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

yours truly asked a question about it on R4’s Any Questions

Claim to fame!

It was the time of the Dearing report, Gillian Shephard was Education Minister. Have just unearthed a recording of it, I sound posh and earnest

This is how I picture you
I wouldn't be brave enough to do that, well done!

I might be described by some as that, yes.
Although to many of my peers at Cambridge I was anything but posh, I came from a comp as opposed to Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Haberdashers’ (No idea where the apostrophes go in the latter)

*Haberdasher’s Aske’s, somehow deleted the second part

I have occasionally been described as sounding posh - I must have hung out in some rough crowds

(I did notice, when we met, that you didn’t have any trace of a local accent, which I thought you might, being born and bred in the county!)

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9855515/Minister-Gillian-Keegan-admits-just-25-departments-civil-servants-returned-office.html

Love how the people telling us how to do our jobs are still WFH!

www.facebook.com/groups/2mrpspodcast/permalink/1171944136635304/

I hope you can all access this article - enjoy!

That mad as a box of frogs grade raising campaign has made national press:

inews.co.uk/news/education/gcses-a-levels-2021-students-results-bumped-up-compensate-unfairness-grading-1132555

"We polled over 500 students"...

My exam alone has 500,000 candidates so I'm not sure that's a representative sample!

There’s a thread about nativity plays already!
(ok in Coronavirus rather than AIBU)

And does anyone else keep reading this thread title and wondering what’s so hard about holidaying in Northern France?

Finding Normality harder than I thought

[quote Piggywaspushed]That mad as a box of frogs grade raising campaign has made national press:

inews.co.uk/news/education/gcses-a-levels-2021-students-results-bumped-up-compensate-unfairness-grading-1132555[/quote]
Me thinks Ollie Green couldn’t be arsed to engage with remote learning and wants 9s for doing nowt. I have given some girls 9s - what can their grade be inflated to?

Just announced we (Scotland) are keeping masks at secondary for the first 6 weeks of term. (Bearing in mind some go back next week). And giving money for ventilation, though I suspect that will just mean co2 monitors!

@Mistressiggi

Just announced we (Scotland) are keeping masks at secondary for the first 6 weeks of term. (Bearing in mind some go back next week). And giving money for ventilation, though I suspect that will just mean co2 monitors!

Here’s hoping it’s a start of a change to keeping school communities safe - although that’s probably wishful thinking!

She did say something about the "unique nature of the school community". They've always thought it was unique, but hitherto that usually meant we had magic Covid-erasing properties!

Can't deny I'm not angry that we were allowed masks for about 8 weeks in England and that was it.

schoolsweek.co.uk/institute-for-government-covid-handling-report-lockdown/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Boris & the DfE allegedly deliberately didn’t make contingency plans for schools in the event of a lockdown.

Obviously that plan went swimmingly well. I don’t think it was at all obvious that nobody had the slightest clue what was going on and that heads were buried firmly in the sand.

Deny, deny, deny is their constant position. Everything I read makes me more and more horrified at what we have as PM.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58071898

I think these articles will start ramping up as September looms.

Yep. Expect it on corona boards in 3...2...1...

Even more detailed on DfE and more damning

www.tes.com/news/covid-williamson-not-involved-key-school-decision

Of course, this is unlikely to make MSM and posters here will continue to blame unions.

There are 2 children I know of who have been left with the most dreadful hacking croupy cough after confirmed cases back in March 2020. By the end of the school day they are worn out with it, pale and sweaty. I wouldn’t call that a negligible long lasting side effect.

Interesting interviews on the Today programme about ventilation in schools this morning. More investment needed and more importance given to it. We are going to “balance” the need for ventilation against a “comfortable working temperature “ at my school. So the first complaint from a parent that their child felt a bit cold means all the windows shut, from past experience. Vests/tights etc not really a Thing for most of them, plus girls absolutely not allowed to wear trousers anyway (would need special appeal to the Governing Body, which no parent has ever pursued). So lovely Covid Soup by November, even in a fairly modern school with windows that aren’t painted shut.

@Piggywaspushed

Even more detailed on DfE and more damning

www.tes.com/news/covid-williamson-not-involved-key-school-decision

Of course, this is unlikely to make MSM and posters here will continue to blame unions.

Gav hits back 🙄

www.expressandstar.com/news/education/2021/08/04/gavin-williamson-damned-in-report-condemning-governments-handling-of-exams-crisis/

@Piggywaspushed

Deny, deny, deny is their constant position. Everything I read makes me more and more horrified at what we have as PM.

This. What struck me was that I doubt this is the only area where not having a contingency plan happens.