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

Hello lurkers!

Hope we've nearly all broken up now and starting to relax.

I bought dd2 a summer reading bundle with about 10 books in. She hasn't even started on them (because she's almost finished one she was reading at school and wants to finish that one first). I've now read 2 of her books and am thoroughly enjoying them. Boy everywhere is excellent, about a family of Syrian refugees. And Being Miss Nobody is great as well, about a girl with selective mutism starting secondary school (this one is particularly appropriate for dd2 as she had selective mutism and is starting secondary school in September). All the books in the bundle have pretty big messages/themes, which is excellent for dd2 as she loves a sad story.

@noblegiraffe

Why would I want to read a book about grief when I could read a cheery novel about kids in an organised fight to the death instead?

I've just started the Wool Trilogy. Intriguing set-up.

This is what I'm reading at the moment...

BustopherPonsonbyJones another Merrily fan here! I too love all of Jodi Taylor's stuff. I put off reading A Bachelor Establishment as being a bit too Barbara Cartland, but actually it is really good too. I've recently re-read childhood dystopian stuff like Z for Zachariah, and I love John Wyndham too.
Anyone else like Susan Howatch? Fantastic, multi-generational stories a bit like Daphne du Maurier, and also the theological ones based on "Starbridge", they would be my desert island book.

@Piggywaspushed

It sort of is but isn't . Shakespeare himself is never named in the text. It's a book about grief and is very moving.

Agreed. If I had to name a main character in Hamnet it wouldn't be Hamnet, it would be Agnes (Anne).

Omg corner I love John Wyndham. My favourite is The Chrysalids

@Piggywaspushed

The kids at school always ask if all books are misery fests...ermm. Yup?

My selling point for A level lit: it's all sex and death. Not necessarily in that order.

The Chrysalids is brilliant. It was the first Wyndham book I read.

Have always loved John Wyndham. A few years ago there was a great R4 adaptation of Midwich Cuckoos and the children heard it on a car journey and were quite hooked. Just looked for it on Sounds but it’s no longer available sadly.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Have always loved John Wyndham. A few years ago there was a great R4 adaptation of Midwich Cuckoos and the children heard it on a car journey and were quite hooked. Just looked for it on Sounds but it’s no longer available sadly.

Is this it?

archive.org/details/the-midwich-cuckoos

My introduction to sci-fi was a BBC radio series called Shadow on the Sun sometime in the early 1960s, about a virus coming to Earth on a meteorite (!!). There was also a really good adaptation of Fred Hoyle’s The Black Cloud (Hoyle invented the expression Big Bang, but as he espoused a steady state theory of the universe, he meant it dismissively, and was annoyed it stuck). Wyndham’s books were also serialised, and I know I then went and found them in the library. TV and films wrecked science fiction for me because the special effects were so dire, until Kubrick’s 2001 which at least looked good (the story was pretty meh I thought).

Oh yes @echt, looks like it! Thanks

I love The Chrysalids ... it speaks to me as a mutant. When I did it at school I thought it was so cool to have a book about me.

Ah the extra toe! Blasphemy! Off to the Fringes with you.

@Monkeytennis97

God I wish I could talk about books... I've never been a reader unless it's music scores.

@Monkeytennis97, I read your post and it made me think of these sorts of videos which are posted by the LPO - I love it when one appears on my newsfeed!

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=353786289445955&id=100044437599395

@noblegiraffe

Ah the extra toe! Blasphemy! Off to the Fringes with you.

@borntobequiet

My introduction to sci-fi was a BBC radio series called Shadow on the Sun sometime in the early 1960s, about a virus coming to Earth on a meteorite (!!). There was also a really good adaptation of Fred Hoyle’s The Black Cloud (Hoyle invented the expression Big Bang, but as he espoused a steady state theory of the universe, he meant it dismissively, and was annoyed it stuck). Wyndham’s books were also serialised, and I know I then went and found them in the library. TV and films wrecked science fiction for me because the special effects were so dire, until Kubrick’s 2001 which at least looked good (the story was pretty meh I thought).

I've loved sci fi and fantasy since watching Boy from Space in school in the 80s. And discovering books like When Marnie was there and The Dark is Rising as a teen. As well as adoring Elidor being read to us by my year 6 teacher.

I absolutely love reading to my classes to this day and seeing even the 'coolest' Bob hanging on every word. Magical.

Oooh, the Boy from Space was excellent! As was Dark Towers!!

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1418919282256318467.html?fbclid=IwAR0rSnu0VcMP-UFAp_vlbv9Q9Q1jz11TrR2REaHg2KDKXXQENz1OiJyQjaU

Pagel on how useless the schools study is!

You're up late Jan!

Nice to have a real scientist also pointing out the daily testing arm was a shitshow.

I think, tbf to the people conducting the trial, they didn't intend it to be a shitshow, they were just (like most) totally unaware of the chaos in schools. They also assumed that parents would be happy to be assigned the testing arm as they wanted their kid in school.

Yeah but you watch any other thread go 'oh but that's Pagel. She's so negative'. Female scientists are expected to be sunny and positive and come in for way more criticism than male scientists. Even on MN. Sigh.

Morning all

Loving hearing about all of the books people are reading I love reading but often get little time to read in term time (largely because I need to sleep but I could lose a whole night to a good book).

I'm a murder mystery lover myself. I have just finished 'the serial killer's wife's by Alice Hunter which was brilliant!
Started Agatha Christie 'a murder is announced' last night so hoping that it's good. Agatha Christie usually is though!

I'm still away at the moment so even more time to read

I think if I were still a secondary pupil/parent I’d have chosen isolation if offered a choice between that and testing because
a) I don’t have confidence in the tests
b) I/ my kids would have probably found it easier to get on with set work at home (I know this doesn’t apply to everyone)
c) Safer for everybody to have kids at home

It would be so interesting to hear from these schools...but they aren't allowed to talk!!

I imagine those who pulled out had concerns about lack of participation making live learning trickier. And delta probably affected parental concern.

Johnson is said to be 'raging' about the low vaccine take-up among young people.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unjabbed-students-face-ban-as-raging-boris-johnson-targets-vaccine-refuseniks-jmwwkcwfh

Cannot for a minute imagine why young people might feel like they don't need to be vaccinated.