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

I have mixed feeling. I need year 10 English back more than year 11 who ahve finished , more or less. Am OK with A level film remotely but need year 10 and year 11 in.

I could do with year 12.

In my school bear in mind years 11 and 13 is 2/5 of the school!

There is some inequality here regard government sanctioned weeks missed of school.

If say KS1 and years 11 and 13 or whatever, go back, then that's year 4 and 5s who have missed all weeks since March 20th. Some current year 3s got back last summer as year 2s, some current year 6s got back as year 5s last year if schools had space, but year 4s were just in the middle getting a definite nothing.

It'll have a big impact on year 6 SATs over the next couple of years. Not that I care much, but you know, other people do.

[quote MrsHerculePoirot]@MrsHamlet my eyes have got really bad this week. I can no longer read text on a screen (phone or laptop). I have varifocals - don’t know whether to go back to opticians....[/quote]
I would. They weren't keen - but both eyes have changed by 2 things. I was quite surprised by how much better I could see with new lenses in the giant spectacle!

noblegiraffe Wed 27-Jan-21 14:47:42
Can I send my dad to be vaccinated instead of me?

Yeah I'd feel uncomfortable getting one whilst older and more vulnerable hadn't. Unless it became a condition of flying and then I might become a little more pointy elbowed after nearly 2 years grounded

8th March is the second week after half term here. So that week plus 2 till Easter. I'd guess just exam years for secondary if it does even happen. I can easily see how picking that week would mean being able to say they need to delay things by two weeks which would actually be 4 due to easter break.

We'll see.

noble I know what you mean about sending someone else to get vaccinated.

I’d send dh. He is likely to do a lot worse than me from Covid.

If kids came back on 8th March, we'd have 3 weeks 3 days with them before the Easter holidays.

I'd like to send my dad for my vaccination too. Not only is he older and male, which are risk factors in themselves, but he has 5 (!!!) other conditions which make him vulnerable. I would definitely be uncomfortable being vaccinated before him!!

Thank you to the people who recommended whiteboard.fi I've just used it with year 11 on their first live lesson and they loved it (possibly a little too much as they drew me smily faces🤦). We got through half an exam paper during the lesson 😊 It was actually really lovely hearing their voices, and they had to talk to me verbally as they couldn't access chat on Teams for some reason (I might have"accidentally" disabled it so they would talk to me)

Do the kids need to do something with whiteboard.fi - have a log in or something?

They just type their name in, no account needed.

I've used it but sometimes what the kids have written doesn't show up on my screen even when it's good kids, not sure if it's laggy in general or just their connection.

Thread inviting people to describe why they don't like teachers lasted about 4 minutes.

I guess some people were a bit narked by today's announcement.

I’d like to send my MIL for the vaccine over me, if we get offered it - she’s 71, looks after 2yo DD and still works part time in a busy supermarket.

Also don’t think I can have it while pregnant, so surely that means I can pass it on....

If they send KS1 back on the 8th I’ll actually beg my HT to allow me to swap with our R, 1 or 2 teacher. I DETEST teaching KS1, but hate trying to please the pushy parents in my class with online learning more!

Sadly, my class’ parents are notorious for being a huge PITA so no one will swap with me 😂

Oh, genuine question - does anyone know of a good tablet thingy that I can link to my MacBook to draw on with a stylus pen?

I don’t know if such a thing exists, but I need to be able to screen record my slides, which I’m doing at the moment, but also to write on them while I’m doing it. It takes FAR too long to pre make the maths slides at the moment. I need to be able to make very basic ones, then draw as I talk like I would normally do in a lesson.

Am I asking too much here? Is this not a thing anyone else is struggling with?

Me and my class worked out yesterday that even though they are blocked in meeting chat, they can still respond to a poll I put in there on Forms, and can like/dislike a comment - so I can get them to do anonymous responses to things. This is ca game changer in maths, particularly for the quiet ones.

My DM is getting her vaccine on Friday - 76, no other conditions. I’m so relieved, she bubbled with us although we don’t live close, now I’ll feel much less worried about seeing her.

I was mostly marking today. Exciting stuff! No one came into google meets for help with work. Was only year 7s and I think I'm pitching my recorded lessons and tasks right for them. They only tend to drop in to say hi or with a pretext question in order to say hi.

Then I sat in on the trainee's lesson.

I'm in school on Friday for year 11 kw/v. A ridiculous number of them and some real 'characters' from glancing at the list. I may take a preemptive Valium

They seemed to have changed the surveillance report. Where has the year groups bit gone?

Our tests finally arrived today. I can’t take part though as I am still in my 90 days since testing positive.
Good to see Boris hasn’t bowed to the pressure yet to open all schools after half term. Really thought they were sending primary’s back.

Boris just said schools are covid secure.
LMFAO

@Piggywaspushed

Boris just said schools are covid secure. LMFAO

Surely people can see through this now. Keir could own him on this he never does.

@thecatfromjapan bloody love your post on the thread that must not be named

Schools are safe yet they drive up infection in the community.... Hmmmm

[quote EnemyOfEducationNo1]@thecatfromjapan bloody love your post on the thread that must not be named[/quote]
Agree :)

@Timeturnerplease have you got a visualiser you could screen record for now?

There are those tablet with stylus things, my HOD has wacom which works on a mac.

@EnemyOfEducationNo1

Schools are safe yet they drive up infection in the community.... Hmmmm

My response exactly my DH was also very confused!

What does he actually even think it means when he says covid safe?

Pupils don’t catch it at school? Not true.
Pupils don’t spread it at school? Not true
Teachers don’t catch it at school ? Not true
Teachers don’t spread it at school? Not true

Does he just mean statistically, kids probably won’t get that ill and die?

Does that really pass as safe? That’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel of definitions of safety!