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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Original poster

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

999 replies

Staffdontblowitnow · 08/02/2021 01:20

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
MrsHamlet · 12/02/2021 15:51

@GuyFawkesDay

Me too.

Got my first prescription for anti depressants today. I don't know if I want to take them.

I looked at mine for a few days before I started. I didn't want to. I definitely needed to though. Be kind to yourself. Depression is a nasty bastard.
MrsHamlet · 12/02/2021 15:52

Woooooo Piggy

WhenSheWasBad · 12/02/2021 15:54

guy I’d take them if I were you. They take a while to kick in, hope you feel better soon.

Very exciting piggy best of luck.

Piggywaspushed · 12/02/2021 15:59

This was on Facebook:

To quote my Conservative MP this week, after I challenged him about schools opening too early:
“I am afraid whilst many teachers have acted heroically throughout recent months teaching unions have not covered themselves with glory.”
When I asked him to expand and explain what he meant he responded:
“Many of my colleagues now refer to them as non-teaching unions as they lobbied hard for most of last year for schools to remain closed when it was perfectly safe to open them. Many of us felt this was wrong.”
We must stand up for our teachers and teaching unions - they are under attack (and I don’t use that word lightly

Butmiss · 12/02/2021 16:13

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot I lead PSHE and it sounds like we will get a lot of support in the upcoming months. We're planning a PE/PSHE themed week when all the kids are back to help settle them in.

GuyFawkesDay · 12/02/2021 16:16

Hoping I don't get too many side effects from them. On low dose for 2 weeks (25mg) then they'll review and see how I am.

MrsHamlet · 12/02/2021 16:18

I had a really itchy inside of my skull. I had to take them in the morning so the skull itch was when I was awake, otherwise it kept me awake.
But they helped calm the noise.

Monkeytennis97 · 12/02/2021 16:24

@GuyFawkesDay I'm only on 10mg atm.. going to up it to 20mg at the end of next week which is what I've been on (and off) for years.

chocolateisavegetable · 12/02/2021 16:35

@GuyFawkesDay

Hoping I don't get too many side effects from them. On low dose for 2 weeks (25mg) then they'll review and see how I am.
Do remember that there are several different "families" of ADs - so if one type isn't right for you, you can try a different type. Unless you get really bad side effects, it is worth persevering to see if you feel the benefits. I remember when they were first suggested to me, I really didn't want to take them. There was a book which really helped to convince me was "Depressive Illness, the curse of the strong" by Dr Tim Cantopher. I highly recommend reading it - very accessible and helps to take away a lot of the stigma around MH problems / taking ADs (at least, it did for me).
chocolateisavegetable · 12/02/2021 16:38

[quote RuleWithAWoodenFoot]Also today, Laura McInerney in the Grun. Good ideas.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/12/uk-school-closures-are-sacrificing-childhoods-to-save-older-people-now-its-payback-time?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other[/quote]
Last August, the chancellor fell over himself to hand out £10 Rishi’s Dishes dinner vouchers, with more than 100 million meals claimed. For the same price, every school-age child could be offered £120 of activity vouchers to use on summer camps, expeditions, outdoor theatre and online music lessons. Our entire arts and leisure industry are on their knees. If they knew cash would be available, they could spend the spring planning these events. Meanwhile, schools could focus on academic learning instead of getting sucked into conversations about whether teachers should run summer schools in return for getting the vaccine. (Short answer: no.)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 12/02/2021 16:49

Nursery staff are starting to be offered it (officially, through work), so it's under the radar, but it's sort of happening.

BadlydoneHelen · 12/02/2021 16:52

IT'S HALF TERM!!!WineGinCake

( sorry, as you were)

GuyFawkesDay · 12/02/2021 16:53

Thanks everyone.
I'm a classic 'coper'. Everyone come to me with their problems/issues and i have had a lot of stressful life events to deal with and I think I've just swept it all under the carpet. Lockdown has just exposed the lump under the proverbial carpet and it needs dealing with.

I've self referred for talking treatment too. Hoping the ADs will help me deal with the HoD without wanting to either cry or commit murder 😂

chocolateisavegetable · 12/02/2021 16:58

@GuyFawkesDay

Thanks everyone. I'm a classic 'coper'. Everyone come to me with their problems/issues and i have had a lot of stressful life events to deal with and I think I've just swept it all under the carpet. Lockdown has just exposed the lump under the proverbial carpet and it needs dealing with.

I've self referred for talking treatment too. Hoping the ADs will help me deal with the HoD without wanting to either cry or commit murder 😂

If you read the book I recommended, you will recognise that you are a classic profile of the sort of person who ends up with depression. Sometimes ADs can help you make the most of talking therapy.
GuyFawkesDay · 12/02/2021 17:05

Half term celebration here = oven shove on pizza dinner, a very long bath and a nap on the sofa.

Rock and roll!!

GuyFawkesDay · 12/02/2021 17:06

I will buy that book, thank you. It sounds exactly like me!

lonelyplanet · 12/02/2021 17:07

From Tim Spector today:
“Based on the ZOE data and our predictions we are soon to be in the same place we were in early June, with the advantage of having a large proportion of the population vaccinated which could mean good news in terms of lifting some restrictions sooner rather than later. By 8th March we should have less than 1 in 740 people with symptoms allowing us to get kids back into the classrooms and starting to allow people to exercise and meet, at least outdoors, where the risk of transmission is much lower.

chocolateisavegetable · 12/02/2021 17:15

@GuyFawkesDay

I will buy that book, thank you. It sounds exactly like me!
@GuyFawkesDay I just remembered that there is an extract on the internet: www.mysurgerywebsite.co.uk/website/H81672/files/Depressive_Illness_Curse_of_the_strong.pdf
TheHoneyBadger · 12/02/2021 17:21

Finished the trauma course and the big agenda at the end seemed to be about avoiding internal or external exclusions because this can be traumatising for the child. I find myself growling yes but what about the other 30 kids who are there to get an education? I'd love to be paid for part of my time to work deeply one on one with my challenging/distressed students but I'm not and there's no spare time when it's ok to just sack off the curriculum and student progress and assessments etc. I'm feeling old and tired and cynical of this demand that we can be all things to all people simultaneously.

Also those other 30 kids parents don't send them to school to have them and their education ignored so Johnny can disrupt and take all of the energy and focus of the teachers in case removing him is bad for him.

Long feeling day today. Year 7s kw kids, talking to hod, then over in curriculum support trying to help a couple of my students who are really struggling and then a live catch up with one of my classes with me talking into the void mostly. Just tired.

And irked by the 'on our journey to outstanding even in these testing times' shite that's being brought more and more into comms from slt.

Saucery · 12/02/2021 17:42

Bottoms up, luffly Staffroomers! Gin

We made it to another half term, by hook or by crook. What was the annoying kids tv program that had a chorus of Give yourself a Pat on the back, a Pat on the back...... ? Anyway, give yourselves one of them there pats on the back, you’ve earned it.

I intend to vanish into a vat of gin and a criminally creamy cream cake I made this afternoon. And American Gods. And quite possibly a load of YouTubed rock videos later, just to annoy DS. 🎸

JanFebAnyMonth · 12/02/2021 17:43

Yeah, bet you love that from SLT honey. IME whenever anyone invites you to journey with them or tries to explain the current circumstances as a journey, it's never a Good Thing.

Completely agree with you about how it's impossible for us to meet every child's need at once, let alone educate everyone simultaneously. Does any school claim to honestly be doing this, I wonder?

It might be possible were CAMHS etc support infinitely and instantly available. Which it sure isn't.

MrsHerculePoirot · 12/02/2021 17:45

@chocolateisavegetable that was the bit that stood out for me!

In other news I had my first jab of the vaccine this morning!

MrsHamlet · 12/02/2021 17:46

I'm feeling old and tired and cynical of this demand that we can be all things to all people simultaneously.
This is one of the things that worries me. I don't know any teacher who is not at capacity already, and its almost always us or our families who bear the brunt of that lack of capacity