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

@MrsHamlet, "I couldn't deal with primary. I don't know how you do it."

I look at KS1/Foundation and think the same. But in KS2, it's really not all puppies and kittens and speaking in the plural. I think it's a great age and they're much more independent and funny than you'd think.

But you have to teach PE. And Art.

Literally no way.

@noblegiraffe

But you have to teach PE. And Art.

Literally no way.

No PE for me; we have a sports coach who deals with all that unpleasant PE stuff while we get PPA. I would think twice about applying to work in a school that expected me to cope with PE! The only trouble is that the PE teacher keeps being forced to self isolate at the moment due to bursting bubbles. The quality and existence of PE teaching in my class has nosedived this week!!

I don't mind teaching art. And small children are easily impressed by distinctly average adult efforts.

Teaching is very 'horses for courses' isn't it? Primary teachers think "I could never manage those big scary teenagers" and secondary staff think "yuk, all those mucky-fingered little whiners!" (To summarise)

Except....

I swapped, and discovered the Joy of Teenagers!

@JanFebAnyMonth

Teaching is very 'horses for courses' isn't it? Primary teachers think "I could never manage those big scary teenagers" and secondary staff think "yuk, all those mucky-fingered little whiners!" (To summarise)

Except....

I swapped, and discovered the Joy of Teenagers!

What made you swap, Jan? And is there anything you miss from primary?

I don't think I could swap even if I wanted to as my degree is not in a National Curriculum subject - I probably wouldn't have been accepted for teacher training had I not gone in as a career-changer with 20-odd years' work experience in another profession.

Just catching up after a few manic days.

Give me EYFS/KS1 any day of the week-everything’s exciting and new at that age and you can make most things sound like a really great idea! I had Y6 on teaching practice-they were a stroppy bunch! Bobs in reception are ‘usually’ not too bad either.

I used to quite fancy teaching my degree subject at A level though but that was probably thinking back to my own A level classes of 10, rather than a class of 30 that don’t particularly want to be there but have to be!

It’s definitely horses for courses!

I like year 6 really, but I don't want to do SATs prep. I've done year 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. I'd like a solid year 5 class, but have only had mix 5/6 or 4/5, which is hard to judge.

I hate teaching PE. I hate teaching music. I hate teaching MFL. Weirdly, those are the things i'm interested in in my real life, but they are talent sort of things I think - either you've got it or you haven't - and it's hard if kids just can't do it.

Art is cool though, but I'm quite good at teaching that (and I love doing it myself).

This year's Bob is hard going, but I have 7 autistic children in my mainstream classroom as well as Bob. Only one has an EHCP and LSA time. It's all hard going - possibly the hardest class I've had, during the hardest year I've ever had too. Perfect storm.

Which is why I've sort of switched off a bit from him. I just don't have the brain space for indulging shitty behaviour - too busy trying to get some information into the heads of children who want to learn, but struggle. Decided last October that I wasn't going to let a 7 year old dictate my day (or my evenings), or dictate the learning of the rest of the class.

Ouch, Rule! That sounds like a tough crowd. I'm lucky this year behaviour-wise as there's only Bob, and a handful of old-skool "naughty boys" who like to push boundaries but aren't actually malicious. The rest are generally harmless and pleasant, but with a huge ability range which makes differentiation a challenge. I like them though. They're a good bunch on the whole.

Harriet,
a) you know am not actually in a teaching position now? Asst Librarian
b) "swap" was a rhetorical flourish, what I really did was: fail at being an infant teacher; spend years in education admin in various forms; have my own children, grow in self confidence generally; take a job as lunchtime supervisor at my kids' primary (Worst Job in all of School), grow in confidence some more; think "I quite fancy that" on seeing my DD's secondary advertise a Library Assistant job with just the hours I wanted - didn't get it first time but got it 6 maths later when the initial appointee left for personal reasons, then they rang and asked if was still interested; know as soon as I spent an hour with my lovely boss to be, with the kids that this was the place for me! Although not in my JD ended up supervising large numbers of teens alone, discovered to my surprise I could hack it, nay even enjoy it. End up cover supervising occasionally and asking for more responsibility and more money! And the DHd and I have a long-delayed meeting for me to tell him how I want to develop.

I must hold him to that, we've been delaying for a year.

Sorry, self indulgent reflective rambling

How do you want to develop, Jan? Secondary teaching?

Sorry Jan - I'd somehow not realised you weren't teaching at the moment.

No that's fine Harriet! We've all joined sipped in and out at various times and /or missed certain conversations. I'm very vocal for "support staff", in a way Incan never be at actual school, one of the things I love about this thread!

I'm not sure, I partly want to pick his brains. I would love the pure teaching but not all the c* that comes with it..... The only job that currently exists in school that I know I'd like to have a go at is my boss's - Librarian inc teaching all of Y7 once a fortnight. And I like her too much to plot her demise!

Wouldn't someone primary-trained be really good at intervention with Y7 poor readers?

@noblegiraffe

Wouldn't someone primary-trained be really good at intervention with Y7 poor readers?

That's a great shout, Noble. That could be the pure teaching role you would enjoy, Jan!

There'll be money from Kevan for it too.

Interesting thought. Although that would probably involve working with our Inclusion dept and they are scary. I have just been convincing my boss that we have to have the lowest level "Quick Reads" in forward-facing racks/boxes rather than shelved conventionally, as it's ridiculous expecting a poor reader to choose solely from a (5mm thick) spine!

Goodnight

Oh what a good point Noble.

It's SO LATE.

Observed lesson went well on Monday. I'm just at that stage of term where I've lost motivation and I'm forgetting random stuff all the time. Almost forgot to turn up to two commitments today and yesterday.

Just finished inputting grades for reporting, due tomorrow morning. We had my youngest dc parents' evening tonight and I feel so deflated from it. He's fine now that he's back in school and no issues with attainment, but teacher was clear that he had expected much more from him in lockdown. Not all of his work was poor, but it was inconsistent and it was obvious which subjects he likes and which he doesn't like.

I know I shouldn't take it to heart but I think of the amount of time we spent on his work (it feels like a lot), the arguments and the fact that 3 days out of 5 a week, he was pretty much left to it, and I just feel guilty. It's been a hectic week at school and at home, and I think I just need a big cry, a big sleep and some time away from school!

Just wanted to add that this pales into insignificance compared with what some of you are going through - not had much time to post, but I have been reading and hope that everyone is ok .

Please say it's Friday. Seems to have been the longest, hardest week ever. Prof tutor assessment meeting went well, I'm making at least expected progress. Which I'm taking as a win considering I'm in a new placement in lockdown. Still lots to work on though obviously. Certainly transitions and beh mgt (esp in the afternoons when they go a little wild).

So next jobs, essay draft, sort evidence folder and interview prep.

Any ideas what they might ask and good answers I can give? I'm naturally an anxious, not very confident person and could list a million of my negative points and nothing positive. I'm confident in front of the children, just not with other adults and people have started to notice I'm a negative Nancy.

I'm just exhausted. Y10 parents evening last night which was a tough one for a lot of reasons. Online with no real breaks except when a few parents didn't show.

And we're going to have book looks before Easter. What is the point?

Brie Don't beat yourself (or your ds) up. Given and sort of choice and opportunity I'm sure we'd all put more effort into the stuff we like doing. It's been tough all round, you did your best!

name Good luck for your interview.

for all at 3 pm.

@noblegiraffe

But you have to teach PE. And Art.

Literally no way.

And maths!

@noblegiraffe

Wouldn't someone primary-trained be really good at intervention with Y7 poor readers?

I had a friend who trained in primary so he could work in secondary with children who had dyslexia or struggled to read as the phonics knowledge was more helpful.

I used to coach a sport that could be started on site using school equipment and continued elsewhere. It was very useful to offer it to some of my naughtier Y10/11, who became much more tractable as a result. I also found the experience of teaching the precise technical skills involved extremely useful in my teaching of my two main subjects.