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

We have one of them next week one of the activity suggestions is bird watching

Ah unlike 'make some puppets and put on a puppet show', I'd be well up for this one with DD. I've put a fuckton of bird food out and when I'm working at the kitchen table I can look out of the window and see goldfinches, starlings, blue tits etc stuffing their faces. It's helping my mental health tbh. We've got a particularly fat robin that we call Jumbo that we like spotting.

@Piggywaspushed

Ah, my local hero has died

:(

He did capture a mood. Everyone felt like they wanted to do something and donating and cheering on Captain Tom to his 100 laps was something that made everyone feel a bit better.

Last time it was rainbows in windows, clapping, Captain Tom, Baked Potato, PE with Joe bringing people together in a positive way. This lockdown just feels like endless gloom and rain. Even the vaccine programme which is amazing feels like an argument.

The government wouldn't be so stupid surely

You’d hope so, wouldn’t you, but....!

Anyone worried that Scotland's news will lead to schools in England going back sooner than they should?

The usual suspects are pushing hard for it. That's why the Telegraph and Mail were running with 'Boris battles to open schools' stories.

Think they will need to see what happens with this SA variant. The 8th is a way away but they need to make the firm decision in a couple of weeks.

Re whether schools going back... I'd like to think they will take the new data and research about the new variants into consideration (esp as they have until 22 Feb to decide in England) but 🤷🏻‍♀️

Did people see the Beeb article about all the ways in which school closure is impacting children? Of course this has to be considered. Yes we know schools shouldn't be the main port of call for MH etc, but the fact remains that they are.

Can we at least hope for masks in classrooms, possibly?

In other news, I have to sign a form saying we're not going to have over 30 at the funeral, and that if I get so much as a sniff that there might be over 30 I inform the funeral directors who then have to inform the authorities. (Yes I know why this is). It must be so very difficult if you're holding a funeral for a younger person at the moment, where usually you expect dozens if not hundreds to attend.

You really couldn't make up the levels of incompetence:

schoolsweek.co.uk/too-slow-more-delays-as-lost-learning-expert-group-refocused/?fbclid=IwAR0ORyVLdREpr-yTkmenpk1FQEsGsP4iSIhlot-6G8kbdYNnTj-2S8gnBM8

Wasn't Hancock or someone reprimanded for asking what the DfE has actually been doing?

One of my colleagues requested a no screens day and was told no way.

I'd be tempted to contact oc health in their shoes.

But the DfE set up that new teacher training route that was neither wanted nor needed. How can you say they have been wasting their time?!

When the kids say things like, "My WiFi's really bad today," or "I can't work out how to open this document," I've taken to replying sympathetically, "Am I Bill Gates?"

It's proving surprisingly effective

A (normally slightly annoying) year 7 told me I smelled lovely today.

Small things.

I think some of our kids have no screen days fairly regularly. We're not doing many live lessons, but we're emailing lessons or on the days they're supposed to have our lessons. Some subjects seem to be sending lots of screen free activities. I'm not sure how I can set anything screen free for maths as they don't have textbooks and they need to see questions (and they really aren't used to doing any sort of investigation so would need a lot of instruction).

We are only just waking up to the fact that our kids are lacking daily structure and are missing the human interaction of school. So we're being asked as form tutors to have live catch ups on Teams next week, and we're setting less work so they can attend. I've already been doing these, at least twice a week, but it's caused so much fuss about workload among my department. I will happily, happily, increase my workload (it wouldn't, my lessons would just be more self marked that week) if it helps keep my form connected with each other. I think I have different priorities to the rest of my department 🙄

Very sad news about Sir Tom

Took myself off for a marathon walk alone in the snow was feeling so fed up. Seems like everyone is in the same boat this week. This life really is draining and the news being consumed with new variants just adds to it.

I'm experiencing full on visceral anxiety for the first time in my life.

It's precipitated by Covid and lockdown but it's caused by work stress: specifically the situation in my department. It cannot carry on. Now I have to work out how to talk to the head/head of faculty about how I'm feeling and why.

I'm terrified.

@RandomGrammarPun

A (normally slightly annoying) year 7 told me I smelled lovely today.

Small things.

Last Monday I let everyone in and one child just shouting OH MISS YOU LOOK AMAZING.

Another one then wrote WE'RE ALL AMAZING on the chat.

Nice start to a Monday!

Guy can we be of any help?

Popping in to say I'm fed up today.
The subject disparity thing is getting to me so much, I'm fed up with SLT not taking any action about it. So fed up I emailed the head which is not the done thing.

I love the "Am I Bill Gates?" reply!

Guy so sorry, cross posted.

Really hope talking helps you and someone has solutions somewhere. That pit of utter despair is a horrible place to be.

Guy if you're feeling overwhelmed, phone in sick tomorrow. Don't feel like you have to deal with it while you're feeling like this.

How do you know what other departments are doing, Herc? Do you actually see them?

The subject disparity gets to me too when I think about it herc. And yet the subjects with the lightest workloads are the ones most often featured in the "spotlight on good practice" emails. Yes, thanks, that's great that it works for them, but they don't have to plan, resource, teach and feedback on 22 lessons a week. Maybe if I had their workload, I might be doing innovative, fabulous stuff too. As it is, I'm providing monotonous, routine lessons because that's all I have the capacity to do. I made it into the "good practice" email this week though with the tip about using whiteboard.fi, so thanks for the tip people 😊

Guy I'm so sorry. Lots of listening ears here for you if it helps?

I shared some good practice and I'm now roped into an INSET day session. Bah.

Guy

Ah crap noble that's not the way that's supposed to go. You're supposed to just get a nice pat on the head, a little bit of attention and then go on your way feeling appreciated. No extra work!!! That bit sucks!!!