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

Piggy did you see the thread "I'm so annoyed with my DD's teacher"?

I'm glad I have this safe place to come back to - the rest of MN is bloody vicious!

I did. Been deleted.

[quote JanuaryChill]Here we are, a delight:

[/quote] Love this!! 😂😂😂 Thanks!

Re laptop. I had to drive 15 miles to the nearest Currys which does repairs at the moment, stand in a queue outside for an hour and talk to a masked guy in the shop entrance behind a perspex screen.

But we are the ones who 'overestimate our risk'.

You took one for the team piggy.
I've seen a headline recently that was claiming Scottish schools might open in the summer holidays - when I read the whole thing she'd basically been asked a question about support for children and said she wouldn't rule anything out. No story there at all. The BJ thing might be the same.

Cookies sound good but I'm actually being pretty good. Was tempted by takeaway but cooked instead and I'm still on my first gin. Ds moody and accusing me of being moody for picking him up on it and has took it to the, 'why do you hate me?' level.

He needs more sleep. Puberty turns out to be a lot like the toddler stage. Endlessly hungry and overtired. Have literally sent him for a nap. He frequently looks like he's just done a 12 shift and I know his legs ache all the time with growing pains.

Kids at school looked exhausted today too and I had a girl on email then in a google meet virtually in tears about not having done all of her history this week. I had to order her to stop apologising in the end and cheer her up. 5 hours a day 5 days a week is ridiculous really.

Oh and we now appear to be doing engagement levels league tables between departments

@Appuskidu

They’re back with this old chestnut, I see.

They can fuck right off with that one. Directed hours??

Fucking hell, anyone who comes up with this has never actually met a child right?

Because my 6 and 7 year olds are a good group but they are pretty much done with sitting nicely and listening by lunchtime. And that's before we even discuss the ones with SEN.

www.tes.com/news/please-look-after-yourselves-duchess-tells-teachers

Yes please herc!! That's what I'm doing with year 10 next week, so that would be amazing!

I saw a story about extending the school day which said basically "don't worry, teachers won't be asked to do it, it'll be students or volunteers or retired people, just in the school building." Well, excuse me, but I'd quite like to be able to stay in my classroom after hours to get loads of work done, like normal, and sometimes offer a club, not get kicked out of room to work from home. Stoopid idea.

Me too please herc

Sorry rule! I'm a fucking pedant when it comes to natural history.

Love that pink Robin.

Love the von trap peeps too. Captures lockdown #3 perfectly!

@Appuskidu

They’re back with this old chestnut, I see.

They can fuck right off with that one. Directed hours??

It won't work ffs. Our kids loose all concentration at 2pm. And that's on a good day.

Also, way to go to make kids more depressed.

Kids don't need to "catch up."

Shift the expectations down a year, or even only 6 months . A lot of it was shifted by the tories anyway; loads of stuff that's now taught in y1 was in y2 etc.

They'll naturally "catch up" in a year. You just need to skip some coverage / less important content for a bit.

Thousands of kids miss large chunks of school due to illness and manage to "catch up."

Exam years are the tricky areas, again, shift the goal posts.

I dread having my nurture groups in the afternoon because they just can't cope with more classroom learning at that time. Younger children must be the same. Heck, even my pretty decent sixth form classes get less work done last lesson than they do first lesson. Even I lose focus by the end of the day, that's my discovery from lockdown. I'm ok if I can be moving around and taking to people, but sitting still, nope can't do it (which is strange as I was great at hard work when I was a pupil)

Kids don't need to catch up unless they are doing exams. Like half of my year 10s who bunked every live lesson until this week when they were hoiked into school and hadn't got a clue what I was talking about.... Well yeah, try turning up or even clicking on the stuff I put up FOR pupils who can't make the zoom.
I let my younger 2 bunk off their school work today - they were having such a great imaginative play session I couldn't bear to stop them to do their school video screen time.
I managed to get 4 year old to write 2 words before tea to earn his kindle, he reads a bit of his bedtime story every night, and I've just taught him halving, doubling, quarters and thirds using Lego. And he's just proudly told me that double 16 is 32....
The 7 year old has started reading the Narnia books and has done her times tables Rockstar time. I let her loose on BBC Bitesize yesterday and she devoured all of yr2 history and is now partway through yr3.
My 9yo has finished all of my discworld Terry Pratchett that she wants to, and has now started on my Anne McCaffrey Pern series. Although I've warned her there may be adult content in some of them so check with me first.

I can't read any more school 'news'. I'm most outraged about sending us all back without any further safety measures, which I'm sure will happen on 8th March. Can't get worked up about anything else, that is taking up all the outrage space!

I have Domino's on the way. Not my favourite at all, but youngest dc requested it and was backed up by his siblings. Still, all I've had to eat is a diet shake , several cups of herbal tea, some dried apricots and some olives which were in the clearance counter yesterday, Am starving.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation yes please to the Desmos task! I'm on week 2 of my training with the ASMP and enjoying it a lot.

Posted too soon.
My point was that sometimes they need to go off and learn/read stuff that interests them otherwise they just get turned off learning.
As long as they read every day , do some maths most days, get exposed to other stuff, that's good enough surely?

@Appuskidu

They’re back with this old chestnut, I see.

They can fuck right off with that one. Directed hours??

They will need to change out contracts - it will fall into the too bloody tricky and expensive pile

I already think the school day is too long for some kids. We need to have sports, arts, technology, stuff like that after lunch. Bottom set year 9 Friday last lesson.... There is no way they would want to hear about chemistry word equations or similar....

I've warned her there may be adult content in some of them so check with me first.

When I was young - first year of secondary school - I played trombone in a village band. We used to go on trips out in a the band bus, with someone in the band volunteering to look after the children. There were probably 5 of us who played in the adult band. We used to go to fetes and things to play, basically unaccompanied.

I learned all I needed to know about sex from the Mills and Boons books I bought at the fetes. I then moved quickly on to Helen Forrester writing about Liverpool prostitutes. One of her books was in my middle school library until I pointed out to the librarian that it was probably inappropriate.

Don't think it did me any harm. Twitch.

Ha ha! I think I did something similar!

I don't remember prostitutes in Helen Forrester's books! Bought them all again a few years ago for dd. Looking forward to reading them again.

I gave her Flowers for Algernon from my bookshelf the other night. What a wonderful, sad book.

Dd1 is a prolific reader. Dd2 less so, although she does read every night at bedtime. She's chosen war horse as her bedtime reading at the minute, which I think is a pretty decent standard for a 10yo. She'd never read Terry Pratchett or Anne McCaffrey though, they're not her style at all.

Your kids sound great enemy.