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.

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Hmm, I do start a lot of threads it seems.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/03/schools-should-not-send-exam-year-pupils-home-early-says-ofsted-head

Trying not to swear and failing miserably... In a nutshell, Y11 and Y13 should stay in school until the end of the summer term and Ofsted will have questions about the provision made for them.

Bit late for that Amanda, ours have gone and we're not getting them back now.

Our year 11s are coming in for the next three weeks for A Level prep (so that’s what I’m doing instead of drinking gin Pimms in the garden) but not staying for July.
I am not quite sure what we would be supposed to do with our Year 13s though?

There's a disconnect between what schools are doing and what parents think their dc should be receiving because of "no exams."

We've actually had them in longer than normal but they've also left earlier than usual last exam day in mid June.

Year 11 parents think they've been short changed but we've actually been teaching (and marking ) for longer.

@BabyYoda9

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/03/schools-should-not-send-exam-year-pupils-home-early-says-ofsted-head

Trying not to swear and failing miserably... In a nutshell, Y11 and Y13 should stay in school until the end of the summer term and Ofsted will have questions about the provision made for them.

Ours left week before half term. Not sure they’ll (or I’ll)be best pleased if they are forced to return! Yr 13 all have summer jobs to save for Uni.

In a nutshell, Y11 and Y13 should stay in school until the end of the summer term and Ofsted will have questions about the provision made for them

I honestly think my mental health would fall off a cliff if Year 11 came back. They were completely disengaged for weeks in May. God knows what they would be like post exams.

Oh maybe it was Amanda that started that thread in AIBU the other day!

It is concerning that the Head of Ofsted doesn't seem to know students have done the equivalent of exams over recent weeks, with lots of pressure, and no study leave whatsoever and that teachers gained no time (or money!) to mark, moderate and assign grades .

Ironically because we are panicking and doubling the amount of time we would normally have year 11s back for, we are not providing the bridging work we did last year, which was easier to organise and more fruitful.

On my drive home last night I decided that tye first thing the gov should spend any money on is ELSAs. Less time to train than oth MH type bods, in school so right where they are needed, not expensive and could head off a load of potential CAHMS kids before they get there.

One thing that struck me is Amanda being horrified at them having 100 days of summer holidays. Yes, we wouldn't want them to think they're at private school, would we?

I'm still confused about the lunchtime stuff. If extended is that more eating time or playing time for them? Ours have half an hour eating and half an hour playing and I really don't think either should be any shorter or longer.

There are just no words in reply to the y11/13 comments from Amanda this morning.

Can you imagine head teachers reading her words on the second to last day of half term and going 'oh yes, let's send an email today to get those students back in to school ....'

I am a teacher but also have a yr11 and a yr13 of my own - I can just imagine what they would say if I woke them up with the news that ofsted says they should have another 6 weeks of school 😆

Morning from sunny London. I'm avoiding the news as much as I can this half term, so typical of this government to spring a load of pointless announcements during the school holidays. Agree with comments re. Maths and English Hods, I've no idea how ours keep going . I can't imagine our Y11 and Y13s coming back before September either.... we've sent bridging work for the Y11s coming back to do A-level and hopefully that will be the end of it.

I think our SLT are so burned from the number of parental complaints last year they ate trying to account for all eventualities in preparation for more of the same this year.

More reasoned debate
www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/should-we-delay-easing-lockdown-a-scientist-and-a-fkwit-debate-20210603208779

Can't believe those year 11 comments. Year 11 have been having long summers since the dawn of time, I certainly did. It just shows they don't actually give a shit about young people's welfare if they think we should drag them back in and force them to sit in classrooms studying for no reason. Unbelievable!

Oh yes, 100 days holidays like, y'know, many many high performing countries!

If we didn't have such an exam focused system they wouldn't all be piled into exam halls to stuff them through exams so that this is seen as the only point in education and therefore they charge out once done. Other countries really do not understand this at all.

I think the most worrying thing about Amanda Spielman’s comments is it sounds like she doesn’t know that most schools have already bid them goodbye and good riddance in some cases

Am just pondering whether to wake my own Y11 up with the idea of getting dragged back to school....

I'm a big fan of the tutoring, by the way.

I just think there should have been a strong feedback loop about implementation, so that issues (attendance, workload, etc.) could be ironed out.

Implementation issues were inevitable but the point should have been that things can and should be adjusted.

Handing it out to one private contractor, selected on grounds of cost ...

Well. It's just absolutely of a parcel with what this government does. ☹️

And it's just so wrong.

And Ofsted always use this as a stick to beat schools with. Often too late for schools to properly plan for.

Where was the praise from them from the thousands of letters/messages from parents after Fuckwit Gav told parents to complain directly to Ofsted?

Didn’t you accidentally end up doing the tutoring, cat?

With the existing tutoring program, we were told there was the option of giving it to an external agency to do. But they wanted us to identify the gaps in learning and tell them what to teach - plan for them, in other words. So, they got all the money, but we were to do the bulk of the work.
Yeah, right.

Wild horses wouldn’t drag DS back in now and he loved school and sixth form.

So, they got all the money, but we were to do the bulk of the work.

It’s always the way.

There is not a hope of getting even my most conscientious year 13s back into school. They've done their assessments and are ready to start their summer jobs before heading off to uni/starting apprenticeships. Any year 11 coming back for sixth form will be coming in next week for induction week, then have all our usual bridging work to complete over the summer (they hand it in on their first lesson). Any who aren't coming back for sixth form have summer jobs/activities starting in a couple of weeks. A few are starting apprenticeships next week, based on leaving school at half term.

HOD of maths here - with regards to tutoring I was told to identify some students pick some topics from a menu and that's it! Have had no input since 😳. I'm not sure what was happening but perhaps should be thankful some SLT bod took on the task?

Also all exam marking completed before half term. I have made it my mission to ensure staff have no marking over holidays so it may be busy for the last couple of weeks of terms but the joy of knowing you don't have a pile of exam/assessments lurking around it bliss!

I hate this last term as I know in Ireland secondary schools normally finish this week for the summer! They do 165 days to our 195. Been teaching here for 20 years but still pisses me off 😂.

Hope everyone is having a lovely half term. Congrats on the baby news @HobnobbingAboutHobnobs

Our Y11/13 have been told to ensure they are available to come to school if needed until I think the 18th of June