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 @MrsHamlet!

Exactly the same in our place @RuleWithAWoodenFoot. I feel so exhausted and emotionally empty. I have nothing left to give, reports aren't done and I was on the edge of tears a few times last week. 5 1/2 weeks to go. Just got to find a bit more of something from somewhere.

I'm bored of circular problems. Have no idea where shared groups that I don't lead on are up to in sow because just like the rest of the year the same member of staff still isn't updating shared group spreadsheet till you've reminded her ten times and ended up being snarky. Really sick of it and have no idea what I'm teaching tomorrow afternoon. Kind of feels like these are the kind of basic things that a HOD should keep an eye on and check are running smoothly - if you put in systems you do need to check people are actually following them.

Sigh!

I'm very grumpy because it is suddenly so fucking hot and I'm sweating and dreading another sleepless sticky night.

Fingers crossed it is better than you expect Rule.

It's all kind of messy tbh. HOD doesn't give information that you really need then snaps at people for having to ask her about stuff when we've been asking for ages. Colleague isn't great at managing her workload and staying on top of things but doesn't get support or nagging along just snapped at when it all goes to shit.

I like to be organised and plan ahead because that's how I manage my stress and cope with being part time and not being able to grab people on a daily basis but I'm reliant on other people doing their bit so that I can plan ahead iyswim.

Am I being a bitch?

No, honey, you're expecting people to do their job.

You're not being a bitch at all honey.

I had a similar problem with a colleague seeing me on a morning and wanting me to tell them what I wanted them to do with "my class" that afternoon. FYI, "my class" was actually OUR class, and I'd already moved the books to colleague's rooms and sent an email.

I feel so exhausted and emotionally empty.

Yerp.

We've also had a round of observations, lots of which weren't all that good, usually around behaviour management. And instead of teachers caring about that, they are all just shrugging and saying 'it is what it is'. Not ideal.

Nope Honey. You've described 99.9% of my work frustration.

Dare I say it, but the people who aren't organised and don't plan ahead tend to have at least one of these 2 characteristics:

• no kids
• a penis

People who are happy to wing a lesson will never understand those of us that aren't.

*Dare I say it, but the people who aren't organised and don't plan ahead tend to have at least one of these 2 characteristics:

• no kids
• a penis*

This describes three of the 4 leaders in my dept. The 4th has kids but no penis - she's the only reliable one.

Teacher training applications back to pre-pandemic levels amid reports that people who did train to teach this year are now looking for work in other industries.

www.tes.com/news/covid-surge-teacher-training-itt-applications-may-be-over-data-shows

Which is probably linked to 'Schools on the edge of a burn-out crisis' (an article which sounds very familiar from reading this thread.) www.tes.com/magazine/article/are-schools-brink-burnout-crisis

What a shock?!

We're all staggering around end of term tired already. I'm hoping that the announcement tomorrow will kill enrichment. The thought of school trips is horrific.

My recommendation would be, do every exercise in the textbooks

😭 I thought as much.

@noblegiraffe

My recommendation would be, do every exercise in the textbooks

😭 I thought as much.

Sorry!! I found it a really tough couple of summers when I was learning all that statistics. I just don't know how else you can learn it though. You could try keeping just a few lessons ahead of the kids, but that would stress me out massively.

Yeah I’ll be needing the time before the lessons to figure out how to teach it, not learn it…that would be awful.

Yep, that would be horrendous!! So a summer of learning is the least bad option. I even took my textbook on a caravan holiday with me one summer, and did a couple of exercises a night after dd was in bed. I was the very picture of rock and roll that year!

@TheHoneyBadger I hear you.

Our HoD told us that we weren't to use lessons and resources from elsewhere. Had to make our own.

Then proceeded to send us PowerPoints for new SoW authored by people other than HoD we found very quickly on Tes Resources.....it's a catalogue of errors and I'm utterly worn out by it.

I tried making a J O K E on Data thread.....

Dare I say it, but the people who aren't organised and don't plan ahead tend to have at least one of these 2 characteristics:
- no kids
- a penis
So true and I deliberately used 'them' in my example, but they met both those criteria

Stepping back has saved me from leaving teaching. I feel so much happier now and ready to look after myself and my family.

Sent!

Teachers who never fucking listen, never take advice from the more experienced.. those ones nearly always have a penis too. My irritants are both men in their late 40s/50s. Relatively new teachers. My partner says it's because men in their 40s and 50s have no interest in listening to me anymore because I'm too old for them to shag. They don't need to pretend to care about anything I say. Even if I'm their line manager.

Our SLT said make own resources. So i did a staff meeting on how to use Twinkl and classroom secrets stuff in relation to our new curriculum. Some of the content is good.

Well done Carrie!

@JanFebAnyMonth

I tried making a J O K E on Data thread.....

Are you on glue?

@JanFebAnyMonth

I tried making a J O K E on Data thread.....

What were you thinking?

I had an opinion about Bojo on the 'opinions of Bojo' thread and was told to get over it. Meh.

Well done Carrie! Good luck