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.

Piggy We used to get one free day per year but then our lovely HT retired and the new HT arrived and cancelled it. I thought that was an 'interesting' opening gambit from them.

No mental health days for us. I've been asking for years whether we could take PPA at home but that's also a hard no.

Glad you are feeling more on top of things name I’m sure Covid is making things at least twice as hard as normal (that’s what I’m telling myself anyway).

We don’t have mental health days or the option of doing ppa from home.

When I first moved to my current school I had PPA last lesson on Friday. I wanted to leave early so I could collect dd1 from school rather than her going to after school club. My hod said "of course, that makes sense, why wouldn't we let you do that?" She mentioned it to the DH in a line management meeting who said "no, PPA should be taken at school. If it was a free she could go early". Frees were taken for cover at least once a month, so dd would have had to be booked in for after school club anyway. Thus completely negating the benefit of being able to collect her. That decision cost me £40 a month, plus the fact that I only met her teachers (where she was a new kid in a new school) twice, at parents evenings. I could have been seeing them every Friday, with no loss of productivity on my part.

Since then, that dh became head, then retired and we've got a different head now. We're allowed to do PPA wherever we want to. Of course, it's only if you've got PPA last lesson that that's any practical use, as even if it's period 1 you can't come in late as there's tutor time/registration before P1.

We can go to our own children's things if we arrange our own cover with a colleague. So I've only ever done it once, when dd2 was Mary in the reception nativity. They're pretty understanding of family issues though. When dd1 needed me to collect her from uni as she was having a breakdown there were no questions asked, take as much time as you need. The head is not quite so good at bereavement and funerals though. He seems to have a list of relatives that he thinks are allowable and a list of people who aren't. So I was allowed to go to dh's stepmother's funeral, my friend was not allowed to go to her great aunt's funeral. I had literally only met dh's stepmum once, my friend had seen her great aunt weekly (sometimes daily) since childhood. It's very black and white, with little consideration for individual relationships.

I don't want well-being insets or praise postcards or "see how much I value you all" emails copied to the governors.
I want the staff loo painted so it doesn't look quite so foul, and to be allowed to nip off site in a non contact period if I need to, or to come in late or leave early to make my work life balance better.
Ex works in finance and a lot of his job is dictated by when the stock market is open - but if he needs to go to the dentist, he's okay to work around that. As long as he's doing his job, he's trusted.
I'd like to be trusted.

I am on that thread.

Trust is everything. Once your trust in your SLT is broken, it's terminal. I gave so much loyalty to a school and they threw it in my face when I needed it most, and I've never forgiven it.

Now I work for a female head and a fantastic male deputy. They're genuinely lovely people, they listen and are supportive. Despite having had a torrid year or two due to things out of their and my control, I know I'm on a good thing working there.

We’re not allowed PPA off site if P1 or P5 as it is unfair on those colleagues who have their PPA midday. Tbh it doesn’t really bother me as my DC go to wraparound full time as I hate the school run.

At my current school we’re allowed up to two days for ‘events’ so I’ve seen concerts and nativities that I never did before. At my previous school it was unpaid.

There is nothing worse than patronising praise postcards or enforced ‘well being’ days when all you can think about is how much of your actual work you could have got done with that time.
But ‘well being committees’ that just turn into a moan fest and chance to slag off SLT aren’t helpful either.
Genuine commitment to reducing workload and respecting other people seems to be the answer.

We had a deputy head who arranged to have a free last thing on a Friday so she could pick up grandchildren from school. Flips sides were she was never around if you needed her that lesson. and she was always first in lien to criticise anyone who appeared to 'slope off early' to the extent that she spied. Sadly, it is one rule for SLT in our place.

Most people don't mind if you leave early if you are free. I am free p5 Friday this year. I always leave to beat traffic out. If anyone dared challenge me I'd point out that I work through lunch and arrive at 7.15 every morning!

In the past though , when I was undergoing some horrendous bullying, someone ( suspect a few members of SLT) literally kept covert tabs on my every movement. And there was lots of blind copying of emails, which I complained about.

It never occurred to me to ask - if I had a free last period and needed/wanted to leave I'd likely just go and then deal with it if someone mentioned it. "Better to ask for forgiveness than permission?"

No mental health days or anything like that that I'm aware of. I think it's something outside of the profession that people overlook re: never being able to book a day off. I'm not downplaying the benefits of only having to physically go to work for 39 weeks a year for a liveable salary but never being able to take a day off or do anything except in school holidays is very restrictive.

Yeah, we have all been told to book our vaccines outside of school hours, for example. Wider MN has people who have taken days off either side.

We don't have specified "days," but our Head is very good at letting us go if we need to. So, when my dad was very ill she said to go and not even think about school until I was ready. Of course, she knew I wouldn't abuse it and in fact was emailing work through at time from his bedside until she told me to stop!
All staff are automatically allowed time off for their own children's events and, during lockdown, those whose kids' schools don't have wraparound care, are allowed to arrive late and leave early.
Even though my own kids are grown up now, when one of them arrived home after a year's travel, she came and took my class for the morning so I could go to airport to meet him. She said it was no less important to me than for someone else wanting to see their child's nativity.
I would walk on hot coals for her.

@Piggywaspushed

Yeah, we have all been told to book our vaccines outside of school hours, for example. Wider MN has people who have taken days off either side.

What? I’m booking the first available slot when it’s my turn.

My school has a lot of faults but the brave found taking time off to be quite easy. At my last school everything was unpaid. Where I am I’ve been paid when I’ve taken time off with my children, I was allowed 2 days off when DH had an op last year (also paid), got a gynae appointment on a Monday, been allowed. I feel lucky in those respects, however I do have 20 minutes break a day ... swings and roundabouts!

*have

@Piggywaspushed

Yeah, we have all been told to book our vaccines outside of school hours, for example. Wider MN has people who have taken days off either side.

We're allowed to go for vaccines during the school day. He'd prefer it if we can manage first thing or last thing, so it's only one lesson to cover, but will cope with whatever cover arrangements are necessary to get staff vaccinated. I booked mine for a Saturday, not because I didn't want to take time off, but because that was the earliest appointment available. I have 2 maths colleagues who went for their vaccines this week, one first thing Thursday morning, needing 2 lessons of cover due to travelling time, and the other on Friday afternoon leaving one hour early, but that class were still at home anyway so she'd already emailed their work out to them.

I'm a TA and we were given a day off of our choice (arranged with class teacher) as a thank you for increased duties during covid. I think teachers were given one of the inset days off that they normally would have needed to come in.

We're not officially allowed off site for PPA. P1 you'd have form time before anyway so couldn't. But p5 leaving is mostly turned a blind eye to unless people are taking the piss. Remote working has helped our SLT see that being present isn't everything.

They're pretty decent re time off for appointments, kids etc. It's taken on a case by case basis which some people don't like because they take the piss. Eg I was allowed to a v good family friends funeral. I prefer the case by case thing but can understand why a hard and fast policy may appear fairer.

On the whole my school is good . Never been questioned over a funeral and some colleagues have had time off for stag dos etc. Even people's 40th! The cover guy does have a blind spot over childcare issues though which he can be really awkward about, and medical appointments for children, so I hear, although he has never quibbled over DS2's orthodontist. I was given time off to take DS1 to an Open Day and to CAMHS. He is an arse about nativities and sports days though.

Nearly time for Broom Cupboard again!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, and those who mother their classes in various ways, here! 💐

@namechangedyetagain

Thank you all. I have English sorted, I'm using nctem for the maths so looking at number lines to 100 place value and ordering. Then bonds within 10. Just need to think of fun practical activities to go in each lesson to consolidate. It should be a recap but there are so many gaps it's tricky to know. Last week was my first week with them all due to change of placement in Jan. So I guess it was week 1 if I was being kind to myself

I've taken myself ( and the children) out for some fresh air aa I've literally worked all weekend.

Glad you've been out, namechanged, and I hope you're feeling better. I know those feelings of panic and despair when it all gets too much. I'm 7 years in and it does get easier... but I would probably say only recently, and only now that I've been in my current school for a few years!

Hope everyone is well. I have an observed lesson tomorrow. I know I will teach and they will learn (a fantastic A-level class), but still worried it won't be enough.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Nearly time for Broom Cupboard again!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, and those who mother their classes in various ways, here! 💐

I am opening the wine and going to have a bit of a cry. Been over a year since I last spoke to my mum. Fortunately she’s now allowed one visitor but we’ve decided that will be my WFH brother, so she won’t be alone today like she has been for the last year. Then I’m going to pull my kids off roblox and watch ‘Lion King’!

Blimey dreaming an observation so soon after going back in person seems a bit much!! I haven't been observed yet this year, and no idea when I will be at all. Hod has said he'll try to avoid it unless SLT push it.

Our SLT are still very much focusing on the logistics of treating the whole school for tests 2&3, since so many of our staff were the testers and processors last week. We're all off timetable Monday and Thursday mornings until the tests have been completed. I've been given citizenship tasks to do with my form, but mostly we're going to just be chatting and catching up with how everyone coped with lockdown, while individuals are taken out for their covid tests. I still need to properly plan what I'm teaching tomorrow, but hate it because 2/3 classes it's the first time I've seen them, and I doing know what they've actually done during lockdown (I've seen what they've sent me but how much of it was independent work is the question). So I think I'm best starting something completely new with them so the ones who worked over lockdown aren't bored out of their skull or the ones who did nothing over lockdown are completely lost and disruptive.

Ds was Simba in year 6 production of Lion King and all of the kids were so good and the songs amazing that for the first and only time I did the crying Mum thing! Now Lion King makes me think of that

Glad your Mum won't be alone Mother

Previous HT made a huge show on his blog of being supportive of staff and allowing them time off (up to a day) to do family things. Until I asked for 1 hour to see DS’s first nativity play. Not allowed as I’d had an hour the previous academic year for his taster day at reception. The hour I needed was ppa. Never forgave him and his hipocracy for that. Or the affair he had with a former pupil. (Poss outing myself here)