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.

Ah, that's helpful, thanks, Iamnot. May drop into conversation with head of year 7.

@Piggywaspushed Yes! Absolutely! There’s a mum of a DD in my DD’s class who has been emotional since they moved to juniors 2 years ago - as she felt sad at the thought of them all splitting up to go to high school and all there would be no more sports days/concerts/fairs/recitals/assemblies. I was inwardly jumping for joy and thinking ‘yes! No more sports days/concerts/fairs:recitals/assemblies’.

As I said upthread I’m happy sports day isn’t going ahead. I don’t have to take an unpaid afternoon to watch a whole primary school race. My kids will win because they’re fast and sporty not because of any other reason. They’ll get a sticker. Ill have ‘yup I run, you doing the parents race?’ And I’ll reply ‘sorry, just some from work. Not really dressed’ whilst the SAHMs are warming up in their Lycra. Every year the same old bloody thing.

We've got a summer school for incoming year 7s, anyway, though I guess not all would be able to make it (holidays etc).

I abhor sports day but I did "enjoy" primary leavers' service.

I missed ds's last prize giving, post year 13, and that made me really sad.

Our head asked if anyone would volunteer for a transition summer school due to the ‘catch up’ funding we would be given. Haven’t heard anything since!

@motherrunner

Our head asked if anyone would volunteer for a transition summer school due to the ‘catch up’ funding we would be given. Haven’t heard anything since!

Er, no.

Oh, ours is all staffed by NQTs, trainees and PE

If sports day is cancelled, I will lose my mind. They're all on super light timetables and have been all year😡

Where is that transition info from? Is there anything for secondary? We have 400 kids per year group so it's quite a big deal...

If I could have a link for the transition guidance that would be great. Apparently I'm involved with 3 days of y6-7 transition, but the group list I've been sent has kids from 6 different primary schools in it. I would love to have grounds to challenge it as not following guidance.

Apologies for ranting last night. I’m reassured by others saying you can’t change targets at the last minute. I thought it was unreasonable but I there’s been so much gaslighting lately that I doubt myself. I’ve got 2 hours of gain back before half term and I’ve already been asked to use it to set cover for a class with a teacher on maternity leave plus I have a unit to work on. Now she’s flagging that time for doing a whole new load of work. It’s 2 hrs.

I’m scared to turn my laptop on and see response to my email. I’m expecting tone trolling rather than answering anything.

Day off here thankfully. Have a set of essays to mark but that’s all. Feeling paranoid about saying no so I need to try and settle anxiety levels.

Yeah, I didn’t know there was any transition guidance (= no one on Parents United Fb group, which does include some school staff, has mentioned it, and you can bet they would have done!).

That thread re schools last night..... I think some of it’s exactly about parental needs but I do sympathise to an extent, as I was a SAHM and single parent, so those events were important to me socially, am happy to admit that. But also because at that stage you’re very focussed on your child’s needs. And like it or not, currently we do build these primary events up to be hyper emotional etc......

Googled and only found this, from the Schools guidance update on 24 May:

^Transitional, taster and open days
You should complete thorough risk assessments before running transitional, taster and open days to ensure that they are run in line with your system of controls and align with the advice contained within this guidance and the roadmap out of lockdown.^

I bet the “DFE expects” bit is a(n?!) LA interpreting that, which is fair enough. But that guidance certainly calls into question traditional secondary transition days!

Also, what are these Y6/7 Summer Schools I keep seeing/hearing about? Is it basically starting Y7 a week early / in a random week in the hols, with a mix of getting to know you / catch up/ fun stuff?

Actually thinking about it, in line with your system of controls could mean absolutely anything....

(Sorry, last one)
And how do schools (the secondary? the primaries??) get the kids that need the summer schools to go??

Found you all. Sorry for your news last night though is it for the best?
Another case in dc's school. Other dc is really resisting the LFTs now, not sure how much longer I can get him to do them.

Michael Gove was on R4 this morning repeatedly pronouncing it “coh-vid”. Hate him so much.

That's how I pronounce it - is that wrong?

I say co-vid like (co-dependent). Not coh-vid (like, er, cock? I can't think of words that have the same sound in my accent)

I did think after posting ‘oh no, what if a republican pronounces it like Gove’ .

Never heard anyone say coh-vid before.

coh-vid (like, er, cock?)

@Frlrlrubert

I say co-vid like (co-dependent). Not coh-vid (like, er, cock? I can't think of words that have the same sound in my accent)

That’s how we pronounce here in the West Mids.

I would say the co of covid and Co-dependent the same. Both different to the co in cock .

See this is what happens when you don't have the classical education require to explain pronunciation.

I'm in the West-Midlands, but from Yorkshire. The pupils have a thing about saying the word 'water' randomly, I always think they're taking the piss because I'm paranoid about that word. My dad is so Yorkshire he says 'wATer' (and wARd for the part of a hospital).

I need to know how Gove pronounced it!
I would rhyme the "co" with Gove actually