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

The assignments just need to be passed. You can do it!!

Oh stop being daft name! Enjoying writing essays on the merits of formative assessment and being a good teacher who can hack it have exactly fuck all in common.

Pour me a gin. We can drink to my spinsterdom

Like seriously in the real world you could just write how the fuck else would I know what they know and how to move forward? It’s just nonsense hoops that you can jump through

Like seriously hmm I could use formative assessment or I could just have a lucky dip bag of what and how to teach the kids next week. Just play the game spell out the bloody obvious with some quotes.

And remember, even PE teachers managed it

I read stuff, take which bits I like to use in my practice, try it, if it works yay, if it doesn't I move on.

There’s the plan for your essay right there. Another 2,000 words and you’ve cracked it

The behaviour hubs have been named: www.tes.com/news/revealed-dfes-22-lead-behaviour-hub-schools

Now we know why Gav was visiting Lehain’s old school.

And remember, even PE teachers managed it

And maths teachers. No bloody clue how to write an essay!

I note Gav's favourite Free School on there! Picked that up via Twitter earlier.

Land of the Silent Corridor!

@noblegiraffe

And remember, even PE teachers managed it

And maths teachers. No bloody clue how to write an essay!

I didn’t like to say that

Very North East and South East feel to that list.

No Michela?

There is v little to be learnt from the Free School : it has a very very specific behaviour approach which it could do as a schools set up from scratch so no culture to change. It is in peculiar buildings (so actually very few corridors) and has a very small roll.

I ahve written about visiting it before on here. The silent corridors were interesting, the schol environment was serene and I felt very very unstressed as an adult. But . Big But. The kids seemed so passive, perhaps even bored. And I did wonder how much stress the silent day caused them. No playground, so no extensive grounds to muck about in anyway.

The first time I visited there had been a big dispute about a boys' hairstyle. In hindsight it was a rather Pimlico situation re the hair.

I am struggling to see an ordinary secondary school on there.

We have also had dealing with the nearby PRU on there. Feral.

I've just done my LFT and got a very purple vertical splodge in the middle. There's only one line but it's so purple in the middle, I'm not sure if that means anything or just a dodge strip. Are you all doing them over Easter?

@namechangedyetagain if you’re anything like me you can only do things under time pressure (eg the night before) whatever good intentions you have. I’ve done fuck all for moving really until this afternoon - moving tonight some stuff and tomorrow 🤣

DS is. I haven't. I have encountered far fewer people than I would in term time and all have been at least 2m away. If anyone picks it up it will be DS because of football so we would be alerted by a positive test from him. I'll start again when we go back.

Knew Tom Bennett had to be involved!

Michaela is an interesting one. I’ll be the first to advocate styles that mean children do well but Michaela, when I visited, just seemed to remove all of the usual things that would cause sanctions to have to be in place, instead of having to deal with them and starting with just one year groups means this is easier to implement: removing homework so no detentions for not handing it in, silence in corridors and not much ‘free’ time so less opportunity for negative behaviour to have to be dealt with, rote learning lessons on a narrow curriculum so less opportunity ‘to get it wrong’.

It’s actually very clever and in some ways, better than what a lot of other ‘strict’ schools do, when they just focus on blazers or haircuts, for example.

However, I have long been implementing a version of Dylan Wiliam’s assessment model and it has done wonders for the success in Computing for me. As Michaela opt not to teach in Computing, it’s hard for me to compare methods, so am happy to stick with mine for now!

I’d love to see Katharine oversee an existing school too and see what would happen with a larger intake and a larger pool of subjects.

I was very surprised that just a few weeks ago, Michaela were advertising on Twitter for some many teachers from so many departments all at once too.

I would like to recommend the CBEEBIES bedtime stories. There are some beautiful storytellers lovely stories.

Reading on TES that not only have masks been confirmed for after the holidays but also testing, but their link didn’t lead to anything that mentioned that. Has it? I mean I can see that teachers will he asked to as they are part of the adult population, but pupils?

@MrsHamlet

I would like to recommend the CBEEBIES bedtime stories. There are some beautiful storytellers lovely stories.

The gorgeous Duke read one on mother's day 🥰. I may have made my children watch it with me!

Yep I have always been a last minute student. AND I was a maths student hence I'm not liking writing much. Tonight I've decided is for gin (even though it's not Friday). The reading will still be there tomorrow. Boo.

Chloe I noticed the multiple job ads...interesting.
I'm unsure where I stand on Michela. I really would love to see the school in action but like you say, so much of it isn't going to help a "normal" school.

I think that's the one we watched, name
Obviously, only for the benefit of the children.

I’d love to see Katharine oversee an existing school too and see what would happen with a larger intake and a larger pool of subjects.

That was what happened with Great Yarmouth Charter academy and the sick bucket head who left abruptly. I’d love to know how that turned out.

I was so struck by the similarities between Michaela and The Demon Headmaster the other day. I’m torn between thinking it’s great and thinking it’s terrible.

Some staff use Michela as a stepping stone for greater things but quite a few poor sods are just burnt out.

Absolutely MrsH a few days later we watched the Tom Hardy one at lunch. You know, because the children enjoyed it (and his dog). Was absolutely nothing to do with him in short sleeves, tattoos and stuff on display. Oh no.

@noblegiraffe

And remember, even PE teachers managed it

And maths teachers. No bloody clue how to write an essay!

My essays on the PGCE were so crap. I was only used to writing excellent technical reports! Aimed to pass every time. My classmate (Philosopy graduate) argued that her extremely high essay score wasn't actually high enough!

All that crap about behaviour linked to mobile phones has really pissed me off. I don't know any schools that allows phone use (negligible under teacher direction, maybe). Phones aren't an issue in school, on the whole. They're an issue out of school. So is no parental discipline, no bedtimes, no rules on technology use, no backing up of school rules or a culture of learning. Not mobiles in the classroom.