The Fifty-first republic - twice weekly tests and wear masks at all time till Easter

[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.

Do not give the staffroom password to others 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. Do not sit on the chairs and wear a mask.

After reading the ending of Private Peaceful for the first time with year 7 ( my voice was very wobbly) I learnt the following years to get a pupil to do it.

I can't let kids read sad bits in case they spoil them!
I once had a bottom set class mostly of boys and one, early on, asked me if he reminded me of Lennie.
He was a proper farmer lad, and yes he sort of did.
At the end, we closed the book, and after a moment of silence he asked "miss, if I was Lennie and you were George, would you shoot me?"

I've not recovered from Mid Term break as a school pupil. Also an RS Thomas one about a man dying. Oh and a certain scene in Jude the Obscure. Couldn't ever teach that.

See this is why I couldn't possibly be an English teacher. I cry at all the books. Dd2 started reading the sad bits of her bedtime stories when she was about 7 (and the books were just slightly too hard for her tbh), because I cry at all sorts of things. She likes sad, real life stories, and I cry at all of them. I've just looked up Ways to live forever, and I teared up just reading the blurb!!! I'm buying it for dd, because it's right up her street.

He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.

I acted a lot as a teenager and I remember three lines I spoke: a bit from Fiddler On The Roof ( sung actually) , a great line from Pericles and the end of The Crucible.

Boxer made me cry when I read it with ds in the first lockdown.

I was Blousy in Bugsy Malone and still remember my songs but no lines.

I always found The Secret Garden wonderful and sad as a child but, sort of exciting too, to be catapulted out of one life into another. Now, to think of little, entitled, demanding Mary trying to make sense of the household dying around her and all the adults supposed to protect her running away makes me sob.

I can’t even consider Ways To Live Forever. A Monster Calls was gruelling enough. Also, for older readers, They Both Die In The End, because DS is that age and ........nope.

I've been teary in class when reading before. Very interesting to see the children's reactions and it has prompted some really interesting discussions.

Just been to the dentist. Full PPE plus vaccine for the person that opens the door and books you in. They don't even go in the treatment room. Very weird - like a trip to another planet. A huge contrast to schools.

Work places are so polarised. It's either pack in you'll be fine or super, super careful.

According to DS the reason his school is not starting until 15th (ie doing all LFTs before lessons begin) is a directive from the borough. Sensible borough!

Oh yes that's reminded me of all the bits in books I was reading to the children they ended up reading themselves, whilst at their blubbering wreck of a mummy....

I LOVE something that makes me cry!

I quite like books that make me cry, but not when I'm reading them aloud. Dd mocks me constantly about not being able to read any of her books without crying. She managed to read all of War Horse without shedding a single tear, while I quietly sobbed through each death 😭

This is the one that sets me off at school every time

Physics teacher with physics degree here (and physics, not astrophysics or applied physics or physics with computing....). One other physics qualified physics teacher and a maths teacher with physics degree at our school (v.small, only 3 fte science teachers). I’ve never taught with non-physics physics teachers either.
Sadly, I seem to teach bucket loads of biology which is awful

Goodnight mister Tom is a killer for tears. Also found Skellig weirdly sad

Plus so many bits in Harry Potter. Colin Creevey being 'tiny in death' 😭

I don't like Skellig. Not sure why. Or Stone Cold. Or the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Can’t even see a puppet War Horse without filling up.
Mole And The Baby Bird is a killer picture book for adults. As is Peepo. I just said “Here’s a little baby, 1,2,3....” and my voice still cracks at the end.

I'd love a list of good books for dd2. She's just turned 11, and has a reading age of about 11 (she seems ok at reading to me, but she's awfully slow at getting through a book). I want us to branch out, away from David Walliams, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Morpurgo. Tbh, I think we might have read everything appropriate by those 3 authors. She's not interested in anything fantasy or magic (which is a shame because that's what dd1 was into at that age so we have shelves full of those sort of books). She doesn't like anything she might consider "old fashioned", so pretty much all the classics are out. She does love a good, sad storyline though. And I would like to give her something a bit more challenging to get her teeth into.

Hmm... old fashioned is a sticking point there.

Eva Ibbotson is fab
How To Train Your Dragon is brill
The Dark Is Rising
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Rooftoppers
Charlotte's Web?

There is a rewrite of Five Children and It which is good. There are two : one os not as good. Will track down what I mean.

I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak is a bit sad, and about a dog trying to keep a family together.
Has she read Wonder, by RJ Palacio? Fabulous and thought provoking.
All the other ones that come to mind are in the fantasy/magic genre. A Series Of Unfortunate Events isn’t wish-washy fantasy though, it has a wicked sense of humour.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman too, but again, magicky.

Yes, Katherine Rundell is good (Rooftoppers and The Explorer).
Kita Mitchell’s Grandma Dangerous series is a hoot, miles funnier than Walliams.

@GravityFalls, I also sobbed during Goodnight Mr Tom, when he was discovered in the cupboard with his baby sister.

@Piggywaspushed

But but but I find the weakest actually like it... we did ahve the debate in our school a few times but it was always agreed that they got something out of literature.

Oh well.

We don't have sets any more so creaming that six off would also be tricky.

I would let them choose... I think lit is more accessible for weaker students, too. Obviously that would be a timetabling nightmare if you are talking only 10% of your cohort. In fact, GCSE lit plus a functional skills language exam is probably the best of both worlds. IMHO.