The Fifty-fourth Republic - Easter holidays anyone?

[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

@JanFebAnyMonth

How many on this thread are below 35?

Why couldn't you have said 35 and under? 😂 Although I was jabbed because of blood clot history.

Question : does anyone on here routinely use the terms co curricular or super curricular?

I think MN thinks the latter is somehow not a marker of privilege and a great leveller. But I reckon my kids wouldn't even recognise the terms.

Blimey rule can’t imagine what kind of day you had for 3 kids to be excluded.

Glad you’ve had your jab phleb

for those of you still in school. You’ll feel the benefit when everyone else is back and you are on holiday.

@TheHoneyBadger

I also read my posts and go oh look I swear and sound crass etc and wonder if maybe it's a class thing and the gap is widening between teachers and students class wise? Am I 'teacher-like' enough? I'm from a very mixed class background and had to accommodate both sides of the family and my own culture.

Two students tonight had really noticeably young mums but they were super involved and encouraging which personally I've found is a trend with young single mums of my students. I'd hate to think but can't deny that maybe some of my colleagues just see 'chav' or dysfunctional. That also then makes me wonder how my colleagues see me as a single mum working part time?

I'm very well educated and broadly experienced but I don't fit the mould and that serves me well in dealing with parents tbh but I doubt very much the school would see that. Lots of 'performing teacher' stuff. People very reserved and unwilling to invest of themselves or make themselves human and approachable. I note there are some incredibly rude badly behaved middle class kids who get away with murder whilst there are some super motivated considering their background and honest and engaging kids who can't perform middle class who are over sanctioned and underestimated in terms of their ability.

Sorry - very off topic but parent's evening often reminds me of this stuff.

I used to love teaching in the schools in the poor areas. I saw far more progress with the kids and become heavily involved holistically with the families until in one school I thought I should just change career as a social worker. I had a crying cupboard in one school where my TA and I used to go for a cry when things got really tough for the kids. I left 2 middle class school early on in my career , I just couldn’t stand teaching the kids, a lot where entitled, rude and had rude arrogant parents. I was even told by the head in one of these schools to not inform a parent about their daughter’s behaviour because they contributed financially to the PTA! I think the thing that gives some teachers a bad press is that I believe some teachers are poor at listening ( me) . Some are so used to being in control and having a captive audience listening to them. I found this out personally when I retired from teaching and went into a different job sector. However I found working in a much flatter hierarchy absolutely liberating!

@Piggywaspushed

Question : does anyone on here routinely use the terms co curricular or super curricular?

I think MN thinks the latter is somehow not a marker of privilege and a great leveller. But I reckon my kids wouldn't even recognise the terms.

Dd was told that supra-curricular hobbies were what was deemed more valuable than extra curricular activities when applying for Cambridge. I hadn't heard the term til then.

Supra = relating to your chosen subject I'm guessing, but what do co - and super- mean??

crackle that sounds horrific, have you got ongoing support?

Explained more clearly on another thread, wish I'd copied it when I saw it: because LFDs only have a 50% (being generous!) chance of detecting covid, the more times you do them the more chance of catching you when you're infectious.

Blimey! Supra - curricular now! What is a supra-curricular hobby? Hanging around the library?

I sometimes wonder if Oxbridge realise using latinate terms is half of the problem for admissions of ordinary folk. It just leads to people like Boris spouting the classics feeling part of the club...

Looking at a few Cambridge colleges, super and supra seem to be the same thing.

That personal statements thread's interesting piggy.

Doesn't take long for a bunfight to start...partly my fault.

But I just don't think MN HE posters are willing at all to acknowledge privilege is a thing. A applying to Oxbridge 2022 has already become a very scary place for anyone genuinely looking for support. The HE boards are definitely dominated by some very privileged people, including some who are bitterly resentful about outreach and inclusion. They don't live in a world where schools exist that aren't measured on numbers of A*s at A level and progression to the top universities.

A default answer is 'has your DC spoken to the school's Oxbridge adviser/ surely their personalised UCAS adviser will help?'. It cracks me up.

This was my platform for appointment in my recent job interview but ,a s we know, I was not successful because my school couldn't give a shit about university admission

The HE boards are almost as terrifying as the coronavirus board and some posters on there have single handedly put me - almost certainly unfairly!- off Durham and Bristol. (and Edinburgh and St Andrews, but that was already the case!)

I'm increasingly not up for across the board pushing toward university. When I worked in fe there were posters up everywhere effectively saying don't worry about debt you won't have to pay anything back till you earn £xk a year. It really felt like propaganda and exploiting the fact that xk sounds like big money to 16 or 17 year old but would barely cover rent and bills and expenses on a very cheap flat.

Colleges and schools obviously sell themselves in part in how many kids go onto uni so it hardly felt they were impartial.

Lots of kids with end of term-itis here today, got around 60 off sick and 4 gone home already. Sure some of it is genuine but a lot isn't. Shows how worried parents really are about their kids missing school!

What else is there these days though honey, especially for young people outside big conurbations?

I used to do a lot of UCAS stuff at school, scrutinising personal statements and academic references and so forth. We worked very hard on these to get our students into the best university for them. I was able at one point to get a sneaky look at some AR and PS on applications to a highly regarded department in a highly regarded university. They were supposedly redacted but they left the school email address! - by which I was able to see that the references from some top public schools were disgraceful, consisting mainly of so-and-so is a jolly good chap and an excellent cricketer, his father is pals with royalty so we expect you to give him a place. Awful.

Don't let it put you off Cambridge, Oxford, etc., Piggy, it's just MN.

My experience of Cambridge was that it was a playground for young people who really, really loved their subjects. It was nice to be surrounded by people who lived what they were studying - the way you fall in love with people: passionately and constantly intrigued.

So, don't let MN craziness bend your perception. That just means the craziness has won!

I avoid those boards. They're not helpful.

Those boards are a space for like-minded folk to hang out, without the risk of being ostracised by pleasant people.

I don't know. There does seem to be increasing apprenticeships thankfully and hopefully they will continue to increase. There is also opportunities to volunteer overseas, travel and practical training that qualifies you as eg an accountant, an IT tech etc.

I'm not against uni but in many circumstances think it's better to go and get some experience and self awareness before making such a huge financial commitment without any kind of game plan.

Not around here honey. There is no public transport and vanishingly few proper apprenticeships. I do think the volunteering, travelling etc are still the preserves of the middle classes.

I am well aware I have a Scots Presbyterian attitude to education which is that you should just get on with it, learn stuff and then do what you need to do. Gap years etc were not a thing in Scotland.

Oh no pussycat am not put off Oxbridge. It is mostly very specifically Bristol! If the children there are like their parents, god help us all

Disclaimer : I am sure they aren't! Some lovely posters also have children there but I think they find the MN Bristol mafia a little embarrassing. It comes to something when you can roundly declare York better for studying -insert subject- when all evidence suggests another -shock , Northern! Horror, campus!- university might actually be better !

Do pleasant people ostracise ?

I went to uni at 21 after having worked in several different fields and done some travelling and experienced a bit of the world.

There were no fees, loans were small and living costs low compared to now (even allowing for inflation, wages etc) and work was easy to pick up for evenings and weekends and holidays.

Now 9k fees and crazy rent even in houseshares and serious competition for unskilled part time work. Ergo insane amounts of debt unless you have wealthy parents.

And for what? What does a degree do anymore other than open the door to post grad education for which you have to be very financially privileged?

Dds supra curricular stuff was all related to her subject choice and things she loved doing because of her interest in the subject. She wanted to do history/ ancient history so did work experience in Gladstone's library, volunteered in the local museum and went on a debate society history week in London. She got an interview for cambridge, but then was rejected.

I honestly think it's become a bit of a con. 9k for a library card and 3 hours of lectures/seminars a week? Imagine the quality training you could access with 9k a year?

Without a plan or purpose it's a hell of an expensive something to do for a few years.

Hmm... think we'll have to agree to disagree honey. I am not vocationally minded and believe in love of learning, as I am sure do you. I don't see the need for a plan for all young people : and uni could be the plan. Going to uni should be about more than getting a high paid job. I am an idealist, though.

Definitely DS2 should go to uni. He would get nothing out of an apprenticeship. He likes learning and doesn't want to work in any of the apprenticeship typical sectors . But we definitely can't afford for any frills like a gap year. Not that I think he would want to do one.

Kids I ahve recently taught who didn't go to uni (with one exception) have been towards the weaker end of sixth form spectrum and have struggled to find anything else. they routinely end up as low paid TAS back at the school they attended! 15 years ago there might have been more non degree options about (lots went to airlines, travel agents, law firms, estate agents but those opportunities have gone).

Madeline your daughter is at the Northern Campus uni isn't she ? MN

Fair points honey. Whole system need overhauling and apprenticeships need so much more support. Our place suite successful at getting people into degree level apprenticeships, which sound good.

Cat I entirely agree with you about the passionate people at Oxbridge, not just about their subject though, it could be about eg rights for disabled people or getting tiddlywinks into the Olympics! And you'll find or generate fellow enthusiasts and probably some college money to back you.

Just avoid the twits and (would be) politicians....

30 and unvaccinated here. A bit annoyed about that because the state I'm from originally would have vaccinated me for being a TA back in January and for my age group from today. Alas.