The Forty Seventh Republic! Happy Valentines and get some half term rest

[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

Go to bed nutters. I'm so tempted to have another g&t but the time!

Oh well, that little lockdown was truly little and all back to school tomorrow. Thank goodness.

The real sweat for teachers was that most of the units in this term were devised before last year's lockdown, so not readied for remote learning: lots of PDF worksheets that don't lend themselves to live lessons.

And breathe.

I am not going to comment on the fact that I saw this on another thread but a FULL READ (not just the headline) of this is worthwhile since these US paediatricians ( after parroting out the usual lines) want mitigations at a ' basic level' to return children to school in the US.

Basic measures are.... naturally.... masks...

www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html?surface=home-discovery-vi-prg&fellback=false&req_id=298889764&algo=identity&variant=no-exp&imp_id=497289209&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage

"Masks are key,” Dr. Noble said. “Other interventions create a false sense of assurance.”

Dr Noble

They don't seem to see ventilation as important compared to masks. Wonder if they only looked at data from US schools with measures implemented.

They said they looked at 72 countries. US schools tend to have ventilation systems so it may not seem such a big issue to them.

My school has a ventilation system, I'm not convinced of the effectiveness to be honest!
Anecdata completely but smells take an age to disperse in the classrooms, far longer than if a window could be opened (they can't be).

Ah that's interesting about their classrooms already being ventilated!

I liked this line "Kids are good at wearing masks!”

When the argument most commonly put forward here is 'Kids are shit at wearing masks!'

I was just reading this from the EEF:

educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-publishes-new-research-on-the-impact-of-covid-19-partial-school-closures/

"Overall performance in both reading and mathematics in autumn 2020 was found to be significantly lower compared to the 2017 cohort, with pupils, on average, making two months less progress in both subject areas compared to the standardisation sample."

Is it just me or is 'two months less progress' not really significantly lower? Some of those Y2s might not have been in school for 6 months (I know they generally returned in June), but also I've seen stuff elsewhere about how kids are 22 months behind and will never catch up. 2 months catch-up seems totally doable for a kid with a decade of school left.

Although disadvantaged pupils are potentially 7 months behind noble, which is more significant.

But as they pointed out, they didn't do that analysis in 2017 so don't know whether the gap has widened and if so, by how much.

Other data suggests: "The attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged counterparts is already evident when children begin school aged 5, with a gap between them the equivalent of 4.3 months of learning. This gap more than doubles to 9.5 months at the end of primary school, and then more than doubles again to 19.3 months at the end of secondary school."

If there was an easy way to fix an attainment gap, schools would already been doing it. There have been attainment gaps for forever, it’s a society issue, there’s only so much individual schools can do.

Yeah absolutely noble

I’d not be surprised at that kind of gap - EEF has said for years that what happens at home is 4 times more important than anything a school can do in terms of progress. That’s why there’s a gap 🤷🏻‍♀️

I absolutely think that the whole “lost generation” narrative is supremely unhelpful. Difficult to be motivated if the grown ups are wringing their hands and saying it’s definitely all lost.

With some regional exceptions, the culture in the US is more mask focused than here. Obviously you get some people not doing it, but in many places people even wear masks outside. And even small children, pre-school age, wear them.

Frankly the idea that children can't wear masks here is really ridiculous. In my class I have a couple kids whose parents are doctors. Those kids both have masks, they wear them in the hallways, and yes over the nose too. They are 7 years old. We obviously don't ask them to wear masks, but they are definitely capable.

I agree it must be so difficult to motivate yourself if your parents are moaning that it's useless and pointless. My dd is pretty easy to motivate at the minute, because she knows she's learning stuff that will be useful. If I was telling her that she'd have to catch up as soon as she's back at school because she's lost so much learning, she quite rightly, wouldn't do anywhere near as much because what's the point. The kids doing the least in my classes are the ones with parents shouting the loudest that what we're providing isn't good enough.

I got whatfored by a colleague outside an exam room once because she overheard me say (to an a level student who'd been in my class since year 10) "well I guess you'll fail" in response to the question "what if I can't answer any of the questions?"
I can't put the stroky stuff on, and she absolutely just needed to pull herself together. She didn't fail. She's now training to be an English teacher (foolish child!!)
One of my rules is that it's not time to panic til I do the panic dance or they find my gibberish under my desk. I can't do with the endless catastrophising that some of my colleagues seem to love to do. Some of it, I think, is that they want to be the hero... extra classes, contactable all the time, only I can save you....

Me gibbering. My gibberish is right here 🤦🏼‍♀️

I like that rule. I shall introduce it to my classes too. Although a lot of the kids in my classes seem overburdened with confidence, rather than having any tenancy towards panic. I do have a few who get stressed, but I seem to have a really high proportion of overconfident boys this year, who think they'll get a good grade despite not having done that in any tests so far or having done any extra work

absolutely think that the whole “lost generation” narrative is supremely unhelpful

God, don't start a thread about it though 😱

Did I post the article from Psychologist on the lost generation narrative or did I just forget?

Don't think I read it Rafa or I'd have put it on my thread. You might still have posted it though.

God, don't start a thread about it though

Did you?

When I'm lamenting in class (it begins "are you trying to make me go grey?.... has all the knowledge fallen out of your brains?") someone will always say "is it time to panic yet?"
The kids think I'm mad, and I have to tell trainees that it won't work for everyone!

You were very rude on it, Smile!

No, I think I probably got distracted and forgot.

thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/weathering-storm

Right, I’m going to do some work. Try not to derail the thread while I’m gone.

You were very rude on it, Smile!

🤣🤣🤣