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.

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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.

Just adding to what @noblegiraffe said. Here’s today’s main headline:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57558746

Daily Mail went with it will be illegal to use the phrase ‘white privilege’.

I’m wondering if parents will keep kids off for the last 1 week of term. If kids have to isolate because of a case in school it buggers up holiday plans.

So many of ours did this at Christmas. I can understand why but it was very difficult for my 1:1 who is used to school being full.

Obviously the reason poorer white kids underperform is entirely the schools fault.

Nothing to do with high levels of deprivation. FFS

@WhenSheWasBad

Obviously the reason poorer white kids underperform is entirely the schools fault.

Nothing to do with high levels of deprivation. FFS

A lot of it is cultural too. One of my previous schools was in a very deprived, majority white working class area. When surveying the parents (as part of a project we were running on parental education and engagement), almost two thirds believed their child shouldn't go to college or uni. The main reason given was "because I didn't and I'm fine so why should they?" followed by "Education/School isn't important."

The level of aspiration was so low and there genuinely was a feeling that some of the parents actually didn't want their children to do better than they had.

I grew up in poverty. My dad did t want me to go to college. The expectation was that I was to get a job as soon as I left school so I could ‘pay my way’. I did get a job and I also went to college but whilst my mates spent their part time job money on make up and the like, I had to to give it to my parents to pay my board. Never sure where my drive to succeed came from!

My brother fits the ‘poor working class’ boy. He left school with no GCSEs, he stopped really attending by Yr 9y he’s had jobs on and off. He’s 40 now and spends his days playing Xbox.

The concentration on poor white children masks the massive low achievement of boys from Caribbean backgrounds (and of course travellers who are never spoken of).

I do agree that the cities have been disproportionately funded (or London at least) but this is a way of the Tories funnelling money into their red wall constituencies.

After the age of 23, white males form any background fare better on average economically than any other group.

I see Halfon obediently stepping into line.

Anyone seen AQA's massive cock up? Sending out work request emails for TAGs at 11am and setting the clock ticking for 10 am Weds, then retracting via Twitter. Still only giving 48 hrs from the time the email was received rather than waiting to send emails at 9 am the next day??

Apparently if you try to phone them up, their lines switch off at 5.30 pm.

@motherrunner

My brother fits the ‘poor working class’ boy. He left school with no GCSEs, he stopped really attending by Yr 9y he’s had jobs on and off. He’s 40 now and spends his days playing Xbox.

Is this because he is white though? Or is it about social disadvantage and educational culture, full stop.If these were black boys they were talking about, someone like Sewell would trot along and blame 'black culture and attitudes' and 'single parent families'.

Argh...hate the covid test guilt. Still coughing off and on but feeling otherwise well. As an asthmatic I know it is probably that, but my inhalers haven't stopped the cough.

But I would judge someone a lot if they turned up to work coughing without having had a test. And if it gets worse and I need out of hours or my gp, they wouldn't see me without a negative test if I have a symptom

But it hasnt gone down well with my ht who thinks my neg lft in the morning means it prob isnt covid.

And I'm disrupting both my class and my husbands work. I'm on a remote course this am so already have a supply.in my class for half the day.

And when it comes back negative I will feel like I've made a fuss over nothing.

@Piggywaspushed Definitely not about him being ‘white’. More to do with parents who left school at 14 to go and work in factories, didn’t see value in education, the factories closed and then lived on benefits in a council house until my dad died and my mum went into a nursing home.

@Piggywaspushed

Anyone seen AQA's massive cock up? Sending out work request emails for TAGs at 11am and setting the clock ticking for 10 am Weds, then retracting via Twitter. Still only giving 48 hrs from the time the email was received rather than waiting to send emails at 9 am the next day??

Apparently if you try to phone them up, their lines switch off at 5.30 pm.

OCR have sent out urgent requests to exams officers for NEA marks for Computer Science A Levels. Idiots. Someone didn’t turn off the auto-emails eh!?

Exam boards. The stress gift that keeps on giving.

But it hasnt gone down well with my ht who thinks my neg lft in the morning means it prob isnt covid

You are definitely doing the right think DrM

Yes it is inconvenient but it is what we are meant to do to stop the damn thing spreading.

Just listened to Radio 4. What should have been a discussion about the differences in deprivation and aspiration across the U.K. turned into a discussion of the term “white privilege”
Most of my Year 9s would look at me blankly if I used the term white privilege. That’s not what’s holding them back.

This is what I had over the weekend DrM. Just felt I was causing trouble yesterday when I phoned to say that I hadn't had results back so couldn't come in.

Just tried to get an e-consult for some Pred. Evidently I'm going to have to lie. Do you have a continuous cough? Yes. Sorry we've ended this e-consult. You need to stay at home.

Yeah, I have never used that term outside of sociology.

The government does not want to actually tackle social inequality. They just want to appeal to dog whistle politics.

Everyone should read The Spirit Level. Amazing piece of social research, massively well received in all political quarters when published, until the Taxpayers Alliance and the Policy Exchange started a smear campaign against it and its authors and its recommendations died.

Full of scatter graphs too for those f you who liek a graph!

I started a thread about it….a bit of a grumpy one www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4277352-White-disadvantaged-pupils-failed-for-decades-a-national-scandal

Just seen the headline on that article you linked to noble. 'Poorer white pupils neglected for decades.' I don't think that's true, is it?

It might be that all the stuff that we've chucked at the problem hasn't worked, but it's not exactly true to say that the problem has been ignored for the last 20 or so years. And who was it that slashed all the funding for the stuff that did work anyway?

And I think someone needs to explain about poverty of aspiration to Halfon. Lol at 'family hubs'. Didn't we used to call those 'children's centres' and didn't the conservative government underfund them causing many of them to shut?

Sure Start, rafa

I dunno, there is definitely an issue in poor coastal towns like Great Yarmouth (sick bucket head) or Hastings. I don’t think much money has been chucked their way.

At least the lad they interviewed understands it's not all up to schools.

Don't know about secondary, but there was some in early years. We used to be able to get a speech & language therapist to assess every child on entry to nursery, or Reception if they hadn't been to nursery. I don't think the LA can afford to fund that anymore, so it went.

Don't get me wrong, there's more that could be done and if this results in more money it will be a good thing. But it'll be like the 'levelling up money', which has come nowhere near this deprived coastal town.

Come post on my thread!

That report ...

I'm actually depressed about it. I can't even feel angry. Just depressed. ☹️

noble, 😁, I just love the fact you already have a thread on thd report.

@thecatfromjapan

That report ...

I'm actually depressed about it. I can't even feel angry. Just depressed. ☹️

It's going to piss me off all day, I think.

Having mostly taught in deprived coastal town schools with very high levels of children on FSM, I have a tendency to get on my soapbox about this.

The gall of the DfE talking about recovery funding though. That would be the recovery funding we might need much less of if you hadn't been pretending covid didn't exist in schools.

Imo the system certainly at dc school relies on parental support to learn to read for eg.
So straight away large differences appear. Within a few years most kids have done enough at home/school to have learnt. If the parents cant/wont read at home though some who were going to be slower are even slower. Then in some families the kids when when they can read they arent doing it daily. Affecting spelling, comprehension, grammar etc. The family are prioritising playing out/football/clubs/tv or even just have little time after 6pm pick up.

Then you have the youngest in the year. Easy to get behind and then stay there.

But then we cant all be above average and we do need certain jobs doing and some actually pay more than for those university educated. (One of dp friends went out of uni and became a site foreman. Builders earn more than probably many office staff but can end up with physical issues.)