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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Original poster

The broom cupboard 2 - just for when we get briefly stranded without a staffroom

981 replies

TheHoneyBadger · 26/01/2021 19:55

I'll pop a link in the old one so you know where to find safe haven. I have tried to clear out some space by getting rid of the ohp and vcr trolley and gin is hidden behind the sick sand bucket.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
Iamnotthe1 · 05/04/2021 22:31

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

I'm all done on rules, I'm afraid.

Me too. My parents are sticking to them, but I'm a bad person. Not going to be the only mug in my classroom not having had a fun Easter break. If I get 25 stories of sleepovers etc, I'd be furious.

A lot of our support staff live locally and I've been getting lots of reports that my Year Six children are out with other kids from different schools and going to each other's houses. Some seem to have also gone away even though they shouldn't be.

Meanwhile I'm having to explain to my family why I can't see them despite mixing at school with loads of different families with zero distancing.

MsAwesomeDragon · 05/04/2021 22:34

I think where I live compliance is pretty good. Dd2's friends are all sticking to the rules and meeting outside rather than going into people's houses. The kids in my school are a different matter, and about half of them are regularly going into other people's houses.

HarrietDVane · 05/04/2021 22:36

Given that my Y3s have been delighting me with tales of their many sleepovers/birthday parties/Sunday roasts at gran's house for months, I'm fully prepared for the onslaught when we get back to school.

We use L&S at my school and I don't have any experience of any other schemes, so I will be interested to see what replacements are recommended. We've only just overhauled our reading scheme so I will be a bit miffed if that's affected.

MrsHamlet · 05/04/2021 22:38

I have followed the rules until a fortnight ago. But the rules didn't account for my lovely friend getting a cancer diagnosis out of the blue.
I know I shouldn't have stayed in her house, or hugged her girls or her husband. But they needed me to be there. I know I shouldn't travel to mum's and stay over, but I need someone to look after me for a bit.

She did everything right too. It's beyond shit. I just feel exhausted with it all.

Viciouslybashed · 05/04/2021 22:40

My mum lives in a different town and won't see us yet, think July was the suggestion. I would love to see her. Genuinely having to compartmentalise to be able to not be a mess. I'm a grown up for God sake but not see her since Feb/ march 2020. Long time.

MsAwesomeDragon · 05/04/2021 22:42

MrsH nobody at all is going to blame you for hugging your friend and her family at such a devastating time. And I think going to see your mum is a good idea as well. I really do feel like the rules have to have some leeway for exceptional, traumatic situations. Especially while rates are low and things are opening up anyway.

HarrietDVane · 05/04/2021 22:42

I'm planning a garden visit to my parents next weekend. Mum was on the shielding list (and is still effectively shielding due to being elderly and having no reason to go anywhere) so we'll be carefully distanced. DD1 has no plans to meet up in person with friends but DD2 has been invited for a play in her friend's garden later this week. We're a law-abiding bunch, really.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 05/04/2021 22:43

My house is being ripped up. It's not really a good place to be right now - that was the main reason for being here this week. The legal reason. It's bloody lovely though!

I don't want to work with children any more. I know it's the beginning of the holidays, so I should give it until I've had a rest from school before engaging with that thought properly, but still. Someone on here asked me that question back when I was doing retraining dithering, and I just don't. I'm exhausted by bad behaviour. Will do 2 more years, then jump ship at 50.

2 years to find an alternative.

I'm indulging my 'world's tiniest violin' side on health too.

HarrietDVane · 05/04/2021 22:51

MrsH - sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. We are human first and foremost, and your lovely friend and her family needed your hugs. Nobody could possibly say that was the wrong thing to do.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/04/2021 23:12

Reading between the lines on that, I'd say the L&S issue is largely that it isn't a complete scheme, the fact that a lot of the activities are game based and carried over from PiPs and Playing with sounds, and the lack of training that goes with it.

The first has been a complaint since it was released , why do something about it now? The second is a fair comment, but could be solved by just updating it. You'd only need to make minimal changes to the order IMHO. I don't see why LAs and English Hubs couldn't provide good quality training. As far as I'm aware if you are being supported by an English Hub you already have to stop using it.

DreamingofBrie · 05/04/2021 23:51

MrsH, it sounds very hard for you, I'm sorry. I think your instincts regarding your friend and her family, and your mum, sound correct Flowers.

I still haven't done any work this holiday, giving myself the last week to get ahead of myself, but resting properly beforehand. Lots of crochet and outdoor time with my family whilst the weather's nice.

Youngest ds (KS2) had a fairly terrible effort report for the lockdown period. I know I need to write it off, and I haven't given him any grief for it as he had to do a lot of the work on his own. Yes, his efforts could have been more but it's not as if he did nothing - submitted 3-4 pieces of work every day but I feel as if it was graded as if he had been in the classroom carrying out that work. His attainment scores have been fine, so there's no worry there. It's made both of us dislike Art even more though Hmm. I feel guilty about it - that I prioritised my pupils over him (which I did, after all I'm paid to!). He gave me the sweetest Mother's Day card though, thanking me for his 11am hot chocolate during lockdown.

I've almost let it go, but it niggles me still.

Original poster
TheHoneyBadger · 06/04/2021 06:25

That was my plan-first week for resting then get work done in second week. I’ve marked one set of essays I brought home and am going into school today to mark another couple of sets and then I’ll either bring the rest home or go in again tomorrow. Plan for next term is to try and get everything done and ahead of myself so I don’t need to work over half term.

So sorry about your friend MrsH.

My family gathering was outdoors and legal but I think if the weather had been bad we might have gone ahead and done it indoors. Ds has been playing out with friends, not going in each other’s houses.

No judgment here though, my parents live a 10 minute walk away so it’s easy to do outdoors short meets in a way it wouldn’t be if they were further afield.

I’m killing time before I can have a coffee. Downside of thyroid meds is having to wait an hour after taking them before getting my coffee fix.

OP posts:
Piggywaspushed · 06/04/2021 06:49

Anyone seen the thread where all these posters are going 'they work in a school and you let them do childcare?'. Hilarious that when it suites MN, school workers are obvious plague carriers!

ChloeDecker · 06/04/2021 07:50

I feel guilty about it - that I prioritised my pupils over him (which I did, after all I'm paid to!).

So very much this. I think we all did. Was convenient to ignore by many this pandemic though.

I’m NASUWT and I’m certainly liking the new the new General Sec and what he has to say.

ChloeDecker · 06/04/2021 07:50

@Piggywaspushed

Anyone seen the thread where all these posters are going 'they work in a school and you let them do childcare?'. Hilarious that when it suites MN, school workers are obvious plague carriers!
What board is that on? Smile
RandomGrammarPun · 06/04/2021 07:55

Just seen my surgery is proud of themselves for starting to offer face to face appointments for the FIRST TIME in thirteen months . One person in building at a time. Surgery toilets closed. Hmm

ChloeDecker · 06/04/2021 08:03

That’s shocking Random.

MrsHerculePoirot · 06/04/2021 08:09

Still sticking to rules here - well I say that then actually a friend came to help DH take down a table and take a load of stuff to storage as I’ve got a bad shoulder at mo and he was in our house fir an hour and had a cuppa and looked round so...

Like Honey my parents are nearby so we’ve seen them in the garden and one of my brothers in his garden and meeting other brother in park today.

When there is stuff going on, like with your friend I think that’s a totally different situation to just having a massive rave inside your house because you want to...

Two more nights here before our big renovations begin!

MrsHamlet · 06/04/2021 08:17

Thank you all. I feel a bit shit about breaking the rules but it's done now.
Random that's one of the worst things about all of this mess. My lovely friend's GP wouldn't see her face to face, even though she'd been weirdly ill for a year!

RandomGrammarPun · 06/04/2021 08:24

I know it's not all GPs. And we've not needed a f2f (Dh would have appreciated a few with his oncologist but, no can do.) We have a good friend who is a GP, never stopped even doing house calls, caught Covid just before Christmas and is still very ill. But, fgs, so frustrating the different approaches.

RandomGrammarPun · 06/04/2021 08:24

Just realised what you meant, MrsH. That's awful Flowers

MrsHamlet · 06/04/2021 08:28

Yep. And now we know, all of the symptoms are classic indicators for her type of cancer. Of course, the GP wouldn't have known by looking at her but maybe seeing her face to face would have meant it was spotted more quickly.
Meanwhile, my GP is phone triaging but offering face to face, and my dentist started seeing patients again in July!

eitak22 · 06/04/2021 08:31

Honestly I will be breaking rules when I see my mum next week. Its freezing and I haven't seen her since Aug so will go inside and sit opposite side of the room. I'm done being good, it sucks and all I get for it is being exposed to the kids and their families who don't follow the rules.

Seeing my nieces and nephews outside today (not seen them since Aug either) which should be lovely.

Trying to not investigate rest of mumsnet as if I see someone bitching about having to go back to an office I will scream.

RandomGrammarPun · 06/04/2021 08:33

Yeah, I realised in a brief five minute whole class conversation in a cover lesson last minute that, basically, everyone is breaking the rules now, apart from us and our friends/family.

Piggywaspushed · 06/04/2021 08:38

I don't have anyone to break rules with really : no especially close friends. I haven't seen my DM since 2005 maybe. Other family too far away and in Wales and Scotland with their different rules. Not really very close anyway, Only ever do flying visits. Not sure if this makes my family especially cold or whether MN has unusually close/in contact families.