School thoughts

Nice trip bowling yesterday evening rewarding students with good attendance. Highlight was the Year 8 who said his favourite arcade machine was by the entrance. It turned out to be the change machine and scarily was not meant to be a joke.

Romeo and Juliet with two groups has gone down extremely well. It's been interesting seeing the way the two classes react differently. With one it's full of volunteers to read and people wanting to give answers to questions while the other which I have just taken over is far more reserved. It might be that they aren't used to me yet but seems much more to do with the group being dominated by four 'lads'. They aren't badly behaved but they exert influence within the class, something they did not accept.

In the lesson following my raising of this I'd asked one student to keep a record for the first half a lesson to see where my direction was focussed. The results where very clear and demonstrated that I interacted with them at the expense of the others to a large degree. Whether I created that in expectation of that outcome I don't know. I was conscious of it and perhaps made an effort to go the other way. It's something for me to work on.

We've had Raodrunners in this week and they've been fantastic. They have worked with about 50 Year 11 students a day in small groups with workshops on health and safety including first aid, financing and the law regarding driving as well as an opportunity for students to drive a car for the first time. (Some of them have had quite a lot of practice to be honest!) They were universally thrilled to have had the chance to drive demonstrated by events first thing this morning when I told two of them they would not be able to take part due to poor behaviour the previous day. The girl cried while the boy was close to tears and there followed a lengthy lecture about consequences of actions which they ought to bear in mind in future. Given the one off nature of the project they were able to take part in the end but will be isolated on Monday instead. It is important they still complete the sanction.