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

@MrsHamlet

There will enemy but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it anyway. What've you got to lose?

Nothing really 🤣 it's for a trainee internal auditor...

Sorry for all my typos btw. I've now found my glasses

Yes he'd fed himself and trashed the kitchen. He'd have woken me if he needed anything.

Also, what does the 'emotional check in' involve with the kids? I feel like I need to be doing something with mine - they seem increasingly desperate to chat.

@EnemyOfEducationNo1 Smarties is how we got through maths in the first few weeks. Now it's measurement, which we can do just through life stuff. But reading... aagh.

I LOATHED DESPISED HATED AND WAS SHIT AT reading. Just saying.

That's interesting MrsH. When did the change happen, once you had mastered the skill or much much later?

Just had my request for teaching, live or recorded, for my Year 3 and 6 DCs declined by CoGs. I'm afraid we will have no choice but to send them in. Thursday's work for DS was posters so that was poor but manageable, however Tuesday's was two list of ten bland comprehension questions. DD has fallen behind with maths - partly my fault, I can't keep up. I'm done. I'd rather just get back to school and take my chances if it means my DCs can be taught.

Sorry to hear that Salty. Did CoGs give reasons? How many of their classmates are in?

There were 3 including DS on Weds, normally 5, with two members of staff. It's mainly because parents in the last lockdown said they wanted flexibility. I mean, this isn't an extension of the holidays.

Unfortunately I can see the perspective of the teacher bashers when some schools just won't even try.

Please excuse my ignorance... what's a PBP?!

Previously banned poster. (But I always think of Precious Firstborn first!)

@JanFebAnyMonth - thanks! I've been racking what's left of my brain trying to work it out!

It's hard to say. I don't remember being taught to read or mastering it. I just started to like it.
My godfather, much adored, read to me as a kid and did all the voices. I have some really clear memories of Ivor the Engine and Treasure Island. I just wouldn't or couldn't read for myself. And then he stopped part way through The water babies.
I don't know now what happened (and I don't remember the end of the water babies!) but then I could read. I think I probably didn't much like it and preferred to be read to, so I chose not to. Sounds about right for me 😂
I think it also had to do with finding a good story. I read all of the Enid Blyton I could get my hands on, then lots of ballet books and the Chalet school, then what mum had lying about. Agatha Christie was a favourite. I read Roots at 14... not sure that was really age appropriate (at least my English teacher raised her eyebrow!)
I read everyday everywhere... brushing my teeth and drying my hair, for at least half an hour before bed, on journeys.... my sister and I tag teamed reading Wild Swans one road trip. Whoever wasn't map reading for mum got to read... I read really quickly and I will read anything - but I ditch things I don't like.
My sister is much less of a reader than I am.

That's really poor Salty.
I do understand some parents being upset. I have a colleague who, in the first lockdown set work but told the kids to bring it for marking in September knowing she wouldn't be teaching them. Some of them duly did.. and of course she didn't mark any of it.
I'd be irked if I was the parent or the child... and this was year 9.
Our SLT were pretty laissez faire the first time round and my decision to teach online was a combination of "what else is there to do?" and "they'll be my classes for another year" pragmatism.
There's no excuse for 20 comprehension questions.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Previously banned poster. (But I always think of Precious Firstborn first!)

I always think Pot Bellied Pig

With my 8yo we read books in yr r every day. She could read lime by 5.0yo. But we did have the 2 books a week and reading chest. Neither of which dc2 has.
Dc2 now 5.7yo in yr r weve read a lot less. They are struggling with recognising digaphs in words. But can do on their own.
things is im now having to prioritise the 8yo getting work done.

I wouldnt be against longer days for longer holiday s from a child perspective as dccant seem to cope with 14w terms. Also

I'm glad you don't think I'm just being a vile teacher basher. It upsets me that I'm doing my very best for my pupils while my own children's school simply aren't interested in trying. I feel really conflicted.

I've even done CPD off my own back to improve my own online teaching.

MrsHamlet I think we must have had the same reading books. All the Chalet School books, Antonia Forest, Sadler’s Wells, Drina, pretty much every Enid Blyton. Anything in a series and then Jilly Cooper, Agatha Christie, Stephen King and James Herriot. The worst thing about holidays abroad were the times I hadn’t taken enough books and I ran out half way through the holiday. Comprehensions were fun. Maths not so much.

Dc school arent teaching the topic in the maths zooms. Yr4. They are doing more .like mental maths. The topic is only.on white rose. Which seems.enough for dc to understand but we then have 40 min of worksheet to do.
However a friend is saying their kid is only doing the zooms... So not the wrm videos or the worksheets.! I dont think they understand the dc will be behind and actually would be better off with 10min wrm and 10 of the.worksheet than doing the zoom.
english is oak and zoom comprehensions. So probably could get away without either of those. As the oak while very useful on vocabulary and structure doesnt seem to me to be critical.
So i guess it's not clear to parent which bits are most important.

Similarly dc2 has oak english and maths daily but and art. Plus phonics zoom and maths zoom.
We are just doing the zooms.... Because dc isnt paying attention to the oak. It is like counting to 20.
We are doing reading eggs/mathletics and workbooks instead.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

MrsHamlet I think we must have had the same reading books. All the Chalet School books, Antonia Forest, Sadler’s Wells, Drina, pretty much every Enid Blyton. Anything in a series and then Jilly Cooper, Agatha Christie, Stephen King and James Herriot. The worst thing about holidays abroad were the times I hadn’t taken enough books and I ran out half way through the holiday. Comprehensions were fun. Maths not so much.

Drina! I still have all the books, right in this room on a shelf! I've never met anyone else who's read them! My 'Drina Dances in Paris' is a different edition to the others, which annoys me no end. I've no idea why I couldn't get that one with the same covers at the time!

We do register at 8.50 then either writing input or whole class reading input until half 9. Then they go and do the ind task. I do live teaching of maths for yr 3 at 10 for an hour, then the year 4s (who are stronger) come at 11 for an hour and we go through issues. They are usually done from watching the videos. If we finish the maths in that hour, I crack on with hassling them to do the English lesson we didn't do in the morning session. We record everything beforehand - it's up by 4.30 the day before - for those who can't do online. Most of my kids come to both live sessions. I then read to them at 3.15 for, well.. officially 15 mins, but it often goes on for ages. Half 4 the other day. I figure it's a bit of virtual childcare - they are colouring or chatting on chat or doing lego, but loving the book. They have a foundation subject in the afternoon that we've recorded. I've chucked up some Oak spelling, but otherwise it's all made by us. From 12 - 3 I mark/ call/plan /have lunch/ walk round the block/ do some 1-1 or small group SEND stuff etc.

Most parents don't sit in on the live stuff anymore. I reckon I'm giving working parents a solid 2 and a half hours of me on the end of Teams as child occupier.

Frankly I think our offer is brilliant, and has been all along since Easter last year. And I'm taking responsibility for that - the Head and DH were both saying not to make videos, but I cracked on anyway - it was the right thing to do.

I was another Drina fan (and Sadler's Wells, ofc). It blew my mind when I found out years later that Jean Estoril was the pen name of Mabel Esther Allan as her Over the Sea to School series (set on Skye) was another absolute favourite childhood classic and I didn't know they had the same author!

KatherineOfGaunt Mine was a different copy too. The others were a 1970s red hardback or 1980s paperbacks but Drina Dances in Paris had a photo of a girl reading a book to some little children on it. RandomGrammarPun I loved the Skye books too (and completely differently), her Wood Street books.

If the sodapop poster was a PBP, how come all other posts are still visible in Advanced Search?