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.