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

I think, MrsHP that as a maths teacher, whatever you drop, you will be able to pick up again easily in the future. I don’t know what your current workload is like but if she is struggling and you can afford it, I would take measures to reduce workload so that I could spend more time on her.

I don’t think I’d quit completely, if she is going to be at school all day then being at home all day would just leave me with nothing to do.

Thanks all - really helpful.

I do try to make time but think I need to really make more of this. We played a couple of games last night just us two which was nice. I need to woman up a bit when I’m tired more I think and make sure to make it a habit though.

Yes GP signposted to websites and an app. I’ve got a book too and I think friendships is an issue - so going to talk about that with her. I think if we can work out how to navigate friendships better now, starting Y7 will be easier.

My dad also pointed out that covid and lockdown and worry over that has been a fairly big proportion of her life too and all that worry we had - she probably had with less worldly experience and understanding....

Is she worrying about starting secondary school too? Transition years are tough and with covid a lot of the fun stuff that finishes off primary school to take their mind off it isn’t happening/is uncertain.

I think so. She hasn’t visited the school itself yet which is tough. I think there’s a lot of upheaval in our life (covid, transition, renovating and moving to rental, puppy etc.) too which obvs I have ALL the guilt about. And then her anxiety manifests itself in crazy worries like our house exploding or whatever.

Ideally I’d like to take six months or until Christmas as see how things go but obvs can’t do that easily in our job.... I don’t want to stop working massively (well sometimes) but know I can go back to teaching at anytime in future so maybe I should?

That sounds like such a worry. How often are you able to get back earlier and with enough energy to engage with her properly? Ds is Year 6 and I feel that so often I am emotionally empty by the time I get to him. Very difficult class this year and then dh caught up in the secondary nonsense. If I could afford to drop hours, I would in a heartbeat. Covid has been going on for almost 10% of their lives. It is so rubbish.

It sounds like you've had a massively stressful time too recently, MrsHP.

Someone I know has just fostered so they have quit teaching but taken up maths intervention in the same school so she takes no work home (and can leave work at the drop of a hat if there is a crisis).

When I'm stressed I end up panicking about stupid stuff too. I'll wake at 3am worried sick about whether there's asbestos in my classroom or something equally random and then in the morning I'll be like 'what was that about?'. But in the middle of it, it will be genuinely causing me panic like it's an immediate problem.

Lots of my year 6's are wobbly Hercule. Either that or massively overconfident! Friendships have been really problematic as they are all SO sick of their bubbles. I find they always shift at the time of year anyway as they start to "try on" their year 7 attitudes and dump the uncool friends.

For some of my wobbly girls and boys i've set aside some of the last weeks for really addressing worries and giving them the armour to wear. I find lots of them are paralysed by "what ifs" so we are going to do some assertiveness training and work on giving them a library of responses to lots of situations and probable comments. Could your school offer something similar?

Our local secondary is shit at transition - I am really pushing for it to get better this year.

Fwiw, I think that sort of anxiety is really common at this age in girls who are overthinkers. My dd was the same - she'd go from not getting fractions to failing gcse and ending up working in burger king in 5 seconds flat. Convince herself i was dead in a car crash if i was 5 minutes late. We had to lots of talking - it helped her if she asked herself what she could actually control and then address the problem. So could she ask for more help in maths? Or surely just retake a gcse? Or ring me instead of panicking? She's much better now but it was peak the year before her periods started.

My dd2 is the same age as yours. She's also a worrier, and gets anxious about stuff. We're currently managing it by having a specific half hour every night where she tells me about her day. It often takes me a while to get to the bottom of any problems she's having, as she can't/won't just tell me, but once I've worked it out we can discuss it and she feels better with strategies to help. Recent issues have been school photo day (a note saying she doesn't need to have her photo taken thanks), changing for PE at school when she hasn't had to all year (crop tops and strategies so she's not so exposed while changing in front of her friends), etc. We're still working on how to deal with sex education at school, and puberty (luckily I think we have another year or two before she's going to have to deal with periods).

If school would let you drop responsibility/hours that might be a good thing. So you aren't quite as exhausted and have time to spend with her doing fun stuff. She's in good company this year, there are a lot of kids out there who are suffering with their mental health.

Mrs HP, sorry to hear that your DD is having a tough time. I’ve had a similar situation in my family for a few years - late-emerging MH and neurodiversity issues that emerged in Yr 7. For what it’s worth, I don’t think that stopping work would have made any difference. What has helped is making sure I’m available for emotional off-loading and talking through/rehearsing what needs to be done the following day. With teens, this seems to be later on in the evening when decompression after the school day has taken place and they’ve had time on their own. Pre-Covid, we’d try to meet after school together to walk round the shops and get something to eat about once a month. Often worries which had been festering would be expressed in this time or during the drive home. Another thing that has helped has been having a Worry Book to write down matters of concern - sometimes it’s easier for us to communicate in writing, rather than by speaking, as it reduces some of the emotional load for her. We’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of professional support through school and CAMHS but I would definitely recommend counselling to help your DD address her anxiety and learn how to manage panic attacks if they continue. Young Minds is an excellent source of information and support for parents and young people - perhaps she’d find it helpful to watch the videos of other young people who talk about dealing with their experiences of anxiety? You may want to start having a dialogue with her secondary soon - quite often there are Buddy/ Peer Mentoring schemes available and she can be on the radar of the person coordinating all of this. In our family, we also found that having non-screen time/ family walks/ reading time and generally at least one school evening a week where no one was rushing off somewhere helped with calming things down for everyone. Good luck - I’ve been there and I know how worrying and guilt-inducing it is, coupled with constant thoughts about whether you’re doing the right thing and whether your own lifestyle choices are causing/ exacerbating matters.

For puberty, I bought this for dd, which she found useful:

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/susan-meredith/whats-happening-to-me/9780746069950

Recently bought the boy version for ds, which he described as "fascinating but horrifying" .

I actually can’t thank you enough for all the messages. It’s made me feel so much better than it’s not just me/her/us. Definitely things there I can use and do. Might investigate fewer hours and dropping my bigger role - have emailed head to speak to her and my head of department separately on Monday. Both are great with this sort of scenario and might have options I haven’t considered. You’ve made me feel like we’ll get through this so I can’t thank you enough.

Morning all,

Can I pick primary maths teacher’s minds please?

Have been doing some practise 11+ papers with DD and she hasn’t been taught long division yet (dividing numbers greater than a unit into 4 digit numbers). Any recommendations to videos I can use to teach her?

@DreamingofBrie

For puberty, I bought this for dd, which she found useful:

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/susan-meredith/whats-happening-to-me/9780746069950

Recently bought the boy version for ds, which he described as "fascinating but horrifying" .

I bought that for DD a couple of years ago! Thought it was great.

Have been doing some practise 11+ papers with DD and she hasn’t been taught long division yet (dividing numbers greater than a unit into 4 digit numbers). Any recommendations to videos I can use to teach her?

Motherrunner, not a primary teacher but in secondary, I like to use Mr Corbett's videos. Here's one with 7 examples on long division method, starting with division by 1 digit number and moving onto 2 digit numbers:

One thing I always ask the kids to consider is to write the number as a fraction and see if they can simplify the fraction to make the division easier (doesn't always work). Basic rules around divisibility help! First question in my textbook:

672 divide by 21

(6 + 7 + 2 = 15 and 2 + 1 = 3, sum of digits add to number divisible by 3, so the fraction can be simplified).

so 672/21 = 224/7. Can do that as a bus stop division which gives 32.

@DreamingofBrie That’s wonderful, thank you for taking the time to help 😊

Maths isn’t my strong point, DH is very competent but he would teach how he he would do it, not how her teacher will when they move onto the topic.

Motherrunner - White Rose has 4 videos on long division that take you through step by step. If you google you'll find them, they are vimeo videos.

I will add that most of my Y7s hate the proper "long division" method, where you subtract and bring the next digit down, I think they are taught the short method, where all remainders get put at the top left of the next digit to the right - which is fine but gets a bit messy with long division. Currently teaching it for algebraic long division to my 6th form, who always start off hating it and end up loving it . I prefer the equating coefficients method and some of them are slowly coming round to my way of thinking.

However, a few of my Y7s have really taken up the idea of simplifying the division using equivalent fractions. I'll try and post the rules of divisibility, although MN not seeming to like it. I expect my Y7 to know how to tell whether a number is divisible by 2, 3, (4), 5 and 10. Anything else is a bonus!

@DreamingofBrie Yes. The equation DD was to solve was a ratio. Think it said if 6 out of 11 children are girls in a school, how many girls and boys are there in a school of 2000 odd pupils (can’t remember exact figure). She then tried to divide the bigger number by 11 using short division but it wouldn’t work. I then googled a video and the bringing down and subtracting confused me. I’ll use the usual English teacher phrase of ‘I don’t do numbers’ 😆

@lonelyplanet Thanks - will check them out!

12 hours sleep.
Feel like a new woman! Going to change my username back

For those of us who are peri or post menopausal. Is it weird to get a bit tearful about the idea of not being pregnant again and having another baby? I get quite emotional watching or reading about pregnancy or the early days with a new baby.

YES! Today I walked into the supermarket behind a woman I used to work with. She was the reason I left my last job - an absolutely toxic person. I obviously hid when I saw her, but still seemed to turn into aisles where she was. She is pregnant. Part of what made her so difficult to work with was her infertility issues, so I was quite glad to see she's pregnant again. But I was then insanely jealous of her for about a minute. I hate her, she made my life really difficult for quite a lone time, I was hiding from her, I don't want any more children, I can't anyway due to menopause.. and there I was being jealous of her. Fucking ridiculous.

Meanwhile on the menopause front - I was pregnant at 40 and post menopausal by 43. I've been on HRT for 3 years, and it has literally saved my life. I had to fight for HRT, but know the way to get what you need - if anyone wants any specific advice on it, let me know. I'm on body identical oestrogen gel, have a progesterone coil, and also use testosterone gel for reasons of muscle aches and libido.

Can't help on the 11 year old, sorry. I'm dreading that part with my own child.

Currently teaching it for algebraic long division to my 6th form, who always start off hating it and end up loving it grin. I prefer the equating coefficients method and some of them are slowly coming round to my way of thinking. Me too! Interestingly this year, the better mathematicians have immediately decided the equating coefficients method is brilliant, but the weaker ones really like the long division method. I've not seen that before.

Mother you've had some brilliant advice about long division there. My year 7s always like a "trick", so simplifying fractions so they can avoid the traditional long division and stick with short division is their ideal.

Interestingly this year, the better mathematicians have immediately decided the equating coefficients method is brilliant, but the weaker ones really like the long division method. I've not seen that before.

I always call it the lazy mathematician's method .

Avoiding marking by being on MN this morning!

She then tried to divide the bigger number by 11 using short division but it wouldn’t work I would use short division for dividing by 11, because most of them know their 11 times table so it's quicker. I teach long division in year 7, then we mostly forget about it til A Level (brief recap while revising for GCSEs in case they need it, but nothing much). I can't think of a single reason why I would ever use long division anywhere other than a classroom, as we would all get our calculators out in real life (I use my calculator a lot more now than I ever used to, because I have one available all the time)

dreaming I said that exact thing to year 12 yesterday. I like this method because I'm lazy