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Similar where I am.

I'll also add that my own kids, when their bubbles have been out (Y10 & Y9), their school has supplied a full timetable via Teams from the following day. For example, if they've been sent home on the Tuesday then remote learning has started on the Wednesday. Full lessons with classwork on Show My Homework etc.

The privacy issue is bolloxs. I have my camera on with a California background or with it blurred if I have to stream from home until I share my screen. At work I just leave it running with my laptop camera pointing towards me and my Smartboard is shared via teams when I start the lesson proper so that's all they see until I share another page. Kids joining have mics and cameras off. I choose when their mics can go on. If they have a question, it goes in the chat box. Kids having access is a genuine issue. I have plenty whose only access is a phone and the data on their contracts/PAYG and there is little doubt that they have suffered. Even after supplying laptops etc we found out we had 28 kids with no wifi at home. The most disadvantaged have paid a higher price academically. The whole virtual learning/streaming thing has been a massive learning curve and there is little doubt that some places have done a better job than others. Plenty of it is been about how capable the staff have been to a whole new world. My younger staff have driven it as they've a better grasp of the digital universe. Us oldies have been the content experts. When we've got stuck we've worked with other schools and colleges to find a workable answer We are on our 3rd version. We've tried stuff, seen it's not working, and been brave enough to bin it and start again. It's been a huge workload, with no government guidance at all but we've made it work. We've even managed to get a full set of GCSE assessments in electronically via our virtual platform, from those bubbles in isolation (I'm supposed to be marking right now but the CBA has kicked in). When this is all over and my institution and colleagues take stock, we will know that we did our utmost and played our part. Not just academically, but in supplying food parcels for those in need, for offering a safe haven, be it a somewhere where parents could find help, or somewhere where the neglected to take a hot shower and get a hot meal and it's a record we rightly going to be proud of.

We, and many of the local secondary schools, have taken the decision to be remote only the 1st week back after term. Everyone is anticipating shit loads more cases after the inevitable mixing over Xmas and NY. This gives an opportunity for quarantine etc and act as a local firebreak. I'll be in work and delivering via teams from my room so I can use the Smartboard etc but none of the students, bar the vulnerable/key workers/LAC etc will be in.

Without a doubt it's improved and you very rarely hear anything racist in the grounds and when it does happen it tends to get called out straight away. I'm not sure we should be celebrating not throwing bananas at players though even though I understand and agree with the point made. What I will say though is that as middle aged white males we need to check our privilege in every now and then and pay heed to those who don't share it so we can understand the issues that they do, most certainly, face and perhaps help change mindsets. You know I grew up in Bitterne and my neighbour and very good friend was mixed race. Both of us worked our nuts off to make something of our lives, and I know you have too. Both of us suffered massive ups and downs along the way. When I spoke to him in the summer during the height of the BLM stuff he said something I'd not really considered. He said that yes, we'd both come from disadvantaged backgrounds, been poor, overlooked, council house scum but I'd always have one advantage that he'd never had, the colour of my skin. That whilst we'd both worked hard, his slope had been steeper than mine and he'd had to prove himself over and over again. Looking back, he was correct, I just didn't see it. One of my colleagues is an Asian fella, early 30s, 4th generation Brit. Drives a nice Merc. Stopped by the OB on numerous occasions in the Potteries, even on his way to work. I've never been stopped in my car, nor has anyone else I work with who is white but the West Indian lad who works here has. Both have been stopped this term. Both times the OB used the "County Lines" excuse. It's this sort of stuff that perhaps we've been blind to. It's certainly less obvious to our demographic, whether by ignorance, wilful or otherwise or simply because we cannot fathom that this sort of thing happens in a world what we don't populate but it does happen and it is based on race. It's these sort of things that need to be addressed and if players taking a knee helps people realise that racism is still alive and that action still needs to be taken, regardless of the progress made, then I'm good with that.

Anyone Wiltshire way know if Stonehenge can be accessed by a road bike without using the A303?

Just coming back from injury though so never going to be razor sharp straight away.

Should have won. Weren't ruthless enough. It's as if we don't believe we should be up there.

I've recently just gotten rid of the family 7 seater which had served us well and racked up 140,000 miles and taken us across Europe countless times Treated myself to a Jaguar XF, clearly not new as I'm not insane and bonkers cheap with less than 50k on the clock. Fucking lovely it is too. I'd always wanted a Jag so I thought why not. I'm middle aged and lower middle class so the perfect demographic. I (we) also have a Fiat 500 Sport which is a great car for running around town.

Where I work the staff are VERY unionised but union membership is secondary to the needs of the kids. The union rep is in my team. Locally the unions, Academy Trusts, councils, governing bodies, staff, parents, everyone, have worked together to try and make things work and learnt from each others mistakes, especially same curriculum areas across the city/region. Cross school/college collaboration has exploded. This has meant that issues have been ironed out quickly and everyone is trying to keep the kids and staff safe and engaged. We had an OFSTED "visit" week before last to look at online learning and how we've managed T&L during the pandemic and the kids couldn't praise us highly enough. That'll do me.

And that the cultists best stock up on ammo etc.

I've streamed every lesson on my timetable since March for those not in class via Teams and the kids "attend". In effect teaching two classes simultaneously which has been a serious learning curve, as has learning what works and doesn't work in a virtual world. Even last week when I was in Track and Trace prison I taught every session from home. My wife has done/does the same. When my daughters bubbles have been out they've had a full timetable. Neither of them, Y10 & Y9 feel they missed anything. Not ideal but around me the schools and colleges have worked their nuts off to make things work.

The cultists are having a proper meltdown on Parler about MM. Deep State traitor and RINO apparently.

Apart from FB cover, what do we really need in terms of signings? Not likes, actual needs?

Yep, resulted in open heart surgery. Had a re-occurrence whilst at Villa.

Thing is, he doesn't wind us up, none of them do. They just sound like an even denser version of IDS. They just remind me why I don't speak to my aging male relatives.

No, we were waiting for the kids to finish secondary school and then we were going. Thankfully my wife's skills set will allow us to still go anywhere, we know how lucky we are in that respect.

Better get used to it as they're not going to stop it whether the EDL types like it or not.

As easy as you'll get. Didn't even need to get out of 2nd gear.

I'm not sure I remember armed militias turning up at tory households or the homes of election officials.

UK election = Pissed off people blowing off steam. Sore losers granted but not calling it fraud etc. US election = POTUS and the GOP refusing to accept the results of the election, attempting to reverse it and inciting followers to armed intervention and talking about seceding from the Union. A bit more than sore losers.

By another trade deal you mean another roll over deal that gives us the same terms as we already have? You're obvious only a 30w bulb in a LED world.

Many an aging mans wank fantasy.

No matter what side of the fence you are, the situation we currently find ourselves in at this time, is a fuck up of mammoth proportions.

It's to do with the traditional pause that takes place between presidencies, a tradition going back 150 years. Trump has decided to ignore this and push ahead with federal executions.