The Sixty-Second Republic - Pop da pop pop, the beat don't stop until the break of 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've got a long line of scapegoats to blame and Bojo not firing any of them which potentially could be seen as avoiding looking complicit in any of the distraction/scapegoating.

Cummings was a very easy to paint as villain character and no doubt deserves it in many ways but we keep deflecting blame from the actual true power holders.

They cronyism of Hancock and ineptitude of Gav etc are obviously all awful but they happened openly under the watch of Bojo who seems largely absent from any of the scrutiny or blame and treated like some poor child who can't possibly be held accountable so we must blame the adults around him.

I'm very late to this. Totally didn't have the energy or mental space for following the Cummings testimony at the time but it does throw a different light on things. The fact that ministers were pissing off skiing is mind boggling and it seems the scientists were way off base with predictions and anyone trying to speak sense was up against a massive wall of denial and poo pooing.

Sorry - waffling away whilst you all probably have the sense to be sleeping.

Don’t fall for Cummings ‘poor little me’ act, Honey, he’s perfectly comfortable manipulating people….including you in that testimony.

Don’t forget how he manipulated people into voting for Brexit based on a campaign of what he knew were pure lies. And lied about Barnard Castle!

He’s a lying, cheating, self-important and overly-verbose weasel.

openly under the watch of Bojo

Cummings admits he installed Boris as PM because he knew he could manipulate him as Boris is far too lazy to do the work himself.

I get that and that's where I was at but on the other hand what a convenient rasputin-esque character he is for deflecting blame? I still think he's a toad but I also think expectations for him to take all the responsibility are a bit much. I don't know.

Shouldn't you be asleep? I don't have work tomorrow just have to wake up to get the boy up, washed and out.

I also think expectations for him to take all the responsibility are a bit much

Who is expecting him to take all the responsibility?

One of the questioners kept pushing that idea - constantly saying things like it is well known that you had more influence and power than anyone else in no.10 and that the prime minister listened to you above all else. It was just quite... tabloidesque and sort of rendering others blameless. I don't know. Even if he was some master manipulator with special powers of influence the responsibility for allowing that situation to arise at that level of powerful public office would need to be the focus imo.

I don't know. I just feel like the manipulations could go deeper and if more powerful people wanted a fall guy then revealing his eye sight test would be a strategic move. Much like Hancock's affair. Still wonder what the hell power Gav has to avoid being sacrificed over his ineptitude.

I could well be getting overly paranoid but Hancock's snog video felt like something of a performance. Is it really possible for cameras to be secretly installed? Is a resignation over an affair more face saving than admitting massive failures and lack of proper oversight? Is it better to fall on your sword than have it publicly seen that a PM knew and had been warned that you were lying and screwing up your job but did nothing about it? I just feel like it views like a weak soap opera script sometimes.

I feel really uneasy about them essentially saying all kids will get it.
Officially 4 children in our school (of approx 50 ch) have had it. ( I know there are quite possibly more.)

I am fairly sure none of my own (4 of whom still live at home have not had it.)

It's ok to say 'oh but they don't get it badly / won't be ill,' but what if that changes?
What if they are unlucky? What about further mutations? I know we have to try and get back to normal but this feels risky to me.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57638369

Main headline. No more isolations.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57643697

And Gav is piping up again and declaring he can solve all the ills of humanity by banning mobile phones.

It was always going to be no more isolation. Children will be taken pit of school.

Ffs, Gav.

Mobiles are banned in my school and pretty effectively do. Behaviour is still quite shite right now. It's parenting, class sizes, one size fits all, lack of money for SEND and trauma and, once again, parenting.

On site testing. Great. Except, who's doing the jobs of the testers and, oh no PE again? Cos the only place we can put a test centre is the sports hall...

A negative pcr here but these side effects are brutal. Spent the whole day in bed yesterday. Just walked down to the kitchen and back and am back in bed resting. Exhausted.

Found the Singapore maths chat very interesting btw.

Also feeling uneasy about the let all the children get it approach. Life must move on and isolations/bubbles can't continue but...

Will people who test positive have to stay home or are they free to infect us all?

Oh, I feel so stressed the minute schools hit the top of the headlines.

Testing pupils in schools who are contacts doesn't remove any workload from schools to contact trace , I note.

Is anyone else finding an increase in pupils being ill and coming to school anyway , or only taking one day off? That reminds me of September and the school simply won't intervene.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9735291/Assume-sexual-harassment-happening-schools-Ofsted-advises.html

Another way Ofsted can fail schools.

Schools news is everywhere - guess we haven’t been called lazy in a while!

@Piggywaspushed

Is anyone else finding an increase in pupils being ill and coming to school anyway , or only taking one day off? That reminds me of September and the school simply won't intervene.

Yes. We turn them round and send them back home along with any siblings. “Didn’t know we had to test for just a cough” is still trotted out by parents . Trouble is, a quiet child at the back of the class coughing discreetly can take a couple of hours to be noticed. Could be the child with hayfever who coughed - if you’re not looking at them at the time you don’t know for sure.

Is the talk of testing in September, to be JUST at the start of term for secondary school children, eg they get tested 2/3 times either at school or home voluntarily before starting school which is similar to the return in March?

But then what? Lateral flows daily if you’re a close contact instead of isolating? What if parents don’t give consent for testing? Do they just go to school anyway? Can they choose to isolate instead? Will there still be twice weekly testing regardless?

I know the bubbles closing is disruptive but surely the solution can’t be to just carry on as before?!

And what about primary schools??

I am more worried about these ones who are plainly unwell (with these bad hayfever symptoms that are being spoken of) and coming in anyway. These same ones are the ones who didn't consent to our on site PCR.

Secondaries staying open for testing - who will be staffing that?

Self isolation rules have been so disruptive this summer term and I welcome this changing but I doubt this latest will be welcomed by secondary colleagues. Infection rates will drop once the holidays start or have they forgotten that kids sit in close proximity in schools for more than 15 mins. Not sure why making schools testing centres is necessary.