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.

@cantkeepawayforever

As a child / teen, lived in that strange corner where Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire get a bit tangled up - 3 state 6th form options were in 3 different counties!

I like those strange corners. I lived for a while in the tangled bit of Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It’s a strange place, typified by the Rollright Stones - very low key but very atmospheric too.

I like those strange corners. I lived for a while in the tangled bit of Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It’s a strange place, typified by the Rollright Stones - very low key but very atmospheric too.

That’s pretty much where my grandma lived. Though only visited the Rollright stones many years later long after she’d died.

@Piggywaspushed

it's horrific out where other people are!

Bit like MN in the past week!

That covid board need s to go. It is just full of false information and genuine nutjobs!

Bit sorry we ever asked for it. I think we assumed it would be a bit like the swine flu/Ebola boards where a bunch of who are interested in epidemiology could chat without getting jumped on for scaremongering or annoying everyone else.

Definitely changed my mind on the idea we had for renaming one of the older boards as emerging diseases.

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/31/covid-lockdown-school-closures-hit-mothers-mental-health-but-left-fathers-unaffected

A lot of this explains why MN has been such a fraught, Teacher bashing place...

Having seen the BBC news tonight, and the Daily Fail headlines for a couple of days (that'll be my dad!), I see where all the panic and misinformation comes from.

@Piggywaspushed

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/31/covid-lockdown-school-closures-hit-mothers-mental-health-but-left-fathers-unaffected

A lot of this explains why MN has been such a fraught, Teacher bashing place...

Generally I think women are more social too. I was going obviously nuts in January - I need the social aspects of work.

@borntobequiet@CarrieBlue

That's kinda where I teach. Warwickshire/Oxon borders. Bit further over to Gloucestershire via Broadway etc.

I think some parents were just annoyed theirscouldnt go back.
Plus the lack of sense over sending those yr groups. Leaving 2/3/4/5 which have some of the most learning to be taught by parents.

It does make me laugh that men were unaffected. Sounds about right. Even in the evening it's me listening to dc read.

@Piggywaspushed

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/31/covid-lockdown-school-closures-hit-mothers-mental-health-but-left-fathers-unaffected

A lot of this explains why MN has been such a fraught, Teacher bashing place...

It’s always the same towards the end of the summer holidays.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/01/school-day-in-england-could-be-extended-in-covid-catch-up-proposals

The proposal is 90% complete. Looking like the extended day a sure thing, this article states teachers will be paid.

@motherrunner I honestly don’t think it will happen. They aren’t prepared to spend any more money on schools/teachers.

They might do some tutoring programme where the money can then go back into them pockets of some Tory cronie. And which will have fuck all benefit to the kids.

I may be wrong but can’t see them spending anything on state education....

I can't see it happening either. Also it was very strangely worded last time. Sounded like forcing schools to be open full 5 days per week rather than adding extra hours for all. If it does come in I'll be seriously considering another job. I don't have another half hour a day (paid or unpaid). I can't resign immediately with nothing to go to!

I also live in a strange place bordering 3 counties and v close to a fourth. My TES job search with a 15 mile radius throws up jobs in Warwickshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands and Coventry. Extending to 20 miles and Worcestershire and Leicestershire are added.

I once spent a wonderful weekend singing in Malvern and Worcester....

Hoping the 21st happens as miss playing in my orchestras and singing in my choirs so much and have rehearsals planned for that week and a concert too.

Sounds like we're quite a musical bunch - I'm also desperate to get back to singing and playing in various groups! (although my choir has got permission from the local rugby club to use their covered stands for a rehearsal next week - very excited!)

We should form a Republic choir!

Herc you must be close to where my sister lives...
Although I lived in Worcestershire, I was another county-straddler as I went to school in Warwickshire.

I live in the Black Country yet if I walk a mile I’m in South Staffs and the primary school which is in the next road to where I live falls under South Staffs LEA. My friend lives a 25 minute drive from me and her address is Shropshire. Boundaries blow my mind!

Goodness me many of us are very close together or at least have some knowledge of/have lived in the South/West Midlands.
I’m off cross country today to the Suffolk coast - on the map it’s pretty much a straight West-East journey but in actuality amazingly tortuous. Just looked on the Met office weather page and it’s bright sunshine all the way! Will think of those in counties that I know about as I whizz by...

Collins’ report argues that the UK as a whole had the longest closures of schools and universities combined in Europe. Many students in England missed around 23 weeks of school closures during the pandemic, with a cost to the economy of “at least” £100bn in lost productivity, rising to £1.6tn by 2100 if not addressed.

Hmmm... smoke and mirrors firstly, why combine schools and universities. Secondly, if schools were closed for longer, is that not because we had worse covid!? Thirdly, when we 'closed' we were open to many children, ulike nearly all schools in Europe.

A plan drawn up by Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s education recovery commissioner, seeks to establish a minimum 35-hour week and add 100 hours of additional schooling compared with existing timetables in many state schools and colleges.
What does the 35 hour week bit mean? For pupils or staff? I love the idea that staff are already working less than 35 hours.

But also what annoys me is that this will eb state schools only. We will be told about the 'longer days' in private schools,whilst they totally overlook the much longer lunch breaks.

I think what might come is the Bedford Free School mode in secondaries of prep after school. I know it is admired in government circles. Not so much by all at the school itself who admit , some of them, that this means the kids never do any work at home and expect everything to fit into a school day. The 'prep' itself is not meant to generate marking and so for many subjects is completely worthless. But the Free School models when they began focused a lot around more parent free extended school days.

LOL parent friendly but you could argue for parent free.

Collins’ report argues that the UK as a whole had the longest closures of schools and universities combined in Europe.

Yeah, don’t believe this. Cyprus alone were still off when we’d been back a term already since Jan. And last year, they started the lockdown two weeks before us schools-wise.
Or is Cyprus not what they mean by ‘Europe’?
Or is the university aspect of it playing a much larger proportion than schools, so that they can lump young children in with adult learners again to make things look different than they actually are.

Selective inclusion in that report to manipulate the outcome methinks.

Yeah, it is hardly our fault that unis remained (remain) closed to so many.

I moved to a “prep” mode in ICT/Computing except that it was homework “prep” (or done in free periods in sixth form, sometimes collaboratively as a sort of study group. Once they learned that successful completion of tasks they had prepared for got them off early on a Friday afternoon, they loved it). No way it could be done in Maths though, except in the far distant days of coursework, which I’m probably unusual in missing.

There is also talk of an extra sixth form year for those who 'can't complete' A Levels in two years??

Can you imagine them saying they will pay teachers to do an extra hour after school and then the staff who say'no thanks' ever getting promoted?

As I said on another thread this is going to cause chaotic staffing issues and if they can't foresee retention issues they are deluded.

I do feel like the profession is being punished for school closures. Also not sure how Collin's conclusions about the benefit of a longer school day stack up with existing research.