The Fifty-third Republic - Ides of March Part 2

[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

Two more weeks till the Easter break. Just done another test at home. It is just another tick box excercise

Thanks Staff

Well reminded. Pokey stick time.

2 weeks 3 days until the Easted break here.

I'm starting to think properly about holiday possibilities. This is mad.

I went to collect an M&S click and collect of school socks on Thursday - there was a queue to get in full of older people. Inside, they were browsing the rails as normal. I couldn’t understand how it was necessary to buy new trousers at a bargain price during a pandemic when you’re not allowed to meet people and clearly were retired. Then figured they will be vaccinated so are doing what they want. (How is the clothes department of M&S essential though?) I was really quite cross about it, having gone straight from school to collect things for my children to wear to their schools, all so I didn’t have to spend more time than necessary in the shop.

Thanks @StaffRepFeistyClub

Just done more reports (yawn) and started prepping some lessons.

Feeling very "meh" about this week

I seem to be doing reports all the time. School seems to think we should be doing extra reports - jeez it never ends

Nope, it never does stop! I have got 2 more year groups data drops to do this week too....

Thanks @StaffRepFeistyClub!

Thanks for the new thread staff. Off to do my pokey stick now. Almost forgot, so thanks for the reminder.

Am seeing reports of several whole school closures (often due to staff cases) on social media. Already.

thanks staff

Yes, in my county we've got closed schools.

Cheers staff.

I'm so so furious about the workload this y11 stuff has generated. Scotlands teachers are getting £400!

Thanks for the new thread-hope everyone has a good week and bubbles (ha) stay open. Thank goodness Easter is in sight, I feel absolutely shattered despite having done nothing all day!

Thank you for the new thread staff. Dh teaches almost exclusively y11 this year. He is neck deep in stress at the kitchen table. Really feeling for all those trying to evidence and assess y11 and y13.

I have two year 11 and one y13 class. We've been told we can have a marking holiday during the exam period... but my others classes are one y10 and three y12. I can't holiday them.
And I resent marking for free when I should be paid for my expertise by the board. Grumble grumble discontentment.

I’ve just had a panic attack over whether I entered students for the right course. Couldn’t breathe until I opened up the email sent back in January to double check the entries.

Thanks for the new thread @StaffRepFeistyClub

Thanks @StaffRepFeistyClub

I have one Y11 and one Y13 class. Really feeling for everyone in this position at the moment. I'm also assistant head of a core faculty and we are trying to ensure consistency across the faculty. It's hideously stressful all round.

My 13s I'm ok with, luckily, I have their final Y12 assessment plus 2 papers from earlier in Y13 and some they are doing now. So, all in all I am pretty confident with them.

Y11 less so. My group are not the most motivated, most haven't performed well in the mocks so far. We are doing a final one after Easter but they are honestly not grasping the gravity of the situation. A good few are, quite honestly, lazy. Make very little effort in class and no effort to revise.

I have to say, it keeps me awake at night

Greetings

Thank you Staff.

@PumpkinPie2016 your Y11s sound like mine! Some have worked so hard others still don’t get that writing NOTHING in a lesson isn’t helpful 🙄

MrsH I have 2 y11 classes and a y13 class too, and all my other classes are y10 or y12. I can't just not mark anything for any of those classes. They're all important years, and they've all had a tough time in the past year. We still don't know what we're actually doing in terms of assessing them!! Y13 have mock exams next week that were postponed from January, but we're thinking they'll need some more assessments before they leave (otherwise they could just leave now).

I'm happier about CAGs for y11, because they actually managed to sit mocks in December so we have a reasonable amount of data/evidence for them. We'll obviously do more assessments but not sure in what form, but the mocks may well be a large part of our evidence. Y13 have no data/evidence that is fair. We didn't do y12 end of year exams with them, AND they missed the y13 mocks at the normal time we'd do them. The tests we've done in the classroom (2 since September) suggest that a lot of them are going to be disappointed with their final grade unless they can pull something out of their hats in the mocks (I'm not expecting this, the ones who are performing badly are also the ones who didn't send me any work over lockdown)

Aaaaand all my worry about what tomorrow will bring has been brought into sharp perspective.

I'm spending the early morning hours sitting in ICU with my sister as she watches her fiance, and someone who is a childhood friend of mine, die.
Last night they knew he had cancer but were having a normal night in and a Chinese takeaway. Then he felt I'll and was admitted. And now he is dying.

Its shit!

And in a few hours I need to drag myself in as it is the first day back for my class.

@DrMadelineMaxwell bloody hell. There are no words. Hugs to you and your sister