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'm de-lurking because I'm so stressed by all the inconsistency about the ways to run the assessments. I don't know if what we're doing is right or wrong. I teach English so the reading questions never change anyway and with some (most...) students that doesn't help them! What changes is the extract they have to analyse so we have been told to read the extracts with them, discuss the man points/check they understand the key points, maybe discuss the questions a bit. None of that is to be written down on the board or handouts but kids can take notes (obviously some don't bother). Then remind them how to do the questions without referring to the extract and then they write their responses in exam conditions in the classroom. They're going to do the writing question
separately, which wouldn't normally be the case, and will have planning time (quite a bit I think..). We aren't really sticking to the timings either.

Is this cheating? I can't see anything in the guidance that says they must do exams - it just waffles that assessments with higher controls will be more reliable? Thing is, there's no topics in English so I feel like this is our equivalent of saying 'statistics', but maybe I'm kidding myself? It's not up to me anyway though . Also, I had a look through my paper 1s this morning and I don't think it's changed anything - results are what you'd have expected based on past performance - no one's gone from a 3 to a 6 as a result of this 'cheating'. Maybe some borderline kids have benefitted but so what? I thought they were supposed to be receiving concessions, not just exams as normal but marked by unpaid teachers instead of examiners?!

Are we cheating though...?

Gosh, I slept 12 hours last night 😂 First week back wasn't bad but it was a busy week!

You're not cheating because there is no cheating.
I'm pissed off that I'm marking but losing my marking income.

The only accountability is with the moderation process, isn’t it? Do teachers think that’s going to be mainly rubber stamping? I know they’re asking for lots of supporting evidence, but what will they actually do with it? (I do know what proper moderation looks like, worked for exam boards in my yoof!)

Been back two weeks and last week had so much work to do, this week all planned for Monday so just 100 papers to mark (maths) so easy to mark whilst watching the telly
Teacher have been told some topics (the trickier topics) to revise for each paper. Papers spaced out over this term. Marking together (we have two exam markers in the dept) after school to discuss mark scheme and ensure consistency. Moderated by a seasoned external exam marker. I am hoping that teachers are not feeling to overwhelmed by it all as I think I have taken most of the stress out of it for them.

@MrsHamlet

You're not cheating because there is no cheating. I'm pissed off that I'm marking but losing my marking income.

So annoying. I don’t think my school has taken into account the the huge workload involved.

It’s taking me longer as these marks really count. I’m careful when marking normally, but if I added or dropped the odd mark for an end of topic test - it didn’t really matter. Now it really matters so it’s taking me so much longer.

I honestly can’t wait for this half term to be over.

@MrsHamlet

You're not cheating because there is no cheating. I'm pissed off that I'm marking but losing my marking income.

I'm not surprised you're pissed off. The whole thing is a mess. Where is Gavin in all this? Weaseling around with poorly timed comments on needing to improve behaviour.

Really feel for you secondary lot, it sounds like an unmanageable work load.
DS is y11 and teachers have been amazing. I will be getting them a decent hamper once marks are submitted.
I handed in my notice this week (rather abruptly- in the middle of a lesson ). It feels amazing. I wonder how many more of us will be doing the same.

@BigBobBoots

Really feel for you secondary lot, it sounds like an unmanageable work load. DS is y11 and teachers have been amazing. I will be getting them a decent hamper once marks are submitted. I handed in my notice this week (rather abruptly- in the middle of a lesson ). It feels amazing. I wonder how many more of us will be doing the same.

Congratulations! I so wish I could afford/ had the nerve to do the same.

Well done, Bob. How do you hand your notice in during a lesson?

I think I’m under the bench keeping my head down hoping no one spots I’m winging it. This is where I live most of my life, occasionally popping up to sit on the shit stirring bench, then ducking back down when people turn to look at me.

I have no idea what most subjects are doing in terms of telling kids what topics/questions are on their assessments. I believe science are telling them which topics are on which test. The maths department (me included) are sticking with "The first paper is non calculator, the rest are calculator, the topics are all mixed up in all papers. The questions get more difficult as you go through the paper". We can't be more specific because we deliberately haven't seen the papers (other than the people who put the papers together, but they don't teach that tier of entry). We want to be so scrupulously fair that there can't possibly be ANY accusation of anything being unfair in our department. I still think there will be appeals/complaints by some of my year 13, as they aren't going to get the grades they think they should get (because they did not work over the 2 lockdowns and think they will be able to catch up with all that work in the next 3 weeks )

Re Home School Communications in EYFS, where I teach ,we write an individual comment and also a whole class note each week .We also upload observations , focusing on a different group of six children each week but also as hoc of others .
We respond to parents messages on class dojo and post whole class events and achievements to celebrate.
Home learning is set for a half term and marked at the end of this period .Reading record is checked and books changed daily.
We are new to using class dojo this year and it is a mixed blessing.Messages sent privately to the teachers can be rather too frequent/ bat shit crazy .

for all of you in Secondary dealing with Y11 and Y13 assessments. It sounds horrific.

I'd love to tell you Noble but it would be outing. It was in the corridor though, not in front of the kids!

@BigBobBoots

I'd love to tell you Noble but it would be outing. It was in the corridor though, not in front of the kids!

Please tell me it was the Resignation Version of when you pretend to produce a V Sign out of your pocket?

@Sureitwillbegrand

Been back two weeks and last week had so much work to do, this week all planned for Monday so just 100 papers to mark (maths) so easy to mark whilst watching the telly Teacher have been told some topics (the trickier topics) to revise for each paper. Papers spaced out over this term. Marking together (we have two exam markers in the dept) after school to discuss mark scheme and ensure consistency. Moderated by a seasoned external exam marker. I am hoping that teachers are not feeling to overwhelmed by it all as I think I have taken most of the stress out of it for them.

Ooh, that's another thing I'm wondering about - mark schemes.

It seems that people are using the pre-2021 mark schemes, but what about the grading guidance that JCQ issued a few weeks ago? The one that said '9' - better than an 8 or something. Yes, it was shit, but vague and forgiving. Are most people just ignoring that and going with mark schemes? That will make it harder to award higher grades, certainly in English anyway. Obviously we don't want to go crazy and spray 9s around but I don't understand the logic of applying the mark scheme instead of using the descriptors? I've heard people in my school (science) agonising over creating a mark scheme for a paper they'd created covering the topics the kids had done and wondered why they weren't just using the descriptors?

We're using real papers and real mark schemes. Then we'll make up the grades.

@flyingtartar The grade descriptors are so vague that they are meaningless in maths. We're going with cut down papers, real mark schemes and then making up grade boundaries. That's what would happen on a national level so seems fair enough to me. Using the descriptors we could argue most students are anywhere from a 3 to a 7!

@MrsHamlet

We're using real papers and real mark schemes. Then we'll make up the grades.

That made me laugh. Then a realised that’s pretty much our plan.

Making up grades is everyone's plan. The only plan.

Not many takers on this thread, despite so many posters being very concerned about disadvantaged pupils previously.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area

[quote noblegiraffe]Not many takers on this thread, despite so many posters being very concerned about disadvantaged pupils previously.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area[/quote]
I’m sure they are all busy in zoom meetings about local community stuff to help disadvantaged children and will be along soon.......

[quote noblegiraffe]Not many takers on this thread, despite so many posters being very concerned about disadvantaged pupils previously.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area[/quote]
Obvs. Have hated the faux concern through this. Been teaching 21 years. No one gave a shit then - bar us in education. My own son has been on the list to see autism outreach for 18 months. He hasn’t had his first appointment yet. Luckily his school has provided a TA for him despite this - what about the kids who aren’t so lucky?

So.... anyone got any recommendations for nit treatments? I've just had a mortified text from my friend, and now my head is itchy!!!

Dd1 has been on the adult autism assessment waiting list for about 18 months motherunner. It's completely shit that all these assessment waiting lists are so long, and the only people who genuinely care are those of us teaching these children, and their own families. One of dd2's friends in infant school had autism and I saw first hand how the other parents vilified the child rather than the system that was letting that child down. Yes he had meltdowns, that's what autistic children do when they are overwhelmed. Yes it was disruptive for the other children, but he hadn't got far enough to get into a specialist provision (I hope he has now, otherwise they excluded him which would be awful for him).

In terms of free school meal funding, the cuts in that will affect so many children, my nieces included. It makes such a huge difference to disadvantaged children, and it's a massive kick in the teeth every time we realise just how little people care about it.