NPQH

It was the school based assessment part of the qualification for headship which meant I had an assessor in for the day in a very formal 6 hour inspection to check lots of documentation I'd had to gather together over the past 6 months and to interview three witnesses in addition to an hour long interview with me. I hadn't expected the visit to be quite so thorough or rigorous and the woman conducting it was completely without humanity! That much I'd be warned of to be fair but it was strange to have so many people come up to me after I'd taken her on a tour of the school, saying how intimidating she was.

I feel confident the work I've done stands up to scrutiny but some of the questions she asked were totally unexpected such as the fixed items in the school budget and their proportions. My answer to the latter was at least correct but I was left feeling that at least passing the thing would be of some value because up to that point I'd thought it was just a paper exercise given the desperation for potential headteachers. I don't hear the outcome for a while, probably the start of the summer holidays which, despite the way, Matt and Dougie etc feel, are still some way off. I mean we don't have another holiday for at least another three weeks!

The next part will be a residential visit to a hotel in the New Forest in October followed by a final assessment which won't be as demanding as this. She did ask when the residential was and when I told her Alison was expecting then she advised me to let the centre know as soon as possible which may indicate she thinks I'll be put forward for it.

Cricket starts tomorrow and hopefully the weather will hold for another day before the Bank Holiday rain strikes.