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.

We do a lot of promoting of the young "pick me" type. I want to train someone as my deputy and it was pointed out that the people who'd put their hands up are the last people I would want in the role.
They're almost always young, female, have nothing but school in their lives.... people tend to assume that because I'm childless I want to spend eleventy billion hours "dedicating" myself. Nope.

Bad news …… effing sports day is still on!

Just why? 8.45 till 3.30

I would HATE to be hoy, they have so much to deal with!! Ha, our school just employs TAs to be heads of year on the cheap.

Our sports day is still on too Staff. We've cancelled intake days though.

Sports day over 4 here. Poor PE staff 😂😂😂

Our sports day is still on too, but at least ours is split into lower school sports morning and upper school sports afternoon. So I'll only have to endure 2 hours of hell watching years 7&8, rather than all day watching the whole school.

Can anyone tell I'm procrastinating because I really don't want to write more reports? Only another 11 to go tonight. My one free before the deadline is now another meeting with my hod because I'm now apparently his main assistant in rewriting schemes of work for next year to reflect what we missed out/touched lightly during the 2 lockdowns. This apparently includes me being responsible for writing 6 tests for each KS3 yeargroup during my gained time. I realise I have a lot of gained time and the work needs to be done, but there are only 4.5 weeks left of term and I can't see how I can write 18 tests in that time while nobody else picks up anything extra?

I realise I have a lot of gained time and the work needs to be done, but there are only 4.5 weeks left of term and I can't see how I can write 18 tests in that time while nobody else picks up anything extra?
That seems ludicrous

Yep. I may possibly be exaggerating somewhat because for some of the tests I might be able to just swap one question out of the old ones, which wouldn't take long really. But the fact I'm getting all this extra work while others who have a similar proportion of their timetables as gained time (I've gained 10 hours on a ft timetable, someone else has gained 6 hours on a 0.6 timetable) are not being handed the shed loads of work I'm being given. I'll do it though, because I am thinking ahead for if a hod job comes up somewhere that I fancy, it will look good if I can truthfully say I played a large part in writing schemes of work and tests.

Congrats on the interview carrie.

Sorry to hear you're surrounded by nobs honey, i think the 'type' of male that gets promoted these days wears a certain shade of brighter blue suit (if they are not PE). Think apprentice.

I've gained 2 hours for the rest of term MrsAD and apparently that means I can set cover for someone on maternity leave, write a year 7 end of year assessment and work on a sow that needs revamping - all whilst having year 9 mocks to mark and 2 different qmas for year 7 and 2 for year 8 to mark equalling 400 essays

An interesting 4 weeks!

I feel kind of disloyal giving a bad impression of my school - there's a lot of good too and there's a lot to a school that isn't SLT and power holders obviously.

That is most definitely more than 2 hours work there honey!! Push back! "What would you like me to drop in order to do this extra thing you're asking for?".

I can't really complain about my hod in general. He's very, very fair normally, and he's been incredibly busy recently, way more than usual at this time of year. I'm going to be charitable towards him and take this extra work as a vote of confidence that he knows it's in safe hands with me (it is, I'll do a great job of it, even if I resent it a bit). I also think other people will end up with extra jobs as and when he thinks of them, maybe.

Thanks for the sympathies - it was what I needed 🤣

@TheHoneyBadger what weird exercises? I’ve mostly been watching Netflix….

All those times I was accused of being a union rep for the threads I started and it turns out you lot are all union reps!

I’m only a recent addition due to a colleague who was the union rep leaving last term so a newbie!

THere's a summary of a few here MrsHP but you can you tube videos with much clearer instructions. There's also one that I found really handy where you're on all fours and put your head on the floor and perform a whole series of movements. The one on the end of your bed is commonly recommended by GPs (my mum has had a long stretch of this so it's fresh in my mind and I have had occasional bouts in the past).

www.webmd.com/brain/best-exercises-for-vertigo

Hi everyone 👋🏻

Have not posted for weeks (months?) due to drowning under the pressure of TAGs! I did not teach year eleven this year but somehow found myself being given the task of moderation and helping organise the grades alongside some very inexperienced teachers. I also keep being given ridiculous tasks to complete and being told to do it in my gained time. Not sure the powers above realise that some of us haven’t gained anything. One member of the department today complained about being ‘bored’ now that he didn’t have year eleven to worry about.

One member of the department today complained about being ‘bored’ now that he didn’t have year eleven to worry about. I can't imagine that went down very well!!! I'm more relaxed now year 11 have left but certainly not bored as there's always so much else to do (which I won't moan about any more)

One member of the department today complained about being ‘bored’ now that he didn’t have year eleven to worry about.

My HOD said this. It did NOT go down well.

To those who were asking about guidance earlier. I've not found it in official published public material but it seems the DfE have sent communications directly to school leaders which may be where the messaging is based.
schoolsweek.co.uk/consider-holding-proms-outdoors-dfe-tells-schools-after-freedom-day-delay/
For transition:
"avoid hosting large group gatherings indoors for more than one bubble"
(Primary kids are already in their primary bubbles)

DfE (...) admits “traditional” open “days are unlikely to be feasible this academic year”.

"We are keen not to restrict individual settings from designing events which maintain the integrity of bubbles or consistent groups, and adhere to the system of controls in place"
So, if you can design a magical event that keeps primary bubbles intact and keeps them away from existing secondary kids, you can do it if you want. If you can't, you can't.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

One member of the department today complained about being ‘bored’ now that he didn’t have year eleven to worry about.

My HOD said this. It did NOT go down well.

I did offer him the chance to do some of my jobs to help ease the boredom. Sometimes people need to learn to read the room before making such a comment!

We're doing sports day but in our bubbles and without parents. Run by year 6. I will barely engage, like all good jaded teachers.

Assessment week this week - you can imagine how well the kids are doing with tests sat in a greenhouse. I've put all mine off until Thursday and Friday when it's supposed to be raining.

Anyone noticing scientists are mentioning schools more and more? As the vaccinated age gets lower and lower it’s focussing things more and more on all those unjabbed humans in non-social distancing contexts.... plus delta likes kids more.

Or is it just that scientists are being allowed to mention children as a warm up for govt vaccinating them? Although Whitty and others have sounded very cautious about that idea.

People on Data, and elsewhere, convinced that isolation is going to disappear soon, everyone will be serial lateral flow testing instead.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

One member of the department today complained about being ‘bored’ now that he didn’t have year eleven to worry about.

My HOD said this. It did NOT go down well.

Wow. I think we might work for the same HoD. All the tact and empathy of a sledgehammer.

Thanks for the advice. Am going to have a conversation with SLT tomorrow. I won't be made a fool of.

@rainingcats have you NCd, or is my memory just bad?!

Good news for piggy, let’s hope the Mobile Testing Unit stamps anything out at her school! (Won’t you think of the Children!)

Oops
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-57185118

is it just that scientists are being allowed to mention children as a warm up for govt vaccinating them

Yep, that.

I've just noticed that a cool show I've booked for next Thursday evening, including arranging my child to stay over somewhere and stay there for an inset on the Friday... is actually this Sunday evening, when I can't get a babysitter, and both partner and I will have done long drives back from other parts of the country during the day.

FML.