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.

Crikey if Geoff’s at furious today, what state is he gonna be in by the time we’ve heard from Gav tomorrow?

Yeah, so much cover at the moment, and i wouldn't mind but i didn't have a y11 this year and have a younger form so no gained time anywhere. A few long term supply off on holiday i hear, the school pay day to day, so they are having a summer hol now while it's cheaper. Can't say i blame them but could have done without lower 10s science this afternoon.

Javid’s said a little more re schools in the HoC:
schoolsweek.co.uk/government-plans-to-remove-bubbles-from-schools-on-july-19-says-javid/

We've got a load of cover going on too. And the return of some children who left us 2 years ago. All children in the family have EHCPs for behaviour. So obviously we're not going to be recruiting for the next 2 weeks - somehow we have to find support for them out of existing support, which is already not enough. Woohoo.

We've suddenly got a lot of cover too. Someone was bitching about it today to the cover manager... this person has been light on their timetable by A LOT all year.

We've had some bubbles go pop today and this means a return to teaching on Teams.

We would never use the phrase 'bubble popped' in my school, just 'there's been another case in Y9' or whatever. We're still only sending home a minuscule number of contacts per case and I'm having to teach some lessons in the classroom with just one kid logging in from home on teams. Such a faff.

Geoff was already at furious level at the weekend when they sent that letter to Gav.

Our cover supervisors are isolating. Luckily the other staff isolating seem to correlate well with the groups off isolating.

We've finally been allowed to set "cover" on teams instead of having to have someone log in, do the register, give students the work. We can now just post an assignment and the kids can crack on from home. I think even SLT have realised the kids don't care now. Very few attend online lessons.

Am I missing something here? What on earth is the point of scrapping bubbles on July 19th? I'm going to be severely hacked off if the first week of my summer holiday is stuffed, because the whole school has been mixing on the last 3 days of term.

What was that someone mentioned about fruit shoots, lateral flows and tik tok...one day off would help.

Dead on my feet here.

A member of staff emailed my boss today to tell her he'd tried Diet Coke on an LFT and it showed positive.
She was unimpressed

@GuyFawkesDay

Found out a job I was interested in was given today to someone else. On a temporary basis, but it means it'll be way harder to go for when it does come up. I shall survive, but it was a bit of a slap on the face to be told.

I'm sorry Guy. That's completely crap. Was it not even advertised?

Do we think the plan will be that if there’s a case at (secondary) school, close contacts will still be identified and asked to do lateral flows and still come to school, BUT are told not to go anywhere else eg after school/weekends?

Or will they just not have close contacts at all and everyone does what they want?

They seem to be banging on about schools not having to do contact tracing any more but I just don’t see how ‘testing is the way forward’ if they aren’t going to identify the close contacts to tell them to do daily tests?

Lots of concern in the news about how making masks a choice is unacceptable in enclosed spaces like the tube because you need everyone else to be wearing one, not to be wearing one yourself to be protected.

And I was thinking how an enclosed space like the tube is probably less of an issue than a classroom because it's more likely that the other people on the tube are vaccinated.

Good question Appu. See you back here this time tomorrow!

Geoff on The One Show twitter.com/bbctheoneshow/status/1412114490158616576?s=21

What will bubbles be replaced with? Better ventilation? A return to face coverings? Vaccinations?

Oh Geoff, I think we both know the answer.

@CallmeHendricks

Am I missing something here? What on earth is the point of scrapping bubbles on July 19th? I'm going to be severely hacked off if the first week of my summer holiday is stuffed, because the whole school has been mixing on the last 3 days of term.

But that’s not going to happen if there are no close contacts in schools? (for staff or students?) Goodness only knows, Hen!

If bubbles are sacked off for 3 days week after next in school, and that results in full assemblies, I'm going to refuse to go. I can't imagine our head will go for that though. She'll just say keep it the same. I hope. It's the deputy we need to worry about.

Blimey have just seen a pic of Geoff’s (student?) son on twitter. I knew there was something about him (Barton Snr.)

Geoff has the greenest eyes you ever did see.

Oh it wasn't just me admiring the colour of his eyes in that interview then, piggy! I think the paint colour on the wall behind him made them really pop!

I can't imagine explaining to 45 7 year olds why it was so so so important to maintain bubbles, which they do, on the Friday and then it's ok to have a free for all on Monday. I expect we won't change anything for those last 2 days.

New Republic Heart throb - perhaps for those of us less enamoured with vampy shoes guy or (dare I say it) Ciarian or whatever ‘is name is?

Indeed @Beachhuts90