The Forty Fifth Republic - Can I get a hair appointment before the summer term starts?

[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

@noblegiraffe

I'm basking in your admiration then, MrsH - I'm often still up past 1am!

I refrain from posting on here at that time of night so that I don't look weird. I think @DreamingofBrie is another night owl!

, I'm trying to switch my phone off after 10.30pm though, because my sleep is buggered and I am getting wrinkly. I'm also a bit too addicted to my phone .

I'm a terrible one for marking past midnight, always leave it till the last thing I do.

Is Masterchef not on tonight then?

I'm a real night owl, too, and whatever time I stop posting on my, there's always at least an hour's reading afterwards...and my alarm goes off at 5.50am term time

Bed at ten, read for half an hour, alarm at 6.
My phone lives downstairs otherwise I'd be farting about online all night

Ds is home already They’re good boys really. When I think what my generation was up to by that age I really think most kids are good nowadays.

They don’t drink, no drugs or girlfriends and just go on bike rides around the surrounding villages because that one has a basketball court and that one has something else and recently seem to be exploring woods and scaring themselves over weird noises. They also hang out in my parents garden for the trampoline and basketball hoop or out the front of mine because I have benches out there. Unless they’re noisy and I tell them to go away.

I think I made the right call moving back to a village even if it’s been dull as ditch water for me sometimes.

They do the whole wannabe gangster talk and posturing but are actually polite and respectful.

I have to say I don’t really recognise the talk of sexual harassment in school. It’s not something I see at my school despite a laddish culture and I can imagine the girls shredding them if they tried. They’re also very anti racist and police each other harder than we could.

Maybe too much sleep and two weeks off has made me soft

Prince Philip, wowzers, so much change in his lifetime across those 99 years. Politically, socially, technologically. Feeling quite sad really, despite all his faults he was such a loyal partner and quite an outdated type of old fashioned gentleman. Can't help thinking the Queen won't be far behind him, and also because I am a flawed person I wonder if we get a day off when the Queen dies. I genuinely would watch the TV coverage all day, it would be such a momentous moment in History and the beginning of the end surely of the monarchy.

@motherrunner the dark blues are St Peter's Church and Wightwick Manor.

Very much enjoying this break. Have booked a few (cancelable) things for the summer. Trying to focus on the positive. Nice to read all of you sounding more relaxed too.

@winewolfhowls

Prince Philip, wowzers, so much change in his lifetime across those 99 years. Politically, socially, technologically. Feeling quite sad really, despite all his faults he was such a loyal partner and quite an outdated type of old fashioned gentleman. Can't help thinking the Queen won't be far behind him, and also because I am a flawed person I wonder if we get a day off when the Queen dies. I genuinely would watch the TV coverage all day, it would be such a momentous moment in History and the beginning of the end surely of the monarchy.

In Australia, we get a day off for HM's birthday. Her official one, like a racehorse. I'm sure when she goes there'll be a move to have no day off at all. Very mean with public holidays here.

Ds and his friends had convinced themselves that they had Monday off of school because of his death and I had to disappoint them. It’s just for monarchs not their spouses.

Wine it is hard to imagine monarchy after the queen dies. I just can’t see Charles as a king.

schoolsweek.co.uk/exclusion-must-still-be-available-to-keep-pupils-and-staff-safe-say-neu-leaders/

Not impressed by this. I don't think a member of staff should have to be physically attacked or a girl sexually assaulted before we can exclude someone and the idea of having no exclusions in wake of covid is nuts. There's a whole raft of abuse and aggression that is unsustainable without tipping over into being punched and as usual it ignores the disruption to everyone else's education caused by trying to keep someone in the classroom who cannot/will not stick to behaviour for learning.

It seems weird to me that it's now unions saying no exclusions when before it was government threats and defunding that tied schools hands. Sure campaign for better alternative provision for kids who can't be taught in mainstream but saying just keep them in the classroom doesn't seem the place of a teachers union.

@SquashedFlyBiscuits Ah! I really want the board now. Love Monopoly anyway. I can finally play it with DD instead of the Junior version.

With all the media coverage of the Duke’s death it made DH and I wonder what it will be like when the Queen dies. She seems ageless but she is an old woman. We will have to have a period of mourning surely? Also will the monarchy crumble? It’s hard to imagine another monarch when the majesty has reigned for generations. Although my ex husband had a theory that Princess Margaret had died years before it was officially announced and she was embalmed and just pushed out in her wheelchair for photo opportunities 🙄

I've little interest in the DofE beyond thinking it must be awful for the queen after so many years. He was a good public servant too, but of his time and i think tgat time is over. Am not a royalist, it's the buildings that bring in the tourists, we could keep the pomp and get rid of the individuals. But then I think we should be working really hard to reduce the impact and influence of the class system in general.

Total night owl. 2am - 9am would be my preferred sleeping hours. Most productive time is 10pm - 2am. I have to get up at 5.50am to be able to exercise and work during term time. It's an endless battle with my body clock.

TheHoneyBadger
In my experience I'd be inclined to say sexual harassment happens more than we realise. I'd previously have said it doesn't really happen in some of the schools I've worked in, but then in the last few years some of the attitudes that I've heard when teaching An Inspector Calls (eg "yeah but she didn't have to let him him" in response to a male character threatening to cause a scene at her doorstep if she didn't) have changed my view. Those moments become quite heated as other students challenge the attitudes, which is good to see, but I'm still concerned by some of the attitudes.

I've known staff be on the receiving end of sexual comments. On one occasion it happened to me and the member of SLT who responded downplayed it as boys being boys. It took a male member of SLT to get wind of it before anything was done, even then it wasn't an exclusion.

Yes I've been in other schools where I've received sexual comments and inappropriateness myself and where I've seen it as an atmosphere in the school. When I started teaching I had a boy who would give me a countdown number every time I taught him as to how many days it was until he was legal

I just genuinely don't see it in this school and I've been there three years and my son attends and I've delivered sex education. There's plenty wrong with the school culture but that issue I don't see.

A lot of key figures, and everyone in behaviour and discipline type roles, have tended to be female, I don't know if that has an influence?

When I started teaching I had a boy who would give me a countdown number every time I taught him as to how many days it was until he was legal

Eww

I’m impressed there’s no sexual harassment at your school. I’ve not seen any female pupils sexual harassed by male pupils. But there is an undercurrent of misogyny.

Girls seen almost as playthings to amuse the boys. Female teachers treated with far far less respect than male teachers. I’ve been “bullied” by male pupils in a way that would simple not have happened if I was a man. I was really disappointed by the way it was dealt with by my school (or rather, not dealt with).

when are your y11s leaving? Usually ours have no official study leave but don't have to come to lessons for subjects after the final exam. No one at work seems to want to commit to a date, I have a y11 form and they are asking every day. Im assuming many of them will want to get summer jobs or plan family holidays before the big rush. Plus all the marking of assessments, i heard the deadline for submission was 12th June? So they must go after that? My timetable is maxed out and I am looking forward to a few weeks with a couple of extra frees if I'm honest.

Staff in my school are never told the date! It's usually immediately after the last while cohort exam in the second week in June. They're thinking of the Friday before half term this year because there won't be any teaching or assessing going on after that.

I've also been in a classroom with a girl telling me about a weird bloke following her and me instructing her to always head towards where people are and not away from people as she did and to forget all the be nice conditioning and be loud and draw lots of attention and don't give a damn about what you look like for shouting in the street etc. There was a whole conversation about 'weirdo's and perverts' with the girls and the boys mostly just sat quiet and looking a bit shocked and fascinated by what teenage girls experience. I think I would have felt it or it would have been reflected in the way the girls talked if it was an issue within our school.

I feel like our kids would police 'pervs' as heavily as they police racism and I can't think of any members of staff who wouldn't come down heavily on that kind of behaviour. Obviously small incidents can go on quietly anywhere but it's certainly not part of the culture in the way it sounds like it is in some schools looking at recent revelations.

I'm not a royalist, but I do feel for the Queen now that Prince Philip has died. 73 years is a long time to be with someone and I can't imagine what it will be like for her without him

Our 11s and 13s are provisionally leaving at May half term as we are doing our TAGs internally this half term. There is a clause though that if we need more evidence for a student they won't leave then.

Good to hear lots of people enjoying the break. I am - had a few days of mainly relaxing at home with DS and DH. I do need to do some school stuff or I'll be swamped next half term

When I'm sorry it's happening at yours. I have had loads of boys at school tell me that female teachers are way stricter and more scary than men so maybe we've just scared them.

We had a skirt ban for a very long time (obviously I'm not saying what you wear invites harassment) and everyone is in the same trousers shirt and tie and blazer and it just doesn't feel like a sexual environment. I've never even seen teasing about who fancies who or anything. There's a couple of couples in year 11 who see canoodling in the playground but rare.

Ds's primary school was obsessed about who was whose girlfriend/boyfriend etc but secondary seems very 'latent'. The boys are more focused on each other and the whole homoerotic, competitive weird shit that boys do than girls.

Very few of our main school students wear skirts. Sixth formers dress as they please although the girls are more heavily policed than the boys. Bra straps and hemlines cause a lot of angst, but when I raised the issue of very tight shiny tracksuit bottoms on boys being inappropriate attire, there was much confusion about why. If a girl shouldn't have her cleavage on show, I don't think the boys should be wearing such tight pants that their penises are on show.

No uniform at my college obviously and the sexualised clothing thing just isn’t an issue. Sure, I see girls in v short skirts but usually with thick tights and trainers or boots - they’re trying to look cool rather than sexy. A bit of cleavage but, so what? Maxi skirts are in so there are a few of those but 90% of students wear jeans/joggers/leggings with a t-shirt, loose shirt or hoody. I actually love the ones who dress up a bit - it makes me jealous they can still get away with it! The local schools have strict uniforms and I see way shorter skirts and tighter trousers on those students than on ours.

Thanks honey

I honestly don’t know when our year 11s are leaving. I’m guessing May half term but that’s just a guess.

Ours are leaving at May half term. I'm looking forward to all my gained time as the light at the end of the tunnel. This half term will be horrific in terms of workload, so I will need the last half term to be much easier. I'm sure I'll be given a lot of extra jobs to do, like rewriting schemes of work to account for what's been missed this year due to covid.

Same as @MsAwesomeDragon, Yr 11 and 13 leaving half term. Between now and half term they’ll be sitting internal exams so got a ‘lovely’ half term of exam marking to look forward to ... plus KS3 exam week and Yr 10 exam week too!

We haven't been told a leaving date. DfE guidance apparently reiterates schools providing something til end of June but it is only guidance...

Assessment heavy half term here too. 5 weeks til May I keep telling myself.