The Sixty Third Republic - as we glide into staycations the DfE whip up anti-school media storm

[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.

@MrsHamlet

Someone's been messing with the chairs...

Oh, are we allowed chairs again? Marvellous stuff!

Had a mammoth marking night last night with some Year 12 papers (forgot how long our A Level exams are, after those short 1 hour assessments recently ). Very impressed with some good quality answers so far. Hopeful for next year if Gav doesn’t fuck about with the system too much.
Still not quite done with the papers but going to have a super chill out day with the family.
Bliss.

Happy Birthday mini-m!!

Summer birthdays shouldn’t be rainy. That’s the law.

3 more weeks to go for me.

Thanks for the early birthday wishes, DD already excited. I think she’ll be bursting come Monday. She actually didn’t want anything for her birthday bar the climbing session, oh and a giant badge obviously.

(Another reason I’m glad I’m not a primary teacher - birthdays and giant badges!)

Yes, am not keen on the implication on the previous page that those of us with three weeks to go might have to resort to snogging a cabinet minister!!!

@JanFebAnyMonth

Yes, am not keen on the implication on the previous page that those of us with three weeks to go might have to resort to snogging a cabinet minister!!!

This shows a serious lack of commitment. I’ll be sure to note it in the next round of appraisals.

Jan - I feel confident that those of us with three weeks left will be able to resist snogging the cabinet ministers. Luckily Herc already kindly agreed to lead Gav astray for the cameras! I'm sure she won't mind taking on Gove as well (although Twitter alleges that he might already be taken!)

Can we please not roll the Gav/Gove conversation over to Thread 63 🤮🤮🤮!

Just seen this from Michael Rosen . He's as impressed with Gav as we are!

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/03/dear-gavin-williamson-you-are-fiddling-with-anthems-and-phones-why-not-try-helping-schools

I draw the line at Gove.

You lot are bonkers!

DrM hope biopsy results go the way you want next week.

I like this from the article linked to by Brie

Let us muse on the tone deafness of you lecturing schools on “behaviour”, Mr Williamson, when some of your colleagues so obviously need it more.

That quote is glorious.

I've obviously missed something DrM - I hope all is well and that the biopsy brings good news.

3 weeks to go here too

3 weeks here too - just you lot wait til that first week in September 😈

2 1/2 weeks to go. Now would be a good time for a new child to start...

Hello.
Much love to everyone.

Carrie- you make a compelling argument...! Except I have a nasty feeling we're in for a couple of INSET days during that week. Bah!

Wishing you all the best news for the biopsy, DrM .

There's an interesting (sort of) thread on the boards at the moment, asking what you would think about someone who had a degree from Oxford and a degree from Cambridge. I clicked on it, because I know someone who did first degree at Oxford and second degree at Cambridge (I think, might have been the other way round). But the other thing I remember reading was that Matt Hancock also fits this description!

Sending everyone some gin for later to get us through the next 2/3 weeks.

Cases around here are rising and I’m expecting chaos in the next couple of weeks. Even my youngest’s primary who have been lucky enough until now not to have to close a bubble, have had to close reception.

We’re still ploughing on with observations though 😫

Apparently a history degree 'just' from Cambridge, achieved by a state educated black woman in the early 70s makes you thick as mince if you're Diane Abbott... Cat knows what I am referring to there

Don't, Piggy ... don't! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I saw the 'two masters degrees' thread, too - and I'm just done for the morning.

The U.K. is profoundly ambivalent about education. It's one of my bugbears. It means schools (& teachers) can never do right because we're the locus of contradictory desires.

It's not just that different people want/need different things from 'education'. It's also that the same person has completely contradictory desires, which they have often never examined logically.

It's the absence of logic and self-reflection that really drives me crazy.

As for Diane Abbott ... it's just weird how common-sense flies out of the window, there. Well. Not weird. The answer is depressingly obvious.

Oh gosh I probably need to avoid that thread if I’m to achieve my goals today - of checking out my U bend and experimenting with vinegar to remove coke stain from previously mentioned expensive teen top #livingthedream

The U.K. is profoundly ambivalent about education. It's one of my bugbears. It means schools (& teachers) can never do right because we're the locus of contradictory desires.

This was what I also picked up on that thread. It bothers me how people don't place importance on education, I find it such a strange view.

I know, Dreaming. And yet it's the fault of teachers if X, Y, Z don't do well. And that long PISA tail is our fault.

Nothing at all to do with a prevailing culture in which education is embedded.

Education systems aren't at all holistic and part of a wider sociology-economic and cultural network. Oh no ...