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.

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When the ofsted alarm goes, you'll find me in the brook cupboard

Hence the top secret emergency gin

@JanFebAnyMonth

Chief Regulator of Ofqual was on R4 earlier. Making it all sound like a walk in the park, IMHO.....

I’ve had to attend a few training webinars from the exam boards and it is both shocking and frightening at how little the exam boards have done and know/decided about the process. And we are paying extra for this!

Morning all.

Had a very ‘interesting’ 48 hours. Sunday received an email from a parents saying another teacher in my dept had explicitly taught the extracts for the language exam we were holding yesterday. We were told just to hand them out. She is now withdrawing her child from all English assessment due to ‘malpractice’. It is now being investigated and my poor HoD has to mark all the year group’s papers herself to see if there are any shared phrases that are cropping up. God knows what’ll happen next! The exam was P2 yesterday. Child not in school. Came in P2. This will defo go to appeal.

@motherrunner

Morning all.

Had a very ‘interesting’ 48 hours. Sunday received an email from a parents saying another teacher in my dept had explicitly taught the extracts for the language exam we were holding yesterday. We were told just to hand them out. She is now withdrawing her child from all English assessment due to ‘malpractice’. It is now being investigated and my poor HoD has to mark all the year group’s papers herself to see if there are any shared phrases that are cropping up. God knows what’ll happen next! The exam was P2 yesterday. Child not in school. Came in P2. This will defo go to appeal.

Assuming they heard from a friend that was in the class. Hope it gets sorted quick, it's this kind of thing that going to cause an issue across the country.

Definitely grateful to be primary at the minute.

Oh shit, mother
That's a huge mess for someone to deal with. I fully expect the same to happen here; teacher down the corridor was writing a model answer for yesterday's exam with their class two hours before it.

Wow mother that is one hell of a situation.

I've had "miss show me the questions before the exams, that's what we did in history and English". Obviously I can't do this for maths.

What a nightmare, Mother!

Yes @eitak22. The notes were screen shot and sent to a WhatsApp group. Obviously then pupils started asking ‘where did you get those notes from?’ and it’s just spiralled. Now some pupils who aren’t in the class are at an advantage as they were sent the notes, the pupils not in that class/or friendship group did not. That’s why my HoD is marking the whole year to check for familiar phrasing.

All teachers of exam groups had to attend a ‘short’ meeting after school to reiterate exam procedures. Ended up being 45 minutes long.

The deputy tried to persuade the parent that her child should still sit the assessments so we could see her work under timed conditions but she wasn’t having any of it. Not I’m got to provide a TAG on in class work which when I give her a low grade will go to appeal ...

Gosh mother that sounds horrendous. Your poor hod having to deal with that, and marking everything herself is such a huge amount of work! As well as the stress of the situation. What's happening so far with the teacher who taught it?

I hope the hod is going to be given time to do all that. How awful for everyone involved.

It kind of makes you see why national exam boards were invented doesn’t it.....
(Well OK, I know they evolved rather than sprang to life fully formed!)

This is going to be a bloody shit show. Sorry that it’s all going so wrong already mother. No one knew yesterday if we should be sending students in blind, or if we should be tailoring revision.

If you haven’t seen this btw, this is a solid example of everything teachers were fighting for before lockdown three: www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/27/donna-coleman-died-after-covid-ran-riot-at-burnley-college-should-it-have-been-open?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Yes Herdy, I just read that. Quite a good detailed article. Sad.

@motherrunner

Morning all.

Had a very ‘interesting’ 48 hours. Sunday received an email from a parents saying another teacher in my dept had explicitly taught the extracts for the language exam we were holding yesterday. We were told just to hand them out. She is now withdrawing her child from all English assessment due to ‘malpractice’. It is now being investigated and my poor HoD has to mark all the year group’s papers herself to see if there are any shared phrases that are cropping up. God knows what’ll happen next! The exam was P2 yesterday. Child not in school. Came in P2. This will defo go to appeal.

That sounds dreadful - I can see it playing out all over the country though .

A parent asked me a question I didn't know the answer to and wondered if anyone here knew - are exam fees being refunded? We have written our own assessments at school and of course it is being marked by the teachers. So is there any justification for the exam boards holding onto those fees?

I've just returned from the GP, (nurse appt) had to have an annual bp check before they will issue any more medication. All good. I have also had a letter to book my smear and I wanted to ask about the covid vaccination, as the NHS site is giving me venues about 40 minutes' drive away. Despite the fact I had been allowed into the building, I was not allowed to book my appointment at reception. The receptionist informed me she could only take bookings by telephone! So I had to walk home and have the conversation I could have had 10 minutes earlier in person. I could not stop my eyes rolling as she told me this. However, all appointments booked now, but no closer with the jab. There are multiple venues in my city giving out vaccinations (including my GP practice), but I've been told to keep checking the NHS website, as they are only giving second doses at the moment.

A parent asked me a question I didn't know the answer to and wondered if anyone here knew - are exam fees being refunded? We have written our own assessments at school and of course it is being marked by the teachers. So is there any justification for the exam boards holding onto those fees?

According to our exams officer, who I asked a little while ago, yes they are keeping fees as they have ‘produced’ potential exams and will be moderating papers. It’s bloody ridiculous. Instead of me marking for the exam board at £4.71 per paper, I’m now doing it for free with added stress.

Vaccinations now open for 42 year olds. I tried booking and got offered somewhere 2 hours away so will have to retry and hope for somewhere a bit closer!

That news story about that college teacher is awful. Negligence.

Another thing about exam boards is that they normally print the papers and we are having to photocopy our own. It’s costing a fortune and massively tying up our admin staff to organise.

I don’t see how a kid can refuse to sit an exam and be graded on different stuff instead. What if they all decided to do that? The guidelines say the evidence used should be consistent.

Vaccinations now open for 42 year olds. I tried booking and got offered somewhere 2 hours away so will have to retry and hope for somewhere a bit closer!

When I checked last night the nearest available centre was 45 min drive away, but I've just checked now and the centre 15 min walk away is available.

In normal times that would be a U.

Does all seem a mess.

I'm off to give bloody shortly - have used the morning researching mortgages and getting an offer in principal. Going to view a flat on Saturday just round the corner from me. Can't get a buy to let mortgage (you have to be on £100K regardless of the size of your deposit now apparently) so would have to be residential. Can't see ds wanting to share a 1 bed flat so it would likely have to sit empty bar air b&b bookings for a few years unless I come up with some way to section off part of it (eg. lock off the bedroom) and technically have just a lodger. Aware that sounds crazy but there's zero chance in hell of buying something bigger and this is where I want to have a property and a one bed will be fine for me once ds is off independent in the world. So much maths going on working out overheads and researching of what air b&bs in the area charge and how much dead money I could afford to pay and what the score is with council tax if you have two properties.

I think I really need something to feel like it's moving forward in my life and it's clearly not my job.

Covid jabs booked, wooo!!!

It's my day off. I'm marking KS3 books for a book trawl ahead of the nightmare that will be Yr11 and 13 assessments

We have three of maybe even more staff member's children in year 11 . One is SLT. They honestly spy on and supervise everything. They complained about 'unfairness' in the mocks and so the poor kids had to redo an exam.

I wouldn't be surprised if our DepHead reported his own school for malpractice!

I am quite sure one of the reason we have as much bureaucracy as we do is becuase of these two specific staff members.

That article is quietly horrific. Well done The Guardian for making sure Donna Coleman’s story is heard.
The atmosphere of dread in educational establishments where you could not escape due to no mitigations or sense of the seriousness of Covid being underplayed and ignored by managers and some colleagues.