Disaster

An unusual day at school today with three separate occasions on which I was thanked. It doesn’t happen often, and certainly not as frequently as being aware that others are not happy with what has been happening, so I thought it worth a mention.

Library pay scales resolved at last. Several years ago, at least 4, the jobs done by staff with the local authority were regarded. No one lost out in school in respect of less money but the differentials between some staff were eroded and in the process some people felt that they should be reclassified anyway so that they were on a higher scale. Appeals to the council, to the Governors etc have followed and now we have finally reached a point where everyone is happy. I have had to work so long to get to this point it would have been far cheaper to have given the scale requested four years ago.

The school office – a very difficult situation here with people’s livelihoods at stake but now also resolved. I can’t say too much more about that other than it is another big worry out of the way.

Progress in the English Department and clearer understanding of the steps needed to progress further.


Cricket catastrophe

Glen’s bad knee prevented him from cricket practice in the morning and he and Tom had the opportunity to continue playing Pro Evolution Soccer etc. That meant I got the new shredder out again and helped compost some prunings from the garden. Alison had got two enormous compost bins delivered and by the end of the weekend they are almost full.

The shredder works fine now, needs patience to take time over putting the thing in, but it does a good job. The best thing was that it was actually hot and I was able to look forward to the cricket hoping we’d build on last week’s improvement.

We played over at Bashley Rydal and were missing three players from the previous week. The all weather surface offered little to the bowlers despite good opening figures from Dan and myself. They were scoring slowly but not losing wickets. On a fast outfield and with little assistance from the conditions they ended up on 187 off their 42 overs but with only 4 wickets down, all taken by Mike.

Feeling quite pleased with this we started our reply quite optimistically but what followed was truly awful. We were all out for 54 which was pitiful. Nigel went after a huge slog in the first over and set the tone being bowled through the huge gap he left. Five of the team got a duck including me although I am going to excuse myself. My first ball was guided to fine leg for an easy single but it was refused by the other batsman. I felt a little annoyed at that as he ought to have confidence in my ability to hold up an end. He then ran me out in the next over with a stupid call especially given the match position. I should have stayed where I was and not run but there you go, I did and was comprehensively out.

There was a long inquest after the game with everyone given the chance to talk about what they saw as the problems and why this was happening. Perhaps it will help but until we start batting properly, our bowling which is good, will have nothing to aim at. On the plus side the spirit in the team is good and everyone felt they would prefer to play for our side than the opposition who were bullied at almost every turn by their captain. However, that discipline and sense of purpose could be useful to us as a team unless it is simply going to be a social thing. Very, very depressing. Lets see how football goes on Monday.


Alison was at car boot sale with Sandra on Sunday. They made quite a bit of money while I got on with cutting the hedges and shredding in the bright sunshine. I’d already cleaned out Glen’s fish which are doing well. He was with Tom and had made off to go fishing but that doesn’t start at Moors Valley for another few weeks so he spent the day with Tom and friends down at Potterne Park.

His fish, pictured on the site, are made up of: -

6 neon tetra
4 black widow tetra
2 rainbow tetra
a rainbow shark
Nobby

I’m not sure what Nobby is but he is the biggest fish in the aquarium now and feeds at the bottom. He is fairly quiet most of the time just getting excited by the other fish rushing around at feeding time.

Monday.

After teaching Year 8 I have spent the remainder of the day in the inclusion room. Including break and lunch that is from 9.30 to 2.30 and it has become very boring. You can only do so much marking and preparation. I’ve got most of them reading now which they enjoy. Two are reading Beowulf: Dragonslayer by Rosemary Sutcliffe, one is reading Abomination by Robert Swindells and the other The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp .