The Sixty-First Republic - Covid the gift that keeps giving even in the last half term!

[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.

Fellow tonic snob. Aldi cans are good but the bottled stuff is naff. I do like britvic tonic when I'm out which can be controversial.

Totally agree re coop. I assumed it was a one off dodgy bottle when I got some as an emergency on holiday.

Depending on the restaurant I will open my burger, take it all apart, check for the buggers and put it back together.
Exactly this.
I did buy some jars of gherkins once to cheer up a colleague who was having a hard time. She was delighted.

The gherkin thread is great!

There's some strange folk in this world MrsH. A jar of gherkins sounds awful, but it's nice how happy you made her.

I lived off gherkins in my first trimester with ds1, I was so nauseous. We had a canteen at work and I used to get a large tub for the salad bar, fill it with gherkins and eat them all afternoon at my desk.

Bought a jar of cornichons the other day (not sure what the difference is), which will probably sit in the cupboard with the anchovies for a couple of years .

I sometimes drink just tonic with a bit of lime cordial if I don't want a gin, and with lime I don't care about the tonic brand.

A bit late to this discussion but my new school is asking for me to do transition days with my new class. My current head seems positive about it but hasn't given me a definitive answer yet so I have to check in again on Monday. I've spent the last few days researching and thinking about ideas for these lessons, it's an age I've never worked with before but that's very exciting for me.

I buy tonic syrup stuff from Lakeland (I live near a shop) and make my own with the SodaStream. I do like fever tree, though. Or Schweppes is fine too. But the decent tonic syrup is good and I can make what I'll drink so no bottles or wastage.

Bad back tonight. Been decorating all day. Definitely going to be walking like an old granny tomorrow

If we're going to talk gin, lime and tonic, then I can strongly recommend Lind and Lime - it's really nice!

lindandlime.com/

We do seem to like a gin here but I really do love a good tonic too and often have the Fever Tree mentioned already (the aromatic makes a lovely pink homemade cocktail).
Have currently bought a few posh Harvey Nicks tonic from Ocado (lavender and rosemary) and it’s really quite lush.

We told my DS that cornichons were made from little boys fingers once. He’s never eaten them again (and he eats everything else, including snails!)

And love a gherkin, particularly a cornichon with a side of saucisson. Getting quite peckish tonight….

Any fellow gin-haters about tonight?

Carrie I was thinking of the garden variety for a moment then (and wondering how old your DS is!)

Hate gin. Love gherkins.

Hate gin. Hate tonic. Also love gherkins.

I like gin. And tonic. And gherkins.

What has done my head in is the disappearance of diet Schweppes tonic and the substitution of no-cal tonic. It's terrible. Even Aldi low-cal is preferable.

I hate gin, dislike tonic, and hate gherkins.

Gherkins? I know it’s breakfast time but fancy one now! I have such a funny video of DD aged 18 months biting into a gherkin. When I take the kids to McDonalds they both give me their gherkins from their burgers. That’s love.

And in regards to gin, it is all about the tonic. Naff tonic can destroy a great gin.

I've just googled "difference between gherkins and cornichons" and the first predicted search that came up was "difference of two squares worksheet" .

Halfway through reports and a couple of lessons to write for tomorrow. There's a nice charity shop thread running at the moment on MN - love a charity shop bargain, I've been revamping my wardrobe lately from the one I volunteer at. Latest lovely find has been a long, swishy skirt for a fiver. Makes me feel like a sixth former again, if only it was also tied dyed and tassled .

I've just googled "difference between gherkins and cornichons" and the first predicted search that came up was "difference of two squares worksheet" hmm.

🤣🤣🤣

I might start boycotting Teacher Tapp if clicking 'we have staggered starts or ends' leads to the ST to take the data and declare lots of schools finish at 2. A staggered end can mean 5 mins early! Also they say schools haven't returned to 'pre pandemic' hours. Has it finished then??

Molly Kingsley's latest is whining about 3pm finishes.

They also declare blithely that private schols al run Saturday classes and prep til 6. Not many actually do. And...ermmm... funding??

They also declare blithely that private schols al run Saturday classes and prep til 6. Not many actually do. And...ermmm... funding

Local private school charges £14,000 per pupil. I’m sure state schools could manage prep and Saturday schools with a similar income.

All Molly Kingsley seems to do is complain professionally!

If she thinks private schools are so great-why doesn’t she send her children to one??

OMG I just googled to see what Molly Kingsley is up to and the first search result was a 'difference of two squares worksheet'!

Kidding. That would have been useful. What did come up was this article from Friday

"It is 2023.

In a classroom in South London, Emma, twelve, sits in a maths lesson. The classroom is full — thirty children — but Emma sits alone on a desk separated from the others at the back of the room. She is the only pupil in the class who has not had the Covid-19 vaccine. She, unlike the other children, is wearing a mask. Banned from coming within two metres of her teacher she communicates with him by way of written notes. One note, scribbled in the top corner of Emma’s maths book, reads “Dear Mr Hannihan, I have not got very far with this question because I am finding it hard but I can’t come and ask you for help.” Emma is not allowed to go on school trips; nor take part in the school sports day. She eats lunch in a separate part of the school canteen with a small group of other unvaccinated children, annexed behind thick perspex sheets. The other children call Emma’s group names — the Gross Unvaxxed, the Dirties."

What a steaming heap of bollocks. And she knows it. No shame.

Hmm, and how does Emma get these handwritten notes to her teacher if she can’t go within 2 metres of him?

Paper airplane? Absolute twaddle.