?)

@Cracklefraggle I feel the same. Just not feeling the love for anything today.

Although my school announced we’re all having a screen free day on Monday for MH week so that has cheered me up!

Giving children pencils does have a point, though.

Like many posters on here, I've had classes where you know there is nothing at home. You have to think really, really hard about homework because only a pencil can be sent home and you can rely on nothing else.
Plus all the cases of providing children with uniforms and so on.

But I get so tired with the endless posters on MN who just don't grasp that this is true, or what this actually means.

Being a teacher really brings you face to face with inequality.

So making this very public has a point.

More and more, I think schools have taken on the role of being the sticking plaster holding society together and ameliorating the harm of an increasingly unequal society, where the state has pulled further back from public goods.

And coronavirus has made explicit the role schools have taken on.

So, how do you tell a government - and a public that seems to keep voting for austerity - that enough is enough? And make them take on board the consequences of that choice?

Anyway, that's one way of looking at it. 🤷‍♀️

Cracklefraggle I think a lot of us have hit a slump.

And totally with you on yearning for a place of solitude. I'd settle for a cafe.

Struggling with insomnia at the moment. I reckon evening cake would help loads though-is it done yet, @TheHoneyBadger?!

I’ve slumped crackle I think a lot have.

How the cake honeybadger ?

FFS, they really are twats, aren’t they?

Cake was mediocre but met a sweetness need.

MH wise I think it's only fixable to put funding back up. The budget for mental health services has been being repeatedly slashed in my county for at least 12 years and isn't fit for purpose anymore.

It's nearly impossible to get a cpn now for example when they were so valuable to people with chronic mental health problems.

I don't think we need tons of people to train. I think there are tonnes of counsellors and psychologists in private practice who would take secure nhs jobs if they became available again. Cpns are still there but being used for patients who are well beyond community psych nurse help and if the proper care and day hospitals etc were reintroduced then cpns could go back to the client groups they trained to work with and can make a real difference to.

I also think we need nhs bursaries back ASAP. Trying to charge people 27k in fees plus living expenses to train as nurses and OTs when they're likely to only earn 20k is ridiculous. I was looking into retraining as an OT specialising in mental health but then they withdrew bursaries.

Camhs is fucked and gps seem to think young people can't be treated by them and they just refer them on knowing full well there's next to no chance of them being seen.

We have a pastoral day on Monday - no lessons just form time and wellbeing calls. Thinking of driving round my (yr 11) form instead of more faceless comunication. Plan is to take each a pack of book, pens, ruler etc - and some haribo.

Any Us4Them heading over to the TES to fill out a survey right now will get a really tedious one about multi academy trusts. I really hope they have a go, wondering when the question about reopening schools will come.

@noblegiraffe

Any Us4Them heading over to the TES to fill out a survey right now will get a really tedious one about multi academy trusts. I really hope they have a go, wondering when the question about reopening schools will come.

😂😂

I can't believe that thread on U4T is still growing, noble!

@Cracklefraggle - could have written your post word for word. The scream thing especially. Thought I might go for a drive tomorrow lunchtime with loud music and some screaming.