Sixty-Eighth Republic - still under temporary guardianship…

[MrsHerculePoirot]

In the absence of staff and her fabulous thread titles and witty openers here is a 68th thread. The broom cupboard is overflowing so time for another Republic. Hopefully we hear from staff soon.

Stolen from previous threads…
'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.'

SLT are threatening to put us in non-computer rooms for all lessons going forward

I hope you have a competent Y11 who would be happy to infect their computers with a nice little virus were they to do this.

Hi everyone. Sorry to hear so many of you are getting covid. My class are having a lull at the moment. Half term seems to have calmed things down.

Sorry to bother you when I have been missing for a while but I need advice from secondary maths bods. Trying to avoid a 'that parent' situation. What would you expect a y7 with a quantative cat score of 91 to be doing in an addition/subtraction teaching unit in Maths?

@DrMadelineMaxwell

Bit outing this but we just had info through from the secretary re the christmas do they are booking.

It's a buffet, race night and disco. For 35 quid a head.

I shall be giving that a wide berth.
A... because its extortionate and
B... who thinks a buffet is a good idea in covid times?

Can just imagine the ht reaction if we end up having an outbreak due to a christmas party 3 weeks before term ends.

There was a thread in AIBU about a teacher at a buffet recently .

I do miss buffets though (wistful sigh).

I missed that Brie. I'll see if I can find it.

@SquashedFlyBiscuits I can look for you tomorrow…

What would you expect a y7 with a quantative cat score of 91 to be doing in an addition/subtraction teaching unit in Maths?

Our lower groups would be having a check of the column method (particularly subtraction with borrowing as there's always a significant number who can't do it when there are zeros). I'd expect to then be doing decimals and some stuff with money - menus and change etc.

@DrMadelineMaxwell

I missed that Brie. I'll see if I can find it.

Here you are, DrMadeleine. Lost a few hours of my life reading it!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/thirty_days_only/4382771-Teacher-a-COVID-threat

@noblegiraffe thanks for the input. I was freaking out that he was doing the same stuff that I am teaching in Year 4. His primary said he was age related at the end of y6 but all the way through I kept telling them he was just below. I was worried that he is working on y4 objectives now when he was always capable of working on age related objectives before. Was able to complete most of the y6 Whiterose stuff with some limited support and scaffolding in places in lockdown with me. Dh told me not to worry. I shall focus on worrying about his lack of English teacher instead. Off sick for a while now and cover is random. Half of each lesson seems to be sit and read your own book. Hope the teacher is OK and I know that a longer term cover will be impossible for the school to get at the moment.

Sometimes I hate being a teacher and a parent at the same time. It is both a blessing and a curse.

Ain’t it just Squashed.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10178633/School-closures-DONT-work-New-study-finds-Japans-classroom-shutdowns-didnt-stop-spread-Covid.html

Why can’t the media just leave schools alone? It’s already been decided that schools will never close again so why keep trying to ‘prove’ that?

So the fact that Covid rates dropped directly after closing schools both times and always do around any school holidays is just coincidence?

Stop trying to gaslight us, Daily Mail.

Just had a text from my ht asking how I was. I replied and got a nice 'take it easy' message back.

Then I realised I had felt some weird sense of having to justify that I am actually unwell and that I deserve to be off. Its actually quite liberating to know that I literally cannot go back to work for another 9 days no matter how quickly I'm 'well enough to get by.

The dept has warned me not to do anything work related and nothing paperwork related if the boss asked. Which they haven't.

I have had to chase up a few emails and forward info re something that was going to be happening next week with my class which is now thankfully cancelled (cos the person who is hosting it has covid) and I've had some requests of info from my team as I'm SMT...which they had the barest of replies to.

And now I'm ignoring my work email entirely until the day before I go back. And I'm only going back when I feel 100%.

Yes, I emailed my team today because it's our PPA day - just saying 'sorry, not working'. They wrote back that they were worried that I hadn't been in touch - they thought I must actually be ill. My head has told me not to work too.

And now I'm ignoring my work email entirely until the day before I go back. And I'm only going back when I feel 100%.
You're right and more school staff need this attitude.

There is something quite toxic about schools at times where staff feel like they have to be on death's door to be off, or they're feeling guilty about taking time to recover from illness before returning.

Depressing as it sounds if any of us dropped dead or resigned, school would be recruiting our replacement within a week.

I'm both surprised and glad that some schools are taking this approach. When the DfE Covid guidance was updated to say that those with a positive case should work from home if are well enough to, I was certain that would lead to the expectation to teach from home with coronavirus if you weren't really bad with it.

I wouldn't have been at work on days 1, 5 and 6 so far. It's the head pressure/ache/fuzziness to begin with, then the absolute exhaustion. I hope I get better quickly now, because I'm due back on Monday and right now that doesn't feel likely.

I think lots of heads have got cases in school where staff have come back too soon, so they've ended up with inconsistent or unreliable returnees. Better to say you're to properly rest for 10 days then come back properly, than be in and out for weeks.

I agree @rule. I had 14 days, 2 extra days and a weekend and I feel much better for it. Still tired but I know of others who went back too soon and have ended up still off now a month later. Take the time if you need it.

Our last member of staff was off for 3 to 4 weeks and then had a phased return with long covid. Still not 100% but a lot better than it was.

Rule I'll do you a deal....you dont go back before you're 100% and I won't either!

My friend who's been off for 6 weeks now is coming back on Thursday with a phased return. She had tried to come back after her 10 days isolation but had to be sent home again on her first day back, with instructions to see a doctor and get signed off until she was properly better.

Don't go back unless you feel properly better. School life is relentless even when you are healthy. It's much worse if you are still ill.

She was lucky, in a way, MrsAD that they noticed she wasn't ready - once we're in our classrooms it's very easy for them to just assume we'll be fine, no one sees us from one hour to the next.

Interesting Human Rights call for measures in schools

twitter.com/tigressellie/status/1458130283404877830?s=21

MsAwesomeDragon
I went back too soon and regretted it. It's also worth making sure that a phased return is meaningfully a phased return. There's lots of teachers on other social media platforms sharing that their schools haven't been very understanding about what a phased return should look like. Worryingly, some schools are ignoring occupational health reports in favour of pushing staff back before they are ready.

Oh the irony... Two students in my first lesson performed a duet of coughing throughout and I just have to grin and bear it. I then get a phone call from the childminder saying 2yo is coughing, can I please collect and not bring her back until negative pcr. For what is worth, I agree with the childminder's stance, not school's!