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.'

It’s scary out there eitak I have sympathy with “schools are childcare”

I mean we aren’t, but I can see why it gets said. I can’t do my job without my kids going to school.
I think people forget that schools are WAY more than childcare. They have no comprehension how stressful it is.

Lots of people do long hours. My old job had much longer hours. But what isn’t taken into account is how intense a teacher work day is.

For people with a non teaching job, the best way I can describe it. Is for them to imagine delivering 20 different hour long presentations in 1 week. The audience don’t want to be there and are likely to hurl abuse at you and each other during each hour long presentation.

And that’s before we get into marking the work those people did in your presentations. And the fallout from the poor behaviour in the presentations.

The audience don’t want to be there and are likely to hurl abuse at you and each other during each hour long presentation

and in primary, hurl objects and sometimes memorably each other too...

@DrMadelineMaxwell

For the 2nd year running, the county have sent staff to school to vaccinate all the teachers and staff with the flu jab, so that was all sorted for all of us (who wanted it, a couple opted out) with that.

I'm off to London at half term and it very much feels like I'm keeping everything crossed, hoping to make it to half term without catching covid! Only one case in my class this week!

Hope your London trip takes place, @DrMadelineMaxwell!

Covid is making its way through my house at the moment. Dd just finished a 10 day isolation a couple of days before school finished, then ds2 tested positive as soon as we had finished . Provided noone else catches it, I'm still hoping we can make it to London for a few days next week.

Hope this week runs smoothly for everyone .

Brilliant description @WhenSheWasBad!

Fascinating to read about English schools viewed from the other side of the world

theconversation.com/covid-19-cases-rise-when-schools-open-but-more-so-when-teachers-and-students-dont-wear-masks-169928

“It also shows that infections in children don’t simply reflect overall community transmission. Schools play a key role in amplifying the spread of COVID-19.”

But but but all those people who insisted that wasn’t the case. Vehemently. Were they all idiots all along?

More like 24.5 hours of presentations a week - 22 hours teaching plus 2.5 hours of form time!

Well first in line would be Jenny Harries and Jonathan Van Tam...

Mind you, HMGov don't need to listen to scientists any more.

Yes, well Jenny Harries said it was more likely that a child would be hit by a bus than catch covid at school, so I'm quite happy for no one to listen to her.

JVT lost my respect when he was talking about children in schools while pointing to graphs totally unsuitable for the point he was making. He must know that the graphs were crap and have had the data available to commission better ones, so I assume it was deliberate.

I think everything JVT does is calculated...

Apparently there is a press conference tonight at 5pm. Wonder what will be said this time.

Apparently 6% infected at local secondary.
There are cases in both guides and scouts.
Probably largely due to SW false negative issue. Gone from green straight to black . I knew green wasnt right!

We've gone back to masks in communal areas today - for adults. The staffroom has turned back into lockdown staffroom.

What does that mean, Rule, you can't use it? Or you have to sit 2m apart?

So Jenny Harries called half term a ‘natural break’ in that briefing. A natural break from what Jenny? Don’t you always keep telling us that children don’t catch it in school and schools have no bearing on community transmitted?!

*transmission

Did she not also say they had all been infected?

Isn't Jenny Harries now head of test and trace? Did she mention the covid explosion due to everyone in the SW being told they didn't have covid?

@Mistressiggi

What does that mean, Rule, you can't use it? Or you have to sit 2m apart?

2m apart, only a few seats in there, PPA tables now facing walls away from each other (were one big table all facing inwards).

Have just been looking for a recording of the whole conference but can’t find it on iPlayer or anywhere.

My HoD is off with covid.

DD(5) has is looking rough with 'cold' symptoms. LTF negative but honestly she won't let me do it properly.

I thing DH might be staying home with her tomorrow, poor thing.

On R4 they said something like 10% of teenagers are currently infected!

It's getting on my nerves that they keep saying there's 'low uptake' in 12-15, when the parents are assuming they'll get the jab at school and waiting for it to be organised, we haven't heard anything. Only doing their flu tomorrow.

It wouldn't surprise me if that many students are infected. Staff are in work unwell at the moment as it seems like the approach is if you're not unwell with covid you're expected to soldier on because the school is so short staffed.

Does anyone else feel this is the hardest autumn term they've ever done?

We're below the 10% infected figure now. Three weeks ago, we were waaaay above.

I hope no one is sitting on chairs in the staffroom.

I attended a meeting yesterday of 7 local-ish schools. No social distancing, no masks, one door open. Hacking coughs from one member. Every school currently at, or near, 10% of students or staff sick.