Half term approaching!

Here comes half-term.

For some reason internet access is not working in school right now meaning I can’t get on with working on the SEF which for those of you who don’t follow school acronyms stands for Self-Evaluation Form. I should be working on that today as most other members of staff are involved with citywide INSET, in service training.

In the meantime I thought I’d update the blog.

Thirty Plus lost 2 - 1 on Monday in the start of the new season in 7 a side at Wimborne. We finished fourth out of 11 in the first season and aim to do just enough to avoid promotion where it is far too serious for us old ‘uns. Surprisingly I was told to play up front again having moved into defence on the grounds that I had the best touch and could hold the ball up which I’m sure should mean you are even worse at the back than you are up front.
The week at school started with tutor review interviews in which students talk with their tutors individually and that meant no formal lessons giving me time to work on SMT related matters, the TLR structure in particular. Sorry to keep using these abbreviations. The teaching and learning responsibilities requirements have meant us looking at the structure of the school in detail and planning for 2009. It has also meant the possibility of upsetting people as their salaries may fall as they do not qualify for a particular strand or they are unhappy about having no official responsibilities despite their salaries remaining the same.
Partly resulting from the above but for other reasons as well, my colleague Jim, who started here at the same time as me, has been for interview and been appointed Head of History at another school starting after Christmas. He will be greatly missed and his absence will leave a huge gap in the timetable with few prospects of appointing anyone until Easter.
The evening INSET on Weds was good and allowed me to meet Head of English and the Head of Humanities for their performance management interviews. There are so many meetings though! Today I have met with colleagues from another local school to talk to them about our inclusion room and the impact it has had on the school. I didn’t tell them about the girl yesterday who had water thrown over her because she kept winding the others up. She’s Year 7 and has no concept of how other people see her and is soooooo irritating.

The good news is that it is half-term after today and I have lots of plans to do very little.

The oral assessments on Romeo and Juliet have been fantastic in the main and allowed the students to score highly even if I did get a little bored doing 50 or so individual sessions with the same questions.