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.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Data thread is really going downhill atm, isn’t it piggy?

It appears to have caught chicken pox.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

www.tes.com/news/ofsted-nude-pupil-pictures-not-safeguarding-issue

Apologies if this has already been shared but WTAF

That gives me the absolute rage. I think it's so important for the girls who receive this sort of harassment that they know we take them seriously and something gets done about it. Otherwise we let them down massively.

Apologies born, forgot you’re on there too.

A few pages too late but thanks for all the union advice!

Thanks @TheHoneyBadger

@JanFebAnyMonth

Data thread is really going downhill atm, isn’t it piggy?

Tbh the whole covid forum could do with being put out of it's misery.

In addition to Herc’s article there is a Mail article about girls having to wear shorts under dresses at school:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9688701/Ofsted-warns-against-victim-blaming-girls-told-wear-shorts-skirts.html

My DD is nearly 10 and has asked to wear shorts under her summer dress. She’s gone past the age of cartwheeling on the field but it’s ‘just incase someone sees’.

At our main secondary, they've changed their sport uniform policy so that all girls have to wear skorts. A few of my former pupils come to pick up younger siblings after sports clubs and I really feel for the girls: the skorts aren't even half of the way down their thighs. Some of them feel really uncomfortable but it seems that this is being ignored.

OK, I know I am not supposed to reference another thread but the one about not testing any more is insane.

Which one?

I won't link aim but easy enough to find. The one where a woman says she won't make her 15 yo test any more . Her attitudes are clearly borderline racist . She twice talks about 'teachers picking cases up' : once as if that is our job in school, so assuming we spend the day scouring the school for poorly kids and the next time she appears to suggest we can be ill because tests will pick up if we are poorly, without any sense of irony of the fact that this is more likely if the community isn't testing.

It's actually breathtaking and clearly attention seeking as it serves no purpose other than to gain support.

My ill colleague had a positive test in her form class last week. Hmmmm.

Yeah I'm reading through now.

It's yet again another example of the "I don't want to so I won't" type mentality that seems to be growing in this country. The level of deep-seated entitlement and exceptionalism that this pandemic has exposed is genuinely quite worrying for the future.

That thread is crazy! @Iamnotthe1 absolute agree. I keep hearing on MN the word ‘selfish’ is being overused but I am finding I just want to stay in more and more as everyone just seems to be so angry and self-entitled at the moment.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Apologies born, forgot you’re on there too.

No prob! I don’t post often because a) my knowledge is as nothing compared to some of the thoughtful, intelligent analysis on there - really impressive and b) despite (a) there’s a degree of wilful resistance to any rational discussion about schools. And (c) my contributions tend to the lazy and flippant, which isn’t “in the spirit”. It’s immensely interesting on a number of levels, though.

Happy news for this morning:
CBeebies are starting a new series , the strapline for which is
“Biff and Chip - it just got real” (ie actual actors inc Floppy!)

On another note of diversion and entertainment, with thanks to a poster on another thread:

tripemarketingboard.co.uk/

@motherrunner my DD said about wearing shorts a few years ago - think her school suggested it but there was a bit of grumbling and they dropped it. She likes the boxer shirt style underwear from H&M but I bet they do them everywhere so that was our compromise - she just thinks they are really comfy but they provide good coverage which she likes too.

I think I would be a school refuser if I were at school now and having to come in PE kit twice a week (and do PE with the boys). Our PE uniform is sensible and girls can choose between skirt, shorts, leggings or trackies, but I would still have been embarrassed to be walking around school in any of those options (too clingy) instead of a uniform pleated skirt and tights.

@MrsHerculePoirot Thanks for the tip! It’s only at school she wears a dress, at home it’s all shorts, leggings and T-shirts. It is only an issue at school. She plays for a girls football team and never once has she complained about changing in front of them despite them all being older than her.

Our girls have the choice of either wearing leggings or a skort- it’s proper sports material too. I Kant say it’s issued like this that make me glad I teach all girls.

piggy has been identified on Data as an informed type who doesn’t mind people asking questions....

I'm now studiously avoiding those sorts of inflammatory threads for my MH, Piggy.

It's horrible. I just want that wave of heated volatility to die down. It doesn't end in a good place.

I did report for just being goady the other day. Even as I reported it I was thinking if we start applying that rule on those boards we’ll be there all day.

I don’t mind answering or trying to answer genuine questions. But there aren’t many of them now.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57496074

This Us4Them group will be happy.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Happy news for this morning: CBeebies are starting a new series , the strapline for which is “Biff and Chip - it just got real” (ie actual actors inc Floppy!)

Haven’t we suffered enough? 😭