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.'

@WhenSheWasBad

Sorry to hear that DrM

Loads of us positive on this board. I wonder if that is being replicated in schools?

Well, lots of posts on Twitter about Heads trying to find cover on Sunday nights.

Thing that is interesting, is that at the moment most people seem to be able to work out (and I know it's not 100%) where they caught it, and it's not in school. Nearly always from household situations. Makes me think that the interactions we have with children in school aren't 'enough' to catch it from them. Children are catching it from other children in school, but adults aren't. Maybe our vaccines are enough to prevent the more 'in passing' type interactions we have.

This is entirely anecdotal may be complete bullshit

Anecdotally, I heard the opposite. I defo caught it at school from a student and my family all remained clear, even my teens. The nurse and hospital consultant overseeing my ongoing chest problems both said they are mostly seeing teachers, nhs care workers and social carers and factory workers the most and they are largely contracting it at work. It's now ripped through all of the ks2 staff and we are all unsociable buggers.

They were fogging my classroom (pointlessly) on Fri at the end of the day cos a child had been in on thurs and then diagnosed with covid.
So maybe I caught it from school. But I went to the theatre with a mutual friend on wed and we both had a pos lft on sunday so I'm guessing it is more likely I got it there.

We are supposed to lft first thing before school Monday morning. Which I know is from when it would have made my class isolate if I'd tested positive on the sunday. But surely that leads to last minute panicking about securing cover.

I tested early because I had a christening to go to and I had a banging headache. I'd read on here about so many people having a headache as a first symptom and yep. Positive.

Dh and dd are negative.

But surely that leads to last minute panicking about securing cover.

Yes, we do ours on a Sunday night - must be done by 7pm ready for cover booking.

How are you feeling today @DrMadelineMaxwell ?

I thought I was getting better this morning, but within an hour I was back on the sofa. Have been here for 6 hours now. The taste thing has gone really weird - less ability than yesterday.

Glad your H is OK- mine has been fairly hopeless.

We've just had our CO2 monitors, only half as many as we need, mind. The head has obviously made sure he gets to keep one in his office where nobody else is allowed!

I'm not as rotten as I was last night Rule but I'm aware it can come and go. I've had a few hours without the headache but it is back with a vengeance now. And I have TN (face pain) which is being triggered a little bit too.

Trying to take it really easy after reading about some of your experiences with fatigue etc.

The fatigue thing is weird. I can't actually SLEEP, but also can't really do much else. Partner literally laid in bed for a week, and slept loads and loads, but that doesn't work for me.

I've had a sort of weird jaw/tooth ache thing - face ache. Hence the slack-jawed feeling. Just duuuuuuh in front of the telly.

he gets to keep one in his office where nobody else is allowed

Why are people such dicks?

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

he gets to keep one in his office where nobody else is allowed

Why are people such dicks?

You've obviously met my Headteacher!

And mine!
My monitor got to 3348 today. Exciting.

@MrsHamlet

And mine! My monitor got to 3348 today. Exciting.

Good grief! I was told to let them know if it went above 1500! We still have all windows and doors open at the moment.

Were you huffing on it MrsH? That sounds like a particularly bad classroom.

Envious of you all with monitors, we’ve got none yet. What we do have is plenty of covid.

My school bought their own CO2 monitors as we were so sick of waiting for the govt.

Mine regularly goes into the red even with all windows open. It’s the computers contributing to it, I’m sure. It’ll have a field day with Open Evening tomorrow night.

SLT are threatening to put us in non-computer rooms for all lessons going forward as they can’t afford other measures, such as air purifiers. Horrifying to think all these years I have been breathing in such crap air.

More work to re-plan every single lesson again too.

We have a CO2 monitor in the photocopier corridor next to the office. No one spends more than 5 minutes there, and all should be double jabbed adults. It regularly exceeds 1500 ppm, but no one stays there. Meantime, our classroom hasn’t got one.

Well done @TheHoneyBadger for getting your appt sorted - I managed to cancel mine through the surgery this morning. They said to rebook on the online system because they couldn't book 28 days ahead yet. I had a quick look - I was 1700th in the queue! Officially opened this morning, even though it's been working since Friday, so everyone was on it first thing.

I did not huff on it, I promise! It's scary how quickly it goes up though

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.

I caught it at school. Nobody else in my household caught it. The week before I tested positive there were 11 positive cases in my year 11 class, and they'd all been in my classroom for an hour each day for the 3 days before they tested positive.
My colleague also caught it from school, possibly from me, but more likely to be from the several kids who had it in her classes (at least one in each class in a small windowless room).

HSE advice re monitors - not school specific, but says over 1500ppm and you should do something… (has suggestions as to what). Also has info about how to position and read monitors correctly.

Was actually looking for dfe instructions but this is in some ways better:

www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/identifying-poorly-ventilated-areas.htm#article

Here it is
drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/12cU_I5q0v1_my97yPMpb87RsSL5d5lpj

“It should be understood that high co2 levels in a room are not a direct proxy for infection risk”

Really? What’s the point of the monitors then??

Good article here, and under Further Information at the bottom has all manner of scientific and other sources

www.sec-ed.co.uk/blog/co2-monitoring-guidance-more-questions-than-answers-ventilation-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-unison/

Still no monitors at my place... Nor any response to my emails from either my MP or Nadhim himself. Amazingly, I'm still negative, unlike a significant proportion of our staff.

We seem to have co2 monitors. Only in rooms with no children or groups bigger than 3 (offices, basically)

Nearly bludgeoned him with a tin of quality street.

It’s too early in the season to be bludgeoned with Quality Street. You’ll soon be strangling such inconsiderate people with fairy lights if you’re not careful.