The Fifty Ninth Republic - May Half Term beckons

[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 for school staff to let off steam.

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. Finally, upload your covid test results twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Hobnob, are you going to hide for the week? Traffic on M5 truly awful. We've been 4 hours on the road, and still only just past Exeter. Erk.

Happy half term everyone. One of our Bobs has left for another school today. Relief all round.

Oh my days! I have to admit that I won't be doing a huge amount of driving around for the next week - 400,000 people are predicted to be coming to Cornwall! (and apparently a lot of them are blocking up the M5 for you rule!) Although saying that, I'm due to drive up to Newquay on Sunday to see some friends - not looking forward to that one iota! (the drive, not the seeing friends lol) I hope you get to your accommodation soon - I'm waving towards the border at you 😁

I think I had the best nights sleep I've had in weeks last night

I am feeling quite relaxed this morning and really looking forward to the week ahead. Lots planned with DS and DH which will be nice and the weather here is nice today 🙂

I hope everyone has a nice start to half term!

Happy half term everyone!

Is it finally half term? Not been on much lately. Worked bloody hard to get my final essay in (done) now I have to concentrate on getting my evidence folder up to scratch to hand in and planning for next term.

Hopefully I'll get some time to spend sleeping too as I'm so tired. Beh this week has been so bad and that is worrying me for September. Don't know where I'll be teaching yet and I think that's making me feel edgy as well.

Also need to lose about 4 stone sharpish as we are having graduation

@namechangedyetagain that's exciting about graduation. We never find out where we are till June at the earliest, conveniently after the resignation deadline. LSAs often find out in July about a week before the children do. It's so frustrating. Hope you find out soon, do you have a preference?

I think my preference would be KS1 but i have a feeling I might end up in lower KS2. No exp of y3 or 4 apart from interventions as a TA.

I think I'm just a little apprehensive about starting my first post! Just hope that I'll be good enough. But yes i think we had a resignation yesterday so everything is probably being re jigged as we speak!

@namechangedyetagain LKS2 is the absolute best. No pressure of SATS etc, yet they’re very capable of doing things by themselves. Curriculum very interesting too.

However, having spent SEVEN years stuck in KS1 due to getting good results, I might be biased against small people

Yep, lks2 is the best. Yr 3 would be my ideal, but I've got a mix 3/4. Six years in 6 for me before finally getting out.

Morning all. Bit drizzly in the Malvern Hills but the sun is coming out. DS woke me at 4.30 as he wanted to go exploring. Not sure other people on the campsite would appreciate that!

I will def need to read up on the curriculum. Dd currently y3 but I have no idea what she's been learning about this year! Think the stone age and volcanoes have featured.

I'll just need to wait. Anyhow I still need to pass my course!

Happy Half Term! 🎉🎊🎉

I fell asleep at 8pm last night, on the couch, didn't wake until 4am. That's more sleep than I've had in months! Absolutely needed this break.

LKS2 is a lot of fun: the kids are becoming so much more independent but are still young enough to buy into the mystery around learning (like convincing an entire cohort of Y3 and 4s that there's a dragon living beneath the school).

Personally, Y6 is my favourite. I'm finishing my fifth year in Y6 and will be here for the foreseeable future - the head doesn't want to move me but I don't want to be moved either. I actually enjoy the SATs process and seeing how well and how far they grow across the year.

I love LKS2! They are old enough to have some independence but young enough to believe in magic.

Drizzly rain here but it's brightening up. You're not a million miles from me Mother - hope you have a great trip! We're not going away this time, sadly. We might get a couple of day trips in though as DH is off from Monday.

I need to get myself into gear and tackle the housework that I've ignored for too long. Sigh. Might have another coffee first.

LKS2 is a lot of fun: the kids are becoming so much more independent but are still young enough to buy into the mystery around learning (like convincing an entire cohort of Y3 and 4s that there's a dragon living beneath the school).

Wow @Iamnotthe1 did you provide “evidence” or just use the power of storytelling? Love it!

What did they have to do about the dragon?

Happy half term everyone! The change in the weather makes all the difference doesn’t it?!

Jan
We did. There were trashed classrooms with ash stains, missing food from the school kitchens, the main cook came and was interviewed by the children, etc.

Our "topic" that half term was dragons so the children had to investigate and try to identify whether it was a dragon or whether it could have been something else. We made extensive use of the Dragonology book (fantastic resource!) and exploring potential types of dragons from across the world. Very fun topic.

@HarrietDVane Lucky you! I absolutely love Worcestershire, so beautiful. I actually had Worcester college for my second choice HE. We’re just pottering at moment but will go out for a long walk later and hopefully the sun will come out for a BBQ!

Hope everyone has a fab first day of the week - we deserve it!

Happy Half-term everyone. Sorry I’ve not been around much but TAGs and recruiting a new member of the department have taken up so much of my time recently.

[quote motherrunner]@HarrietDVane Lucky you! I absolutely love Worcestershire, so beautiful. I actually had Worcester college for my second choice HE. We’re just pottering at moment but will go out for a long walk later and hopefully the sun will come out for a BBQ!

Hope everyone has a fab first day of the week - we deserve it![/quote]
I lived in Worcestershire for many years, including secondary schooling and several returns since for various reasons. An under-appreciated but very beautiful place, with pockets that feel as if every era since the 1950s has passed them by.

iSAGE yesterday being asked by Mary Boustead (who apparently grew up in Bolton!) what they think the govt’s up to in schools. 13 mins but very interesting.

TLDR: it certainly has the appearance of a herd immunity strategy.

Direct link to the start of the question:

BMJ article to which they refer:

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/05/28/the-uks-response-to-new-variants-a-story-of-obfuscation-and-chaos/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR3zQdxB51jE27-S49gBd-p6df1JaefRvO_fAHb2pKXVuDtm6uqQU-MRqYY

It's a fascinating listen. Shame government doesn't listen to the, even though some are on actual SAGE.

Morning all. Fab sleep last night. DH building our new BBQ pizza making thing. Come on sunshine. Warwickshire is a little cloudy right now. Need some lovely sunny days this week to just sit in the garden and soak up some vitamin d.

It's a bit cloudy here, but dry and warm enough for me to be sitting in the garden this afternoon. I'm happily staying out here in an attempt to get new puppy used to toileting outside. Hopefully we'll have a few dry days this week for us to sit out here.

@MsAwesomeDragon I just misread your last line (sit....) but it works as far as the puppy goes

[quote JanFebAnyMonth]@MsAwesomeDragon I just misread your last line (sit....) but it works as far as the puppy goes [/quote]
Now that would be dedication to puppy training!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣