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.

Yep last day, I can't quite believe it, officially finish next Fri. Hopefully soon I'll know which year group I'll be teaching from September. Covid permitting of course.

Well done namechanged

Well done name you should be really proud of all you’ve achieved this year.

iPads in school. Ours still don’t bring in pens or rulers. Why oh why the school doesn’t instigate morning prep utterly eludes me.

Well done name. You'll be so relieved to be finished, but I bet you'll be a bit emotional tomorrow. Have a good last day with those kids.

[quote JanFebAnyMonth]This will “cheer everyone up” (also if anyone finds any half finished bottles of booze from yesterday afternoon, or did Site take it all?):

mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1407385635762081809[/quote]
WTAF? Seriously? I'm not having that anywhere near my classroom. Jingoistic claptrap!

Well done Name! You made it! Enjoy your final day

Sorry I should have put a trigger warning on that link.....

Just had a further look round OBON’s website. They’ve been going since 2013, not sure they’ve had much impact then (Altho possibly centred around Yorkshire cities and towns, not sure any of us from that area?). Esther McVey features....

You should Jan because I found myself humming it to myself after. (Shudders)
Harriet is right. It's jingoistic claptrap, and since finding myself humming it I cynically wonder if it's been deliberately written to get stuck in people's heads. (Shudders again)

Apparently written by Bradford schoolchildren...

I like your use of the word apparently there Piggy.

Did they make the PowerPoint with the lyrics on too? If so, they can’t count repetitions!

Just clicked on that Twitter link. Good grief.

I think I might pretend to have a broken projector for that.

I've just written to my child's teacher about that song. I know it's a load of dead cat jingoistic nonsense, meant to divert the woke ones from the corruption, but just no. For an organisation talking about everyone together, they've got a very non-diverse photo on their Twitter header.

While I was at it I asked for the RE policy and curriculum. A non church school with loads of church attending happy clappy staff is basically a church school. Allegedly it looks at lots of religions, but child can't name one other than Christianity/any aspect of any other religion or any celebration even. Other than Diwali, which I did with her when we lived next door to Hindus. One more thing shitting on about God and she's going to get the full heathen outpouring that we've been trying to avoid.

@MrsHamlet we follow white rose autumn and spring term for Y7 across three terms. We also have transition weeks and other such bolloxy weeks which suck up LOADS of time. Y8 we’ve adapted white rose but roughly follow them with chunks we don’t want taken out and a few odd bits and pieces added in. For those year groups we have collaboratively planned lessons we use/follow.

Y9/10/11 they follow whatever sow they are on dependent on their grouping. We have a variety of department lessons/resources and some of those have been planned collaboratively but individual teachers plan and tailor for their own classes.

A-level we have some lessons now that are shared - each year whoever is teaching tends to take those lessons and tweak them where necessary so they improve year on year is the idea (we’re only in second year of this now!). But it’s working well tbh for us at the mo!

Yeah that song isn't going to be played anywhere in Scotland on June 25th!
Which, incidentally, is when we break up for the summer. Assuming any of us aren't isolating by then.

Congratulations namechanged, you survived the year, no mean feat!

One more thing shitting on about God and she's going to get the full heathen outpouring that we've been trying to avoid.

Ds1 once refused to join in with assemblies as “I’m a Buddhist, miss.” Luckily he got away with it as his dad’s Japanese. (And I’m agnostic, and he was at a C of E school. He has developed a healthy skepticism of Christianity!) I told him about this song, and he said he’ll stand up and drown it out with the Japanese national anthem. I can’t work out if I’ve raised a genius or a maniac!

@namechangedyetagain, hope you have a great last day tomorrow - you made it! .

Hello everyone, I have followed every single post on every staffroom thread and found it such a support. I did comment once but didn’t realise etiquette was to introduce yourself etc.

I’m primary and part-time. Rule I have truly related to all your posts on behaviour. It’s actually quite depressing at times to see lovely, eager children ( from deprived backgrounds and in dire need of a way out of poverty) have lessons sabotaged by a few who are just not managed/dealt with/adequately supported, by SLT.

Thanks so much for all the information/links/analysis I have benefitted from this year. Though sadly, many just didn’t want to hear it and wanted their kids off their hands come what may.

Way back in another thread, a maths teacher shared a really brilliant technique for long division with was not the formal method we teach. I wonder if anyone could explain it again? My year 6 would love it!

Thanks again everyone. Loyal Lurker.

Hello, @woodman88. Welcome.
I'm the one who never swears or gets banned.

Hi woodman, lovely to see you on the thread. I love the republic too, it has provided so much support since the first lockdown.

Not sure if it was me who spoke about the long division, but you can often simplify a long division by writing the division as a fraction, then simplifying. Here's what I wrote (in the 58th republic!):

Motherrunner, not a primary teacher but in secondary, I like to use Mr Corbett's videos. Here's one with 7 examples on long division method, starting with division by 1 digit number and moving onto 2 digit numbers:

youtu.be/44i7ybPbG4o

One thing I always ask the kids to consider is to write the number as a fraction and see if they can simplify the fraction to make the division easier (doesn't always work). Basic rules around divisibility help! First question in my textbook:

672 divide by 21

(6 + 7 + 2 = 15 and 2 + 1 = 3, sum of digits add to number divisible by 3, so the fraction can be simplified).

so 672/21 = 224/7. Can do that as a bus stop division which gives 32.

Hello and welcome, @woodman88** - it's good to have another primary bod on board!

Phlebas also wrote this, which I wasn't familiar with, but which also sounds brilliant:

For long division, I only get my 6's to do it if the number is prime. Otherwise we just use bus stop and factors, it's SO MUCH easier! Most adults I know don't recognise that you can just divide by 2 factors. You don't need to divide by 18, say, just 3 and then 6.

Welcome @woodman88 I think Brie has answered your question. I’ve taught Y7 this year to divide by factors so they can do more short divisions rather than with double digit tricky divisors. I think they might do 672/21 by dividing by three first then dividing that answer by 7. Useful for when you can’t simplify using fractions although easier to simplify that way if possible!