The Fifty-second Republic - Beware of Education’s ides of March

[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 non-staff as it attracts the wrong sort of crowd.

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 do wear a mask.

Pleb you have my sympathy it's truly rubbish.
Ive definitely not been put in the group 6. (Asthma child admission) as theyve now moved onto 50yo+ at gps. They seem to think 2w of 50yo.
But even after that will i even get through to book as there are loads of 40yo here (2 schools so at least 1800 or so parents and some will also be secondary parents.

It seems homeless have now been prioritised. Which seems odd as a study showed they were less affected (maybe vit d levels or being outside).

Dc school seem to thhink itll all be over when boris says as they are planning trips and sports days etc.
Very reminiscent of when they said in sept thet they were sure restrictions in school would only be till oct half term. (2 terms later and they are still here).
The kids wont be vaxxed this school year and the teachers are 20-30yo... So i doubt theirs would have kicked in by the time of this trip.
And cases in kids are likely to be very high by term ends each time.

Mrsh - ive also had a boss say on a form they didnt think i could do a job i was applying for! I dont know why (they were generally a b*) but i keep my head down.
Anyway i did the interview and got the job. Tbh i was mainly leaving due to the boss/restructuring making the workload literally ridiculous.
The new job was probably even worse though unfortunately.
However there were 2 other new entrants into my new job too and they had clearly been picked by middle aged interviewers for their looks! (Neither stayed very long either). My cv was probably much better but it was me they were unsure of as i dont interview well. Based on this it is no surprise that this country is in a mess.

I live 2 mins down the road from one of those schools mentioned in that article (don't work there though)!

Yesterday parents vented their frustrations over children now remote learning once again, just days after returning to class.

Fucking diddles.

Diddums

I used to work at one of the Manchester schools mentioned and my friend - late 50's, TA who still works there is currently in hospital on CPAP.

Theyve called over 50s priority group but opened up before they are vaxxed +3w to take effect. Even therefore just waiting till after easter for schools would have made a difference.

Im really not keen on all kids catching it because they cant be vaxxed yet.
That will bemore in cities and areas with lower adult uptake.

Areas with younger parenting ages will be vaxxed later too. My dc class most parents are at least 40s.
Younger inthe reception class who seem 30s down to 1 early 20s - who is the only one not to wear a mask.

In usa they are priortising smokers which seems odd too when i thought they were generally doing better than expected.

Myother hope they get better quickly.

The insistence that children and teenagers don’t get it/don’t spread it persists in the face of the evidence. Also we started the year with very high rates (on MN described by some posters as low rates by the end of Jan, I honestly wonder if they have any concept of number at all) and my perception is that there’s been far more discreet mixing among young people out of school this term than there was in the Summer. Last year I only saw groups of teenagers out and about from July but since Jan there have been groups out in the park any day when the weather is OK.
I think there’s a lot of asymptomatic infection out there but it’s been spreading relatively slowly, but put millions of kids together on buses and trains, in big groups walking to school and crammed into school halls and classrooms - well, it really is a Big Bang.

Gav is ‘lonely’: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-56375664

Anyone care to be his ‘fwend’?

In other news my Head forwarded us a form from local PHE to be added to a vax cancellation list.

Here’s hoping!

How has Gav's DW suddenly become a TA? All that was ever said before was that she used to be a primary teacher.

"made an investment in a puppy" wow.

Imagine being his wife and listening to him being slated daily at work.

Yup, and got a ‘lockdown’ puppy. Arse.

My HoD has just had me in tears. She asked whether, due to his mental health, he needed a ‘time out’ card and sit at the end of a row in the commons to easily need the room for a break.

*leave the room

Funnily, that article appeared when I first opened BBC on my phone, but now has gone from the top stories.

Hello all I hope this week hasn't been too horrific. I've occasionally skimmed the thread and I'm so sorry to read one of you has tested positive on a lft. Are you ok?

We had a positive, teacher felt like they had a cold. Child also tested positive and the other members of the team feel ill. It was picked up on lft. I don't think she would have otherwise tested so that something at least.

It's shaken us a bit. We've had a lot of changes to how the school works for this term which I think will stop after easter; I'm concerned that there will be a bounce back effect then though. No news on vaccines for us either. I think that's unlikely.

What's upsetting is that various local support groups who work with our kids are all getting vaccinated. As are the young support workers who give respite at weekends - but haven't done any since august. And yet we don't count

What's upsetting is that various local support groups who work with our kids are all getting vaccinated. As are the young support workers who give respite at weekends - but haven't done any since august. And yet we don't count

Certainly feels that way doesn’t it!?

My own DD had a knock yesterday (that involved some bleeding) in PE and the amazing TA in her class took the utmost care of her and I am hugely grateful but also feel so guilty that it puts the TA at some risk to do so. I don’t know if she is vaccinated but if she isn’t, there is something very very wrong going on here.

The amount of vaccines being thrown away at the end of the day too, should be documented in my opinion and made public. I know some places are trying to phone up friends/family etc to get a spare dose at the end of the day but I still don’t see why they all can’t phone their local school at the end of the day (one phone call or email!) and invite teachers to pop over after work!

I guess I’m ok as I had Covid back at the end of Nov so even though in my 40s, I can wait, but so many teachers still unvaccinated and it mostly seems like business as usual.

Thank goodness for masks in classrooms in secondary (sorry primary colleagues! My own 5 yr old DD wears a mask happily funnily enough).

Thankfully, we have very few who are exempt at my school (and I noticed one pupil on the list yesterday was still wanting to wear a mask too) and although still having to remind about keeping it over noses and not under chins (year 13 and year 9 are worst for this in our school) it does make me feel better in the classroom.

Glad you are not at risk of redundancy Honeybadger

I’m not surprised Gav feels lonely. I imagine most of his colleagues are distancing themselves from him. It’s scary just how incompetent a minister can be without losing their post.

The Telegraph are reporting vaccines for over 40s by Easter. I really hope so.

As for Gav being lonely...well then...

I bet a lot of the schools struggling to keep pupils in at the moment will be ones that also struggled before Christmas. The disparity for students feels really unfair.

Does anyone have parents refusing to send students back in? I've got a tutee where the parent feels she can't risk it because of her own health, which I fully understand. However school are not being understanding and are putting pressure on her to send her kids in.

We are an area with really low cases, but I feel the lateral flow tests are making everyone complacent.

@SansaSnark

Not in my class, but one next door hasn't returned yet. The whole family have had Covid ( was the index case in our outbreak) but are scared of catching it again.

I was feeling sorry for them but they have been SO entitled about carrying on receiving live lessons/ filmed lessons and ringing up all the time asking for zooms with the school councillor ( which we don't have!) that my sympathy is starting to wane a bit.

Just seen an article online from our local paper promoting a petition about allowing children to play together outside of school.
Twats!

We've got even the exempt pupils attempting to wear masks, too, one of whom had an asthma attack last term wearing one, but still wants to try. I had a quiet word yesterday reassuring him he must remove it if he feels tightness of breath.

Also, secondary, but we still have to get so close to students all the time, either because classrooms are tiny, corridors are crammed or - as I saw yesterday - children still get upset and need a (sideways) hug and reassurance or get sick or injured and need first aid... So, yes, it is frustrating to still hear allied professionals who are not doing f2f are getting vaccinated.

Morning. Happy weekend everyone.

The tlr role isn't very clear so it's hard to know if I'd enjoy it or exactly what it entails - think it may be one of those make it your own roles which can be great or anxiety inducing as you're never sure if you're doing enough/doing it right. I had similar in a pastoral FE role I used to do.

It is a non subject based responsibility that involves whole school though and on the pastoral side but not particularly student facing - more developing systems and events and such (being vague in case it's outing). It would mean working closely with 2 other members of staff in complimentary roles and I like them and can see us working well together. I could definitely do with the extra money and CV fodder.

It honestly boils down to am I going to take it personally, take it as further proof they 'don't like me' (childish I know) if I don't get it. Also that sneaking feeling again that they probably know who they're going to recruit already.

Literally no one in our entire school got a positive lft this week - after testing all year groups.