The Sixty-Fifth Republic - The Covid School Phoney War under way so who will the gold medal and who will get the wooden spoon?

[Staffholidayclubrep]

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.

You can sit on chairs but keep the windows open. You don’t have to upload LFT results during the holidays. You do not have to wear mask - free choice

First day of the holidays for me, and I spent it just pottering about at home. It was bliss. I do need to tackle the annual major clear out/clean up operation soon, but today was not the day.

This thread has really helped me stay sane this year - not to mention keeping me up to date with all the chopping and changing from the DfE. Thank you, everyone, for your wise words and good sense.

I've got half a day with the children and then I'm free. It's been so hot that that children and I are honestly struggling. Had our leavers awards and it was super warm but lovely to celebrate them (with masks and social distancing).

for everyone who has finished today. You've made it through one of the hardest years so we'll done all!

Oooh exciting echt!

We are all nearly there people!

I've had the cup that was drained last/ this year very filled up by a day in / by the sea.

Also occurred to me that timing freedom day to the 19th meant that most schools would stop lft and infections would begin to appear as if dropping. (Sorry if I'm late to that party.)

Besides news that immunity with jab can start to wane after a little as 10 weeks (might be less iirc), now as well as the autumn is looking rocky... booster programme v much needed ASAP.

I’m nearly 5 months since 2nd jab now. It’s definitely making me nervous. So a great time for local covid infections to be over 1000 per 100k and no restrictions.

Just seen this gem: sit down and get your popcorn, welcome to DFL - Disruption Free Learning

Chilling.

I’ve got my 7.5 hrs extra admin job confirmed, wayhay! Not that I think I’ll love it, but I’ll love the extra £££s.

However our newish HR manager called me sweetie in the phone conversation which tends to make me 🤮 .....

Yay, well done @JanFebAnyMonth! Great news.

Jan I've massively skimmed that assembly. What is so bad about it? It's more draconian than I'd like but I don't disagree with the principle that kids are there to learn and that should be disruption free.

Congratulations Jan that's great news!

Congratulations Jan!! Time for a celebration!

I can't see what's so terrible about that assembly either. Those are relatively basic expectations aren't they? Kids are at school to learn, and need to follow the rules for learning. I think kids would adapt to it pretty quickly, although the first few weeks would bring quite a lot of removals. I mean, my school isn't quite that strict, but the initial expectations are very similar.

With a behaviour policy like that, I'd have had 4 kids in class most of the time last year.

Godspeed to those who have one last day left. I've spent my first off day alternately napping in the shade outdoors, and the cool indoors. Totally exhausted.

I've deleted all edu-twitter follows, and will be away from here until September too. I need an edu-break. Have a lovely summer holiday, let's hope we get some useful weather!

Have a good break Rule. Happy holidays to you.

Enjoy your summer rule. Have a good break.

Congrats on the new job, Jan! What's happening with the library?

Have a good summer, Rule

So it’s OK to mandate that when you’re reading in class, you have to sit up straight, put the book flat and track with a ruler? Just to take one example.

Oh it’s on top of my library hours noble.

Am pretty sure no one else applied but they still tried to pretend I’d been specially picked

Have a lovely summer, Rule. Hope it's blissful.

Congratulations, Jan.

I went for a swim today. It was heaven. 🙂
Events in the evening less so.
But the swim was just fab. And all the sweeter for knowing it was the start of the holidays. 🙂🙂

I didn't spot that in the video Jan, but it was quite long so I didn't watch it all. The bits I watched didn't seem massively unreasonable but I may well have skipped the bits people would find more objectionable.

Tbh I didn’t watch the whole video, just bits, but have seen stills from it posted on Fb. I find that kind of regimentation chilling.

But then I secretly hate school uniform!

Oh, I hate school uniforms too really. I can't see how their clothing affects their learning. I can, however, see how their rules for reading as a class might well affect their learning. Sitting upright means they won't be slouchng so much they are kicking the person in front, swinging on their chair, etc which are distracting for kids around them. Having the book on the table means they aren't hiding misbehaviour behind the book they are supposed to be reading (lots of low level disruption can be hidden behind a book). Tracking with a ruler means they should all know where they are up to, so they wouldn't be able to have a 5 minute disruption break whenever someone new is asked to read the next section.

I'm not saying I agree with it all, or would necessarily choose to enact it in my own classroom, but I can see the rationale behind it. I would expect that kids with send that makes those sort of rules more difficult to follow would be given additional support and/or allowances would be made for them.

Oh yes I can see the rationale. But don’t all those rules on there lead to utterly cowed robotic children (or empty classrooms as they'll be out “adjusting” or whatever the iso term was)?

And am not sure that using a ruler for tracking is a good way of reading apart possible for those with certain difficulties (need to research that one!)

Unless all the students in that school have serious issues, which is possible I suppose.

Is this like Mikaela schools?

The schools daily LFT vs isolation trial results are out….and really confusingly expressed. Not peer reviewed yet: www.tes.com/news/school-covid-tests-may-be-effective-isolating

[quote noblegiraffe]The schools daily LFT vs isolation trial results are out….and really confusingly expressed. Not peer reviewed yet: www.tes.com/news/school-covid-tests-may-be-effective-isolating[/quote]
BBC reporting how effective daily testing has been: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57930214

But I thought testing was going to stop anyway come Sept as there’ll be no isolation at all.