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

The main thing I will never understand about this mass reopening is the attitude of the NHS. If bringing the kids back as before happens, it is very likely Covid cases will shoot up again.
Which will impact the NHS, even if the over 65s are vaccinated that still leaves loads of middle aged people possibly requiring hospital treatment. They shouldn’t be as many deaths but the NHS will still struggle.

I’m honestly baffled by this short sighted decision. Hopefully come May I’ll be able to say how wrong I was.

If I catch Covid I will not be setting any work. Staff members have been teaching live if they’ve been well enough to but I won’t be and I won’t be setting any remote learning either. I will be concentrating on my health.

Morning, All.

I'm the same, @motherrunner, if I have covid I will be off ill so therefore doing no work. Even if it's a mild case. My store of goodwill is completely empty.

I can totally see this government opening it up to agree groups rather than by job after the over 50s have been done. Why would they bother to do anything else? It's easier and they haven't cared about school staff since this behan. What makes you think that'll change?

This is concerning: posted just now on a thread about visitors to care homes...

I think teachers aren’t higher up the list because it destroys the narrative that schools are safe. Or is that too cynical?

I wish the announcement re schools was today - it’s making me anxious that it’s happening after the start of term - even though it’s only a day. I’m not sure why.

I still can't explain it but I am really unhappy about the idea of taking LFT in school. I've dodged it every time I've been in so far but it just doesn't sit right for some reason.

It's more theatre, that's why.

Like killing ourselves cleaning desks in between each class. Or having the doorknobs wipes once a day.

I meant more trustworthy than pupils obvs appu .

One of the rationales for return to school is meant to be to aid effective WFH. I am not convinced UK employers will see it that way.

@RandomGrammarPun

It's more theatre, that's why.

Like killing ourselves cleaning desks in between each class. Or having the doorknobs wipes once a day.

And rewriting timetables and room allocations so that kids stay in ‘zones’ or ‘bubbles’ which have very little impact on simplifying contact tracing but mean staff are continually chasing their tail around the school to different rooms.

Whilst staff are distracted rearranging furniture on the deck of the titanic, they don’t have time and are too tired to complain about his shit everything is!

In my grumpiness about so many WFH people getting the vaccine by virtue of being a speech therapist, social worker, counsellor, psychologist, IT support etc, it got me wondering if MPs have been (very quietly!) offered the jab as well!

That's it I think Random
If I'm going to work and going home again and school is safe, I don't need testing!

I meant more trustworthy than pupils obvs appu grin

I know, I was just being silly. It’s all a bit crap, isn’t it-feeling very on edge today.

@motherrunner

If I catch Covid I will not be setting any work. Staff members have been teaching live if they’ve been well enough to but I won’t be and I won’t be setting any remote learning either. I will be concentrating on my health.

Same here, Mother. My goodwill is completely exhausted. DH says 'It's about time...'

Nightingale schools????? WTF?
Are we going to summoned in to build them in our free periods and clone ourselves to teach in them?

@MrsHamlet

That's it I think Random If I'm going to work and going home again and school is safe, I don't need testing!

I've said that to SLT.

I only go to school. Literally only. I can't get Covid in school, so why do I need testing?

I'm sure they have, @Appuskidu. Can't see them standing at the back of the line.

I'm infuriated by people wfh who've had it but try to keep that in check. It's good that people are being done. But when you hear of cock-ups and healthy 20-year-olds studying from home are being vaccinated, you wonder when the universe might send some luck your way.

I think I’ll get out of the testing for a few weeks. I’m feeling similarly to those of you who don’t want to do it. I also don’t see the point of putting my children through a test that is unpleasant and unreliable when it’s not guaranteed that all parents will be doing it.

I've just come across this, although I'm sure you've seen it already. But it's a lovely message from Michael Rosen.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=_uOThs4HDHI&feature=youtu.be

@MrsHamlet

Nightingale schools????? WTF? Are we going to summoned in to build them in our free periods and clone ourselves to teach in them?

No one would need to clone themselves. The Nightingale hospitals did their job very well by making it look as though Government was doing something, providing great photo opportunities for Ministers and then standing (mostly) empty due to lack of staff. So no staff are needed. As for your free periods, I recall at one point being absolutely forbidden to call them that - “They’re not free, you know...”. We all have hitherto unsuspected skills and talents. Yours might be bricklaying, plumbing, or goodness knows what.

I have my own power tools so maybe I can be useful after all.

I have Covid atm. Does anyone know when I will restart our twice weekly staff LFT testing? I read somewhere that you shouldn't retest for 90 days after a positive result but that wasn't on an NHS site.

@Mrsbrownsgargoyle hope you're doing OK? You're obviously anticipating return to work so hopefully you are.

Have seen this question elsewhere and I think there is no guidance!

Perhaps others on here who've had Covid in recent months will know more.

@SmileEachDay

I think teachers aren’t higher up the list because it destroys the narrative that schools are safe. Or is that too cynical?

I wish the announcement re schools was today - it’s making me anxious that it’s happening after the start of term - even though it’s only a day. I’m not sure why.

I feel this way as well.

I'm also concerned that parents will have assumed school staff have been vaccinated or are about to be imminently vaccinated.

Lots of people on other threads saying they feel school staff should be vaccinated before fully reopening without understanding that this is not happening.

Lots of people on other threads saying they feel school staff should be vaccinated before fully reopening without understanding that this is not happening

Or that we should feel grateful that they THINK teachers should be vaccinated and that’s somehow as good as actually being vaccinated!

I think a lot of (wfh and often vaccinated!) people think we should go back uncomplaining to work in unsafe environments regardless of any of this though and they might a bit feel sorry for us. Because it’s a vocation, innit? If we complain, cite unsafe working conditions or start discussing industrial action, though-they’ll stop feeling sorry for us and go back to the ‘workshy leftie whingebag teachers’ rhetoric!

Surely to stop a full return leading to a surge, parents of school children would need to be vaccinated as well as school staff?

Mrsbrownsgargoyle I've just had covid too. I've read in a couple of places, one of them being the Northern Ireland NHS staff testing page, that if you have had a positive PCR test, you shouldn't do lateral flow tests for 90 days as they might still come up positive. So when I return I am planning on saying I won't do them yet (they are voluntary at my school). There's no way DS could do another 10 days of self-isolation, especially when he has just had it so probably won't get it again for a while.

We've both been offered the vaccine now, but have to wait for 4 weeks after having covid.