The 69th Staff Republic

[TheHoneyBadger]

Just in time for the Christmas break. As it's the holidays we're allowed chairs and everything. I believe even buffets are permitted currently? No going to see Bond films though obviously.

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.'

Corner our school has all gone into bubbles with no assemblies. We ended up with half the year off and a teacher. Other year groups have had no staff and lots of people being pulled for cover - it's been exhausting. Sorry SLT aren't being understanding, our display policy isn't the most bonkers but feedback about displays is always irritating and we have a list of must haves. What winds me up is so many are A3 sheets the kids can't read!!!

Wish half term was next week!

Doesn't that make you want to back every board in a different, random colour? What is wrong with people

Hi all,
Just finished for half term now, although it ends officially on Friday.
Here's a nice article about teachers from today's Times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/52e73ab6-8917-11ec-8600-c48a9935f856?shareToken=ac8f353761fbff535ee7fc249fd34fa5

Don't even get me started on display boards !

@Mistressiggi

Doesn't that make you want to back every board in a different, random colour? What is wrong with people

Honestly, with the ridiculous Ofsted expectations, particularly for primary, it's become more important to look as if you're teaching the children (and document proof) than it is to actually teach them.

Honestly, with the ridiculous Ofsted expectations, particularly for primary, it's become more important to look as if you're teaching the children (and document proof) than it is to actually teach them.

So true. Let's tick all the boxes but never mind if the children are feral.

The backing must be a particular shade of beige (yawn) but every time they order it from Consortium it arrives a slightly different shade, so there are tonnes of the wrong ones and the right ones are hoarded like crack cocaine.

Why beige? Are your boards all neutral?

I'm so ready for half term... had a nightmare day and felt like I'm rubbish. Am hoping tomorrow is better.

Ah, I suspect ours are the same type 😂 agreed, the boards are so much work and a lot of it is stuff I have to do in school.

Hi all - hope everyone is doing ok. I haven’t posted on these threads (or anything on mumsnet) for a long time, but I am hoping you guys may have some words of wisdom. I am an RQT in a challenging school behaviourally, and pretty much on my knees with exhaustion and overwhelm. This is taking its toll not only on me, but on our home life. I am a career changer and have 2 primary aged children. Since I started teaching, my husband is shouldering the burden of all the school runs, and after school care until I get home. He finds this really stressful. He also works full time, but from home. I am so exhausted that once I’ve finished planning, I pretty much fall asleep on the couch most nights. Although I got really upset at him this morning when he threw that at me in an argument, really he does have a point, this is no way to live and our marriage is suffering. At the weekends I do my fair share of cooking, cleaning, childcare and in the holidays I try to take over completely.

So, any suggestions on how I can lessen the exhaustion/overwhelm and how to make this easier on our marriage would be much appreciated - how do you make it work better? What are your home routines?

It is really hard. Next year might be better, but you don't want to wait too long for things to improve. Do you plan at home every night? Is there any pre-prepared work you could use instead of all the planning? What would help the family - if dh picks up the dc and you made the dinner, had a break from work in that just-home period and just did some work when the dc went to bed?

Thanks for replying - I do seem to be doing a lot of planning - I think I probably need to force myself to do less/use existing resources more - a couple of weeks back I was making myself “just” use the textbook and it went fine, but now I seem to be back to trying to create all sorts of “fancier” stuff. Need a balance between the two I think.

That is mostly the way our evenings go, problem is as soon as I finish working, I fall asleep. And this weekend I’ve fallen asleep on the couch before 9 both nights, leaving the husband apparently lonely and fed up!

@9pmcouchnaps

Hi all - hope everyone is doing ok. I haven’t posted on these threads (or anything on mumsnet) for a long time, but I am hoping you guys may have some words of wisdom. I am an RQT in a challenging school behaviourally, and pretty much on my knees with exhaustion and overwhelm. This is taking its toll not only on me, but on our home life. I am a career changer and have 2 primary aged children. Since I started teaching, my husband is shouldering the burden of all the school runs, and after school care until I get home. He finds this really stressful. He also works full time, but from home. I am so exhausted that once I’ve finished planning, I pretty much fall asleep on the couch most nights. Although I got really upset at him this morning when he threw that at me in an argument, really he does have a point, this is no way to live and our marriage is suffering. At the weekends I do my fair share of cooking, cleaning, childcare and in the holidays I try to take over completely.

So, any suggestions on how I can lessen the exhaustion/overwhelm and how to make this easier on our marriage would be much appreciated - how do you make it work better? What are your home routines?

Sorry to hear you're finding things so tough, @9pmcouchnaps. I'm in my 8th year of teaching now and feel as if I've only really had some work life balance maybe this year - bearing in mind that the past few years have required a complete change to our practice. I have a similar family set up to you and I think I may have been 4 years in before I felt more secure that my marriage wasn't going to fall apart under the strain.

What subject/key stage do you teach?

Tbh, the things that made the most difference were going part time, and spending a few years in the same school, so you were not having to adapt to mew systems and software and able to reuse lessons more easily (I still write most of my lessons but they are quite formulaic and I use other people's resources for independent work).

It's fine to use textbooks as part of your practice, some of my colleagues do this all the time but they break it up with starter and paired discussion activities too.

Hope things improve for you soon - the early years are so tough .

Just sharing this article from yesterday's ST about maths anxiety, from Dr Frost. I really wish I had all the time in the world to cement the foundation knowledge with some of my less confident pupils. Hate having to keep up with a SoW and move on before everyone is ready.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8e54384a-8b8a-11ec-8038-0bd5b9e2c469?shareToken=2a7eda0765263ce6696d616160e61cff

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8e54384a-8b8a-11ec-8038-0bd5b9e2c469?shareToken=2a7eda0765263ce6696d616160e61cff

Thanks for the wisdom and encouragement, it is much appreciated. I teach MFL, KS3-5. I am a bit torn with what to do about my school, as where I am currently is pretty challenging, with not a lot of support beyond department level, which is massively draining in itself, never mind being a fairly new teacher. But I get what you are saying about getting used to the systems/people too.

A job has come up at a grammar school very close to home, which I am v tempted to go for. Any thoughts / experience of grammar school teaching would be very welcome!

I did my first placement in a grammar, then also a year of maternity cover in the same place.

Pros - behaviour generally good, nice girls who mostly want to learn.

Cons - some parents were very demanding. Pressure on results. Our class sizes were big (33 in a middle set). Expectations of staff - I started having panic attacks that year because of the workload.

In this particular place, I wasn't sorry when my contract ended, but that is for a variety of reasons, mainly that I just didn't feel as if I fitted in, and I think that had more to do with the culture in the staffroom than anything else. I had loved it as a trainee though.

I taught in a grammar for 5 years after "training" there. I've put that in quotes because I essentially trained myself as I was the only subject specialist (sixth form subject). Similar experience to the previous poster - great students, occasionally tricky parents, huge class sizes (27 in one of my year 13 classes), brutal amounts of work, not many resources.

Thanks both, this is helpful

Thank goodness it's the holidays!!!

Couldn't agree more cats and I was lucky enough to gain an extra day due to the storm which was really lovely!!

Are most of you just starting your half term? We are just finishing ours. I think we have an earlier Easter holiday this year where Easter is the last weekend.

Beach Easter weekend is middle of our hols. Has meant a 7 week half term.

Hi everyone, hope you all enjoy the half term, or have had a good week if it was this week!
I've had covid and I think my isolation time is finished. But I'm still feeling breathless and exhausted (asthma is flaring up too).
Does anyone know where I stand in terms of my ĢP signing me off if needed? I don't feel well enough to go in on Monday. My partner teacher also has covid so I know they will ask me to teach 60 children at once, which is not helping me feel any better.

GPS have done this for some Republicans in the past.

@JanglyBeads that's good to know. I will see how my headteacher reacts and go from there.

If you're not well enough to teach - and go on teaching all week/term, you need to take sickness absence!

Your headteacher reaction isn't anything to do with how sick you are feeling, though.
I know it's hard but you have to decide if you are up to it or not and just stick to that.