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.

Is that kid even old enough to need to wear a mask? I know we pass up some on the smaller/younger-looking side but I'd be saying primary definitely.

Jonathan Ashworth on the BBC right now:

"Companies should be given grants for co2 monitors and ventilation like in other countries to keep people safe from airborne viruses."

"Masks should remain on public transport and shops as shielding people are going to be terrified going out now."

Oh, sod shielding school staff and pupils and sod ventilation in schools...where the majority AREN'T vaccinated.

Labour: what heroes in opposition

It’s funny how all the arguments we were derided for are now perfectly reasonable to discuss on the news when it’s about other people.

Same as on the cv boards all year. People moaning about going back to crowded offices after telling lazy teachers to get back.

Also all the 'shall I take them out for the last week of school?' vs the wailing of 'they've missed so much school'. Urgh. To quote Partridge "I just hate the general public".

But @Monkeytennis97 no teaching happens in the last week - it’s all films, films, films.

I need to break up. I’m getting cheesed off with the ‘there’s only 10 people in my office but we won’t be wearing mark’ complaint. Y

Then there’s a thread in AIBU from a mother who is angry her son was tested with a LFT despite not giving consent. I’m not going to get into that argument as I don’t agree the school should have gone against her wishes, but it makes me concerned for Sept. if bubbles go and are replaced with testing, what about pupils who don’t give consent? Will they be required to isolate or stay in school cos ‘it’s our human right’ or whatever.

Yup.
Think we all need to reserve our energy for this afternoon’s announcement!

Do you think we’ll be able to finally see GP’s now?

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Same as on the cv boards all year. People moaning about going back to crowded offices after telling lazy teachers to get back.

Ah yes - get back to class you lazy teachers as Covid doesn’t spread in schools followed by all those allegations of us abusing children by implementing one way systems, temperature checks and mask wearing. Whilst those parents are too ‘precious’ to go back to the office as they need to walk the badly trained lockdown puppy or there are sharing a full-floor office with 20 people. They want school clubs and they want holidays clubs but they don’t want to go to the office.

Personally I now give short shrift to those businesses who say it be because of Covid we can’t do xyz - well pal you have had over a year to sort working practices out so how about you get back to work properly

Even dh firm has now said they want people back in the office a min of 3 days a week by September as it is impacting productivity.

What's happening this afternoon? I've been trying to hide from news a bit.

Brie Yes I think he'd be determined to hate a school move and possibly deliberately sabotage. His behaviour is mostly silliness and a bit of rudeness and lots of sanctions and on report etc to try and address it. What I'm concerned about is his achievement has dropped massively and no one seems to have anything to say about it or what should be done other than talk about behaviour. Obviously behaviour effects learning but we've also just had a year of lockdowns and ds's year group was hit particularly hard by isolations and he got dumped in a bottom set Science group this year after achieving about his 'good' flight path throughout ks3 and predictably his grades have plummeted and I was never able to get an explanation as to why he was set like that or a response to my concerns that he was saying he couldn't concentrate or work or learn anything in that group and could he please switch groups even if it is to another bottom set group as it's clearly not working.

So he has a MEG of 5 or 6 and has got a 1 in his assessment this year yet no red flag or anything raised and no mention of intervention etc.

I earn 14k a year and up until last year ds got PP - presumably if this catch up tutoring actually exists he'd be a good candidate for it. He also to my mind needs some kind of plan as to how we get him back to achieving his potential and the whole extent of that can't be reports and 1 hr 40 minute detentions surely? There has to be something more than 'just keep punishing him' surely?

I emailed and then talked in person to his maths teacher who is concerned his achievement has slipped despite knowing he should be aiming at at least a 6. He seemed quite surprised when I asked could you let me know which particularly areas he's slipped on so I can try and address those over summer and if I do get a tutor we know what to focus on. His answer was some waffle about oh it's just practice. I've politely asked could he observe him and have a look through his tests and identify which areas need extra help.

I worry I'm going to turn into 'that' parent or even worse 'that parent teacher' but ffs. I don't get a sense that anyone has any interest in his academic achievement - just whether he was seen on cctv in the same bathroom as kids making waterbombs.

I think I have no choice but to insist on a meeting with someone with some clout and to start to make a bit of a fuss and ask what's the plan for getting him back on track academically and ask for updates. Am I wanker?

Sorry. I will try to stop using this thread as my parent vent space - I know it's about teaching.

That seems like a pretty pathetic response from your DS’s Maths teacher Honey. If it had been me the least I would have done would have been 1) give you the weak areas 2) shove a pile of work at you, say “make him do this” and if he did, mark it or go over it with him, and if he didn’t, blame you.

What's happening this afternoon? I've been trying to hide from news a bit.

I think that’s when Gav tells us all that we don’t need to worry about Covid in schools any more. It’s all gone now, that’s nice!

Do we know what time he is telling us this?

I agree with born get him to do practice sheets/paper.

Im going to be doing cgp booklets with 9yo over the summer for maths.
Unfortunately weve got a teacher again next year who dc only got not meeting expectations in maths so im concerned dc might drop back. It most likely wasnt the teacher more likely dc was young in year and didnt get place value. But we werent told there was an issue so the report was a surprise.

Personally I now give short shrift to those businesses who say it be because of Covid we can’t do xyz - well pal you have had over a year to sort working practices out so how about you get back to work properly

This drives me nuts. 9 times out of 10, this far in, it's just a catch all excuse for the same poor customer service that existed before the pandemic. I'm talking about big national companies by the way, never small businesses, I am way more forgiving of a small business.

I'm officially feeling a little lost now my course has finished and the celebrations are over
What can I usefully be doing for September without being able to get into my classroom?. Have 2 weeks before my own children are off (and they really deserve to have my time this summer).

Also have seen an unofficial list of my new class - will be teaching the children of 3 members of staff

@ineedaholidaynow

Do we know what time he is telling us this?

1.30

@namechangedyetagain

I'm officially feeling a little lost now my course has finished and the celebrations are over What can I usefully be doing for September without being able to get into my classroom?. Have 2 weeks before my own children are off (and they really deserve to have my time this summer).

Also have seen an unofficial list of my new class - will be teaching the children of 3 members of staff

Which year group have you got?

Can you get hold of the medium term plan/topic stuff just to know what you’ll be doing in the autumn term?

I'm going to be in Y3. Have a phase meeting later so hopefully I will find out what we'll be doing!

Just waiting for PCR results here after a close contact tested positive... About a third of my trainee cohort are now SI- we have never met in person so it's not because of that!

Popping in to ask what's happened to the 'woke unions' thread. I was very suspicious right from the get-go, as it appeared to be a fishing expedition by a journalist.

Look at your class list - look into them, where they're at, what their weaknesses/strengths are and how you might address. At secondary we never get a clue till September who we're getting and some of them will be entirely new to the school anyway so if I was you and knew the class I was getting that's what I'd be doing with my time - getting to know their needs, trying to remember their names, doing a seating plan having worked out who will work well together, where you want the ones who will need extra support academically or with behaviour etc.

It was be so helpful to have prior knowledge of who we were having and a chance to look into them rather than it all landing on the first day of term! In one of my placements they had awesome class sheets that (coded of course) had the name, cat scores, sat scores, sen, pastoral concerns etc on them. It was so useful to have all that info in one place. Have never seen it anywhere since.

Born - yes I wasn't expecting him to instantly remember ahh yes it was algebra minibadger has been struggling with or oh it was the fractions section of the assessment where he lost marks BUT I did think he'd have the initiative to say oh I'll have a look and let you know (given he'd been pre-warned by emailing saying I wanted to know which areas were an issue so I could address them and he'd told me to come talk to him about it you might think he'd have looked and known actually). Anyhow.

No response from pastoral and not surprised. I was thinking again this morning how much I miss heads of year (and heads of year who were actual experienced teachers). This jumble of pastoral workers without any clear remit is doing my head in as a teacher and as a parent.

If I was a head of year 9 at this stage of the year with all mocks in I'd have my spreadsheet in front of me highlighting anyone who was 2 marks or below MEG and chasing people for intervention plans or looking into what had gone wrong, particularly if it was a big drop in a short time and particularly given the year we've just had but what do I know. I'm a part timer and I've only been working in education for nearly 2 decades.

@StationView - pbp according to the deletion message