The Fifty Seventh Republic - the joy of bank holiday marking

[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 doing well, thank you. Managed to put on half a stone :)

Congratulations on the new job when🎉🥂

Dolly, only half a stone?! Tell me your secret! 😉

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Congrats on new jobs!

having had the princely 8 minute lunch break to gobble my food

Ate my lunch in front of the children in the computer room at 2pm. Yay!

Apparently under the new econsult system this is now how it works, and they cannot possibly arrange times for phone appointments because of covid.

"We can ring you sometimes in the morning" and that's it. Just not useful at all, even though I like phone appts.

This. I love my GP surgery usually. The staff are lovely and the appointment system works well. But I don’t really see any reason why they can’t use some sort of bookable phone appointment system. I don’t expect it to run exactly to time, for all the reasons appointments often don’t run to time. But there’s a difference between that and expecting a phone call anytime between 9am and midday.

The mental health team seem to be able to manage it and they couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.

Just looked at the green list of countries. The republic tour might be quite niche.

Oh god. I take it Egypt isn't green? Dreading spending a fortune on testing on return - my sister had to pay about £300 up front for private tests to have here before being allowed to enter the country. Hoping the prices will fall when it's not 'essential travel only' and they want the travel industry making money.

Rule we are vaccine twins - mine's on Wednesday morning.

Jan you returned a free bottle of gin and turned down cider all in one day? I'm not sure we can be friends.

Australia
New Zealand
Singapore
Iceland
Israel
Portugal
Gibraltar
South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands
St Helena
Ascension
Tristan de Cunha
Faroe Islands
Brunei.

And a lot of those won’t let you in. Hopefully by July things might be better.

Congratulations on your new job, WhenShe!

Never been more glad for a weekend! Both ds are seeing their best friends in person for the first time since last summer today . I need to write the y7 end of year assessments this weekend and deal with the marking pile.

Thanks brie my kids are seeing friends this weekend too. I’m very much looking forward to them having someone other than me to waffle on at. My kids talk too much.

We're going to see mil today, for the first time since the summer. She is very excited about seeing us. Dd2 is her only grandchild and she adores her, so she's hated not seeing her.

It's my birthday tomorrow and we're going to choose a puppy, who will come home in 3 weeks. I'm very, very excited about that!!

www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/runshaw-college-confirms-indian-variant-20547273

“Staff who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine will also be offered one.”

now they think staff need vaccinating??

Makes me so cross reading that noble-people have been needlessly put in harms way but not prioritising vaccination in education staff.

Just think how many vaccines that went to people lying about being an unpaid carer or who wfh/did not work and could queue for hours to get vaccinated, whilst education staff where going in to work daily for their children, could have easily been used on education staff.
Thus blowing many people’s claims that ‘the only fair way is by age’.
When there is such disparity in the U.K. of people of all ages getting it before officially being allowed to, and so becoming a postcode lottery, I truly will not forget that this happened.

We had so many parents who travelled abroad with their children at Easter and then funnily enough, didn’t want to quarantine or pay, so stayed out (demanding work still be set for their darlings). They are just coming back now and hence, variants such as the Indian variant have ample opportunities to find their way into schools.

Just think how many vaccines that went to people lying about being an unpaid carer or who wfh/did not work and could queue for hours to get vaccinated

I've not spoken to a friend since Feb because she lied about being a carer. I don't even care if that makes me petty.

@MsAwesomeDragon that is exciting! We’ve had our puppy four weeks - feels like a lifetime 🤣🤣🤣 it’s like having a baby/toddler in some ways. What type of dog are you getting?

@noblegiraffe indeed.

Conversation yesterday between me (late forties, vaccinated), fellow teacher (late twenties, not vaccinated) and a couple of lovely, bright year 10 girls:

Colleague to me: "I'll be annoyed if you can go on holiday and abroad and I can't because I'm too young for a vaccine.."
Students: "why aren't you vaccinated? All teachers are."
Me: "who told you that?"
Students: "The news. Our parents. Isn't it true?"

(I have no intention of going abroad, for the record.)

So excited for you @MsAwesomeDragon!

Education staff have been treated shamefully during all this. A lot of our parents are under the impression that we've all been jabbed already - I have worked hard to dispel this myth whenever I've had the opportunity.

I have a question for the more experienced teachers: I'm currently on M5 and expect to go up to M6 in September. I was talking to my phase lead after my observation on Thursday and he suggested that I start thinking about my application for UPS which apparently needs to be submitted early in my M6 year.

Is there any expectation with UPS that you will want to take on a management type role? I have no interest in school leadership - I'm happiest in the classroom. I lead one hefty subject and support the (very part time) subject lead in another. I will probably end up taking that on in full as well before long. I don't want to take on more any than that just now. Obviously the extra cash from UPS would be welcome, but not if it means there is an expectation of leadership.

Indian variant out and about in Lancashire then.
What use is vaccinating staff there now in response to the closure? Public Health in Lancashire started off well, but now just follow the Tory line.

A fair proportion of our staff got their vaccinations when a parent who works in the area contacted SLT to say “I know your staff will have been vaccinated due to their job but anyone who missed that can book in for excess dosages at X clinic on Y date”. So even HCPs think school staff were on the list originally!
School workers and police have been willfully ignored in the vaccination drive and it’s a public health scandal.

Squidgy Puppy Time, MsAwesomeDragon! Exciting!
Ours is still Squidgy but almost visibly growing while she sleeps. Instead of a Height Chart we measure her growth by the Oh Fuck She Just Pinched A Sandwich/Tea Towel Off The Kitchen Counter Chart
Currently scarfing peanut butter off a Kong and smelling of wet dog after a rainy walk. I love the smell of wet dog.

And has differed by area. Our police force were prioritised for a vaccine in an arrangement with the county council - not soon enough, really, and certainly not begrudged here, but not education staff. Other areas might have been the other way around and in many places, neither have.

Yeah in my area teachers who asked if they could be put on a spare dose list were told that they were all going to the police.

We were told a definitive no when we enquired about getting vaccines. Yet some other schools managed to get their staff on the list. Seemed to be whether the head has a mate involved with the vaccination team, and ours doesn't. About 2/3 of our staff are vaccinated now as we've got quite a few ecv or CV staff, as well as a lot of late 40s or older staff. But it is truly shocking that we were never prioritised by the government.

We're getting a lab. It's a litter of 11, and we're second on the list so we get to choose from 10 of them. I've never had a dog before, and I'm so excited to finally get one!!!!

I wasn't in school yesterday, so I spent ages on Thursday setting work on GC. Just trying to get a bit ahead by looking at what Y11 have done, and the answer seems to be bugger all . That's it. I refuse to be stressed by their TAGs if they don't give a toss themselves. I may as well have left colouring in.

Oh honey does it help that it was yesterday and the day before? I’m very good as designated driver!

Kong??

Well that's another week done. Children have been er lively shall we say and I've not felt on it this week. Have maths and science planning to do this weekend and not much oomph today. I just want to eat bad food.

Anyway I'm now hanging around for squishy puppy photos. I'm so broody for a pup.