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

[TheHoneyBadger]

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.

I got excited for a minute thinking you were talking about a Bee Gee

That was my first thought too, MrsH!

@DreamingofBrie

I got excited for a minute thinking you were talking about a Bee Gee

That was my first thought too, MrsH!

And mine!

Still marking. Still haven't started reports. Still haven't so much as glanced at my subject folder. Ffs.

I know some of the students who began the skirts protest at that school piggy. From very sensible motives. Midweek they had a meeting with the Head to discuss. Looks like that maybe didn’t go well.....

Station what a fab grammar poster, quoting Human League. Someone should of an updated one every five years to keep the examples “relevant”!

Ffs. Just remembered I'm being observed this week as well. Thanks, SLT

Disclaimer: I have NOT misuser “of” in my previous post. Think it’s an autocorrect/typo mistake for “do”!

Grrr *misuseD

Harriet if it's me on Friday, I'm sorry :(

It's not! I'm on Thursday... I think I know what I'm doing, so it's just a matter of pulling it all together. It's a slightly fancier version of what I was going to do anyway. I don't really see the point of deviating too much.

They haven't told me which observer I'm getting. I'm hoping it's the laid back one with whom I get on well, rather than the mansplaining dinosaur who hasn't set foot in a classroom (other than to observe) for years.

Good luck. We've got more learning walks coming which I loathe - they always seem to pick the worst ten minutes where you're done with all your scaffolding and questioning etc and kind of expecting them to get on with it a bit or tidying up loose ends. Never when you're doing your great linking into the wider schemes of learning and or have a great discussion going on. Plus I immediately lose my mind for about 2 minutes because they've come in and sat in the room which throws me massively for some reason.

Obviously hate full observations too but at least I can prepare and they see the whole thing rather than a disjointed snapshot.

I never just turn up!! People get notice at least 2 weeks in advance

I prefer no notice drop ins/learning walks.

I don't really know which worse when I think about it. I just don't like being observed which is silly but I wish they'd just judge me on the kids work and results and progress.

@StationView

I have a display in my classroom explaining the past continuous. It hasn't made the slightest bit of difference, though I do point at it fairly regularly when I correct pupils. I especially like the fact that one of the correct examples is I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you During the recent Gordon Elliott / dead horse story I realised that 'was sat' is probably become accepted shudder as so many media outlets wrote that 'he was sat'. Even the Guardian and the BBC did it.

Our Head of Maths had a habit of sending emails containing the phrase Please may you... I put up with it for a long time before I cracked and gently told her it was incorrect. Turns out she thought 'may' was more polite.

It's probably worth bearing in mind (primary / secondary transition and continuity being a bugbear of mine, apologies) that every Year 6 will know the past continuous / imperfect tense as the 'past progressive', as that is what is taught in Primary SPaG. It's defined in the Glossary of the NC for KS2 here It does say 'also known as 'continuous', but 'past progressive' is what is used in resources and tests.

I'm not saying that it will magically make children in secondary use it correctly. However a confusion in terminology will never help, and it might re-activate some of those carefully-drilled KS2 skills!

Personally, I have to go via Latin (remembering it is the imperfect) in order to be able to work out what the past progressive is, but it is probably no accident that the best preparation for Y6 SPaG (the whole staff took the sample paper when the new curriculum came in, as part of the training) turns out to be O-level Latin!

Surely it depends on the purpose of the learning walks though. Pre-coronavirus, I'd do learning walks just to keep myself informed as to what was going on around the school. There were no judgements, no evaluation or any formal observation of teaching. I'd nip into a room and start helping kids or doing some live marking for a bit. I hope that no-one ever felt like that was a point of stress for them: I'm just very concious of the fact that some SLT end up actually clueless about their own schools.

My first headteacher after I qualified was like that. It was her first headship and, in the four years I was there, she didn't set foot in my classroom once during a lesson. No learning walks, no observations, nothing. She wasn't even in my pupil progress meetings. Everything was done by the deputy. She wouldn't have had the first clue about what was really happening in her school.

None of my dept leadership have seen me teach in more than 5 years. My line manager is the deputy head so she does my appraisal obs - and that's the only one we have, unless we're new or an NQT

Someone on Data has just asked the very sensible question: What’s happening with the schools study that was meant to publish results in ?March - started September? Anyone seen hide or hair of it?

Good question! Is that the Bristol one?

@MrsHamlet

None of my dept leadership have seen me teach in more than 5 years. My line manager is the deputy head so she does my appraisal obs - and that's the only one we have, unless we're new or an NQT

That just seems crazy to me but I can appreciate that it might be different in secondaries compared to primaries. How can your department leadership talk confidently about what is happening in their department if they don't know? I'm not suggesting formal observations but just a rough idea.

Maybe it's just me thinking about being the only one in those deep dive discussions in the subjects that I lead on if they are chosen. But when the expectation is that I can talk about specific areas of strength/development/support down to the individual year group/teacher, I feel I can't know that without being active around school.

No they're not like that where I am. Someone arrives and sits down and observes for ten minutes then writes up feedback as part of your appraisal. I think because of covid and problems with/not wanting to impose formal observations these ten minute stops have been taken as standing in place of normal observations.

How can your department leadership talk confidently about what is happening in their department if they don't know? I'm not suggesting formal observations but just a rough idea.
They can't. Most HODs do occasional walkthroughs... but not mine.

We haven't had any since before covid. I am not missing them. They were thinly veiled excuses to bully those not in favour.

@cantkeepawayforever, thanks for that info - it's useful to know.

I criticised a Y7 child's writing recently for having too many sentences starting in the same way, and he lamented, "I need to use more fronted adverbials." . So maybe some of the KS2 grammar does stick!

[quote StationView]@cantkeepawayforever, thanks for that info - it's useful to know.

I criticised a Y7 child's writing recently for having too many sentences starting in the same way, and he lamented, "I need to use more fronted adverbials." . So maybe some of the KS2 grammar does stick![/quote]
That did make me laugh!

It's a mystery where all of this knowledge goes between the SATs and year 7. I've taken to telling my year 7s that I'm relying informed by year 6 teacher friends that they were perfectly capable of reading whole pages of text and answering comprehension questions in full sentences and even writing whole pages at primary.

I think in an effort to avoid old-fashioned teaching and make everything interactive and engaging we spoon feed way too much so on the extremely rare occasion they are required to read a page and answer some questions independently they look at you like you've asked them to translate the dead sea scrolls or something.

I would absolutely love to lead ks3 but secondary treats them like they're just a trivial matter parked in a holding bay whilst focusing on exam years as if our year 11's just spring up out of the ether rather than being taught all the way up to that point and that teaching actually having some importance.

I was told once that primary schools teach "wrong grammar".
We start year 7 with Boy and it doesn't improve much after that. We like to tell ourselves that we're superior to our primary colleagues... you know, the ones who quite literally taught them to read and write. I despair.

Yes I recalled it was in Bristol piggy.

they look at you like you've asked them to translate the dead sea scrolls or something