Greece Baby!

I'm going to Greece tomorrow, yippee!
We're going here:

Lefkas (Levkas, Lefkada, Leucas) is a small Greek island off the north-western coast of the mainland. South of Corfu, north of Ithaca and Cephalonia, Lefkas isn't part of the Cyclades, but instead holds a proximate position to the Preveza Perfecture. As such, Levkas has recently seen a boost in tourism and travel to the area. However, it still remains largely unspoilt. And it's supposed to be wicked sailing out there! Am very excited :) So much so that I'm not too daunted by our crazy check-in time of 0440.

My excitement is only limited by the fact that my crazy Snack Acca is over here from New York with my uncle too. I love her, she's just so funny! Alas she's only here for a week and so I won't get to see her apart from today. Hopefully she'll be back soon to promote her amazing book, which is being released in the spring.


Ok, I don't know that it's actually amazing, but it's based to an extent on the trials and tribulations of my family, so obviously that'll make interesting reading for me! Plus I know all about the different types of marriage, particularly arranged vs love. Weird how those two things are mutually exclusive. Well, not weird, just kinda sad. Anyway, I hope it doesn't lead to some huge family fall-out type thing since we've had more than enough of those thank you very much. You can check the amazon preview here.

You know what though? I just checked the US amazon for her book and there it costs $11.16, but in the UK it costs £12.99! What a shocker, that's more than double the price, how can that be?!

In other news I have finally finished watching Grey's Anatomy seasons 1 & 2, and now am desperate to get hold of season 3. I am also contemplating starting Jade's West Wing collection, but this could be risky since I have to leave for dinner soon (well, in 4 hours, but that's soon in TV land).

Enjoy the last week of the summer holidays, fingers crossed for sunshine!

GCSE Results; Spain Fun; Stephen Fry + Bipolar Disorder

It's GCSE results day. Our kids reached 27% 5 A*-Cs, including English and Maths, which is really pretty great for us! Am even more psyched by the 41% A*-Cs in maths, and the 85% in statistics! Go maths department!

I guess from that last sentence you've figured I'm back in the UK. Spain was heavy. I love JIj, and not just cos of her house in Spain, but also because she is an awesome cook and all round wicked host. We all had an excellent time - sun, pool, drinking, eating, scrabble, all my favourites! Finally, what a holiday's meant to be about. There were 8 of us over there in total: Jij, Sprouse, Mouche, two of Sprouse's chemistry buddies from my college, and two Furies from this year's team. A really stellar bunch, with enough opportunities for drama to keep it interesting :) I particularly liked getting to know the people there that I didn't really know too well before. Heard some stories that you wouldn't believe, although out of respect for the tellers I won't repeat them on here. And when I say respect for the tellers, I mean respect - that's some hardcore stuff some of these people are chatting about. But aside from the stories and all that, we really did have a great time...am gutted my camera batteries ran out, else I could show you the photos from the fun. When will I actually use this camera properly?

Am also gutted to be back in England with all the rain and wind and autumn-ness...what's going on eh? Good thing I'll be away again this weekend :) Busy times ahead...have a wedding tomorrow afternoon, then my cousin and uncle fly in Saturday morning, it's Puja's birthday dinner on Sat night, and then we fly out to Greece before 7am on Sunday morning. Nicey nicey. Will be back the Sunday before school starts...I'm very grateful for the two days of inset!

So, before I pack up for the night, I want to ramble a bit about this excellent documentary we were watching on BBC4 after dinner. It was called Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive. Unfortunately we'd missed the first episode of this two-parter, but nevertheless it made very good viewing. The whole thing was extremely insightful, featuring many famous and not-so famous manic depressives, of all ages and places, talking about how they'd been diagnosed, what bipolar disorder had done for their lives, how they'd learnt to cope etc. I didn't even know that Stephen Fry was bipolar, but clearly from the programme, which featured his both manic and depressive episodes, he's not really what you could call a "mild" sufferer. Still, he refuses to take medication, feeling that chemical changes would dull his mental state. It was interesting that when those interviewed were asked whether they'd get rid of their bipolarity entirely if they could, they all said no. I guess the buzz of the mania is just too good. I also found it interesting about the importance of diet, and how one woman claimed she could control her episodes by eating enough oily fish. I wonder if this is true?

Anyway, this programme has got me thinking a bit. I'd like to watch the other part too, just to see what it was all about. Obviously I'm not self-diagnosing myself, that would be too dramatic, heehee, but I think there are parts of this that cut a little close to the bone. Hmmm. I wouldn't really delve into this too much further, except the statistic that one in nine people, when left untreated, commit suicide. Don't worry, that would never happen to me, I'm scared of paper-cuts, let alone slitting my wrists! But on the other hand, I don't really care too much about death, I don't fear it or anything, which perhaps is odd.

Ok, now my rambling is disturbing me, so I will go back to the chatter about Spain and how much fun it was. Oh, except that I discovered that I am capable of jealousy, which was distressing. I wonder now though, can you be jealous of someone when you're not even sure you want what they have?

I'm such a weirdo today. I blame it on the fancy reserve that we had with dinner, it was just too tasty tasty to not be filled with something dodgy. I also think it is weird that I have labeled this post "weird things"...perhaps I too harbour some stigma about mental health and villas in Spain?

A-Level Day

It's A-Level results day. A day of celebrations and commiserations. I remember something about it making or breaking us when I was back at school. Perhaps a little too much emphasis on the significance of it all.

I don't really know what it feels like to collect exam results - I've never done it. They've always been posted to me, and back in the day I was always having too much fun in the summer to worry. Besides, confidence (or naivety) meant any worries I could have had were swiftly neutralised. But no doubt across the country kids today have had that A-Level feeling, sinking or otherwise.

Apparently one in four A-Levels this year was at grade A. I'd hate to join the "dumbing down" crew, but how is this possible? According to the BBC 43.7% of maths A-Level candidates were awarded an A. For the non-mathematicians out there, that's more than two-fifths of all entrants. Not quite the Normal distribution. The biggest gains in performance were in private and grammar schools. No worries though, apparently comprehensives and colleges had the most improved E grades. Nice to see we're all improving on the same level.


I heard a worrying thing today. Edexel are rumoured to be threatening to send the exam performances of teachers to the parents of exam candidates. By that I mean class by class breakdowns of the grades each class achieved through the teaching of their teacher. This is simply awful - how can the entire responsibility of a child's education (by education I mean exam performance...sad that I can equate the two) be pinned upon the teacher? Surely the parents, and, I dunno, maybe even the child himself, should take on some of the liability?

And finally, the other day, when I was a bit hammered, I went and posted bids on eBay for a load of mobile phones. Thankfully I was outbid on all but one of them, for which I duly stumped up the cash. It arrived today but I'm feeling guilty about using it right now because I'm convinced it has been stolen. There are songs and contacts and photos of people and profiles and everything stored on there. Someone's whole "phone" life. I reckon if it was really the seller's phone, he would have deleted all of that stuff himself. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise that eBay is the perfect forum for stolen goods. But rather than raising my suspicions with the vendor, or indeed with eBay, I've just deleted all traces of the previous owner. Does that make me a criminal too?

Last day of internship tomorrow, then a bit of viva Espana till Thurs. Will be back with banter then :) See, I can still smile with a guilty conscience.

The Weekend in Food

I have spent the weekend with people who are not my friends. It has been awesome!

Let me qualify that...by "not my friends" I mean people who haven't quite gotten deep down into my strange little world. As such, banter prevails, and thus I am free to invent myself as I wish. I love talking about inconsequential things like war strategies, Scrubs season 6, and the pros and cons of rose wine. I guess when you get close to people these discussions take a new turn.

Since I have been injured with THE KNEE that stops me running and doing other fun exercises, I have got myself a new hobby. Eating.

So the weekend in food:

BBQ on Sat at G's birthday gathering, including chicken kebabs, grilled haloumi, and chocolate creme fraiche with summer berries. Then, laaaater on Sat, pizza and salad. And in the early hours, chips and chicken and pigeon kebab that my brother had got out of the local chippy after chattering in arabic with the owners. Classy.

Lunch on Sun with the lovely A and co. Moroccan chicken with spicy couscous and green leaf salad, followed by apple crumble and cream and custard. Lots of wine too. Laaaater on Sun, BBQ AGAIN at a family friend's birthday thing. Yum yum including banoffee pie, brie stuffed potato skins, spicy jerk chicken, and home made apple chutney.

I am stuffed, and also a bit hammered. Oh dear, it's not a good time for bikini-wearing!

PS Before you get excited, no, I'm not typing this in a bikini...I'm in my pyjamas!

Life in the office

I am half-way through my internship. So far...

Pros:

• finishing at 5pm and not having to think about work
• nowhere near as much stress
• being around adults and recent graduates
• working in the city
• managing my own work
• good people to work with (for the most part)
• exciting ideas

Cons:

• unclear aims and objectives (for my project anyway)
• confusing leadership
• working at a desk by myself all day is BORING!
• laziness + junk food habit
• no sense of achieving anything (well, not as regularly as you feel it in school)
• not doing as much "good"
• limited interaction
• working till 5pm
• commuting on the tube for an hour at peak time
  
• office politics

So far I am not sure what we have really done, but it's good to be exposed to the CSR world. Besides, it's the start of a one-year long project, which sounds like it'll be pretty influential with regards to business-education partnerships, so I will stay positive. But I'm not sure I could do something like this long-term...although I guess I'm not sure about doing anything long-term. Commitment-shy? Oh yes!

Facebook Dependency

Grrr.

I was in the middle of doing some "Facebook Work" when the silly site shut down for maintenance. How annoying! I have four Scrabble games that are awaiting my move. Yes, alright, you can shout geek at me from afar. But really, it is very annoying when the site's down. Almost the same as when you can't get to your email or something takes aaaages to download. Humph. Impatience is a virtue right?

In other news, we had the most awesome picnic on Sunday. I'll post the pictures up from that as soon as I can sneak my bro's camera cable.

Today I definitely realised that I would struggle to work independently in an office. By independently I think I mean "continuously and quietly". On the plus side, I am loving the whole 9-5 malarkey, particularly with the extended 11am and 3:30pm tea breaks, and also the fact that I don't have to do any work or think about work or anything like that as soon as I leave the office. I guess this is what normal worker people feel like.

I am currently spending a lot of time thinking about the future and what I should do after my NQT year. I have many different ideas, none of which seem to be related, or even slightly similar, to each other. The most dramatic one is still graduate entry medicine, but I was reading "The Practitioner" journal on the tube this morning and I wasn't enthused. The whole medical debate is something else I need to blog about at some point. Wow, having a life really does make it difficult to ramble on here. Well, obviously not that difficult - all that needs to happen is Facebook going down.

An Awesome Day

Firstly, apologies for my lack of posting this week. It's officially the summer holidays, and whilst I am working at BITC, frankly I've rediscovered what it's like to live like a normal person, thus not much time for posting. I'm sure you're desperate to find out what I've been up to - more info on the internship etc. tomorrow.

Secondly, I have had a most awesome day. It's all thanks to this at Regent's Park:

And, of course, the lovely Gid and CK, who thoughtfully invited me to tag along with them into the VIP area. Free food and drink and some time to while away in the sunshine is all I need to make me smile. Oh, and Gid's adorable dog Barney. Lots of nice chatter and people watching and generally taking ridiculous advantage of Innocent's generosity (Gid and CK managed to nab 36 free smoothies before we left! 36! Shocker!) We decided against wandering out into the melee, preferring instead to enjoy the live music and cocktail bar in our little bit. Wonderful.

After thoroughly stuffing my stomach and my liver, I popped down to Krazy's party in Notting Hill. This too was a fun affair. I don't know many international people, but this room was FULL of people from overseas. I think I may have been the only one born in the UK. It was great, lots of lovely chatter, a chocolate fountain, more cocktails and Corona's, and a hilarious wannabe stand-up comedian boy from LA, who I thought was gay, but later realised wasn't. Perhaps it was my rather revealing top that changed his mind, heehee. Fun & games indeed.

Tanaka and Institute of Education Knowledge Days

I've learned a lot in the last three days at Tanaka Business School. Our mini-mini-mini-mini MBA is actually rather interesting.

Thursday was all about strategy - lots of chatter about vision and missions and objectives and internal analysis and external analysis and resources and capabilities and core competencies and gaining a competitive advantage. After 5 hours of intense lecturing and applying the theory to an education case study I am still confused by a lot of it. Nevertheless I got 100% in the multiple-choice test (perhaps evidence that certain assessment strategies aren't always that useful).

Friday was all about marketing. More jargon again. This time it was about creating a marketing strategy based on segmentation, targeting and positioning. There were the three Cs and the four Ps and various other random words here and there. Again a steep learning curve but I found the education case study today a lot easier to get my teeth into. I think this was because I was still enjoying the positive reception my PitPads had received.

Yes, that's right, the PitPads are back. We had to create a marketing strategy for a product and I managed to persuade my group to use PitPads. Lots of excellent marketing ideas and possibilities for the product led me to thinking that perhaps there's hope for the idea after all. However, this has rapidly been dashed since I got home and found out that another name for what I thought was my unique idea is "dress shields", which lots of companies seem to already make. Bugger.

Saturday was all about Finance. A bit of a cheat for me really since it was all about balance sheets, P&Ls, and cash flow statements - stuff I've done at Deloitte already. Very funny lecturer, who complained about his wife's spending habits. When trying to persuade him to buy her a £600 Gucci bag, apparently she said to him that it was "very strong". "So are two Tesco carrier bags put together. And they're free," was his reply. Anyway, enjoyed that quite a lot, and also the afternoon case study on trying to sort out the budget deficit for a fictional school. It was good to see the kinds of ways schools make and spend their money, and how teachers are such a huge expense. Good thing TF is out there providing all these cheap teachers!

All in all, Tanaka was really useful and engaging, at least for me anyway. Shame I don't have thirty grand to spare - an MBA could have been the way forward!

Tomorrow I start my three week summer project with Business in the Community. Just when I was getting used to a holiday!

The Canterbury Tales

I didn't start this blog till after the Summer Institute last year, so I've had to wait a long time to use "the Canterbury Tales" as a title. Still, better late than never.

So, a whistle-stop tour of our three days in Canterbury. We:

• presented our WA4s to the '07s
• shared resources and ran workshops with the '07s
• completed our final QTS portfolio checks and interviews
• set two new targets for our NQT year
• learnt about rights and responsibilities for our NQT year
• got introduced to the GS Learning Log (part of a 3 year research project to try and measure the impact TF teachers have had with regards to achieving the TF mission)
• enjoyed a delightfully cheesy TF QTS ceremony

A very busy 3 days indeed. My WA4 went down a treat, despite having a choking fit in the middle of it. Comparing my Y8s to the Sesame Street Bunch (cos they are all very strange, and because they seem nice enough on the outside, but could cause trouble at any moment!)

and my Y11s to the Ocean's 13 gang (cos they were just too cool for school)

got me a barrel of laughs, as did the slides where the spell-check had changed all the "maths" to "moths", which I didn't notice until I was reading out "I have tried to incorporate real-world moths into my classroom this year". Aside from my own, I was thoroughly impressed with the other presentations I saw - we've come so far this year; WA4 is a wonderful celebration of this.

It was great working with the '07s - we saw them micro-teach, very impressive stuff. Also set up a resources carousel for them, which was good fun. Again, it was highly evident how much we've learned and developed over the year - I wouldn't want to go back to the state of impending doom most of them seem to be in at the moment! That first term is oh so tough, I don't think I could do it again.

Finally the end of QTS ceremony. Our CEO made a hilarious video featuring clips from the Wizard of Oz, the Lord of the Rings, and Gladiator, all of which were meant to represent our teaching journey. The barbershop boys sang their funny song again. We were praised by and applauded all the TF staff and our tutors. We watched our SI music video again.

And finally we had the participants' diaries, which were the real highlight - so honest and heartfelt and just downright funny. My favourite bit was R's story about how one day he was marking his books and heard a boom in the room next door. He ignored it until he heard another loud crash. Reluctantly he wandered next door and found a load of rowdy Y10s causing chaos for a supply teacher. Standing in the doorway, he found himself doing that thing that no-one has ever taught us, that's not in any book or guide or anything. It's just something that, at moments like this, just comes from deep within - the barking of the seal.

"Errrrrrrr," he said, pointing at one child. "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he said, facing another. "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he said, glaring at yet another. The barking continued as child after child stopped in their tracks and returned to their seat. Eventually the room returned to normality. Returning to his own classroom afterwards, he wondered if it had all really happened, before shouting out in glee. I think we've all had a moment like that.

Q-U-A-L-I-F-I-E-D-!!!!

Swap driver for teacher. Woohoo! Not a fraud any more, no more pretending, it's true, I am a real proper qualified teacher :)

Strange, I don't look any different. Maybe I will have to get a QTS tattoo across my forehead to prove it.

Canters was ace, so much fun, I am back in love with the whole TF experience. Will tell the tales really soon, but right now am knackered and have to prepare for business school tomorrow.

Holidays schmolidays, I am clocking hours like it was a school day. At least I get to drink though!

Still not finished Harry Potter, but nearly....

Miss P QTS, sounds good eh?

Summer!

Oh YEAAAAAAH! You know what time it is.....summer holidays!

My gosh, who'd have ever thought we'd make it eh?

This is what it feels like. But maybe even better!

Am off to Canterbury now for the Final Summer Institute, hopefully returning with my QTS on Weds. Wish me luck. And happy lashing!

I'm really happy right now :)

A new attitude to behaviour

Lovely day today. Partly because school is always nice when you go back - all your kids and colleagues ask how you are and what you've been up to and so you feel missed and thus a little bit special.

But more so because I decided that I was gonna implement some of that behavioural theory and see what happened. Obviously it's a little late in the day to do this, but whatever.

Basically I read Assertive Discipline - a book my HoD recommended and which is really quite good. Very Americanised and focused on the idea that behaviour needs to be taught. At first I thought this was silly, but actually this makes perfect sense. Of course we have to teach behaviour. If you're not clear about what you want your kids to do and how you want them to behave, then they have no idea and so choose to do whatever they want, which is no doubt what you least want them to do. Assuming they can behave i.e read your mind is just downright idiotic. I have seen the light.

The system is fundamentally based on three things:

1. rules
2. rewards (positive recognition)
3. consequences

If you consistently apply these three things, then kids will respond and behaviour (and thus attainment) will improve. Now as I've only been doing this for one day, and tomorrow's my last day of school before the summer (did I hear a woooohooo? Oh yes I did!) I can't really properly evaluate the system. But I tried really hard to maintain it all day and I'm still smiling, so maybe there's promise there.

In other news, we had a staff meeting today. Enough said.

One daaaay!

Would you employ this teacher?

My Disney-buddy Sprouse is teaching English in Oxford. She mentioned a drama once when a child jumped on the table during a lesson. I sympathised with her, even when she elaborated that she only taught the one child by himself, he was 12, and it was a private lesson (so she got paid my week's salary in one session).

She sent across her potential teacher profile:

"miss rouse just finished her degree in chemistry and has no teaching experience at all. she has also never learned grammar so is not qualified in any way to be teaching your children. you are wasting your money. outside of academia, her interests include your faces". i'm thinking along these lines. sound ok?

I would employ you Sprouse - maybe this is the business we've been waiting for?

The Fruits of the Day

Rather than doing anything productive i.e. WA4 during this third sick day, I have instead been messing about on my blog. I also learnt a little more about the TF wiki, but still have no idea about how to post up my units of work. Who'd have thought that I was once so gifted when it came to techie garble?

What's one eight of 32?

Rather worrying article about maths education right here. Wonder how many of my students could answer the question, let alone their parents...?

Good deeds and good tips

Went to the hospital today to have a blood test after the persistence of my ridiculous sore throat. I am worried I am becoming like SB when it comes to sore throats i.e. they are a defining characteristic of mine.

At the car park I was about to pay for a ticket when a nice lady gave me hers, with two and a half hours left on it! Excellent! Feeling buoyed by the good deed, I proceeded to pass on the remaining 90 minutes on the ticket when I was done at the blood test unit. As I passed my ticket on, I noticed around the car park that lots of people were doing the same thing. Clearly such behaviour is normal at King George's hospital, perhaps to spite the over-zealous car park operators who insist that customers must pay for a minimum of three hours of parking (what does that say to you about NHS treatment times?) Anyway, I have been inspired to try and do at least one good deed each day, whether it be picking up some litter, letting someone in at a busy junction, or simply turning my radio down a bit.

In other news, here are some tips from a very entertaining and experienced teacher (might come in useful for the old NQT year...yes, I know we've been told most of them before, but perhaps this time we should actually use them!):

1. Say what you mean, mean what you say. ALWAYS.

2. Don't smile until Christmas - The saying is true. BE MEAN.

3. Children are like dogs - they smell fear. Think Tony Blair or Bill Clinton when you talk to them. YOU RULE. Always stand at the front when talking, don't fidget, survey the students, and COMMAND attention.

4. Don't just be IN authority. Be AN authority. There is a difference.

5. Follow everything up. EVERYTHING.

6. Never forget a name and always use their names wherever possible.

7. Laugh at yourself. Show yourself to be human ONCE you have that control.

8. Talk to them individually, ask them how they are, what they did on the weekend, where they get their hair cut, what football team they support. And then remember what they told you so that you can follow up the conversation the next time you get the chance.

9. Be slightly mysterious.

10. Give gold stars. And always catch them doing something good. If you can, tell the parents quickly. That way when you ring up about something bad, they'll believe you.

Three days to go!

Cats and Tonsils

I am contemplating attempting to remove my tonsils with a spoon.

The kids next door are searching for their cat. It seems than rather than physically look for said feline, a better technique is to loudly shout "Rushy, Rushy, where are you? COOOOOME BAAACK" for hours on end. There are 5 kids next door. I think they have created some kind of rota since it hasn't been quiet for ages.

But, on the plus side, what happened to the polar bear who sat on the ice for too long? He got polaroids. Hahaha.

Four days of school to go!

Leadership Rambles

Now that the dreaded portfolio is almost out of the way, you'd think there'd be some time to sit back, relax, and enjoy this last week of term.

No! You're wrong. Instead it's time to step it up on the leadership front.

Firstly WA4:

with reference to your practice this year identify some of the factors that demonstrate that you have had high expectations of pupils and shown a commitment to raising educational achievement

This isn't just another written assignment. It's a 10 min live presentation, incorporating theory, practice, evidence, strengths, weaknesses, and strategy (both teaching and presentation). Currently my plan is to do ten minutes of mime. I think mime is underused in teacher training. I'm not really inspired to do this yet.

No fear though, if WA4 doesn't quite tickle my tastebuds, well, there's always the assignment on "defining my leadership journey" to do instead. This is a three part written exercise involving reading and reviewing a leadership book, interviewing two inspirational leaders, and defining my own leadership journey (obviously). See WA4 with regards to motivation to do this right now.

I know all this stuff in school and with TF is meant to make us into strong leaders, but it's really tricky to pinpoint exactly what we do that transforms us. Is it the teaching? Is it managing resources and people? Is it the workshops and masterclasses and conferences? Is it being able to maintain our enthusiasm, passion and drive? Is it simply being there every day, aiming for more?

I don't know if I'm a leader yet.

And finally, the TF summer picnic was a bit lame yesterday. The venue was the indoor beach at the O2 - decidedly overhyped - more like a big pile of sand than a proper beach. Alas it seems TF had spent all their money on the hire charge since there was only one free drink (which you had to pay a pound for if soft drinks were too soft for you) and the food stopped at 2pm.

A far cry from last year's Cobra sponsored affair in the playing fields of St Paul's Girls' School. Chocolate fountains, inflatable sumo wrestling, gourmet catering, and, crucially, more Pimm's and Cobra than the eye could see - a wonderful TF event indeed. This year, well, a resounded "could do better".

Blog maintenance

Check out the updated links. And also my acceptance of defeat with regards to "the thought for the blog". Hopefully have managed to get the comments back too.

Is it obvious I'm too tired to go out tonight?

Sports Day and associated ramblings

Sports Day today. Much fun had by all. Very impressed at all the posters and chants and things the kids made. Also by the general behaviour and positive attitude throughout the afternoon - even some of the naughty kids were on their best behaviour. Sad not to run in the teachers' relay - can't wait for this knee to sort itself out.

Had a nice chat with Mr L (the epic former head of Y11 and now head of Y9). Taught me some stuff to do with behaviour etc. and how I shouldn't let the little monsters defeat me, but instead keep going and show them who's boss. He sorted out the nasty Y10 who had a go at me at break time. Basically tried to get her to turn her phone off - I didn't even try and confiscate it! - and she starts swearing and then turns and points to her face and says "does it look like I'm bothered? I don't care what you say" and then walked off. Nice. Between him and the head of Y10, who is also pretty damn good, the girl was in tears and later came and apologised in a very mature way. Was impressed there.

Obviously easy to do when you've got people around. Not so when I'm left to my own devices. Later in sports day, caught a Y7 hurling a cymbal into the grass (one class had bought a load of instruments down). When I tried to reprimand him, he just flew into a strop and refused to apologise or improve his behaviour. Similarly, three other Y7s were throwing water at each other. Managed to get two of them to stop but the third one just wouldn't cave. So in the end I kinda gave up. Wrong thing to do, but it just feels hopeless sometimes.

And finally, I got moved from being a Y11 tutor (yay!) but am now instead going to be a Y8 tutor (no!) for the current 7E aka "7 evil". I'm sure a few posts back there was week when they destroyed me. Oh dear. Still, I will try not to let the dread of next year encroach upon me already.

A quote from K to finish (she says she was quoting Gandhi): you must be the change you wish to see in the world. Right then, sounds easy enough...