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

My DSs school was part of the study but he would have had to sign up to daily testing whilst isolating. There was the bribe of £25 if he got covid whilst part of the test I think and I had already drafted my email refusing permission and telling the head how stupid it was before it emerged he’d have to opt in to the study rather than out. Our area has had its fair share of infections but compared to lots of regions our rates have been low. As far as I’m aware there have been few cases in DSs school so not sure what data they’d manage to glean from here.

Most parents I spoke to also thought it was twaddle too and refused permission - isolation makes far more sense and DSs friends stuck to isolation properly.

The people isolating had to daily test too? I thought they just had to do a PCR.

And they gave them £25 if they got covid? I mean, that's just encouraging kids to go lick a positive case.

There was the bribe of £25 if he got covid whilst part of the test

That’s dreadful!!

@Appuskidu

There was the bribe of £25 if he got covid whilst part of the test

That’s dreadful!!

If such a study went on long enough and you kept getting reinfected, you could probably save up for a holiday when it all went away.

@DrMadelineMaxwell we 'did' 'Elidor' in the first year at high school. It had the nickname 'smelly bore' sadly. Can't remember anything about it. I did like 'Lord of the Flies' though and may have said this before but William Golding was my school music teacher's English teacher and apparently Piggy was based on my old school music teacher as a child.

Who was it with the coconut bog roll? You were ahead of the curve!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4306409-Coconut-scented-toilet-paper

@DreamingofBrie sadly can't open the link as Facebook is being awkward.

@noblegiraffe

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.

One frustrating thing I'm seeing a lot of places including MN is the idea that if you haven't had both jabs you are some kind of delinquent, when in fact some of us only became eligible or had availability for an appt in our area less than 8 weeks ago. And now they aren't letting you go for your second before 8 weeks at least in my area. It feels like some of these older Tories know they've had both doses and can't imagine why someone younger than they are haven't yet.

If such a study went on long enough and you kept getting reinfected, you could probably save up for a holiday when it all went away

Not abroad, mind as they won’t be vaccinated!

Yep, the twenty somethings on our staff only got their first jab in the last two weeks of term.

DD - due to go to university this Autumn - had a really nice e-mail from her university, explaining the likely Covid arrangements, and (in a very light touch way) encouraging everyone to get double vaccinated over the summer if at all possible, given the greater freedom this would bring in terms of not having to isolate if a contact was positive.

She is a vaccine enthusiast anyway, but this type of approach seemed much more likely to bring about results than a raging Johnson....

[In fact, I may hide the raging Johnson from her, as that is possibly the only thing that might encourage her to refuse her second vaccination [having had 1 vaccination plus a recent case of covid, she's probably fairly well-antibodied just at the moment!]]

Something dreadfully sad happened to one of my favourite characters in one of my favourite book series and I had a horrid night’s sleep last night because of it. Went on to the author’s website this morning to see why he’d done that and he is not very well at all himself. It made me cry, in a Last Straw sort of way, all tied up with the last 18 months and DS going to Uni in September and general sort of Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!.

Went shopping this morning (100% mask wearing still in my nearest supermarket, which is good) and bought some kitchen stuff for DS to take to Uni. Realised I was trying to replicate the kitchen here so he never wants for a measuring spoon or various sizes of Pyrex dish…….so put some back . I went Catered when I went, so it’s all new to me

Going to visit relatives in a while and actually sit inside their house, which will be a novelty (we’ve LFTed and not been anywhere in the last week or so where there would be People).

A 40+ member of staff at my school won’t be double vaxxed for another week or so, plenty of our 30 somethings still in the 8 week wait so I’ll be surprised if all our 20 somethings will be double vaxxed by September. And then there’s the kids that won’t be at all…..

Seriously? £25 if test positive???

That isn’t mentioned in the study paper!!!

Coconut bog roll was me! We’re using it at present and when we first opened the pack the scent hit us and we were 🤮, but it faded even in our windowless - therefore not terribly ventilated - bathroom!

[quote Monkeytennis97]@DreamingofBrie sadly can't open the link as Facebook is being awkward.[/quote]
@Monkeytennis97, try this one?

fb.watch/6_iC2GsPPK/

@DreamingofBrie love it! I'm playing that piece soon in one of my orchestras- can't wait!

Sorry, wrong details - if sent home as a close contact to isolate, eligible for a £20 shipping voucher after second PCR and completion of a survey. Not sure why I thought £25, but I did read the details in a rage so that may explain it 😂

*shopping (though given shortages maybe shipping vouchers would be more useful)

It’s shameful and disgraceful that younger school staff may not be properly protected when they go back in September. Especially with the firebreak messaging coming out of Government. They are IMO criminally incompetent and morally delinquent. But I’ve known that for a long time so am hardly surprised.
Scented toilet paper is the work of the Devil, btw.

[quote Monkeytennis97]@DreamingofBrie love it! I'm playing that piece soon in one of my orchestras- can't wait![/quote]
Oh wow, that will be such fun. I haven't played properly in orchestras since I was a teenager, but was introduced to such an amazing variety of music.

LPO does quite a few of these "rolling score" videos. I love the one for the timpani part for "Rite of Spring". I remember standing in for one of my section (gong) for that, and the conductor saying "it's fine, just hit it on the third beat if every bar..." except every bar had a different time signature 😬😬😬...

@DreamingofBrie The Rite is my favourite piece of music. Sadly never played it but studied it for A level and have seen it live countless times, absolutely love it. A dream to play it one day.

I wonder if Christina Pagel or any of the other IS scientists who aren’t afraid to criticise the government’s handling of their testing/vaccination policies, knows about the £25?!

@Monkeytennis97, it's so much fun to play. What instrument do you play? I started off a pianist but also took up percussion in order to be able to join orchestras. I always tell my school kids there's no shame in using "primary" tools such as place value grids etc. I used to count hundreds of bars' rest on my fingers, had a system so each bar was counted on fingers and I had to remember the "ten" place in my head .

@Appuskidu - see my earlier post - I’d misremembered the details, £20 voucher if sent home and tests and survey completed rather than £25 for positive. I don’t know if that’s better or worse!