The Forty Sixth Republic - online learning has killed the 'snow day'

[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

couldn't do that all last term because they'd have to touch my lanyard.

This is one of those lines that would have made literally no sense this time last year.

It’s weird coming up to Feb half term, which was when all those Italian ski trips happened, we had some staff who had to isolate when they got back and it was all weird and a bit exciting.

Yeah, our ski trip staff suffered quite a bit of bullying from students on return who refused to attend their lessons, in case they had the 'rona...

@JanFebAnyMonth

Oo just looked and Marisota is JD Williams! (Was it always??) And there's loads of actually NICE shoes in my size and width

Ooooo!

Lol - you are so like me with shoes - I also get very excited whenever I see pretty shoes in my size! I have more shoes than I need, just because I have to buy any pretty shoes in my size.

I know this is a 1st world problem, but I can't tell you how pissed off I am not to be packing right now, ready for skiing this half term.
And I can't even cheer myself up by planning some nice things to do here instead.
Probably the shittest February half term EVER ahead.

Probably the shittest February half term EVER ahead

Yep, my kids are so fed up being at home. And that’s all we have to look forward to, that and the freezing cold temperatures.

Are U4T all unwell? There's a thread about schools which is on page 3, and no teacher bashing yet.

Don’t compare it to other half Feb half terms, compare it to this week.

No worksheets to drag DD through, no Loom and no SODDING MS TEAMS.

It’s going to be amazing.

@chocolateisavegetable

Are U4T all unwell? There's a thread about schools which is on page 3, and no teacher bashing yet.

Maybe there was an Us4Them Zoom update meeting at 4pm and they’re all on that

@chocolateisavegetable

Are U4T all unwell? There's a thread about schools which is on page 3, and no teacher bashing yet.

They’re on there. Pretty sure of it.

I can't tell you how pissed off I am not to be packing right now, ready for skiing this half term.

Oh, me too. We also missed TWO WEEKS at Christmas/New Year. We've rebooked for Christmas and New Year next year.

Made the mistake of looking at the Les Arcs webcam earlier. It's been a blue sky day, and there were definitely groups of skiiers together - quite high up, no idea how they got there.

OK, chat in our LA is that the main 'plan' being floated is that areas with low case rates and low hospital admissions, will go back to school - and probably by staggered year groups. Those with higher rates etc, like the SE, might not. And it will be done regionally rather than by LA area.

Plan in inverted commas, because they probably haven't actually got a plan.

Appu that would explain it

Noble maybe they're just waiting for a few more "I can't cope with this any more" posts before launching into "bloody teachers causing more stress for parents - sack the lot of 'em"

Depends how high you mean. You can drive up as far as 1950/2000. Higher than that and I suppose you're talking ski tourers, those nutcases who walk up and ski down.

Oh, no - higher than 2000. Lots at the top of the TransArc bubble for example. I mean, maybe it has been running a bit. No chairs are though.

Some of the shopsin 1950 are starting to open, and my friend who works in a restaurant in 1950 is going back to start doing takeaways. Creakily opening maybe.

There are loads of tourers and split borders - that was my plan this season too. Oh well. I probably wasn't fit enough for it anyway.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Are you anxious about going back to school? And if so, why?

We were having this chat last night - I'm still not worried about covid, I'm more worried about the logistics. I'm also now worried about behaviour management again, gaps all over the place and so on. It's just going to make the job harder and so much less fun.

I'm not worried about Covid for myself, but I am worried about the effect it will have on student's families and the wider community. A child I teach lost an immediate family member to covid this week. The family member wasn't in a demographic that will be vaccinated by March.

Things like this will damage children's life chances far more than a few extra weeks off of school.

choc

'I'm going to bin the remote learning completely' - that's an U4T thing at the moment, they think if they refuse to do the home learning their kid will get a school place.

Also anything that mentions the totally devastating impact on children. Not 'I'm worried about my child' but all children.

Ah @RuleWithAWoodenFoot now I REALLY want to go skiing. We went last February half term, when my dad paid for a big chalet again for all his kids and partners. Was great, apart from having a 15 month old with me and partner stuck in the U.K. working (luckily one of my sisters prefers soft play to morning skiing 😂). A couple of us got a mild temperature and the shivers, and we all joked that it was coronavirus. All restaurants etc open.

How much a year has changed the world!

Re coming back, I’m worried about how we’ll provide for self isolators alongside full class teaching. Hoping we can just set Oak...

Also selfishly worried about being pregnant during the bubble system, and not being able to get someone to watch my class when I need 500 wees a day...

@noblegiraffe

choc

'I'm going to bin the remote learning completely' - that's an U4T thing at the moment, they think if they refuse to do the home learning their kid will get a school place.

Also anything that mentions the totally devastating impact on children. Not 'I'm worried about my child' but all children.

Unfortunately, I think this has worked for some parents at my school.

But this week we've pretty much maxed out on numbers. SLT are assuming it will go back down once we have a school return date pencilled in, but I think they are being naive.

If numbers increase much more, we won't have enough computers for them all to use!

@noblegiraffe

choc

'I'm going to bin the remote learning completely' - that's an U4T thing at the moment, they think if they refuse to do the home learning their kid will get a school place.

Also anything that mentions the totally devastating impact on children. Not 'I'm worried about my child' but all children.

Thanks for the tips on what to look out for. I think I can see a strategy now - whip up a bit of a frenzy and then start bashing.

I’m worried about how we’ll provide for self isolators alongside full class teaching.

Yes, me too. I've seen some Ofsted notes today where they looked at online work versus what had been going on in class, to make sure it was consistent. We've got a few choice isolators.

Rule, that (the Ofsted comparing) sounds unfair - are they seen as needing to be utterly equal?

And am not sure you what you mean by a "choice isolater"?

I think ofsted expect the same content, not necessarily the same method of delivery.

We also have choice isolators. Those who wouldn't come in last term, aren't engaging much online yet expect work every lesson and complain if it's not there.

But do Ofsted expect identical outcomes?

www.itv.com/news/topic/coronavirus
Opening schools may push R rate over 1 again....

So when X kicks off and needs to be removed, there are always questions about why I didn't handle it better, even though X has kicked off in every lesson that day and couldn't care less about being removed.

Yes I remember one SLT member who did this. Until he came in to my classroom with said kid at the beginning of break after a particularly shitty lesson to discuss why I wasn’t keeping him in class. I said “what were you doing, Sammy (or whoever)?” and he replied “hitting that kid with a bottle”. Then I said “how many lessons have you been asked to leave so far today?” and he replied “all of them”. Then I really really glared at the SLT numpty and off he went, rapscallion trailing in his wake and pulling things off notice boards.