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.

Morning all

I'm glad you're not at risk of redundancy, HoneyBadger. I think the vacancy sounds really interesting and if you have the relevant experience, you should definitely go for it. Who knows - the person they might have in mind for the role could be you!

My bubble has reopened for Monday - pupils with symptoms have both tested negative, thank goodness, but as a school we still have several bubbles out with confirmed positive cases. However, it does mean I'm released from self-isolation which I'm glad about!

Can I pick people’s brains about one of my year 7s (if this isn’t appropriate let me know and I’ll ask MNHQ to delete but it shouldn’t be identifying).

He is a year 7 pupil, lovely kid. He is smart and can work hard and produces great work. But he is quite simply the most immature 11 year old I’ve ever met. Has the attention span of a gnat, constantly banging about and fidgeting and is beyond giggly.
He acts like the daftest 5 year old in the room at a 5 year olds birthday party.

He’s a nice lad, intelligent, kind parents seem very sensible and home is clearly a place where discipline happens. He’s very usual, intelligence wise he’s at the same level as his peers. Social and emotional maturity though is similar to your average 5 year old.

I’m just a bit baffled by him and wondered if anyone has taught similar kids. Any advice gratefully received.

Students like your Year 7 one WhenSheWasBad usually get diagnosed with ADHD or ADD or something similar, during Secondary School in my experience-not always picked up earlier. More common in boys. I would definitely email your SENCO for advice. They can contact their primary school and parents if need be, for more information.
In the meantime, despite no diagnosis, I would utilise the same methods as you would a student who is diagnosed with ADHD etc. and see if that helps.

Thanks chloe I did wonder about ADHD.

By all accounts is parents seem utterly lovely and reasonably strict. I think without their influence his behaviour would be even more erratic than is currently is.

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.

We actually have a surprising number who are still abroad in sunnier climes (left day after term ended and never returned, enjoying the warmer weather and no lockdowns presumably) and yet still wanting full sets of lessons on Teams for the next few weeks.
I have no words.

Well, feedback from our gaslighty twat head's "learning walk" was that we are not using TAs effectively. They should be darting about all over the class, doing the pink and green in every child's book being breathed on by every child more like and not creating resources but being present in every lesson whilst at the same time using personally tailored resources which clearly we will have to make in our own time in focused scoop groups, pre-teaching key vocabulary and running individualised interventions. Oh, and all the displays need to be changed every half term with every piece of work laminated and a particular set of colour borders used but we don't have anything left in our class budget

Now fuck me but I haven't yet mastered bilocation and I am doing all this for not much more than the minimum wage, and I haven't had a jab either, and because I also do PPA cover I have been in contact with over 200 children this week.

Feeling sorry for myself. Can you tell?!

@cornercupboard

Well, feedback from our gaslighty twat head's "learning walk" was that we are not using TAs effectively. They should be darting about all over the class, doing the pink and green in every child's book being breathed on by every child more like and not creating resources but being present in every lesson whilst at the same time using personally tailored resources which clearly we will have to make in our own time in focused scoop groups, pre-teaching key vocabulary and running individualised interventions. Oh, and all the displays need to be changed every half term with every piece of work laminated and a particular set of colour borders used but we don't have anything left in our class budget

Now fuck me but I haven't yet mastered bilocation and I am doing all this for not much more than the minimum wage, and I haven't had a jab either, and because I also do PPA cover I have been in contact with over 200 children this week.

Feeling sorry for myself. Can you tell?!

I don't know why, but it's the laminated displays that got to me. How very unhelpful. And rubbish for morale.

I had my jab this morning. So incredibly well organised and spacious. My appointment was 8am, there was a queue of about 15 people ahead of me when I arrived at 7:58. I was in, jabbed and out again by 8:03. I was so impressed!!! I feel much better about being in school now that I've been jabbed, even though I know it'll take a couple of weeks before I get a decent amount of immunity from it.

I've got a few abroad too. Mostly for compassionate reasons, but we have a very transient school community even in normal times. 20919 - 2020, my partner class had a 60% churn of kids between Sept and Dec.

I mapped Oak and Whute Rose against skills we're teaching this term, and have emailed them. That's it. I've got no idea if they will even stay on role.

I need to do some innovative thinking about how to teach maths for the rest of this year. We're now into the period of time where kids missed last year's curriculum coverage, so year 4s with year 2 fractions understanding etc. They've also struggled with place value in written methods for the 4 ops. Scream.

My head is being good about 'this is an 18 month to 2 year job, don't rush it' - which is OK for years 3 and 4, but for 5 and 6... hard.

And rubbish for morale.

And for the environment. All that unnecessary single use plastic.

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.

This occurred to me yesterday. I have seen and dealt with blood every single day this week. It took less than fifteen minutes on Monday for my 1:1 to touch my face. An attempt at social distancing is not possible--now, I prefer being in school and am relatively young and healthy, but it does grind my gears that people still think social distancing is a thing in school. It can't be. I don't even want to propose any changes at my school, just it would be nice if the general media and press weren't reporting all these special measures as if they're all possible and preventing infection. If a bubble gets it, there's going to be spread.

My local rate is very very low. So this isn't me being worried for myself necessarily (January was a different story), but general annoyance at people being lied to and believing it, even though we know this govt loves a good lie.

Your head is being an arse, MrsH.

Go for the job, Honey - sounds like you have the experience to argue for the job.

I don't know why, but it's the laminated displays that got to me. How very unhelpful. And rubbish for morale.

Fairly rubbish for the environment too, plasticising biodegradable substances - it’s one of my pet hates at the moment and so unnecessary on all fronts

Definitely go for the job honey. But try really hard not to take it personally if you don't get it (far easier said than done!!) It sounds like you'll enjoy it, and I think you'd be good at it (based on not actually knowing you in real life)

RuleWithAWoodenFoot
I need to do some innovative thinking about how to teach maths for the rest of this year. We're now into the period of time where kids missed last year's curriculum coverage, so year 4s with year 2 fractions understanding etc. They've also struggled with place value in written methods for the 4 ops. Scream

If you are following white rose planning order it may not be as bad as it seems. The summer term is mainly geometry and statistics so last year they won't have missed too many of the number objectives. We have found this year (I'm year 6) that there were lots of meaty units on fractions, decimals and percentages during lockdown. We generally had good engagement but will repeat these over the summer term when there is a lot of time for consolidation anyway. If you think place value is lacking I would spend some time getting this sorted as until they understand this none of the number will make sense. We're doing lots of short revision starters to identify gaps.

"Don't know why, but it's the laminated displays that got to me. How very unhelpful. And rubbish for morale."

Absolutely, unless they will be reused lots of times it is a total waste of time and resources. Your ht doesn't sound like he's interested in his staff's wellbeing.

We've done the spring term test. I didn't want to, thought the lower-key end of units for mult/div and fractions might have been better, but it has identified some massive gaps in written methods for add and sub, which boil down to PV understanding. My class are weak maths anyway - I've only got 3 children working within ARE. Apparently NCETM have put together some docs on gap filling from here on in. Maths lead is happy for me to do whatever we need to do with our phase, but I need to try and work out what that is. Fractions/Dec now, then revisit PV 4 ops big style in terms 5 and 6, or do gap fill on 4 ops now until Easter, then take whole class back to year 3 fractions and try and get through that as a combo for term 5... then have another look at where we are then.

If I had stronger teachers in my phase, I'd say do whatever you need to do. But at least one of them keeps missing really significant issues with SEND, and says 'all mine are fine' when they are not. That's another issue though

Rule - why don’t you start with place value and then go into decimals - there’s a really clear link there - just getting 10 times smaller rather than 10 times bigger. Then you could go from decimal to proper fractions.

Have you seen the new stuff NCETM put out this week to assist with curriculum prioritisation? Well worth a look: www.ncetm.org.uk/classroom-resources/curriculum-prioritisation-in-primary-maths/

I know everyone's had a very busy week (!), but I notice a lack of visible piggy and noble in the last few days, hope they're both OK. 👋

Gaslighty twat is obsessed with laminating, yes.
I've seen plenty of blood too, this week for first aid, they are all running about like crazies and have forgotten that school shoes on slippery playgrounds are Not Good.
All my little special soldiers are all over me like a rash too, Beachhuts, wanting cuddles etc. I do love them to bits but I know that if last term is anything to go by when one was in tears because her mum had organised a sleepover for 5 of them and told the "don't tell the teachers", there is similar outside of school stuff going on.
Gah. And meh.

I've had a few children wetting themselves this week. One child three times in one day. Lots of dealing with wee.

If you think place value is lacking I would spend some time getting this sorted as until they understand this none of the number will make sense.

I meet quite a few adult learners who have never understood place value and indeed little else makes sense to them. Even people who do understand at some level can have problems with “all the zeros”.
The denary/decimal system isn’t intuitively straightforward for everyone. It goes without saying that these people find metric measurements baffling.

Urgh I’ve just gone down a Twitter rabbit hole - a post from a parent whose 15 year old got tested for Covid despite her having emailed to say she didn’t consent. Now I know that is not good, and it is her choice, but the replies. Nobody suggesting that perhaps this was a case of genuine admin error - after all, schools are testing 100s of pupils whilst also educating, keeping them safe, juggling all the other many admin tasks that school life brings, etc etc, staff are anxious, overwhelmed and we are all only human. Nope, the replies are calls to sue, claims of assault, conspiracy, the person who administered it should be arrested, human rights. Loads of people saying they haven’t consented to the tests either as they are far too traumatic (ditto re mask wearing).

I then got lost in a whole sea of mask refusers, Covid deniers and school/teacher haters. Wow.

Whatever happened to being a part of a community, keeping each other safe, social responsibility etc.

Are you sure it was twitter not MN @9pmcouchnaps ??

@JanFebAnyMonth

Are you sure it was twitter not MN *@9pmcouchnaps* ??

🤣🤣🤣 I haven’t ventured out into the rest of Mumsnet since we started back at school. Not sure it’s a good plan...