The Forty-fifth Republic - Is there anyone there? Surely time for half term

[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

Januarychill really needs to name change to fuckitFebruary

Our kids with internet issues get a paper pack AND a USB with the videos for the work. They're "a week behind" the rest of us, so that we can download the videos onto the USB to send out to them. They get the next set when they return the USB. So far, each family has received exactly one set of work because none of them have returned the usbs so we can't send them any more work til they do.

One kid who has perfectly acceptable internet access but "prefers to work on paper" has realised we have no recourse when he sends no paper work back was sent a very old textbook and I send him page numbers each week. I dgaf if he does any work or not, he's a nightmare in class (no send that we can see) and was on his last warning before being managed moved. It's up to him how much he engages, I'm unlikely to ever see him again 🤷

One of them - who will remain nameless - trades on the Foreign exchange markets. He has internet access.
He's not not engaging because he can't.

I can’t see Jan saying fuck.

OMG.

Maybe he doesn't need school?

@Piggywaspushed

Januarychill really needs to name change to fuckitFebruary

Don't really do the F word (well OK bet my children could name a few times)... I'm just too tired to NC.....

inews.co.uk/news/health/1m-told-take-covid-19-tests-runny-nose-officials-classify-new-variants-859123?ITO=newsnow&fbclid=IwAR0Ro8O7eZUcTPGdFIPRMsEP18fGYPzpF9bfAMOJOxn5Vn1DfbWLa13KV10

And it seems that in the Liverpool area (there's yet another variant of concern) they ARE widening the symptom list because they're desperate to get ppl to come forward for testing, but not going door to door. Interesting

@noblegiraffe

I can’t see Jan saying fuck.

Don't really do the F word

See!!!!

Oh I love the fact that we know each other so well on here, noble!

@MrsHamlet

One of them - who will remain nameless - trades on the Foreign exchange markets. He has internet access. He's not not engaging because he can't.

Frustrating.

Always reminds me of cooking for young children. You knock yourself out shopping, cooking something nutritious and Labour-intensive and it goes in the bin.

Very demoralising. And drives you back to fish fingers.

Still, it might be worth putting that argument to your SLT person.

@RandomGrammarPun

OMG.

Maybe he doesn't need school?

Are you him????

That's exactly it. He doesn't. And I get that. But equally he doesn't need me making extra stuff for him instead of spending ten minutes each with kids who do care.

Let hoy and ass hoy deal with it.

I'm in belligerent mood tonight.

MrsH I'm not sure I've seen you in pacifist mood, ever!

@Piggywaspushed

I think those may be zygotic triplets .

Of course! You wouldn’t want to get the terminology confused in either an English or a Biology exam. I don’t know when the arsy-versey bit came from apart from an overstimulated imagination (I ate too much chocolate this evening).

@JanuaryChill

MrsH I'm not sure I've seen you in pacifist mood, ever!

That's a fair point 😂 I am a nice person really... it's just that people piss me off!!

I've got a school refuser who is cross o haven't phoned him since week 2. Well dude, you wouldn't speak to me that time, and haven't been in school since October. So whatevs. No brain space for that shit.

@RandomGrammarPun

OMG.

Maybe he doesn't need school?

One of my learners who said he had always struggled with Maths told me he and his girlfriend had made enough between them on spread betting to save up for a deposit on a house. (I think they had family help as well.) He did have some real difficulties with shape and measurement - odd, as training to be a carpenter. But then the only units of measurement chippies ever use are millimetres. Plumbers, OTOH, appear to use the unit “about this big” - indicating with fingers.

Oh one can be belligerent and nice mrsH!

Dd's supposed to have a Teams well-being session with her class tomorrow. They haven't had any live lessons and this is entirely a social activity because the children are missing their friends. Dd's response? "Why would I want to zoom with my class? I don't like most of them and it's weird. You can't make me". So looks like she's not going to that then 🤷 She's doing all the work she has been set, watched every video lesson they've sent, generally been delightfully compliant, but appearing on a video call is a step too far and she's put her foot down. I'm happy enough if that's her line in the sand. I've emailed to let them know not to expect her.

My child won't do hers either.

I had a parent formal complaint today because "my child can't access the teams chat" and is getting no feedback or help when stuck.

I replied gleefully with screenshots of me saying in every assignment, if you're having teams problems, email me.

She then said "oh no he can see the meeting chat, he just doesn't want to say he doesn't understand in front of his friends so can you have a private chat".

Me "here's my email, I'm not doing 1:1 chats with him. He wouldn't get that in a classroom either" fuck off

Well done herc your response seems great to me. I will always have an individual chat with a child if the child instigates it. So at school, they need to come and see me at break or lunch. During lockdown, they need to message me in some way, either in teams chat or by email, NOT mum trying to get me to push it on their child.

I do recognise that may come back to bite me when dd2 gets to secondary school and can't/won't speak to her teachers. She's selective mute, but no diagnosis. We might need to pursue that this year, ready for the move to secondary so they have a slight understanding of why she won't talk to them.

Exactly the same, I'll happily spend time 1:1 with any student who asks, and via whatever means, email, disliking/liking a post, @ in a chat. I will not do it when mum asks because her precious kid doesn't want to.

I've posted videos for every lesson as well as live. He's submitted nothing because "he doesn't get it". How am I supposed to read his mind via teams?

"How is sending more work going to engage non-engagers?

I mean, even if the child would like to engage, the non-engagement will have been for a social and/or MH reason and more work is just overrhelming.

It makes no sense at all."

@thecatfromjapan - I agree with you. Sending a huge envelope stuffed with work on a weekly basis is just going to alienate them further. I'm not sure what the solution is. I suspect we're just not going to be able to pick up the pieces with some of them until they get back into school.

I've got one kid slowly slowly working his way through the pack I delivered on Tuesday 5th January.

Private Eye (again)