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

And the Malcolm Saville ‘Lone Pine’ series, set in Shropshire and Rye, Sussex.

@HarrietDVane

I'd forgotten about Trebizon! I don't think I read them all though as our local library was a bit limited. As a really young child I loved the Famous Five, but reading them again with my DDs I was appalled by them!

Me too!

I was obsessed with FF, me and my friends used to play FF continually.

I was Julian! (preens....)

Earthsea series by Ursula le Guin, anyone?

Introduced DS to these when he was Y6, read some together, discovered more I hadn't read. They are beautiful.

@Wavingnotdrown1ng

And the Malcolm Saville ‘Lone Pine’ series, set in Shropshire and Rye, Sussex.

LOVED those!

This could easily turn into a sub thread!

Alan Garner Weirdstone of Brisingamen trilogy.

Interesting question, which was better - from literary and emotional development viewpoints:

• Us all going straight to the classics/Mills and Boon or 😮Stephen King ?

• Today's youth who get YA (which definitely has a gradient within it - often not signposted - of books suitable for 12 yr olds > books suitable for 14+ yr olds)?

So many of you from the same era as me! Yes to Enid blyton - we got all the famous five books in a set at a car boot sale! Judy Blume, then onto Stephen King, Agatha Christie (still my fave), Danielle Stelle, Ruth Rendell, Jilly Cooper. But did anyone else read the Flowers in the Attic series by Virginia Andrews? They were a bit disturbing tbh...

Yes that was it waving!!

Re FITA, my DSis was more into it than me but I certainly remember it.

I have an American mother so also read lots of Nancy Drew.

Growing up in a television-free household, and being an asthmatic quite frequently confined to bed, i read a LOT. At one pint we belonged to 4 different libraries in 4 towns and would visit them in sequence and get out our maximum book allowance from every one, giving us 18 books at a time each to read (larger towns allowed us 6; smaller ones 3).

I read a lot of classics as a preteen. And had a weird jag, aged about 11 or 12 in which I read every single book I could find about King Arthur.

Rosemary Sutcliffe was, and is, my favourite ever.

I just need to sit down in here for a while. It's exhausting out there. How do you lot who've been doing it a lot longer cope?!

I perfected the art of reading very quickly so I could get through the books I chose from the library before my parents could look through the pile and remove any.
They weren’t particularly censorious but I did range freely through the Adult section from about 11 and I can now see that no, Sven Hassall and Forever Amber weren’t really suitable.
There was one book with a very detailed description of male gay sex that I remember giving away that I’d read because when I was asked, I blushed a deep shade of crimson whilst muttering “Er.....no...”
I think they kind of gave up in the end and just said if I ever read anything that troubled me, or that raised any questions, I should ask them.
In amongst the dross I loved stuff like The Earthsea Trilogy, A Traveller In Time, Kes, Pan Book Of Horror Stories and anything where someone was transported out of their humdrum little town for exciting time travel adventures.
A classmate’s parent did complain to the school about me when I lent their darling a copy of The Rats in Yr7. It gave her dreadful nightmares, apparently. Which is kind of the point, isn’t it?

I love Rosemary Sutcliffe @cantkeepawayforever! I always teach the Romans with an Eagle of the Ninth novel study.

dreaming I read all the David Eddings as a teen. And Anne McCaffrey. And the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan. Fantasy series were my reading of choice as soon as I finished the famous five and all the boarding school stories.

Why has no one mentioned Diana Wynne Jones?! Such an amazing author! I loved her books as a child and they’re still my go-to if I want a fun, comforting read.

And her book Reflections of essays and talks she gave about the writing process, how you write for children, the responsibility of writing for children and her fight to be allowed a female protagonist is just fascinating.

@DollyMixtureLulus

I love Rosemary Sutcliffe *@cantkeepawayforever*! I always teach the Romans with an Eagle of the Ninth novel study.

Sadly, I now teach a year group too young for it. I also didn't want to traumatise them with Song for a Dark Queen when teaching them about Boudicca...

I just realised I left her out, noble! Dogsbody and The Ogre Downstairs are still among my comfort reads.

Yes to David eddings, and Terry Pratchett and Saddlers wells, and Enid blyton and Stephen king, and Anne McCaffrey and L.EModesitt and Michael Scott Rohan, and clan of the cavebear, Ursula le guin, Tolkien, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Narnia. Also my mother's Grey's anatomy and her bmj mags every month....
Actually I read anything from the back of cereal packets to my parent's Telegraph

I loved The Eagle of the Ninth! I teach Romans in Y3 but I don't think many of them would be able to access it, sadly ☹️ I might dig out my old copy and have a read though!

Oh and Robert Westall! If I was restricted to one author for the rest of my life I would just reread all his books. I remember reading The Devil On The Road and seeing the dedication to his son, then finding out later that he’d died in a motorcycle accident (the main character in the book rides a motorcycle).

I did read the Flowers in the Attic series.

I also found a copy of a Nancy Friday (think that's her name) book full of women's sexual fantasies at a fete book stall and read it - far too young.

As a kid I did the Enid Blighton's (particularly loved the faraway tree books), Mallory Towers, What Katy Did, etc then onto the Narnia series and the Lord of the Rings and then into Stephen King and Danielle Steel tripe but at the same time reading classics like Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice etc and then into a stage of reading everything I could get my hands on on the occult, meditation, yoga, astral projection and feminism from the 70's - someone at my mum's church had interesting tastes because I always managed to find these books at the fete.

I've done all the work I intend to do today.

Oh I'd forgotten about the clan of the cave bear

Noel streatfield??

@MrsHerculePoirot

So many of you from the same era as me! Yes to Enid blyton - we got all the famous five books in a set at a car boot sale! Judy Blume, then onto Stephen King, Agatha Christie (still my fave), Danielle Stelle, Ruth Rendell, Jilly Cooper. But did anyone else read the Flowers in the Attic series by Virginia Andrews? They were a bit disturbing tbh...

I’d forgotten about VA! Yes-very disturbing-the plot of My Sweet Audrina was just bizarre.

Far too much inter-family relations!

I want to spend my day reading about ballet and ponies now...

Help oh Primary wise ones! Have a weeks english block to do. Outcome at end of week to write a poatcard.

1.introduce story . Read blurb. Talk about vocab. Chn to sequence story by way of story map / pictures

1. What questions would you ask the alien if you met them? Partner talk then role play ideas. What would they want to ask you?
2. Describe character and setting. Looks and feelings. Relate to senses.
3. Writing a postcard. Features of a postcard (informal, short sentences). Model one, chn to plan theirs.
4. Independent write

Does this sequence make sense?

I cannot plan / come up with ideas to save my life. find it so bloody tricky. And have even cleaned the bathroom to avoid work!!!

One of the advantages of going straight to adult fiction - I had read most of Dickens by my early teens, and numerous other classics and modern fiction - was that one read it for the story and often missed the adult themes, which one only picked up on when rereading when older. I’m somewhat disturbed by the explicitness and gratuitous detail particularly with regard to sexuality and mental health in young adult fiction. I think gradual realisation was healthier, but I suppose that’s impossible with the Internet.
I do remember as a teenager doing The Mill on the Floss for O level being struck by the erotic power of the scene where Stephen kisses Maggie’s arm. How times have changed...