whispered said:

Low said:

UK guys and gals - is anybody else here totally stumped as to what's behind the cult following of a certain draconian Jacob Rees-Mogg?

Exactly! Mogg looks like a snooty, uppity caricature that'd you'd see on children's TV or like the Beano above. I feel like I've been condition to be wary of people like him, so why is he so damn popular?

Wow! Cutting Whisp.
All true though. She hasn't a fucking clue. I cannot remember a time when the ruling party and the cabinet was so full of either failures or complete psychos. The thought that BoJo meets important foreign leaders and represents this country and us as people is nonsense. The man is a public school bully and an arsehole to boot.
Rees Mogg is a frightmare, better suited to be a mortician or an undertaker.
And that's just the UK. EU commissioners? Out of touch. They do not have the best interests of the EU or its citizens at heart, just in making an example of the U.K. to force the other waverers, ( we are all looking at you Netherlands) into compliance and make them too scared to resist the growing federal aspirations of the block.
Then there's Trump and Pence. A loathsome mysogynistic bully and a closet homosexual with a beard for a wife who lied their way to power by telling the lowest common denominator of the American people what they wanted to hear, that Black people, LGBT and foriegners have been leeching off of the USA and holding them back from being the envy of every other nation in the world and achieving their goal of being the undisputed greatest nation on Earth.
Putin, Kim Jong Un ? We are truly in a black period of history and the sooner we carry out a course correction and navigate to anther path, the better for us all!

Well....the new job...what can I say....
Let's just say...the lady I was working with was an absolute treasure, we were hug buddies on day 1. She has worked in pupil referral units, prisons...and has never been through anything like the week we've just had. She was there four days and I didn't see her on Friday, no word since so I'm worried sick about her. Another supply teacher came in at short notice, experienced the feral behaviour of the five kids in question and the unsafe environment...grabbed her handbag and walked off announcing " I'm leaving". And by the end of my fifth day, Friday ( the 13th), I'd been hurt after using " positive handling" all week, which I'm not even meant to be doing after my operation; no one gave a damn, and I drove home to Tramadol and a large whisky in tears. Nothing more to say about a week I desperately need to put behind me. So many severely, and I mean, severely damaged kids. So many unsupported staff. So much ingratitude, unprofessionalism and lack of basic human decency.
So much optimism, not to mention my own expenses which I'll never recoup, thrown into something so pointlessly. I'm beyond devastated and struggling this weekend to keep my chins and pecker up.

Where are you working Kat out of interest? Is this is primary school, PRU, residential setting?

You do have to watch yourself especially with any challenging behaviour children. This us why on in principle i wouldn't apply for jobs in PRU's or prisons because I would be out of my depth.

Two people I know- one woman had been headbutted so many times she has lost part of her memory, and another had to go to A&E for concussion and stitches after trying to restrain a 14 year old boy with another member of staff.

Heck! Even a mainstream primary can be tough. If I was left in that situation I think i would be having words with the Head-Teacher.

Is this what you signed up to?

Have you asked for extra support? Spoken to the union? I think that would be step 1. S problem shared maybe a problem halved? Please be careful though with mixing drugs and alcohol.

Hope things get better.

They won't go willingly... Part of their twattery is that they're thinking they are right. Oh, and how self important they seem to be... Not easy task in sending them into space methinks.

This week I've been at home, apart from a little 1:1 tutoring and a day of supply teaching. Even that day however, sums up everything that is wrong with our education system today. I agreed, via the supply agency, to do a day's work at a good local school....only this day wasn't paid work, because it is considered " fir my benefit" to get introduced there. And even if I were lucky enough to be invited to return, they could only offer me a teaching assistant role. After 15 years as a heavily qualified specialist teacher, to be expected to accept this is ridiculous but some people are clearly ok with it and the whole system has now become exploitative and insecure. It's called Academisation by the way. Even the TA I spoke to at that school, who loved working there because the kids were very well behaved, was unhappy because all the staff are kept on short term contracts not knowing until the eleventh hour if they will be renewed. Meanwhile, the big wigs at the top of the academy chains, often business men with no or little knowledge or experience of actual teaching, are making huge amounts of money...upwards of £200k a year in many cases. So called "Pupil Premium" money, which is allocated to the most vulnerable children, is frequently being Mis- spent- and schools nowadays seem to only want to employ young NQTs who are cheaper and malleable, and quite likely to not see their fifth year in the profession, so they can be recycled again. I think I've summarised for you Iuventus what I've been meaning to rant to you about for a long time!
As for your question above Serenity, no point even asking- that school was in such a deplorable mess. I see Channel 4 is screening a programme next Thursday about " feral families" and I'll be watching that with interest. A considerable amount of money is being poured into home schooling support for families who either choose to take their kids out of the system or who are excluded. ( not the kind of kids I'm tutoring by the way). Things started going wrong in education about 20 years ago IMO, and some families now expect to be funded for ducking the system and wearing that " choice" as a badge of honour.
Yes I know this is a bitter rant and I'm obviously fully supportive of children and their families with genuine difficulties and special needs, but there seems to be a third stream nowadays - the unteachables.
I could go on, but better not lol! I'm in a happy mood today folks ( in case you were wondering!!) and going to enjoy a brisk Autumnal walk in a howling gale shortly. Wind always makes me antsy. ( don't be juvenile anyone).
Oh, and last comment...7 year olds kicking seven bells out of each other and yelling " you gay! / lesbian" at each other? It's the parents who need the education but the system has failed everyone for 20 years.
Scarf!!! hat!!! Hip flask!!! dogs!!! Valium!!!

Jeez above Kat!! I've got to be honest. In my last current job in an inner city school, it was a bit of a mess when i started there. Nobody had a real grip on what needed doing. The class teacher was stressed up to her beck so I couldn't approach her with any queries. A very kind man who is a HLTA showed me the ropes. I'm very happy to say we had ni children shouting out abusive language like what you have mentioned??

They are getting that from somewhere and its not pretty.

As for what TAs actually do- let's just say we're not far away from a teacher. Seriously. We are ecpected to marks books, follow the lesson planning, carry out Afl checks, assist with summative and formative assessments, update working walls in the school time (like we actually have time for that), attend parents evening (which i dont see the point of) and cluster moderation inset days.

Teachers now want to step down, also NQTs don't want to teach. They see the shit storm that's right in front of them. I also know a modern foreign languages teacher who us on a zero hours contract. Piss take or what.

I'm finding out Kat that schools are very callous places. I am a user on the TES Community and some of the posts are shocking. Teachers being pulled up on lesson observation because kids didn't make enough progress in the lesson. You know all sorts of bullshit reasons.

I'm not even a teacher yet might as well be one!!