The Fifty-Sixth Republic - Who is up for a game of TAG?

[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 look pregnant :(
I'm definitely not.

Does everyone think winter lockdown was the culprit. I think I weigh more than I ever weighed when pregnant...

Maybe our World Tour should be on foot 😂

@MrsHamlet

I look pregnant :( I'm definitely not.

Good god me too. Birthday cake at home not helping.

My class (year 6) are UTTERLY feral. Today I did a lesson (a double really) on sleep, diet, and puberty. It was a revelation. They are completely fucked up with sleep, diet and exercise. Lots more online time, eating whatever whenever, and the mean bedtime (maths opportunity!) in a class of 34 was 10.45. Some later. At age 10-11. And some of them are in for breakfast club at 7.45.

I've had to change my lessons to do very short input/task all lesson with breaks where we get up and move. I've had to make lessons active with lots of finding, moving, building. It worries me as these are the same kids who will be expected to sit all lesson in year 7 soon.

10.45?????? Way past my bedtime!

Hello all - another day in paradise for me too. Workload has become ridiculous and looks set to worsen over the next half term.

HT today announced a new fad initiative to ensure we are bright, perky and Ofsted-ready. It involves an obscene amount of paper and I can't see any material benefit for the children.

Observations are coming up and I have no idea what to do. It's a maths focus but no details have been shared other than that. Maths lead is devoted to WR but these observations fall in the 'Time' zone on the WR plans. There's not a snowball´s chance in hell that I will do Time for an observation. Hoping inspiration strikes me over the weekend!

10.45?? Even now at 14 ds has to go earlier than that on a school night. I think at that age his bedtime was 8pm (as in lights out etc - in bed at 8pm but could still read or whatever in bed) then cuddles catch up and time to sleep for 8.30pm.

Now everything is off by 9.30pm. He's really struggling with the teenage thing of not feeling like sleeping till really late and then struggling to get up though.

We should have burned over 2600cals (hopefully we get them each rather than sharing them) by midnight and 12,000 steps. I'm really hoping to actually get some sleep. Averaging 4-5 hours a night at the minute and it is not enough! Not as bad as Rule's night though - hopefully she's tucked up in bed now.

phleb no wonder dd2 complains about her bedtime being so "early" at 9pm if her class are anything like yours (it's a relatively nice area, so might be a bit better). She's just stomped up the stairs because I'm REALLY MEAN to make her go to bed so early!!

No - lights off at 8 in bed at 7.30 that should read. Think I went up to 8 and 8.30 somewhere in year 7. Apparently I've always been early compared to other parents but I was aware of how much sleep they're meant to get and at primary it's still 11-12 hours a night I believe.

@noblegiraffe

LFTs given to millions of school children may have inaccurate instructions saying that you can use them if you have symptoms www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9486233/Lateral-flow-Covid-tests-given-millions-schoolchildren-WRONG-instructions.html

Crikey, schools need to be making it clear that this isn't the case!

Well if you will, use tests for a purpose that they weren't designed for... I'm guessing since it was organised by the government the appropriate risk assessment and change control wasn't done. I'd love to be a fly on the wall watching someone from government trying to explain this to an MHRA inspector through.

It's all the lockdowns here, not just the winter one. Perilously close to having to do the walk of shame and ask for bigger uniform.

My 14yo complains I send him to bed at 8.30 but he sleeps like a log and sleeps til midday at weekends (if I let him) - he needs sleep!!

According to the NHS 6-12 yo children should be getting 9-12 hours sleep a night. Now she's year 6, it's up to bed at 9, lights out at 10, getting up at 7:30am, which she seems to do well on. She doesn't do well with less sleep, so when she used to go to sleepovers it took quite a few days to recover from the lack of sleep. I'm really glad sleepovers aren't a thing right now.

10.45 is crazy! And explains a lot!

@HarrietDVane that sounds hideous

10.45pm is a ludicrous bedtime for Y6. I am generally always in bed before 10pm

Trying to organise many Y11 exam papers. My head hurts

Lush apparently - not tried it but might be a nice treat for someone

Although do you think there might have been at least a few,phleb who actually go to bed a lot earlier but weren’t prepared to admit it in front of classmates?

Sorry - there was supposed to be a picture of the shop window there, take your school lanyard into Lush for a free treat!

I've done alright on the weight loss thing - I've still not eaten sugar, and am about 75 days into my 100 days without. I've only really thought about it a few times, and those have all been when I'm massively tired. I've lost around 7kg since Feb 4th, but haven't been on the scales for a few weeks.

Due to menopause status, I can only get 2000 cals used on a day with 10k + steps and something 'else'. If I do 8k steps, then I'm down to 1700. Amazing difference in terms of what I can eat to stay in calorie deficit. It's all so boring.

Tonight I'm just going to watch Sewing Bee on catchup, then go to bed.

schoolsweek.co.uk/struggling-pupils-did-little-if-any-reading-during-lockdown-and-5-more-ofsted-findings/

@CarrieBlue

Sorry - there was supposed to be a picture of the shop window there, take your school lanyard into Lush for a free treat!

I saw that but apparently its not a company wide thing just what one store in Bristol is doing which is disappointing.

I wonder what it is like in the 'nice' primary schools this year. I have only worked in trisky bits of inner cities. It is so hard this year and this can be compounded when SLT make interesting decisions

I work in a nice primary - very middle class village in the South East, well educated parents in professional roles who really care about education.

I think we’ve done ok in terms of where the children are now. Maths and reading is getting back to normal for most (KS1 still struggling due to missed phonics and online learning being unsuitable for their needs), writing has taken a hit but we’re working on that.

However, the neediness of our children is insane. Their attention span is shot to bits, they’re being very demanding and opinionated about what they don’t like and they expect adults to do everything for them. A lot of them have sadly become very mollycoddled and even spoilt, so getting them back into learning mode has been hard.

I suspect we’ve still not got it as bad as some other schools though....

I saw that but apparently its not a company wide thing just what one store in Bristol is doing which is disappointing.

Very disappointing :( sorry for raising hopes only for them to be dashed (unless you live in Bristol!)

@Timeturnerplease interesting to read. Educationally mine are all over the place. Some really random gaps but not the same ones in any two children. New approach this term is to get my gds to gap fill for each other. For example, one is great at arithmetic apart from exchanging in subtraction so get his friend to teach him. I just can't do it all myself.

I can then crack on with the exp and blw children. Just so much to do.

Getting angrier and angrier that there is no proper funding and support for the semh, asd, other sen, eal, vulnerable. I am working so hard this year and I am so tired. I am not enough. It is not fair on these children.

10.45 for a bedtime? I can get comprehend that, mainly because I’m a lark so am asleep by 9. DC like me. DS (6) in bed at 7, story, asleep by 7.20. DD (9) in bed at 7 (apart from nights where she does an activity), reads til 8, lights out. We’re all up by 5.30 though. Poor kids. How can they function with so little sleep???

Yr 11 did their first paper of their many ‘not exams’ for me Monday. Really starting to resent them but know it’s not their fault. They’re continually moaning and I want to say is ‘you’re not sitting proper exams. Get over yourselves’. My Yr 13s on the other hand are loving it. They know they’ve got an easy ride to Uni and determined to enjoy this last half term despite the assessments.

Breaking news! Sorry for the Fail link but experts have found that white bread, sugary drinks and chocolate are bad for us: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9497923/British-diet-white-bread-butter-chocolate-sending-early-grave-researchers-say.html

Fuck me, I should’ve been a scientist 🙄