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.'

What is it about Teach First that means those who do it seem to fly up the ladder and out the classroom as quickly as possible? There seems to be a bizarre ability to last a couple of years in the classroom before going off to advise on policy.

@MrsHamlet

7 years. Ffs. I have footwear with more classroom experience

Love it I certainly have jokes I've been using for longer than that.

He really does look about 12 (says this 16 year old).

TFers are mostly white males who zoom up through the ranks in one school and never experience life outside that school (ime anyway). The females I know who have done it have all left.

BBC website rolling coverage page currently has short bits of how teachers’ pay has gone down in real terms in the past decade and two bits about how asymptomatic testing may stop this winter/after this winter.

Wales curriculum: New science GCSE prompts dumbing down fears www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58967630

This one disturbs me. Opening more space in the curriculum by removing separate sciences and (buried further in the article) combining Eng Lang and Lit.

Lang and Lit have never been separated in Scotland , mind (although maths and arithmetic have!)

I don't understand where their evidence is that stopping testing is a good idea. It seems to be their only solution to disruption : how about having better mitigations instead ??

It really is another sign of the science community's utter disregard for the health of children and adults who come into contact with them.

Unless they come up with robust evidence that these 'asymptomatic' young people don't spread Covid, it's a no from me.

People think Teach First means "with a first". It now seems to mean "for a little while before you do something else"

I thought the premise was to teach before getting a civil service job?

They do have a good point about increasing PPA in deprived areas to close the gap. Most of their other guff can be ignored. Their online mentoring system and training is a disgrace.

Yes the idea was to give high fliers experience of the ‘real world’ of teaching before they became journalists or politicians or civil servants. Which is better than having advisers who have never been in the classroom I suppose.

Their online mentoring system and training is a disgrace.
I'm so appalled by their ECT stuff that it's untrue.

Thanks for the welcome guys 😁 I'm doing OK, and finally out of the whole constantly feeling sick thing. I also now have a proper bump rather than just looking like I ate all the pies 😂

@SoFedUpOfBloodyToast

Thanks for the welcome guys 😁 I'm doing OK, and finally out of the whole constantly feeling sick thing. I also now have a proper bump rather than just looking like I ate all the pies 😂

Name change fail...

Sending good vibes to bump!

Does anyone remember the TV programme that was following some Teach First recruits around? My first HoD was a mentor for one of them (was so strange seeing them on TV!) and they said the recruit they had left altogether shortly after qualifying.

Found it! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03plzvt

Wonder how many of the others still teach in the classroom?

We don't have any ECT in our department. It doesn't affect me now as year or two ago I found out I wouldn't be mentoring anymore because someone else in the department was doing it, who was only just out their NQT year themselves. With the new framework they're welcome to keep it, though I'm not sure how helpful a mentor barely out their NQT year is. I certainly valued being mentored by someone with several years of experience when I was new to teaching.

The one my ex HoD had lasted just 1 year it seems…

thetab.com/uk/imperial/2014/02/15/tough-young-teachers-6019

Others I have mentored myself (I don’t anymore, just your normal trainee!) have not stayed in teaching either-just one went to Assistant Head shortly after and I lost contact then.

Out of those 6, the 2 still teaching are women (the other woman is an Assistant Head at least) and the 3 men have left, with one going to an independent first.
It’s ridiculous!

We had a teach first NQT years ago. After a year she went to an indy. After another year she left teaching.

Katharine Birbalsingh is tweeting about original sin and children being born bad again. Bonkers.

When she does things like that I struggle with her noble, but then on other topics I think she hits the nail on the head.

I agree, Lola but then it undermines all her other arguments about children's need for routine and discipline if it's motivated by the thought that children are inherently sinful.

Apart from being totally batshit, I’m also not quite sure that’s what original sin means, is it? Not in the way she means it anyway. Surely the point is you can’t change your nature and be educated out of it.

I’m sure the idea of children being born bad and we just teach them to be better is something she’s just sort of made up off her own bat. It’s more children’s home abuse scandal than actual theology. Which would be very dangerous territory to get into.

I also struggle with her stance on home schooling. The majority of the time she really just refers to making sure parents are involved with their child’s education at home and not to solely rely on a school to do everything, which I agree with (at least being interested in your child’s education can do wonders for them) but then she also frequently (or used to at least) re-tweet fanatical home schoolers, often from America, who openly talk about home schooling their own children so that they can indoctrinate them away from the state and comments at how brilliant they are being and that everyone should do that.
There’s just so little consistency that I too, feel as Lola does.
Sometimes I agree with her and sometimes I don’t. Which is why no-one (including educators) should take her words at face value as even she changes her mind.

Her recent tweet listing everything she now no longer does at Michaela that she originally shouted from the rooftops as being the best way when it opened, really highlights this.