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.

Castle ruins exploration to be incorporated in the Enemies of Education World Tour then? I’m up for it (and could probably give a “boring” historical commentary if requested!)

Where is honey?

Was it Kate Green also on R4 talking about young people’s MH etc?

I'd consider the castle ruins a treat, so would my kids! But it's amazing the amount of people who spend hundreds on theme park days for 2/3/4 year old. I almost got sucked into the social media hype around it, then took a step back and realised what a waste of money it would be.

Only at a time convenient to SLT, which isn’t much help as they just choose non-contact time.

Excellent idea, Jan! The gamers and the coders could stay at home and we can contemplatively run our hands over worn carvings and wangle a free tour round the Servant Quarters.
I remember a trip with DS once and we turned round to find him wearing armour and a beaming smile, wielding a huge sword. A member of staff had “jumped out of a cupboard at me” (DS’s words) and made an offer no 10 yr old could refuse. I suppose we should have been concerned about Safeguarding but meh, the man’s heart was in the right place, he seemed ok.

Brilliant idea! I love a good servants quarter with "dull" commentary.

I do hope the castle ruins have a cafe.

My DS will still listen to every single option on those audio tour things when we have a treat day out at a ruin - he’s 14 so I feel I have trained him well!! The dc have only done theme parks with brownies/scouts/school other than Disney (Paris) that my DM paid for, I far rather spend my money on EH/NT memberships for the family

I love a good castle, ruined or not!!! Dd1 is part of a historical reenactment group, so a couple of summers ago she spent most weekends in various English heritage sites dressed in 12th century gear. Now I don't class that as dull, that sounds fabulous to me!!! But many people would say she was strange for enjoying that.

I'm thinking of taking up some sort of dog sport at some point when puppy is older. I quite fancy agility training with him, or flyball, something active but not really competitive. But if he's not interested in it, I'll quite happily just take him for long walks on my own or with a friend. Most of the time I'm very happy with my own company, doing crafts (I have a massive variety of craft equipment, as I get bored if I do the same craft for too long), reading, walking, etc.

I would definitely love to meet some of you lot though, you all sound like my sort of people.

I don’t think we ever went to a theme park with DS. He went on reward trips with school when he was older, seemed to like it but not enough to ask to go any other times.

My two love going to an old castle or stately home. They also love the tramway museum at at Crich. L

I love Legoland. So, so much. We've not been because of the pandemic and I've missed it, we normally go at least once a year.

Now I'm going to be thrown out of the Enemies of Education group.

Uplifting reading :

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/11/letter-to-my-teacher-from-kate-mosse-ben-bailey-smith-sathnam-sanghera-and-more

We don't go any more, noble but we sued to go to the odd theme park with our Clubcard vouchers. I love a rollercoaster. Queues annoy DH a lot though.

I like a good old theme park too. DH and I have been known to go on our own without the kids once or twice too.

used : no theme parks have been sued by us, yet.

I've been on a little roller coaster already. Sitting the waltzers out. Dc very much enjoying it after an hour and a half of moaning in the car!

Roller coasters definitely one of those parental obligation things....

I love Legoland. So, so much. We've not been because of the pandemic and I've missed it, we normally go at least once a year.

Me too. I thought the dc would be too old now, but dd14 told me they'll never be too old for Legoland!

The food is dreadful but the hotel rooms are the stuff made of kiddy dreams.

We did Orlando in 2019 and I'd love to go back to Universal Studios .

I'm bit Gemini when it comes to going out; happy to mix, but also happy to stay home.
DH is our Social Secretary as he can't sit still for two minutes and thrives on a good old get-together with friends. If we have a blank spot on the calendar at the weekend, he'll get straight on the phone to fill it. We both have large extended families who like meet-ups. DH is probably quite unusual in that he still meets up very often with his old mates from school (all quite local), and the wives get on well too. All "my" friends are more spread out and we tend to meet up with them as one-offs.
I'm quite sociable but I also relish a good old night in on MN. Lockdown really wasn't a trial for me in that sense, as I love our home and was happy pottering about walking the dog, reading, gardening, doing some basic DIY etc.. Plus, we had both kids at home, so didn't have to worry about them. But it is very nice to have got back out there a bit, recently.

And re: theme parks, I love roller coasters, the faster the better, but I can NOT cope with spin-ny things, like tea cups or those whizzy round-y things at fairgrounds. Had a terrible experience on one with ds and his friend when they were about 8 when I spent the entire 6 minutes (yes, 6 - it was a quiet Wednesday afternoon) clamping my mouth closed so vomit didn't spray in all directions. Couldn't walk in a straight line afterwards and felt unwell for days.

I don't like really fast rollercoasters or more challenging rides so Alton Towers is a bit much but Legoland is exactly my level. The Dragon is perfect!

The Lego Ninjago ride is also fab. Amazing technology.

Extra bleurgh.

No results yet from PCR tests - though Royal mail delivered them to the lab on Thursday. DD is an almost definite positive - sense of smell gone - but I need to know my status because of whether I take my class bubble out or not.

Tesco has cancelled today's grocery delivery. I have re-booked for Tuesday but next couple of days could be a bit lean. I suspect it's linked to the explosion of local cases wiping out drivers, so am not confident that we'll get a delivery later in the week either.

Must say though, my absolute favourite theme park ever is Ocean Park in HK, for the pandas, the cable cars and the wonderful, wonderful views .

I like a theme park but hate crowds and queuing so being a teacher has knocked that one on the head 🙁

Sorry to hear that cant - can you get someone to drop essentials to you?

I live a pretty dull life, I read, watch Netflix, go to the gym, go swimming, walk, cook and garden. I “go somewhere” once or twice a week, depending; I catch up with ex-colleagues on a weekly rota basis (they don’t know it’s a rota). But I’m interested in things and I’m easily amused and laugh a lot and so do many of the older women I know (even when they’re dealing with considerable personal and domestic difficulties) - whereas I seem to know quite a few grumpy, dissatisfied and even angry and bitter men. I know quite a few nice ones too! But it does seem disproportionate.

We're OK on essentials (remains of lockdown / Brexit stockpile). It's just all going to be a bit...dull!