Sixty Seventh Republic - under temporary guardianship

[Hercisback]

In the absence of staff and her fabulous thread titles and witty openers here is a 67th thread. The broom cupboard is overflowing so time for another Republic. Hopefully we hear from staff soon.

Stolen from thread 66.
'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.'

Our SENCO goes to all SLT meetings but isn't on SLT. She has a huge teaching load.

That's shocking, Appu

Can someone tell me how it's done with safeguarding? The most important training we get as teachers is delivered by a member of staff. Have my school signed up to a 'training package' by an expensive external provider to train that person? Or is it done differently?

At the moment, born the fact that he can string two words together is making me think rather kindly of him which just goes to show how low expectations have fallen.

Front page of the Telegraph has a call to end free testing (not just LFT, but also PCR).

Not good for blood pressure is the bit that says "free tests might only be provided in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools "

Front page of the fucking Telegraph who have spent the last 18 months denying that there's any issue in schools at all. Just casually there in an article.

I noticed that too, noble!
After all those months and months where we were ridiculed and mocked for fussing. (To put it mildly)

All those posters who frequently gaslighted us and continually put the boot in and told is to stop ‘moaning’, now no longer post or at least have all name changed. Funny that.

Yes, a lot of posters whose partners were respiratory consultants in ICU have mysteriously disappeared.

‘Schools’
‘High risk’
In same sentence on front page of Telegraph.

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/englands-slow-vaccine-rollout-children-risks-new-covid-spike/?fbclid=IwAR0IfZQOd_nJf7g8Zqe4CmZDYT7NQK_cneCVd0qvtj0nAW_bgwWAtUv00TY
This says about 10% of 12-15 yos have had their vaccines. I’m surprised it’s that many if only 40-45% of parents are consenting in some schools and they haven’t got to many schools.

I was going to say that flu jab consent is usually only about 60% and much less contentious but I see Prof Semple also made that point in the article.

I wonder what SAGE thought the take-up would be?

We've got no date yet but I know another local school where they got really high uptake but the vaccination team got through less than 25% of the consenting students and ran out of time. No date for coming back.

Yes, a lot of posters whose partners were respiratory consultants in ICU have mysteriously disappeared
Quite a lot of the (for lack of a better phrase) goady fuckers have disappeared.

I'm not sure Gav ever mentioned kids with SEND, so that's interesting. I wonder whether his words will come with anything concrete like funding. And whether 'well-being' will include teachers.

No he bloody didn't and yes this is v welcome. We shall see. Takes ££££££. And yes I'm seeing the added impact of the lockdowns and pandemic on out pupils. It was bad before, it's worse now. Not least because of funding. Covering staff, extra cleaning etc.

Joint Union letter to Ed Sec

www.facebook.com/639638973/posts/10160505468703974/?d=n

That was top story on ITV News too. Winds of Change are blowing...

Can I ask you all whether or not you think it's reasonable to be marking books at the moment? I am, have been expected to all the way through and although workload is excessive, my view is that periodic marking and feedback is a necessary evil.

DD isn't having any of her work marked however, as teachers at her school apparently only do it if they think it's Covid safe to do so. She's in Year 7. We live in an area where home learning provision was dire and I'm really concerned at the prospect of yet another year of her learning being compromised.

I really feel I've lost sight of what's reasonable because of this cognitive dissonance between huge expectations on me and what's on offer for my own DCs.

I thought people knew that covid is airborne and the risk of surface transmission is pretty minimal (I'm not sure there's been any cases of surface transmission?). If teachers are teaching in classrooms with no masks or ventilation, then the idea that they should be cautious about touching exercise books is laughable.

These people are a scandal

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58856068

@noblegiraffe

I thought people knew that covid is airborne and the risk of surface transmission is pretty minimal (I'm not sure there's been any cases of surface transmission?). If teachers are teaching in classrooms with no masks or ventilation, then the idea that they should be cautious about touching exercise books is laughable.

Thanks for the response Noble; you confirm my own thoughts and I respect your judgement.

I agree with noble. I've been marking books throughout, so I'm obviously on the side of it being safe to do so. Why would I worry about marking books from kids I've shared a classroom with for 4 hours a week?

I'm marking as normal and have done throughout. I think I'm more at risk from being in a small room all day, every day with 30 unvaccinated children than I am from marking their books.

I've worked in 2 schools this pandemic, both primary, and both had normal marking policies throughout. Friends and family of mine who teach secondary have as well.

In September last year, we were asked to leave books for 48 hours before and after marking. After the spring lockdown, we were back to marking as normal.

We've marked throughout. Other primaries in the area haven't apparently.

All staff at our school were given the flu jab this week, which is good. There's an horrendous cold going round that knocks people for six, so it feels good to have been vaccinated both for covid (fingers crossed) and flu.

Yep, normal marking for us, too. Think we were quarantine for 24 hrs before and after in September, but it didn't last long. It's an almost wholly airborne virus.