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

I’ve been motoring through books this week, because my bedroom is cool and peaceful and I really needed to decompress after last term.
Finished American Dirt (would have been better not set in America and as a sort of allegory imo - reminded me of The Talisman), read Trans by Helen Joyce (amazing and clear-eyed, non-judgemental of individuals apart from predatory men), a book of short stories based on Grimm’s fairytales (whimsically biting, lots of changelings and selkies), the latest Bryant And May (adore them, Christopher Fowler is a very underrated writer) and dipping in and out of various non-fiction like Crippled by Frances Ryan and Black And British by David Olusoga.
Fuck all housework has been done but I’ve learned a lot

I'm up to book 8 on my third or fourth re-read of the series. Once I've finished them, I'll be re-reading Gail Carriger's books (Souless, Changeless etc) - saw a review which described them as Jane Austen with vampires and werewolves. Then trying some new books that have been on the shelf for an age ☺️

@DollyMixtureLulus

I actually read a great 8-12 book recently! A Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay. I’m going to use it as a novel study next year.

Love this book. Have just read the sequel. It's also ace.

To whomever upthread said they loved Holly Bourne, have you tried Eve Ainsworth or Lisa Williamson? Both fab.

It was me @DanglingMod I will add those authors to my list.

www.tes.com/news/dear-teachers-you-have-been-amazing?fbclid=IwAR1vzdJx7r2uswBqt8vgDEWO-jEyfRpMw-RZUzDhzZ0-2KanQWkyF2WX2yM

Awww, bless Geoff.

Holly Bourne’s “Am I normal yet?” was instrumental in my DD seeking help for her OCD.

I was eyeing up a copy of The Skylarks’ War yesterday!

noble, thanks for the heads up re end of Ballad. I’ve read a few books like that - loved first 2/3 and then it gets fanciful or tedious - Life of Pi and The Poisonwood Bible.

Oh, please excuse the inconsistency in that post as to how to write titles of books!

Ooooh a sequel would nicely finish off my holiday. Must look for it!

It's called The Swallows' Flight and set in WWII

Awww, bless Geoff.

Indeed bless Geoff - also our Head, who said something similar.

And bless you piggy for posting that TES link, from whence I found this pleasing article about Accelerated Reader:

www.tes.com/news/reading-program-fails-boost-progress-study-shows

www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-covid-19-support-deployed-to-north-east?fbclid=IwAR3Z6yXcwmcR-kJy7cIKpBZ8i_MMZLAIy3bAOB9H1sHgARXsNMmh4sGhZZA
@WarriorN if you’re around!
piggy, good news (sort of) for your neck of the woods

I had focus issues from covid too with reading. I had waited years for the last Wolf Hall book and it came out just before lockdown and it took me 3 months. Jesus. And it was great too! During the winter lockdown this year I got a lot better. I have a big stack of books to read including a library book that is overdue so that's my project for tomorrow, making progress on that. I've been bad at reading this term as I've had my current job and school and then transition days and setting up and prepping for my new school where I'll be teaching and not TAing (salaried school direct) and I just had no space in my brain for anything else. But now I am starting to relax.

Glad it's not just me with the difficulty in focusing. I thought it might be my age.
The thing is, I spend so long on MN the internet reading short excerpts of things, that I just cannot do anything more than skim read longer pieces nowadays. Seldom read a whole newspaper article. Skate over whole pages of text if it's a bit dull. I now have the attention span of a gnat.

Ah interesting Jan! Bit thin on what that actually means though. The nhs infrastructure has been hit as have others such as supermarkets and I suspect we will need the booster programme to start ASAP.

There seem to also be shortages of diy building supplies eg wooden posts, cement etc. I'm sure that's country wide though. And prices have quadrupled.

It was ladies day at the races yesterday, Dh and I went early into town early for food and caught the start of the carnage as we left.

Memorable image of two women in beautiful silky dresses and hats sitting on the ground in deep conversation by a bar door with huge queue, under the bridges where the gulls keep the carpet of bird poo going all year round...

I'll eat my hat if there's not a rise in cases in a week!

@CallmeHendricks

Glad it's not just me with the difficulty in focusing. I thought it might be my age. The thing is, I spend so long on MN the internet reading short excerpts of things, that I just cannot do anything more than skim read longer pieces nowadays. Seldom read a whole newspaper article. Skate over whole pages of text if it's a bit dull. I now have the attention span of a gnat.

Completely me! It's been like that since I had kids.

Copied from the data thread:

“ I hadn’t realised that ALL reinfections get taken out of the daily “People Tested Positive” figure, regardless of when their previous infection(s) occurred.
The quantity of ‘de-duplicated’ cases is not published, so this clearly misrepresents the number of current infections!”

mobile.twitter.com/tonyivb1/status/1418933755985661960/photo/1

Gosh, thats astonishing, if true? I know several people who've had it twice, and quite far apart. Surely we need to know that?

There's a big discussion now on the data thread about the significance of that.

I can see the reasoning why it's being done and reinfection data is being monitored, and is apparently so far low - except that many weren't tested in the first wave.

There's certainly a few stories in places like the bbc or newspapers of people with long Covid who were never officially tested the first time in March, who've then caught it a second time. And we don't know about natural immunity length yet do we? (Obviously we can never be 100% sure of the initial infection but research on long Covid seems to be indicating certain markers.)

This might be helpful

Naive remark but perhaps it’s a coronavirus thing (reinfection)? I know people who are susceptible and seem to pick up every cold going and others who just don’t. I don’t get many and they’re only a problem when they result in a bout of sinusitis, but I think that’s when I have an allergic reaction to something on top.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4305503-Are-we-unusual

Quite an eye opener thread as to whether parents of primary (and adults in general) even knew they were supposed to be testing regularly!

Even people who knew they were meant to be testing regularly weren't bothering though.

Very poor public messaging around it.

Twitter is divided on how to take Saj's apology.

How low are our expectations of government now that 'at least he apologised' is seen as an unexpected positive rather than the bare minimum standard.