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.

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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 did Latin at school and would've done it for GCSE had the teacher not died. But there are certainly other things that we could spend that money on.

I did Latin in Year 2 (8) and then chose Art..

Latin was compulsory for me. But the Mass was in Latin then so it was practically a second language. I’d have enjoyed it if the teacher had any interest in the actual characters and events - Caesar, the Gallic wars and politics - rather than just the dry text.

@WhenSheWasBad

Veggie patch and museum guide sounds great. I’m quite jealous. You can give me advice on growing potatoes next year. This years crop is extremely disappointing.

Sorry the travel plans are on hold for the time being.

I wish. I've grown spuds once - Kipflers, last year, and they were bloody awful. Because my back garden is full of trees, spuds have to be grown in containers. I'll try chat spuds - like new potatoes.

What I miss, and have never seen in Victoria, nor in London now I think of it, are the Jersey Royals of my childhood. still with the flaking brown skin, melting in butter.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Nothing against Latin itself, I did it to GCSE and loved it. Just not sure this is the best use of 4 million right now. Or the best way to introduce it if you did want to bring it into schools.

Quite.

@WarriorN

For inspiration, I might offer more musical instrument lessons, so that it doesn't just become the preserve of the rich.

Absolutely. Shown to improve cognitive skills too.

Good teaching in Drawing supports reading.

Hear hear!

I loved Latin and it was going to be my 4th A level subject. However once a musician...

I think the In Harmony programming from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is inspiring, when you look at the children who carry on to Secondary and go on to play in the Royal Liverpool Youth Orchestra - the music education would be life-changing for those children an is a great example of where you could spend £4 million well!

www.liverpoolphil.com/about-us/in-harmony-liverpool/

Programme, not programming!

[quote DreamingofBrie]I think the In Harmony programming from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is inspiring, when you look at the children who carry on to Secondary and go on to play in the Royal Liverpool Youth Orchestra - the music education would be life-changing for those children an is a great example of where you could spend £4 million well!

www.liverpoolphil.com/about-us/in-harmony-liverpool/[/quote]
Absolutely. I could dream of an El Sistema project....

mobile.twitter.com/karamballes/status/1420040653434675206?s=19&fbclid=IwAR1v6Nmxelp1LdxR2aG7UBAj6qP54avnsuisR8Ylmcwiwwyo_VzUgyFCBrg
U4T linked to all the other right wing anti vaxxers (etc).

Yeah, I wanted to do Latin A level but no one else did. Could have bussed to a neighbouring school and they were prepared to sort the timetable to enable that but that was way too scary a concept for 16 year old me.

Weird, at one point it became apparent that everyone on The Archers threads loved Latin too!

Is MN actually stuffed with Classicists????
Who knew?

Is MN actually stuffed with Classicists????
Who knew?

Made me think of this from Private Eye .

Don't know any Latin, no interest in it.

Whenever I do my regular 'Classics teachers get a massive bursary to train then fuck off to the private sector' thread, there are always loads of people going 'but I love Latin'.

Maybe that could be Gav's first step, instead of training teachers already in state schools to teach Latin, he could require the teachers with the massive bursaries to teach in the state sector.

@JanFebAnyMonth

mobile.twitter.com/karamballes/status/1420040653434675206?s=19&fbclid=IwAR1v6Nmxelp1LdxR2aG7UBAj6qP54avnsuisR8Ylmcwiwwyo_VzUgyFCBrg U4T linked to all the other right wing anti vaxxers (etc).

Did you not see this when I posted about it the other day? I've been reading the chat logs. No one else on MN is talking about it though and it hasn't been picked up by the mainstream media.

MNHQ said they deleted the thread because it was 'too full of conspiracy theories to moderate'.

My current binge watch (Netflix) is Suburra; Blood on Rome. It would be interesting to have all the dialogue (or subtitles) in Latin, because it’s very reminiscent of the very bloody politics and criminality of the late Republic and early Empire. (I only know of this through novels really. Robert Harris’ Cicero trilogy is particularly good.)
As it is I have subtitles anyway because I put them on for anything American. The weird thing is that the dubbed dialogue doesn’t correspond to the subtitles and is sometimes wildly different.

Don't know any Latin, no interest in it.

There's a little thing I do which is probably a bit pretentious but my Maths teacher user to do it and I liked it. For any "show that" or "prove" questions, I always finish with a little "Q. E. D." flourish on the board .

Always get my kids asking me what "N. B." stands for too.

Oh I always draw a little square at the end of a proof and then say 'BOOM' and mime a mic drop. I am literally the coolest teacher ever.

@noblegiraffe

Oh I always draw a little square at the end of a proof and then say 'BOOM' and mime a mic drop. I am literally the coolest teacher ever.

😂

I use 'ergo' and QED a lot too. @JanFebAnyMonth yes I was the only one too in the end I settled with two MFL A level choices instead.

You sound so uncool that that's what makes you cool, tbf, Noble.

Noble I've tried to follow the Twitter thread but my holiday brain won't cope with it. Basically UFT not just a band of concerned mum's () but a puppet of a conspiracy group? Or was the UFT role more active than that?

You know lots of Latin noble . You are a maths teacher...

@DanglingMod

You sound so uncool that that's what makes you cool, tbf, Noble.

Noble is an enemy of education, remember. Not cool .

...

I think if you're a maths teacher, Dangling, you just have to own it.

Mistress It's not entirely clear tbf. HART is pretty obviously an anti-vax lobbying group that started out as PCR Claims with involvement from Mike Yeardon who is the guy who thinks that the vaccine is intended to depopulate the Earth. HART were formed at the end of last year, but U4T really kicked off in summer 2020 (remember them invading MN over the return to school?).

U4T now definitely work with HART - the chat logs have clear involvement and coordination (there's one bit where someone refers to the 'terrible time' U4T are having with the articles in the Guardian and Byline Times, and someone wonders how anyone could have a problem with a group with the interests of children at its heart ).

U4T were a well-funded, well-connected anti-lockdown organisation before HART was set-up (they were advised by the same guy who does PR for the Tory CRG for example) but I'm not sure what their role was in setting up HART and whether it was the same group of people working together all along.

@noblegiraffe

I think if you're a maths teacher, Dangling, you just have to own it.

Mistress It's not entirely clear tbf. HART is pretty obviously an anti-vax lobbying group that started out as PCR Claims with involvement from Mike Yeardon who is the guy who thinks that the vaccine is intended to depopulate the Earth. HART were formed at the end of last year, but U4T really kicked off in summer 2020 (remember them invading MN over the return to school?).

U4T now definitely work with HART - the chat logs have clear involvement and coordination (there's one bit where someone refers to the 'terrible time' U4T are having with the articles in the Guardian and Byline Times, and someone wonders how anyone could have a problem with a group with the interests of children at its heart ).

U4T were a well-funded, well-connected anti-lockdown organisation before HART was set-up (they were advised by the same guy who does PR for the Tory CRG for example) but I'm not sure what their role was in setting up HART and whether it was the same group of people working together all along.

Does anyone know if Dr Alasdair Munro has any involvement In Us4Them-he seems v proactive in saying children don’t get it/don’t spread it and should be at school etc ?