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

I really think SLT should be required to teach/observe/thoroughly understand a completely different subject to the one they teach.
Many moons ago, I used to be involved in subject reviews. I used to have to observe with members of SLT, and it was always a horror. They just didn't get that all classrooms and subjects and teachers are different, and that's okay.
Work scrutiny was done with the head. We'd block out a big chunk of time, and sit with biscuits and look at books together and he would always be fair and objective.

I mean, what is true is I could tell you what grades all my students would/should/could get without doing timetabled/scheduled/moderated etc examnotexams like now today...

No one has really thought through what will happen if some students suddenly do catastrophically badly in these examsnotexams because stress.

We're "counting" assessments they did in year 10. So far so good. But in year 10, we adjust the grade boundaries so that we don't look shit when SLT look at the grades.
So child A was told they got grade 6. Their target is 7 so that's okay and they chose not to redo it.
But the grade boundaries have been adjusted to be accurate for that paper, which means they got grade 5, and that now "counts". And we're not allowed to tell them that.
Which is okay until we send home a document in May in which it says that MrsH gave them a grade 5 when MrsH told them it was a 6.

For the Love of God...

Yep. Especially when the made up grades were vastly inflated.

Issued my first box of LFTs today. Now have to figure out how to use them. Guess the instructions are on the trust intranet somewhere.

They should have instructions inside rafa

Or maybe not as you’re now NHS iirc? Although in that case why haven’t you been doing them all along? Am I getting you confused with someone else now?

Are you ok Jan? Sorry for 'too soon' joking - not funny.

In maths though surely you do periodic assessments that you could include and put some grade boundaries with eg decide what score equals what grade? I might be doing the same 'ignorant about maths' thing but I presume that where we're marking x amount of essays and grading them each year, you're doing tests or something?

At the end of any year students will have done 9 or 10 qmas (quality marked assessments) that have been recorded on GO and informed their reports etc as to whether they're above, below or on track for the MEG. Presumably more for core subjects who see them more frequently. Is it not similar at other schools?

In maths though surely you do periodic assessments that you could include and put some grade boundaries with eg decide what score equals what grade?

:( :( :( NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Well you could do, but it would be bullshit.

I may have written a few threads about this over the years.

What noble said! The only grade that is not bullshit (and even then its questionable) is the final GCSE grade.

I had my third vaccine stabbing today. I bled a lot from the hole they took my antibody blood from. I am not pregnant.
I am celebrating all of those facts with gin.

Honey here are the GCSE grade descriptors for maths. 'Give a grade 7 to someone who is better than a 6 but not as good as an 8'.

twitter.com/just_maths/status/1375507484060774400?s=21

Basically, in maths we grade on a national bell curve that doesn't relate to any particular standard.

I started a tumbleweed thread a few weeks ago about how the standard of maths required to get a pass grade has dropped significantly in recent years. Same proportion of kids getting it though. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4193016-GCSE-maths-pass-standard-has-been-devalued-despite-Gove

Give a grade 7 to someone who is better than a 6 but not as good as an 8

And someone was paid to come up with that!

Cheers mrsH! I forgive you honey 😊 😆

Am feeling better by the hour. Slightly bad timing re a meeting which have only just found it is happening tomorrow - the one I basically requested with our bod in charge of ‘Catch up’, where me and my boss persuade her to pay me to do interventions/ read nice stories to Y7s! Am trying to minimise talking this evening (very hard for me!!) but think I’ll be OK by tomorrow afternoon.

Those are literally the grade descriptors for every subject.

They seem unaware that any mortal can google grade boundaries!

I think they are trying to make appeals impossibly difficult??

Glad you're feeling better Jan, those bizarre accidents are always a big shock to the system because they are so unexpected?

Absolutely wine

You are right Jan but they didn’t give them to all NHS staff. They are rolling them out to the rest of us now anyone can get one I think.

I’m not sure it’s worth it now given I’m fully vaccinated and our incidence is now < 10/100k. But i’d have had to sign to say I was refusing and give a reason. I’m not sure the government at home say it’s pointless after vaccination and I trust them more than Boris will cut it.

Over 45s can book on the nhs site - DH and I booked in for the end of the week - phew!

Yay, Carrie.

Those instructions look about right, noble. I’ve found a video and some FAQs just need to find the instructions i’m supposed to use instead of the manufacturer’s ones in the box.

But i’d have had to sign to say I was refusing and give a reason.
I was talking about these at my stabbing today... I've not been doing them because I wasn't in school to do the in school ones and they wouldn't let me take any home until I'd been supervised doing one.
PCR again today. Lots of gagging. I have lovely veins and a strong gag reflect, apparently.

Obviously they don’t trust you to follow the instructions.

Strong gag reflex here too. Suspect most of my neighbours have now seen me gagging while being tested on the front door step.