The Sixtieth Republic - One half term to go - just need to survive Sports Day and Activities Week!

[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.

Well i made it through the day. Just trying to take it each day at the minute. Was incredibly hard today. Hopefully by the end of the week moderation will be over, essay results will be in and I'll be able to breathe....

Interesting if PHE are actually acknowledging these symptoms now though?

Hahaaaaa..

www.independent.co.uk/voices/extending-school-day-pupils-catch-up-kevan-collins-b1860981.html

Sorry if it's already been discussed. I only just saw his tweet.

Great work name just keep plodding on till Friday.

Dread to think what behaviour would be like in an extended lunch break.

Who put another 50p in gav?

Who put another 50p in gav

I’m not sure if he’s desperately trying to hold onto his job? Or if he’s just decided “fuck it, I’ll be fired within weeks, I’ll just spout whatever guff pops into my head”

I have a horrid feeling this is him trying his best.

Who we going to get instead? I saw rumour of the Saj.

Hmmm....wonder why they're having to consider doing this?

Please someone hear my prayers and cancel speech day! I don’t want to be stuck in a hall with kids and parents.

If speech day is cancelled I can tolerate sports day 🙄

I’m not sure that’s just to do with schools though. I don’t think our policy of trying to restrict the spread of the delta variant by sitting and watching it spread has helped much.

The sub heading is making me twitch slightly. I don’t think it’s the vaccines that are in a race with the delta variant.

No, they’ve fucked up from the start by not putting India on the red list when it was obvious there was an issue, then bodging the management of hotspots (don’t travel out of Bolton, no wait, yes travel out of Bolton), and of course schools, although tbh at a local level it looks like they’re trying way harder with schools than previously. Two mobile testing units sent, remember!

I only get 20 minutes for lunch as my other 20 minutes is a duty cos you know, “direct hours”.

@TheHoneyBadger

Who put another 50p in gav?

I am so going to use this 😆

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57395232

Can you imagine if our unions said we were ‘burnt out’? I can see the Daily Mail headlines now 😆

So obviously and urgently need to bring back nhs bursaries. They also need to put a cap on how many medical degree places can be sold to international students. It’s so hard to get a place.

So true @TheHoneyBadger. Why are our Gov so short sighted and only think about ‘the now’? I know I’ve bleated about this before but I was a ‘council estate kid’ (no PP in my day!). I had my fees paid for, a grant and have taught full time since 21 (apart fro mat leave). Life would’ve been very different for me if I hadn’t have had that funding. I wouldn’t have even been able to go to college as couldn’t afford the bus fare (got a free bus pass from college bursary).

Have none of you ever worked when lunch hour was longer? Imo, behaviour became worse because behaviour became worse really.

The longer lunch was abetter break for teachers and nice children conversed more and did clubs. There was a n argument to shorten it because kids did 'nothing purposeful' as if eating and having a chat was damaging. I didn't resent having chats with kids at lunch the about pastoral or academic matters either.

Our lunch hour was hacked twice because of behaviour and on neither occasion did it work. Poor behaviour was at is peak at lunch two years ago when we had a short lunch. The thing that helped a bit was moving form time to the morning. Our lunch is now so short we are not allowed to call it lunch, officially.

Behaviour in longer lunches was no worse, maybe even better when we had 50 mins!

When I stayed teaching in 2000 we had an hour lunch. Used to have a couple of pints on a Friday too! Made Friday afternoon fun. It was 2011 when my then school changed the lunch hour. So we went from 3.35 end of day to 3 and had lunch cut. Right around the time we became an academy and all fun went out the window.

*started

I never noticed behaviour changing either. It has got worse but I don’t think that’s because lunch is short. In fact I feel for the lads who just want to play football. I can see my DS not eating at lunchtime and just racing out onto the field.

Yep, same here. No more fun!

However we shortened our lunch by 25 mins (20 mins first time then another 5 recently which actually was the killer) and only took 10 mins off school day. Shaved 5 mins off assembly (controversial at the time) removed a form time and got rid of one of our 'movement time' slots. If he just wants longer lunch it can be done without making the day much longer.

Behaviour in longer lunches was no worse

Totally true. In my school the shortened lunch break simply moved the bad behaviour into afternoon lessons, exacerbated by simultaneously getting rid of the useful buffer of afternoon registration in tutor groups, which I personally found very useful. In fact I can think of no adjustments to the school day from 2000 onwards that did any good. I even preferred later Parents’ Evenings (7-9) because they gave some breathing space and the opportunity to do some work/prepare properly after school. But I appreciate I was in a minority on that.

I worked in an hour lunch place but the school day didn't end until 3.30pm. It was nice for clubs and actually getting stuff done. But I get more done 3-4pm than I ever did during lunch.

I'm on the fence over it.

We still have a long lunch. It's 55 minutes, so we can still have clubs at lunchtime for all the kids who are bussed in and can't access after school activities. Behaviour is certainly no worse than any of the neighbouring schools with shorter lunch breaks, in fact it's considered to be better by any supply teachers who come in.

The research also found that the pandemic had increased public respect for the teaching profession.

From the independent article - they obviously didn't do their research on MN! 😂