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Last weekend we took Joe up to Coventry for the start of his Sociology course at the university. The place impressed me more than I'd thought it would although sadly it was the wrong weekend in some ways as Argyle are playing there right now and have just gone one nil up. I could have gone and watched them. The best thing is that his block is right opposite the student union - I think that's a good thing (fingers crossed!).

His room is quite small but meals are provided which should save a bit of time and ensure he gets something proper to eat and he's got into the swing of things with the Fresher's Week. He's joined the Environment Society having recently been up at Drax protesting against the power station there. Also struck up a friendship with an Irish guy who is part of an up and coming band. I'll copy in a link to them later.

http://www.pintshotriot.co.uk/

Bridie is enjoying her access course and has started getting prospectuses through to take a degree in Psychology. She likes the look of Plymouth!

Glen is playing lots of sport, even rugby yesterday. He's had two school matches this week, one win and one defeat, and plays in the cup for Rossgarth tomorrow. It should be a confidence boosting win as the opposition are 2 leagues below them.

Alison is enjoying school working with the Year 1 children and received her first ever pay slip yesterday!

School is going well for me too. As mentioned in previous post, I'm starting this qualification to become a Headteacher. It is compulsory if you want to take up a headship. I was meant to do it a while back but deferred entry. To be honest I really wouldn't want to be a head but no harm in being prepared.

Catching up

It's been a while since I wrote about anything other than football really, certainly since any photos so as I'm sat here on a wet Saturday afternoon I thought I'd do some catching up. The others are in Bournemouth shopping while I've been marking some 'Inspector Calls' essays and preparing for the start of NPQH course. I've just cut the grass out the back but the rain started before I could do the front. In the meantime I've taken down the swing seat which officially marks the end of summer.

The photos show the various pets starting with Rolo (ginger male) and Jellybean (tabby female), kittens we've had for a couple of months now making it 4 cats and 2 dogs. Air freshener is essential at times in our house! The you've got Billy who came from Yorkshire as did the kittens. He was rescued by the RSPCA and has taken quite a while to gain some confidence. He's asleep on my bed right now. Rosie and Maisie are sat on the table in the dining room so they can see who's coming up the garden path and bark at them.

The final 2 pictures are of a dragonfly which hatched out of our pond. The shed skin of the larval stage looks very fierce and finally the adult resting before taking to the skies for the first time.

Three in a row

Iscape won again last night to make it two league wins and one cup win in the last three games, a massive improvement after such abject performances of late. However, in truth we should have anhilated the opposition last night who were truly awful. The space and time we had meant most of us spending too long contemplating individual glory rather than playing for the team. People pushed up too far, held on to the ball for slightly too long or failed to play the simple ball.

Having said that we could have scored more. Hen was largely unoccupied throughout the game although he could have come for the cross which led to the goal. By that time we were 3 up with goals from myself 2 and Dom 1. We hit the frame of the goal on 4 occasions, one from Kev with a crashing drive tipped onto the bar by the keeper and the other 3 from me, a left footed effort from the edge of the 'D', a flicked header from a throw in and a right footed effort round a crowd of players.

Hen Dom Dom 1 Matt I Dougie Kev Iain 2 (3)

Spare a thought for Glen. His newly promoted team lost their third in a row. This time they were thumped 10 nil by Blandford. They included a 6 foot tall 12 year old in their line up who looked like he'd been down the pub for a few pints at lunchtime. He scared the hell out of Rossgarth. Glen had a good game believe it or not, after a shaky start. Very pleased with his effort and success in commiting two great fouls.

One nil to Iscape

At last, a league win after two humiliating games. Building on the cup win last week, we won a hard fought game by a single goal. Given that the opposition had so many shots on goal, it was a slightly fortuitous win but one we are happy to accept. Especially so as they had won 2 of their opening 3 fixtures.

The goal came midway through the first half and owed much to a pass from Dave to Dougie in midfield and his carefully threaded ball to me meandering toward goal. Despite the two defenders I was able to slot the ball under the advancing keeper. One goal and equal top scorer with Matt C. What a team!

League victory!!!

We won our first league game on Monday, the third attempt of a spectacularly unsuccessful start to a new season. Given the opposition had won two of their three games it was never going to be easy but we thrashed them 1 - 0. They must have had twice the shots we did but they couldn't hit a barn door which left us somewhat fortunate victors.

Hen played despite short notice and the disposal of half a bottle of wine prior to kick off, Kevin was back from safari taking in the wildlife of Zanzibar amongst other places, Matt C was busy and Dave returned from last week's working absence. That meant considerable change to the side which won in the cup last week but we competed well enough although the passing was pretty dire throughout. The exception was the goal which came midway through the first half. Dave squared to Dougie in the centre of the field who threaded a pass to me which had to be accurate given the attentions of two defenders. The ball sat up nicely for an outside of the right foot finish which beat the keeper at the far post.

Hen Matt I Dom F Dom Kev Dougie Dave Iain 1

Matt and I are now equal top scorers on one apiece!

The magic of the cup

After last week's debacle, Iscape found some form at last in the latest cup game last night. For the first time we were drawn to play a team in our division and never looked to be in trouble. Whether that reflected our great play or their inadequacies can be debated but they did beat us last time out in the league.

No Kev or Dave meant a starting and finishing line up of: -

Hen Dom Dom Matt Matt Dougie and myself

We started well finding lots of space and unusually, one of our own team when passing the ball. In something of a revolution Dom and Matt I had plotted a change in formation over the weekend with Matt C pushing forward to boost our goal threat. He is our only goalscorer in the league after the opening two games. Perhaps Kev's position is in jeopardy following this decision but it certainly paid off.

The first goal came from a slick passing move involving most of the team and saw Dom smash home from an acute angle from close in, a tidy finish which went in off the far post. Surprisingly the opposition fought back albeit from a slight mistake in midfield by us. Dougie mistook a call of time for an instruction to trap the ball five yards away from himself and in the direction of our goal. The striker found himself unopposed in front of goal and beat Hen to his right. For a few moments the game was more equal and Hen had to save smartly near the end of the first half.

In the second half we were awarded a dubious penalty for a kick on Matt C as both palyers went in for a high ball. Taking responsibility, Matt duly hit the ball to the keeper's left and found the pace and height to beat him comfortably. More good fortune followed with a long ball contested in the 'D'. Sandwiched between two defenders, I hope I contributed to the one nearest goal heading home into his own net. From thereon in it was plain sailing. Dougie had plenty of strikes on goal as we passed and moved as if we'd played before. I think actually having a couple of games in a row has helped, the weeks off were doing us no favours.

The final goal saw another assist from Matt who headed clear at a corner with just minutes remaining. You'll have to believe the following on trust but Matt says it happened. I picked the ball up in our half and waited for the defender to come closer before lifting the ball over him. I actually outpaced him!!!!! and showed some strength to power toward goal before hitting home with aplomb. The referee was very pleased as always to see us win.

On the other hand, Glen's first game in league 1 saw Rossgarth lose 6 - 1. They competed well for the first half, only 2 - 1 down then and playing well against a good side. Their class told though in the second half but hopefully the boys will have learnt a lot against a team who finished fourth last year.

Back to school blues

The title's something of a misnomer as it's actually good to be back and having to teach. The best part of teaching is being in the classroom and I haven't taught a full class since May, the best part of four months ago. I've got to know my two new groups, Year 11 only again meaning I'm going to have no teaching by May next year, and it's been good fun. It would be nice to be able to do more classroom teaching but there are lots of management things to do.

We had a management meeting yesterday which finished just after 6.30 having begun at 3 and covered a lot of ground. Today has been about following that up and it takes time. That makes time in class impossible.

The blues part of it comes from some of the kids I guess but even they seem more settled. This continues the trend from last year when the school went through something of a sea change in attitudes. We're on course now to get our best ever results next year having achieved our best results for 9 years with the latest crop.

However, there are still moments when it all hits the fan. After three days, one of the new students has started a fight on his first day, been abusive to staff on his second and been excluded on his third. He'd been deprived of his coke can, the law makes it illegal for us to provide drinks and sweets like that, and kicked off big time as a result. He spat and booted out at everything, swore and was incredibly agitated. He'd told me he'd been sent home from previous schools a couple of times but it turns out he's been expelled from 2 Junior Schools. Should be an easy nut to crack.

Iscape Slaughtered - we were pants!

Not having played for the past few weeks could be used as an excuse for the drubbing we received but it doesn't really allow for the fact that we were thoroughly outplayed. The final result leaves Matt as top scorer still as we failed to test the keeper in losing 7 - 0, perhaps it was 8 - 0. It was difficult to keep track as the opposition played well as much as played poorly. They kept the ball well and moved into space and had no weak links to exploit.

It was a very disheartening performance although I can honestly say that no one had a bad game as such.

There is a cup game next week with the league resuming the week after. We need to get back on track soon. Kev is currently on safari in Africa and will be back for the league games. Maybe that will make a difference.

Back to school

We actually went back to school on Friday with our best results for 9 years giving everyone a much needed boost on this difficult day, the one where we all wish the sun was still shining and the six week break was only just beginning. As it was they had to listen to me going on about raising standards still further over the next school year and getting them to identify students who will make a difference to our results. We're comfortably in the top 25% of schools nationally in respect of progress made and the targets would put us in the top 10% if achieved.

Then it was into departments for the rest of the day allowing us to prepare for the arrival of the kids. Today didn't see them come back as it was another training day with goal mapping as our theme. It was as interesting as I'd feared and can be summed up as setting goals and going about achieving them through positive thinking almost fooling the sub conscious into accepting that success is inevitable. We were invited to 'rub our own genie' so our wishes were granted. Did you know that 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the workforce in any workplace? And that the 20% can be divided again into 20% of them outperforming others although their skills may be only a few points better than the others? And that even they only perform at their best for 29% of the time?

It was sometimes akin to something David Brent might come up with and of course, pictures are the key. They reinforce the message to the sub conscious so you ought to draw your goals as well as write them down.

After the school day had finished it was time to meet the new staff and go through part of their induction process. As there were 5 of them it was comforting to know that only one of them would be worthwhile and then only for a short period of time but I refrained from advising them not to bother coming in again.

Then onwards to a meeting with Year Leaders followed by a meeting with the new Head of English to discuss data recording and analysis. It's all good fun.

The goal Bernard had had was to get of his piles but the picture accompanying his goal mapping prevents me from elaborating further on the grounds of decency. Mine is unlikely as Plymouth Argyle have enough ageing forwards to keep them going for sometime yet. I have yet to fool my sub conscious sufficiently and will strive to be more positive starting with Iscape's fixture tonight.

Rossgarth Kick Off

Glen's team played a friendly on Saturday as they prepare for the start of the new season, their first in the top division. Despite being without top striker Eric and midfield dynamo Rob, they won by a single goal to nil. The game was played in the traditional wind and rain, although to be honest the games in the last two seasons have begun in sunshine on pitches like dustbowls.

Glen played really well in the new position of right back having switched from the left. He has improved enormously and looks one of the best in the team now which is great for his confidence. It isn't that long ago that I had to mop up the tears after training when no one would pass to him because he was rubbish. Now he feels fully part of the team. I also realise why no one ever passed to me now!

On that note, thanks for the message Paul. Iscape are back in action on Monday with a full match report to follow. Wow!! Remember, these reports are exclusive to this website.

WORLD EXCLUSIVES!!!!!!!

Our Day Out at Longleat

Bank Holiday Monday and it was time to use up the remainder of our tickets from the previous visit to Longleat. We left nice and early and avoided the crowds and were able to enjoy the successful conclusion of our tour of the maze - for the first time in lots and lots of attempts, we managed to find our way to the centre and the first picture provides the proof. High above the hedges it was possible to see the route and to understand just how the paths lead all over the place. There really isn't any pattern to follow (none of this 'just keep turning left or right' rubbish).

We fed the Sea Lions and got some half decent views of the two gorillas. By half decent I mean you could make out there was something big, black and hairy sat down doing nothing. Insert 'joke' about someone you know here - in my case it would be Keith.

There was also an enchanted garden. Woooooo! It was the mystical garden full of fairies (Keith could be mentioned again if you like) and goblins, not forgetting the fire breathing dragon which is the thing behind Bridie and Georgina.

We love Longleat.