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

Isn't it kind of crap that being articulate and knowledgeable gets you mistaken for a HCP? Dh and I have had this every single time in 30 or whatever years of dealing with medical stuff. No, not a doctor. Just educated .

I remember the Gillick case too. I bet the mother in that case would be a member of our favourite parental pressure group these days!

My town has a young population. It also has had fifficulties with uptake despite enormous efforts by the Asian community leaders and our fabulous MP ( not mad Nad, the good one) and the donation of a gurdwara as a vaccine hub. So I think they have got to 40s to 50s quickly.

They took ages with group 6 mind.

Dd1's first school (it was my first school too, but that's a long time ago) has a school bell that the children all get incredibly excited if they get to ring it. They make it a little ceremony that every child rings the bell in their farewell assembly as they leave the school. Dd left at the end of year 1 as we were moving area, and she was so excited to be able to ring the bell with all the big children. 🔔 Maybe I need a bell. Although I quite fancy an electric cattle prod noise (or maybe not just the noise)

I think I need a taser. Definitely need a mute all button.

Only for Y10 though. God they are being hard work.

I have no idea where my area are up to with vaccines. Not bothered looking as the answer will be ‘nowhere near noblegiraffe getting one’.

Glad to hear that elderly teachers like piggy have been done though

@noblegiraffe

I think I need a taser. Definitely need a mute all button.

Only for Y10 though. God they are being hard work.

Last week, I had to remind mine that they weren't on mute behind a screen and when they try to talk under me, I can still hear them.

I had to tell mine that when I set them off on a task that I could actually now see when they weren’t doing it and yes, there was an expectation that they’d actually crack on immediately.

I’m pretty sure half of them (if not more) had my live lessons on mute while they slept/played FIFA.

Elderly!??

Blooming cheek!!

I know for sure that one of my boys with "camera issues" spent more time on his xbox than he should have been.

sorry piggy
You don’t need to lie about your age!

Phone died.

Thank you for your help, I've decided to do a sort of adjectives and nouns on whiteboard to see who might need help in the lesson and then maybe come up with a silly sentence or maybe go straight into task. Depending on how much they're listening or not.

I'm so unbelievably stressed. I know I'm not ready to apply for an NQT job. Which is a shame as they're being advertised now, but I'm really not confident enough to be going through that. Not if this is worrying me so much.

I did a mock interview for an NQT with the head today. She's bloody brilliant but she totally lost it and sobbed.
We're all on the edge.

We weren't enforcing attendance at live lessons because rural internet is genuinely not good enough to cope with that in larger families (some teachers found they couldn't do any live lessons with video/screen sharing). So a significant number of mine just didn't bother watching the videos I spent time making for them. It's truly demoralising to make a video and then see it's only been watched 4 times. They sent me the resulting rubbish they produced though, as half a starter in a lesson is obviously a full hours work . I have 2 year 10 classes, one class are working really hard this week and the other class are doing their best to avoid any form of work whatsoever.

@namechangedyetagain I am sure you are doing far better than you think you are and I am also sure that some of the super confident ones probably know far less than they think they do.

Thanks to those who gave advice on how to secondary ready my ds.

I would also like a mute button and a fast-forward please. Mine are SO SLOW!

name if you genuinely think you're not ready to apply for nqt jobs there's always the option of doing supply for a year, even just a term or so before you start applying for permanent posts. Depending on the demand for supply in your area, obviously. It might help you get a bit more experience/confidence before you commit to a whole year with one class. I don't know if the financial uncertainty of not knowing how many days of supply you'd get would be more stressful for you though.

I'd like some of mine to have their mum sitting next to them like they did in lockdown. They looked so much cleverer then (and I looked like an amazing teacher, as they were getting so much right). And definitely a mute button. Perhaps separate cages too? (That's a joke, for any lurkers)

I agree with SquashedFly - I bet you are doing far better than you think, Name. The fact that you care so much shows how committed you are. Are you being supported day to day by the class teacher? That is what makes the biggest difference, I think. Please don't be afraid to ask for ideas here too. We've all been trainees and we all still need to bounce ideas off other teachers from time to time.

You are doing a great job. This is the toughest year to be training - in terms of where the children are and in terms of the restrictions in 'normal' lesson activities. Hang in there!

My kids were like that @MsAwesomeDragon. We live so rurally that they can't both watch online lessons at once. On the days I worked from home I had to get them both off to livestream my lessons. Even on a good day you can be watching snd then a sibling youtubing on their phone can fuck it up.

Plus lots of my students were just using phones. No laptops.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Googles Gillick competence.

showing off re your youth

YesI've been asked several times if I have a medical background, also if a legal background. Nope, just intelligent, educated, articulate, and used to dealing with Oxbridge sorts. Cos I woz there too.

You're not considered old on here until you admit to owning exercise video tapes.

Cos I woz there too.

Oooooh!

Reminder: Rosemary Conley is seventy four.

And she’s not elderly.

Hope you're ok, name.

I was not invited for interview for the first local school that advertised, on my PGCE. It felt as if everyone else on my course had been invited for interview (which is very nearly true!). I had a little cry and a complete collapse in confidence, then got mad and got a job the week afterwards. It was a year of maternity cover and I was genuinely sad when the teacher I replaced decided to come back, so I had to leave. Completed my NQT with a brilliant mentor, then did another two year-contract mat covers before landing a permanent job.

I think I felt like you at many points on my PGCE, but now I really am where I want to be, despite the first rejection. I think it was at about this point too where I had my worst day ever and wanted out of teaching all together.

Big mug of for you, and tomorrow will be better, I promise.