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.

Congratulations @HobnobbingAboutHobnobs

We scrapped them back on whenever the announcement was. It's pretty surreal, especially in corridors and when they come really close to you in class or on other occasions (all the time with year 7).

@TheHoneyBadger

Congrats again hobnob now it’s definite and you’re definitely seeing it as cause for celebration 🎉

It’s weird at school with zones and masks scrapped but not having a department because of building work. Every hour I’m in crowded corridors with kids not wearing masks. Too much all at once IMO. Hadn’t realised we were scrapping masks even outside classrooms till I was wading through massless kids to get to classes yesterday.

Do all of your schools still have the bubbles and the staggered times? Outs still does have the 5 clear separate bubbles. Well 4 now. No masks though.

Out of interest when do other primary staff find out where they are?

No idea! I'm not paying attention. I was told to do class lists, ignoring who the staff are currently in my phase. Ie, not putting specific children with specific teachers. I know they want to move a weak teacher out of year 6, but I've already got one weak one in my phase, I can't cope with another one.

Did staff meeting tonight with training specifically focused towards one person who is avoiding engaging with the issues. I don't want it to get to disciplinary, but it will eventually. Watched them just checking their phone, gazing out of the window. Just not listening at all. Super.

I have worked in a school with an hour and a quarter lunch break, it was delicious. Proper conversations with children around a table when we ate lunch, no one was rushed because they knew they'd get plenty of play time.

We've never had staggered starts but we're still bubbly

We still have bubbles and staggered starts/finishes/breaks.

No bubbles anymore Riga. Kids from different year groups being taught in the same blocks. Still doing staggered lunch though so only 2 year groups at a time on lunch now.

We're still bubbled, still staggered starts and ends of the day, still staggered breaks and lunches. It's quite chaotic really. One thing goes wrong in the chain, and it's a mess. Especially lunch time.

We have yeargroup "bubbles" but we've never had zones other than for break and lunch (which has actually worked really well and we're thinking of keeping them permanently). And we've never been able to do staggered times because of the buses. So we have had all year pretty much as normal, just with lockdowns and masks when we were told to. We are wiping desks between lessons and keeping windows open as far as possible, but I'm really not convinced that's very protective from an airborne virus.

Yep, still staggered starts and bubbled year group areas for playtime/classes here but they can go to DT, Art and Computing rooms out of bubble now.

I just looked at jobs. There are only 8 jobs available within 10 miles of me, 6 of which are mat leaves. I thought there was going to be an exodus. I suppose rural schools are a little more cushy in a pandemic situation.

Or are perceived to be more cushy, more to the point.

We're thinking of keeping our staggered playtimes as well. Can't believe how packed our playground used to be with ~400 children running around.

It does mean some year group bubbles have longer afternoons though.

Perception is the key. We're a village school. Turns out in some ways that schools like ours are prime targets for the likes of county lines because from one side now our catchment has widened we've got kids coming from estates and on the other busing in from surrounding villages. Apparently schools where you've got skint kids and kids with disposable cash are popular for dealing.

Our kids are brutal to new teachers and supply or people they really don't take to but tbf once you've been here a few years they're much much better and then it does begin to feel like a village itms.

Not small though 240 kids per year group and a sixth form - close to 1500 kids.

I'd be ok with keeping staggered lunches. I would like our afternoon break back though.

We have year group bubbles of 60, but in reality, the two classes rarely mix. Every bubble has breaks and lunchtimes in their own zone (which rotates, so they all get a turn on the field etc) and they eat in different areas of the hall or gym, with all windows open.
Separate toilets for each bubble, and any shared equipment (eg laptops) is sanitised between uses.
Staggered arrival and departure, using different entrances for each double year group, with parents encouraged to leave the gate areas immediately. Older siblings go down to meet parents where they wait for younger ones.
No parents in the building at all (except in extreme circumstances) or even through the gates, and very few visitors still (except EP and such-like).
Any clubs being run are for bubbled groups only. No trips. No singing assemblies and any normal assemblies are for double year groups only.
Staff may wear masks if they prefer (and most still do in communal areas and for close-up work) and everyone is encouraged to do LFTs twice weekly.

@CarrieBlue

Knitting is excellent for pleasing the Fitbit in my experience

Rewinding a ball of yarn made my Apple Watch suggest I was doing a workout on an elliptical trainer.

Nothing sanitised here and I arrived to a classroom yesterday to discover we no longer even had wipes or tissues or hand sanitiser. Luckily there was a TA in and she wasn't having that and went off to track some down.

It's as if it was all over other than teachers wearing masks in the corridors and where they can't sd.

Tbh I've stopped sanitising the desks a billion times a day, especially now they're back in the hall for lunch.
I still do it at the end of the day but I keep thinking who used to do it before covid? I'm sure desks were part of the cleaners job.

We have big buckets of wipes, and hand them out at the end of each lesson so the kids wipe their own desks (often really badly). The cleaners do them properly at the end of the day.

Ours are still eating lunch in the classrooms and I'm still sanitising desks through the day. I cannot wait for them to go back to lunching in the hall; as there's nowhere else for staff to go at lunchtime (staff room closed) I only get about 15 minutes' peace before they're back in. Their table manners are non-existent and my classroom carpet is wrecked from all the food trampled into it.

When we had the hour lunch, we used to go and eat with the children (free lunch - nice, cooked on site by a proper cook). Only took 10 minutes of your lunch really, but the kids had so much better table manners than I see now. Now they just shove it in as quickly as they can - still getting it all over their faces at age 9. Gross.

We have a magic sanitising machine apparently. No wipes for us.

I am forever demonstrating how to use cutlery. So many of them can't seem to use a knife; they pick (big!) things up on the fork and gnaw at them instead, or revert to using fingers. Hideous.

Ours are still eating lunch in the classrooms sad and I'm still sanitising desks through the day. I cannot wait for them to go back to lunching in the hall

Same. Mine go out at 12 with a TA if I have access to one. I spend 12-12.15 shooing them out, sanitising and handing our cutlery, then run to queue for our one staff loo, then come back and frantically reply to urgent emails/set up for the afternoon. Kids come back in at 12.30, I then serve their lunches and supervise them eating and clearing away.

Sometimes I even get to eat bites of a roll standing up while they eat. Unusual though; mostly they come and tell me all of their friendship woes (19 girls in my class 🤦🏻‍♀️)