The Sixty-fourth Republic - good luck to those still gliding towards the holidays especially after euro final

[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.

We are still waiting advice on chairs and masks but keep the windows open. You don’t have to upload LFT results during the holidays.Do not sit on the chairs and do wear a mask.

@Piggywaspushed

Standing in opposite corner to sure, sulking as I still have two weeks (nearly) to go, a stupid sports day with face painting and gazebo, two meetings and a compulsory voluntary staff BBQ.And Monday will no doubt be annoying. And my timetable is so not sorted. How can I have 25 consecutive lessons next year and someone else in the dept have more than twice as many frees as me??!? Nearly as many frees as I have consecutive lessons in fact!!

Also not English so not really bothered if it comes 'home'. More pleased for Mark Cavendish tbh.

Anyway, as you were. Just assume I am checking my pigeonhole or something over here in sulkers' corner.

How long are your lessons Piggy?

I do hope you know it's not 1/4, MrsH!

Bottom set?

Thay are an hour....

Definitely question your timetable piggy hopefully they will have chance to change it.

Some kids maths skills are shocking. I remember covering a too set. They could calculate a percentage. TOP SET

Thanks staff!

@noblegiraffe

I do hope you know it's not 1/4, MrsH!

Bottom set?

I'm not a natural mathematician but I do know that 🤣. Mixed ability f tier. The really weak ones have been taken out!!

The issue really is that the guy doing the timetable really doesn't care, the head has broken a promise and my HOF has too many different timetables to juggle!

Does anyone else feel like the Government is like a bodging builder:

'Ooh, I have this grand plan'
'Hadn't thought that the self-isolation corner might be a problem - I'll bodge it by making the app less sensitive'
'Oh, now the hospitals wall is looking a bit wobbly - I'll change the rules there, that will be fine'
'Track and trace in schools window looking a little wonky? Not an issue, we'll just say there's nothing to see here and that there can't be any contacts'

while at no point standing back, looking at the whole building, and going 'Ah, no, this building isn't stable, I'll have to start again'?

But piggy if someone in your dept has nearly 25 frees (if I understand what you wrote) then that's just ridiculous and it won't just be you that has an issue with it.

Thanks for thread.

Thanks @MrsHamlet for directed time info! I probably need to get on that!

@Piggywaspushed

Thay are an hour....

So three full days without a breather? Thats rough. I have two full 5's as we call them. My friend has 4 full 5's in a row and then all her frees on one day. She's annoyed.

How many frees do you get?

I think we have done this before but it's interesting all the same.

How many frees are you supposed to have?

We have 4 a week out of 25. Averages over the 2 weeks so we have 8 a fortnight in total out of 50 periods

It's 5 days without a breather! Weekend in between...

We average about 42/50 over 2 weeks. Mine is less this year to allow for ECT stuff.

Our week is 30 periods so PPA is 3 ... but we actually get 4.
Coordinators get 5. Hods, HOYs and the biddable get more.

Primary

Contact time - 26 hours 40 mins per week (I have to supervise 1 break time each day, but I have not included lunchtime as although they do eat in the classroom if it's not fine enough to eat outside, I am technically not in charge)

I have PPA from 1.15 - 3.10 one day per week, so just under 2 free hours.

Number of frees depends on loads of variables. There are extra for being a form tutor, for example. I think a normal teacher who is a tutor is on 43 lessons out of 50 but it may be 42. The big controversy is that HODS only get 1 free unless it's a big dept.

Mine is an unusual situation as an agreement when a role was changed ( in order to force me to accept it) is not being honoured.

@Piggywaspushed

It's 5 days without a breather! Weekend in between...

Oh gosh! So it is. Leaving do last night for a friend. Can only blame that.🙈

@Piggywaspushed

Number of frees depends on loads of variables. There are extra for being a form tutor, for example. I think a normal teacher who is a tutor is on 43 lessons out of 50 but it may be 42. The big controversy is that HODS only get 1 free unless it's a big dept.

Mine is an unusual situation as an agreement when a role was changed ( in order to force me to accept it) is not being honoured.

Wow! Our Hods only teach approximately 12 lessons a week. They are always free.

Our core HODs are on 33/50. Smaller HODs on more.

Wow! Our Hods only teach approximately 12 lessons a week. They are always free

My current HoD only gets 5 frees. IMO he gets screwed over.

We teach 22/25 here. I'm not quite sure how many extra frees hods get, but I do know that the timetabler gets 2 extra frees a week, which he doesn't need early in the year, but needs tons of time by May. (There would not be enough money or frees in the world to ever make me want that job)

I would love the TT job. Its definitely a maths thing. We have a social science teacher do it and it is not their strength.

Teacher with history / politics background did it for years in local secondary. Good at it and loved it so much that they would give seminars on how to timetable on inter-school CPD days / teaching conferences. They were not desperately well-attended....

I remember the Latin teacher (after she died, a History teacher) and the Deputy Head (Maths) did it at my own secondary.

There was a special room which was set up for it towards the end of the summer term & it involved little coloured blocks of wood on a table with sticks to move them. Very reminiscent of WW2 pictures of situation rooms, just minus the generals and telephones....