The Fifty-Eight Republic - Do no masks mean that Sports Day will take place?

[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

Surge testing is where they get as many people as possible to test to see if they can find all the cases, including the asymptomatic ones. Should in theory stop it spreading and reduce the numbers.

wagwan pussy whores won't last long as a thread title. It has a nice ring to it, but I'd guess somewhere between detention and day in isolation.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Oh I see, you were responding to that rude person who seems to be attention-seeking....

Missed you too Jan!

Wagwan oik got hoiked off to isolation, I was quite impressed.

But how rafa? Do they just round up passing pedestrians??

@Piggywaspushed - my mum lives in a surge testing area (SA variant, not Indian) and surge testing means she’s had a pcr test kit dropped off to her house which will be collected today. There are also collection points for the tests at the post office and test centres have been ramped up. Thankfully she’s double vaxxed now so hopefully she’ll be ok.

I'd meet it with, 'turn around and go straight back out again'. Then leave them twitching outside whilst I did register and got everyone started. What happened when I went out to talk to them would decide what happened next - apology and suitable sheepishness would be a warning recorded on the system with exactly what they said in quote marks on the 'home notes' part so their parents could read it.

Trying to argue, not apologising or any further rudeness and I'd possibly go to removal but I'm not altogether sure that would be accepted as a reasonable approach as we're meant to go through the warning system. So possibly warning for the behaviour, final warning for arguing about warning and then anything after that allows for removal.

Surely you’re allowed to jump the warning system for extreme behaviour, Honey?

I think in Liverpool they opened drop in testing centres up. It might be what they used the army for.

There'll be door to door testing as well.

Was just trying out being a proper teacher, noble

Why do they need a warning for having sworn? Is it something they're not aware of as being unacceptable?

(Not taking a pop at you, honey; more the system. Have never been able to be doing with the traffic light system, personally).

I do appreciate the concern and what people are saying and would say the same to anyone else but reality is it's harder to set cover and deal with the annoyance of that cover not being set at their end properly and then having to deal with the gap in learning (especially year 9 who I'm revising a topic with ready for mocks (I want to say mock mocks) and it's honestly not worth the hassle.

I have four lessons on Wednesday then 3 on Friday and that's it.

The weird thing is these what can only be described as head zaps - the only similar thing I've experienced before was a side effect of stopping anti-depressants. It's like a little electric shock in your brain that sort of ripples out through your body. They last a split second but are quite disorientating. Very strange and aware I probably sound crazy.

@noblegiraffe

Surely you’re allowed to jump the warning system for extreme behaviour, Honey?

For extreme behaviour yes. I'm just not entirely sure that would qualify. We're all restorative and relationships approach. Honestly for the vast majority of things if it can be speedily de-escalated and learning can resume then warnings suffice - isolation for me (bar violence or outright abuse/swearing directed at someone specifically) is for situations where de-escalation fails and things are clearly not going to be turned around.

I'm presuming it was said at the room rather than someone specific.

I've possibly been in the restorative/relationships model too long There are some kids who'd live in iso if swearing meant automatically going there.

Hello all!
Sorry you're feeling rough, Honey. I hope the weird zaps stop soon - they sound horrible.

I'm feeling really tired today which might be down to my vaccine. My arm no longer aches so I do feel I've got off lightly. Hope other recent jabbees are feeling ok.

I would be deeply shocked by the 'informal' greeting - this only proves that I would not cope with scary teenagers in secondary! Hats off to you all.

Head zaps are horrible. Hope that stops soon.

Today I walked into a classroom to be observed and was greeted "It's mrs dingbat. Which shoes are you wearing?"

I could only laugh.

Quick google reveals I'm not the only one with brain zaps! That's quite a relief.

I still don't understand how they can say masks not needed in classrooms but they are needed in corridors where social distancing can't happen. I think we need MPs visiting comps. Some good news though, I'm back in my room next week! No more traipsing round the whole site following kids round

@JanFebAnyMonth

Was just trying out being a proper teacher, noble

On that note how is your Y7 thing going?

but reality is it's harder to set cover and deal with the annoyance of that cover not being set at their end properly and then having to deal with the gap in learning.

Totally get that, Honey, I think I'd rather drag myself in than have to set cover, and I'm in a department who would happily set cover for me!

Had a successful dinner here. Not sure if smallest ds is having a growth spurt, but never seen him eating so much. My mum has instructed me to make space in my freezer for when they next come over, so we are doing that. I've got frozen udon noodles which are far nicer than the off the shelf ones, but they don't half take up a lot of space!

The powers that seem genuinely interested in my offer but need to check how it can fit in with the general plan (or something like that)! Thanks for asking

noble
That would be either depending on which member of SLT was dealing with it and which student it is.

I've known otherwise sensible students do something stupid (think, shouting something inappropriate for laughs or a dare) and get a week isolation, parent meetings, the book thrown at them & other students who were routinely verbally abusive be invited for a hot chocolate date with their best mate in SLT whilst the teacher is told that the student won't be sanctioned as it's a Thursday in April, the sun was at the wrong angle, the teacher's blouse was a trigger and because Jupiter was also unhappy that morning, the verbal abuse was in no way the responsibility of the pupil who yelled it.

piggy and anyone else in a “variant alarm” area, here’s a twitter thread with some reasons why you maybe don’t need to be so worried:

mobile.twitter.com/ChristabelCoops/status/1394286767440896003

@JanFebAnyMonth - am I reading that Twitter thread wrong as that seems very concerning to me?

Yeah, no ... not reassured!

@LolaSmiles

noble That would be either depending on which member of SLT was dealing with it and which student it is.

I've known otherwise sensible students do something stupid (think, shouting something inappropriate for laughs or a dare) and get a week isolation, parent meetings, the book thrown at them & other students who were routinely verbally abusive be invited for a hot chocolate date with their best mate in SLT whilst the teacher is told that the student won't be sanctioned as it's a Thursday in April, the sun was at the wrong angle, the teacher's blouse was a trigger and because Jupiter was also unhappy that morning, the verbal abuse was in no way the responsibility of the pupil who yelled it.

You've nailed exactly how I feel at the moment.

Sugar! Apologies, have been reading too much stuff and posting too much in various places.

You’re right, that is quite concerning. What I meant to post is this one, which points to signs that things might not be so bad, looking at very recent data:

mobile.twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1394359535754698755

I really need to give up for the evening, night night!