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.

Morning all! A new thread! Thanks @staff

Just logged onto school emails. So before half term my school spent weeks setting up the testing zone in the school hall. Today had email saying they’re now moving to the sports hall. Got a feeling they realised they couldn’t fit 250 pupils, plus staff in a Victorian hall. Not sure how PE will feel about that!

Good luck with OFSTED Cackle!

I’d far rather have an Ofsted inspector in my lesson, who can recognise learning when they see it, than some SLT numpty with no clue about the subject I’m teaching and an obsession with the latest fad.

I’ve sadly had a few Ofsted Inspectors who have never actually been teachers (the last one before ‘Deep Dives’, was an ex Ed Psych and the one before that used to work for the LEA HR dept that got made redundant when most of the schools turned academy. This was in Wilshaw’s time.

Awful awful experiences (including saying my lessons were great but I couldn’t get a 1 because the classroom had no air conditioning and the kids were too hot (computer room). The other time was just after the English GCSE debacle with the sudden change in modules and grade boundaries that the High Court deemed was unlawful (do you remember those taking the exam earlier in Jan or previous year in year 10, against recommendation at the time, scoring higher than the summer kids) and when my Head back then argued against their judgement, he got a letter back saying that they didn’t acknowledge the High Court judgement. Dickheads.

I actually preferred it when I started teaching and you had an ex teacher stationed in your department for a week and you were able to have regular chats and they could really see what you were doing. There was no individual’grading’.

There is no way an inspector can make a full judgement just being in your lesson for 10 minutes and the last ‘Deep Dive’ nonsense I had to do, was certainly not to see intent etc. for the pupils we had but an exercise in ‘why don’t you do things the way I expect them to be done?’

I have, however, come to the conclusion that most inspection it’s come with their judgement already having been made based on the data etc and nothing really, that the actual teachers ‘on the ground’ do makes a difference to that judgement.

@borntobequiet

This may not be a popular view but I’ve never had an unpleasant encounter with Ofsted and I’ve been teaching a long time in more than one sector. I’d far rather have an Ofsted inspector in my lesson, who can recognise learning when they see it, than some SLT numpty with no clue about the subject I’m teaching and an obsession with the latest fad. I found completely ignoring SLT diktats resulted in good or outstanding Ofsted feedback, with the added bonus of pissing them off.

Have had same experience.

Good luck crackle

Thanks staff

Good luck with Ofsted cackle we had one of those visits back in October where they were looking at how we had come back to school. It surprises me to say, it was actually quite a positive experience. They were extremely complimentary about the work we had done on new schemes and assessments as well as how we had managed the return.

I am feeling a bit on edge this week got someone off sick, potentially long term and a few staff on my team stressing about coming back

Good luck cackle!

Have to say I didn't even set eyes on an inspector the last two times...

Jinxed it undoubtedly, but I look forward to an actual meeting with one so I can talk about work load and idiot slt ideas...

I do know of an inspector who is on an slt. But yes, apparently, although a brilliant leader, not hugely well versed in teaching in that setting. A friend described an argument she had with them over something quite basic in a marking policy that the slt person really didn't get.

Why is Gav, with no experience in education beyond his own, giving edicts on day-to-day classroom practice? It's bad enough that this moron oversees the strategic decisions in education but, now, it's apparently important to this Government that we:

• have a traditional teacher-led approach,
• have front facing rows throughout (abandoning the infection control excuse he gave before),
• have a harsh and strict behaviour policy.

And how can he get away with saying that the multi-academy trust model is the best way to improve outcomes? I'm certain that the last set of published data looking into that suggested that LA schools improve quicker.

We really need a properly independent, well-informed DfE.

My last OFSTED at my last LEA school we were inspected and failed by an lead inspector who turned out to be the director of the tmacademy trust who subsequently took us over. I complained about conflict of interest, got nowhere.

Morning.

Good luck crackle!

Jan can call me pig. Tbh DH* calls me worse...

DH had Oxford : no side effects at all.

The only people I know who had side effects (I only know 6 jabbed people well enough to know) are my Stepmum and my DM. No idea what jabs they had. DM is in US so I don't even know what they have over there.

@phlebasconsidered

My last OFSTED at my last LEA school we were inspected and failed by an lead inspector who turned out to be the director of the tmacademy trust who subsequently took us over. I complained about conflict of interest, got nowhere.

Honestly Phleb, your school...

I think I'm teaching in an area that's a rare stronghold of still being LEA.

Interesting - everyone I know who's had Oxford AZ has been quite poorly for 24-48 hrs. They do say it doesn't matter if you do or don't have side effects.

Re Ofsted: in 12 years, I have never had one... Worked in two consecutive Outstanding schools who just never had one, now in a Good school which is overdue Ofsted but: pandemic.

@WarriorN

I think I'm teaching in an area that's a rare stronghold of still being LEA.

Yeah me too. I'm quite grateful for that actually and feel like it makes a massive difference. We have very few academy chains in this area thankfully.

No LEA secondary schools in my entire county. All academies. A mixture of standalone and small MATs. All quite decent ones.

It must be such a stressful time in mainstream schools right now.

It's very weird as its business as (sort of) usual with us.

I'm not keen on the anticipated rise of infections though. They redirected a lot of the vaccines from our area about a month or so ago, as we were too good at getting it done. It now feels like it's slowed hugely but in my actual Lea infection rates stopped dropping at a higher than I'd like rate.

But our LEA was/is shit. All the friends I have who are/were SLT at various schools say the waste and the incompetence were awful. Endless meetings with pastries and never actioning anything. Favourite schools to give cash to. That kind of LEA.

@phlebasconsidered

My last OFSTED at my last LEA school we were inspected and failed by an lead inspector who turned out to be the director of the tmacademy trust who subsequently took us over. I complained about conflict of interest, got nowhere.

This is the sort of thing I'm concerned about when Gav says that they are actively looking at making more schools get involved in multi-academy trusts. I've heard stories of schools being found inadequate (with little justification), scooped up by an academy and suddenly become a "rising star" when nothing has actually changed.

Academy trusts, as a structure, have had loads of issues, not least when it comes to the dodgy use of funds. There's not enough money in education as it is and that'll only get worse with more layers of meaningless management and dodgy businessmen funneling money from public purse into companies they're involved in.

How do academies deal with centralised advisors?

We still have some Lea experts who deliver basic training or tailored training.

How do academies do that? From what I've seen in my subject, anyone declares themselves an expert and starts giving training and that gets bought into by academies. What worries me is the lack of consistency. New fads etc. (Though the people I'm thinking of in my subject are good, and asked me to get involved voluntarily too, and it's all evolved from teacher support networks.)

Dh can deliver training through his field and was asked to deliver some via a training centre to an academy. He refused as the academy would have been charged by the training centre when he can give it for free directly as part of his specialism's schools delivery. And approached the school directly to tell them.

That kind of Academy trust is crap. All our local ones are of the benign variety: a few schools joining together and growing organically to share resources/staff/best practice/overheads. None of them involve businesses or sponsors.

Cross post Iam, dodgy use of funds...

@RandomGrammarPun

But our LEA was/is shit. All the friends I have who are/were SLT at various schools say the waste and the incompetence were awful. Endless meetings with pastries and never actioning anything. Favourite schools to give cash to. That kind of LEA.

Ah that is shit.

They have been doing this with MATs since the whole covid thing, him and Nick Gibb. Every time they dish out praise it goes to a MAT. I have noticed that Gibb flings it in to every answer to every question. They seem to be more pro MAT than free school even now.

@RandomGrammarPun

That kind of Academy trust is crap. All our local ones are of the benign variety: a few schools joining together and growing organically to share resources/staff/best practice/overheads. None of them involve businesses or sponsors.

We have that, to a degree. Our local primary schools regularly link together with network groups for heads, SENCOs, subject leads, etc. We'll pool finances to buy in area-wide training when/if it's appropriate but still retain independent control.

Personally, I think we need a top down redesign: fix the DfE first and then use it to better support/manage/develop LAs so that they can do the same for schools. Academisation, now, is more about business and the private sector than it is about improving education.

Good luck, crackle
The big MAT push here is for catholic schools, which isn't us.