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.'

Nice one @HobnobbingAboutHobnobs
Must be a relief
I think our school wifi would be good enough for exams but they would have to be able to tun on iPads as we have virtually no computers left in school now ( bar one per classroom for teacher)

Ye gods
www.cornwalllive.com/news/richard-lander-bomb-threat-coronavirus-6233214

That's appalling

I’ll probably be banned for talking about another thread now, but honestly it annoys me SO when people say things like unqualified people are often better than qualified teachers?! Often?!

Would you say that about any other profession?!

Often

They know 2 great TAs, therefore often TAs are better than teachers

There are some truly amazing TAs out there. It verges on criminal that some heads take advantage of them. Using them as teachers and paying them minimum wage.

I feel sorry for the heads too. Trying to run a school on a shoe string budget.

Was that the my child is entitled to a qualified teacher thread?

Those sorts of threads are depressing and amusing in equal measure. On one hand teaching is so easy anyone can do it and teachers are work-shy skivers, but then in another breath it's absolutely disgusting if there isn't a fully qualified teacher in the room.

@LolaSmiles

Was that the my child is entitled to a qualified teacher thread?

Those sorts of threads are depressing and amusing in equal measure. On one hand teaching is so easy anyone can do it and teachers are work-shy skivers, but then in another breath it's absolutely disgusting if there isn't a fully qualified teacher in the room.

Yep.

It’s just the ‘often’ that got me. I could cope with occasionally or sometimes, but often!!?

Would you say that an unqualified was often better than a qualified one?!

Anyone here want to ‘make a difference for learners’?

So that’s where the £24 million is going…

So that’s where the £24 million is going

Trying not to think about how many teachers and TAs that could pay for.

If they'll let me drive a fork lift truck, I'm in

@MrsHamlet

If they'll let me drive a fork lift truck, I'm in

We joke but our ‘History ex Head of Year’ quit teaching 3 years ago to be an HGV driver. He’d been teaching for 19 years and his wife at the same school for 14 years. Both quit. I saw him 17 months ago and he was happy as Larry as an HGV driver. More money, he said and less stress. More time with his new family.

During Covid he says, he has been thankful he is still not a teacher… him and his wife were bloody good at teaching
Speaks volumes, in my opinion.

I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do next. Got 2 years left. Would like to work in Howdens or Farrow and Ball really.

Barnsley unveiled a covid memorial today, celebrating keyworkers, including a bronze statue of a young girl, an old man, a volunteer, police officer, carer, nurse AND A TEACHER.

twitter.com/f33lthesun/status/1462811129663664134?s=21

Feels quite touching to have our contribution recognised.

Oh that is very nice.

Oh that's lovely!

Puts a smile on my face that does!

That’s wonderful!! Did you see the children’s drawings at the bottom?

That statue is really lovely. It's nice to know somebody appreciates all the sacrifices so many people made during the pandemic (I realise the pandemic is actually still going on, but lots of people think it's over).

I've got parents evening this week. There are 24 appointment times but I teach 40 kids in that year. I would normally double up and put easy, nice kids into the same appointment slot and just talk for a shorter time to each (my record for a quick parents evening was 1.5 minutes). This year, no doubling up because it increases covid risk having more people hanging around. We've been told to prioritise the kids who are having the most problems and the others can request a phone call/email if they want to speak to us. So I may well need to make 16 phone calls to parents I can't squeeze into parents evening

@MsAwesomeDragon that feels frustrating, surely if there's not enough slots would they not do 2 days? (although 2 parent evenings are not fun)

Urgh have a horrible chest infection :( feel that I'm getting every bug going around this year.

Anyone else feeling the same?

@MsAwesomeDragon that increases your directed time across the year...!

Some of us teach the whole year group of 120/180/240 children. Impossible to speak to all parents. We've had many more complaints about this this year from year 8 parents who seem to be stuck in primary parent mode.

Yes, it's definitely impossible to speak to every parent if you teach every child in a yeargroup. Parents are normally more understanding about not getting an appointment with those subjects though aren't they? Maybe not this year, but normally. Whereas nobody understands being told they can't speak to their child's maths teacher, or English teacher. Even one full class can't fit into the current parents evening, so it's not fit for purpose as it currently stands. In normal years I double up, talk fast, and still end up overrunning by at least half an hour, so why not make it officially half an hour longer so we can at least fit 30 full length appointments in? That would be much more beneficial for my mental health/well-being (the big focus for our school right now apparently) than being told I have to phone app the parents I can't fit in on the evening.

That would be much more beneficial for my mental health/well-being (the big focus for our school right now apparently) than being told I have to phone app the parents I can't fit in on the evening.
Since your head sounds pretty hot on well-being, why not ask him about that? Or ask your union rep to raise it? Technically they can't change the calendar now but it's a valid request

We are going to make ourselves longer. I, too, would prefer that to having dozens of phone calls afterwards.

But you can still teach two or more classes in a year group even in a core subject. So you're definitely not seeing 60 parents in one go!

(Had a colleague at a former school who happened to teach geography to the whole of year 8 one year. 240 students. She basically said she was choosing who she wanted to see and not vv.)