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.

I haven't cancelled my summer flights and have no intention of doing so. I thought it was settled that for this year they wouldn't be able to change anything.

I wouldn't want two weeks in may and October and 4 weeks summer. That's all bundled too closely together in my opinion. Would rather 2 weeks in Oct and feb personally. I thought the idea was that exams would be earlier and year 11 gone completely by may with more time to sort uni. Argh we're speculating about speculation distractions from muppet boy.

Two posters on the Data thread have just said they're intending to confirm any Pos LFT with a PCR. If latter Neg, not register LFT result.

Obviously sensible in one way but will many do that, and it's technically illegal I imagine. (Notification of test result for an infectious disease).

This system is going to break quite quickly isn't it, as we've said.

I’ve only changed my holiday as my children are under 10 and didn’t want to face pool time restrictions etc. Also won’t be vaccinated so the cost of testing for the 4 of us would be £1,250. Devon here we come!

"My focus is on children back in the classroom." He literally gets paid a SoS's salary to say one sentence. He does nothing.

So does Gav want the summer cut to 4 weeks AND for those 4 weeks to contain summer school??

The alarm at false positives is so utterly right wing - claiming that the most dreadful thing is the prospect of someone "locking themselves away, unable to earn" for 10 days. When actually the greater danger to society comes from false negatives meaning that infectious people are left to continue normal life which increases the R rate and more people needlessly die.

I suspect we won't get to the end of the week without another bubble closure in my primary. We've had at least one bubble out every week through this 'lockdown' period. One group has been out 3 times since Christmas.

Two posters on the Data thread have just said they're intending to confirm any Pos LFT with a PCR.

But they’ll have to anyway for the home tests? It’s only the school tests where you can’t override the LFT and in that case it won’t be the parent registering them.

@JanFebAnyMonth

The alarm at false positives is so utterly right wing - claiming that the most dreadful thing is the prospect of someone "locking themselves away, unable to earn" for 10 days. When actually the greater danger to society comes from false negatives meaning that infectious people are left to continue normal life which increases the R rate and more people needlessly die.

Oh, the horror! Imagine being unable to earn! As opposed to unable to breathe. The sheer selfishness of it absolutely floors me. I don't know why I still find it shocking after all these years. You'd think I'd be used to it by now.

I'm only in my second year of teaching. I have 6 children of my own (from 24 to 7) 2 of whom don't live at home. My eldest I haven't seen properly since Christmas Day.

I love my job.
I think going back to school is madness and feel despair at the coming chaos.

I won't lie - holidays with my own children (as in time off - not actually going on holiday) is pretty much the only perk of my job.
A lot of the rest of the time I feel guilty for neglecting them. I will have to reconsider teaching if they mess with the holidays too much. Dh works on farms (livestock) but lots of extra work due to harvest, so could not pick up the slack as he does the rest of the year.

I have worked incredibly hard to make it into teaching. I don't want to give it up, but less than 4 weeks in summer would make it almost impossible for me.

Buried in amongst all this shorter holiday talk is the rather more worrying idea of extended school days, folks. And more 'support' for teachers.

@Piggywaspushed

Buried in amongst all this shorter holiday talk is the rather more worrying idea of extended school days, folks. And more 'support' for teachers.

I feel like we’ve come full circle from when Gove was minister. He too wanted longer days and shorter holidays.

It’s not coming from Kevan, this is an attempt to push through a previously failed Tory policy. Possibly time to write to MPs to point out the problems.

I could get behind a 5 term school year, with each 8 week term having a training day at the start and 2 week breaks between each term. It would still allow a 5 week summer.

But the current exam timings and things like bank holidays would mess it up.

And apart from a slightly shorter summer meaning a little less learning loss maybe, it will have bugger all to do with catching up.

Why the MPs who shut down for a long summer break are the ones who want to cancel our historical long summers I don't know!

Yes, well he is still there. Lurking in the shadows.

A lot of this is Wilshaw, who just needs to fuck off to Frinton on Sea and be quiet.

Sorry my he was about Gove.

The Church opposes it too which is more significant than one might think.

Doesn’t matter how much shit we’ll be in, schools won’t be closing:

Williamson says categorically that even if the R rate rises - which means the epidemic is growing again - schools will stay open.

That’s it, if schools get 4 weeks off in the summer, so should MPs.

Ah but look at the wording mother : he says intended to be irreversible.

Ah yes, the famous ‘intended’.

It's all just so exhausting, isn't it?
It probably wont happen, but we nonetheless get all stressed about the possibility.

A lot of this is Wilshaw, who just needs to fuck off to Frinton on Sea and be quiet.

I’m hoping at the next council elections my Tory MP is ousted. I live in a swing seat. Last year his office was in the press as it had been targeted with graffiti, vandalism and death threats. Now I don’t condone that behaviour but I hope it means my council returns to Labour!

And more 'support' for teachers

What does this mean? An extra TA? Access to an admin team? Or capability if your face doesn’t fit --and you’re on UPS-- ?!

Is it a dead cat? Schools back on Monday and Gav is doing the rounds talking about something other than kids still not knowing how they will be assessed at GCSE and A-level, whether testing kids with shonky tests is worth it and whether Nick Gibb insisting masks aren’t compulsory was a fucking stupid thing to do.