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.

Sports Day relative fitness I think, Rule

That or there's a Matt Hancock fan reading.

@MrsHerculePoirot

Our positive must have been on LFT as has been overturned by PCR as all kids now back in school. How does that work with reporting case numbers? So on Wednesday that would have been presumably counted as +1 but I assume they don’t then remove that later? If the PCR was also positive would it count again? I’m sure someone has thought this through but I realised I don’t know how it works!

they get taken off again if the PCR is negative as far as I know. I’ll see if I can find an example.

Someone I know who lives in Mallorca tells me their government has asked central gvt in Spain to add the U.K. to the eu list urgently rather leave it limbo where it is. ThT would mean double vax or a test.

I’m not sure you’d have a relaxing holiday when there’s always going to be a chance that mixing with people in airports on places in the hotel is going to mean that you might test +ve and can’t get home. Not least because in Mallorca they move you to another hotel if you are positive.

Thanks all re maths GCSE coverage. From twitter you'd think we were all completely in the "wrong".

I don’t understand why people are so desperate for a foreign holiday that they’d risk that sort of chaos.

Obviously those with family abroad I get, but to sit by a pool?

Crap. I’ve just remembered I work in the NHS. Thankful it’s not gove, but Saj isn’t great.

Where's the twitter thread name?

I don't think we're in the wrong. I think it's unethical to teach kids stuff way beyond their level of comprehension in the hope they can pick up some marks on a GCSE. Spend more time on stuff they can actually learn properly.

God I hate it when people change their name to something that shortens badly.

I don’t get it either. It’s a risk I’m willing to take to go home, sort of, and I suspect the same is true for honey who needs to get to Egypt. But the logistics are a nightmare.

You need to find extremely good travel insurance to cover everything. And I doubt the Balearics will pay much longer on the green list than Portugal did. So we’re going to have the great fish home again while everyone complains that it’s almost like the government don’t want us to travel.

@noblegiraffe

Where's the twitter thread name?

I don't think we're in the wrong. I think it's unethical to teach kids stuff way beyond their level of comprehension in the hope they can pick up some marks on a GCSE. Spend more time on stuff they can actually learn properly.

Surely this is what you're supposed to do? Would anyone teach differently?

@noblegiraffe

Where's the twitter thread name?

I don't think we're in the wrong. I think it's unethical to teach kids stuff way beyond their level of comprehension in the hope they can pick up some marks on a GCSE. Spend more time on stuff they can actually learn properly.

I don’t think it’s just unethical, it’s illogical from a knowledge and skill point of view isn’t it. Better to spend the time on knowing a bunch of stuff really well, won’t lose many marks on and can build on after GCSEs if they want to than spend all that time not learning lots of stuff they don’t have the foundation for understanding I’d have thought.

That’s a non-GCSE teacher opinion though. Although one based on working alongside a number of adults who don’t have a C grade equivalent and are having to sit it.

twitter.com/missradders/status/1408698938836856839?s=19

twitter.com/Just_Maths/status/1407793549731667970?s=1

These 2 seem to be the main ones. There is some balance but I'm mega doubting the person who is adamant they teach all kids everything.

(off to namechange)

I get what you are saying, maths people, but I do think that , to an extent, is what held my DS back a bit. Plus, also, we don't get the choice not to teach full content in other subjects. But they are assessed very differently. Maths is just really really really different. Which is why it is an issue my whole SLT being made up of them, and scientists.

piggy I'll trade you our History and English heavy SLT. That brings huge issues for us mathematicians and scientists!

The question the tweeter initially asks is what lots of schools do though, isn't it?

I get what you are saying piggy. Something similar happened to me but I suspect for most kids it holds true.

I also can't get my head round calling bottom sets nurture groups. It is a euphemism, surely, to avoid the word 'bottom'. As a sociologist of sorts, I object to the word nurture!! It suggest we are somehow rearing them, socialising them, cosseting them, but definitely not academically educating.

Apols to those who call them this

I just managed to stop myself writing out a long post, containing things we all know.

I'm pleased with myself.

Anyway. I had a lovely afternoon. During which I came across a busker singing Motown hits and another playing Mozart's quirkier items ('Twinkle, twinkle little star') on a melodica and lecturing people on Mozart.

Now I'm gone and the daughter has cooked dinner and is sharing her thoughts on how she intends to find a Prom dress (she has a week. She wants vintage. And would like it altered. I'm a little concerned about the time-frame).

@Piggywaspushed I’d say we teach above what they are aiming for but not all the content still. They have a booklet with all the topics and links to Hegarty on so any of them can go ahead and do extra if they want to.

I’m sure some teachers/schools don’t teach what they could - it is a fine balance but for example the higher content, there is just so much of it, we teach Saturday lessons to cover it in the depth it needs for our students because we cannot cover it in class time with the range of ability we have…

Exactly why I favour a mix name!

To be fair, Piggy, it can mean smaller class sizes and better adult:child ratio. Ideally, it could serve as a reminder to all that the focus might be on nurture.

(I wish schools had enough money and bandwidth to increase nurturing. For all. Teachers included.)

'Home' not 'gone'.

We have "the core group"

@Piggywaspushed

I also can't get my head round calling bottom sets nurture groups. It is a euphemism, surely, to avoid the word 'bottom'. As a sociologist of sorts, I object to the word nurture!! It suggest we are somehow rearing them, socialising them, cosseting them, but definitely not academically educating.

Apols to those who call them this

I have come across nurture groups, but in primary they are not ability-based, but needs based - ie they are on the basis of 'needing nurture' (often in the practical form of breakfast and a washing machine; somewhere where they can be taught to clean their teeth or learn social skills or calm down after an outburst).

To use them for a euphemism for 'bottom sets' is not something i am comfortable with. Yes, there is a likelihood that those in need of 'nurture' in primary schools MAY also have academic needs (often due to early childhood experiences, or the lack of them, and lack of parental support for many reasons) but to imply that only those in bottom sets need nurture, or that needing nurture must necessarily mean of low academic attainment, is just wrong.

Maths isn't nurture though! Is it?? Racking my brain now...

A high ability student who has fallen out with the adults they live with and is sofa surfing might need nurture, in the primary school sense. It's just not a useful name.