The Forty - Eight Republic - countdown for DfE media agency to wake up

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

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

That drop in secondary school infections is awesome.

Really good news for the primary kids too. Especially considering 20/25% of them are in school.

I just cynically imagine the line going forwards from the 8th of March and wonder how long it will take to reverse that trend.

MrsH that's shit but at least you tried. Are you going to be able to work?

I am meant to be in school in Monday to induct a new member of staff ... which means driving. At the moment I definitely can't drive.
I can perfectly well induct via teams though.
Doctor did ask what I did for a living (and then told me he wasn't very good at English at school!) and said I was probably sitting a lot at the moment....

Those graphs are great, especially the secondary one.

MrsH that's shit from your GP. Are there private osteopaths near you? Or private physios? I would try one of them if you can.

Oh that's rubbish @MrsH I'm sorry, are you able to see anyone privately?

There is a physio locally who is open so I've emailed them. My shiatsu lady is half an hour drive away so she's out for now!
Back on the sofa with a hot water bottle.

I always giggled at “Scrooge was much attached to Dick” too.

Best inappropriate giggle moment for me came showing a sixth form Lit class a video about Keats where someone (it might even have been Ian McEwan) opined very seriously “Keats loved Fanny” and I couldn’t stop myself snorting loudly.

@MrsHamlet

There is a physio locally who is open so I've emailed them. My shiatsu lady is half an hour drive away so she's out for now! Back on the sofa with a hot water bottle.

Hopefully they will be able to help you @MrsH. It's so bloody frustrating when GPs don't actually listen to you / want to help.

@cornercupboard

Cock anecdote from my naice gels' grammar: Middlemarch, Casaubon would toss himself in a corner. Snigger snigger snigger.

Wasn’t it Lydgate? Though TBH Casaubon was indeed a tosser.

@MrsHamlet

Complete waste of time. Keep taking OTC medication. Try private physio. Come back if your arm drops off.

I've found doctors are useless for back pain! Do you know if it's muscular? Only thing which eases mine is Napton and co-codamel if really bad and alternating heat and cold.Definitely try and see an osteopath.

My anxiety about the announcement on Monday is sky high, been ignoring the news and limiting what I look at but the anxiety dreams are back. Also had friends who weren't shielding be told to shield so that's thrown them a lot.

Blimey , that secondary age graph looks like Eddie the Eagle could ski down it.

I wonder if that is because they are no longer walking to and from school and engaging in other risky end to end behaviours related to school? I just can't figure out otherwise why it would drop so much

In terms of painkillers, ibuprofen + paracetamol is recommended for back/muscle injuries because ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory as well as a painkiller.

Sainsbury's sell those reusable heat packs that you can put in the microwave and strap to yourself.

Piggy it's probably because they're not at school that means they can't spend breaktime arranging all those risky sleepovers and park hangouts.

I'm wondering if that dip in the graph in the 70+ age group is vaccinations kicking in. Nothing else going on seems to have really affected that age group so it really could be.

I've got ibuprofen, paracetamol and a codeine-ibuprofen combo. I'm just going to have to alternate them I think.
I like the bit in the sign of the four where Holmes ejaculates, then about a page later fingers a rope and comments on horny hands. I can do it totally straight faced....
"why are you laughing year 10? What's funny? I just don't get it"
Poor kids 🤣

GPs can't do much for pain because we have such a shitty system here in terms of getting to see specialists and a lot of gate keeping on referrals.

When I was young and my sister lived in France I had a skin issue and so I went to see a dermatologist when I visited her - we paid upfront and then she got 80% back via the state. That was a long time ago but basically you didn't go to a GP for eg. back pain, you went straight to the right specialist. I do of course want to keep the nhs but it's bloody hard work when your gps hands are tied.

Last Christmas my GP thought I needed a ct scan to check my bowels following symptoms coming back that were worryingly similar to when my bowel had twisted before but he openly said he knew full well they wouldn't accept a referral for it and told me about the online system they have to use to try and put in a referral and how it's designed to reject their requests and doesn't allow a doctor to be able to free input why they think the referral is necessary. Just a computer says no response even for GPs. We ended up having a conversation about how it felt like everything was at breaking point both in nhs and schools and how something had to give.

Then came Covid.

Holmes ejaculates

Er. That's quite different to how I remember the tone of the Sherlock Holmes books.

DH has had endless chronic back issues and the GPs ran out of suggestions years ago. I have the occasional twang, and don't even bother going now. Head straight for the chiro/physio. Ditto knee pain when I pranged it skiing, as well as physio after I broke my leg.

From my local union page.

According to the Telegraph, union bosses are due to meet with the government today “for talks to finalise plans for mass testing secondary pupils on their return.”

Workers will be watching these events with a painful sense of déjà vu. Last year saw the same promises and demands for “proof” of school safety followed by the abandonment of the unions’ supposed “red lines”. According to the Times Educational Supplement at least 570 educators have so far paid with their lives. If the reopening is also allowed to proceed as it did in September, it can only produce the same terrible consequences and worse.

The Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee calls on all workers, parents and students who recognise the grave danger posed by school reopenings to attend our online meeting on Saturday February 20 at 2pm to discuss how to organise the fightback, independently of the trade unions, against the governments homicidal agenda.

Someone on Data has pointed out that ONS does not have primary age group as the most infected, and is more likely to be accurate.

www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/19/uksc-j01.html?fbclid=IwAR3DHhrLePNKZY4gMmZif8207mHhOGBLejqjb6T5KdT13zVX207yuS8pf9s

On a side note, people still think schools get advance notice of returns etc before announcements are made.

Toddler and I just met a friend at local park to exercise the under fives, and other parents from the village’s reception class were there. Friend let slip to fellow parents that I am a primary teacher and I was BESIEGED with questions about which years groups are coming back/rotas/masks etc.

Genuine confusion when I stated that we find out in press conference with everyone else.

That in itself has been so offensive. HTs having to tune in to press conferences to find out what's happening - it's so disrespectful really to not even let them know in advance or in an official way. They announce to the public then at some point the dfe publishes some guidelines.

Oh good grief it'll be 'Spot the new guidance/ which single words or phrase have slightly changed' again soon. Great

Yes, I also had to explain that we don’t get the actual detail of the guidance until waaaaay after the announcement.

Lots of ‘but that can’t be right’ 🧐