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.'

Ours, not ourselves

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! One year I did exactly that!! I had 2 classes of 32 in year 11, so each set of parents had about 2 minutes of my time, I started 10 minutes early and still finished almost an hour late. I was the last teacher still talking and I'd had a queue for nearly 3 hours by that point. In ks3 we have 2 evenings, one week it's the X half and the next week it's the y half. Core subjects can only have one class on each half due to the way the timetable works, so "only" 32 sets of parents to fit into 24 slots. It's ks4 that causes problems for me because I almost always have 2 classes in years 10 and 11, but have to see them all in one evening. "Luckily", my second class is often the bottom set so it's smaller, but those appointments take longer because there's more to say about those kids.

Ain't that the truth!

@MsAwesomeDragon
Scary that your school are back to f2f, though it definitely usually makes it easier to squeeze extras in, are you giving very long slots though anyway as even on school cloud with 6 mins i can fit in 32 kids so is there any mileage saying to slt that appts need to be 5 mins each for example?

The appointments are only 5 minutes, but our parents evening is only 2 hours long. 3 hours would be more sensible, but apparently there were objections to that suggestion

If anyone's curious I did look up the job listing and to be an Ofsted inspector on probation you would make £70k 😱

We had parents evening and I didn't even have all mine sign up and I was still the last one with appointments in the school 😂 I got some talkative ones.

If anyone's curious I did look up the job listing and to be an Ofsted inspector on probation you would make £70k

Bloody hell that’s almost three times what I earn. Checks bank account

£70k?!

I wonder how many heads will think it’s a reasonably well paid and less-risky way to spend the years until retirement than running a school (that might get RI!), and jump ship?!

Squawk writes to schools about attendance….

content.govdelivery.com/attachments/UKDFE/2021/11/23/file_attachments/2003374/Letter%20from%20the%20Secretary%20of%20State%20to%20school%20leaders%20on%20attendance.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0SVkHYYvwapY31if8vLczVcCQqhjp9L4pxgjRQbtvZxUNeVxkPg_-QZjw

Who’s Sqwauk?? Zahawi!!

Yes, because right now, at this minute-attendance is what’s important…

He learnt nothing from Gavin, did he?

Nope

So is he going to bank all the sensible councils asking siblings to isolate??

“ School attendance should also not be limited through the use of bubbles or isolation of contacts, and I am confident that effective implementation of the control measures remains the best way to manage the effects of the virus.”

bann not bank… I need to slow down/wish there was an Edit option!

Our parents' evenings are now 3 3/4 hours... longer if you need to build in even a 10 minute break....

@JanglyBeads

So is he going to bank all the sensible councils asking siblings to isolate??

“ School attendance should also not be limited through the use of bubbles or isolation of contacts, and I am confident that effective implementation of the control measures remains the best way to manage the effects of the virus.”

Which control measures were those?!

@Piggywaspushed

Our parents' evenings are now 3 3/4 hours... longer if you need to build in even a 10 minute break....

Is this remote PEs?

I wouldn't fancy going to work the next morning after a parents evening lasting over 3 hours!

Yes echt...

Be careful what you wish for!!

@Mistressiggi

I wouldn't fancy going to work the next morning after a parents evening lasting over 3 hours!

It's like having an Open Evening every month

God no, that sounds awful! 3 3/4 hours of parents evening is far too long. I would be happy with 2.5-3 hours, but longer than 3 hours would be far too much.

Our parents evenings are 3 hours long and have been in all the schools I’ve worked in - thought this was usual!

I must say the thought of parents' evenings in the UK would be very hard to go back to.

In Victoria our contract says we have to have TOIL for PEs so we don't work the morning. It all kicks off at 1.00. finishing at 8.00. There are buffer breaks where no appointments can be booked, and a tea break.

It's all year groups at once, so first come, best-dressed as they say here.
There are two a year. It works well.

One school I worked in (all primaries) did two evenings, one 3:30-6:30 and the other 3:30-5:30. Because 5 hours x 10 minutes each is how to fit in 30 sets of parents.

Another school closed after afternoon register and ran from 2pm. Most people finished around 5pm but I did go until 6pm one evening. That was with breaks, though, and because a parent was late so I offered to see them.

I don't have to do them now but I do because I'm joining the mainstream teachers and I only have a handful of parents to see. And not all of them book an appointment anyway!

@KatherineofGaunt that is fine if you teach 30 kids, I teach 300 a week. A couple of year groups I only have one class so I can see them all, just, over a 32 slot parent evening.
All other 5 year groups I have 2 classes so simply cannot fit them all in.
I do 8 x parents eve ( 2 for y13) 2x open eves already all late, plus extra curricular late nights often
Not keen to add on extra nights where I stay so fit in the fact that my timetable is beyond bursting