Work rant
So I’m back at work again, and have been for a couple of weeks and I am forced to conclude that I have been mistaken for some sort of multi-tasking, hyper being with tentacles able to individually perform all the tasks required of me by my Orwellian overlords. Now I’ve good and lost you I should back up.
So the schools average A* - C pass rate is 37%. Pretty much what you would expect given its Geo - Social position, however, we in the R.E dept, divided between our three exams (R.E, Philosophy and Ethics, and Humanities) managed 67% on average and may get a bit more through remarks. Excellent, you might think - as did I. Unfortunately this has resulted in the notion that I might know what I am doing, so in addition to the usual round of planning / teaching / controlling the little darlings, the powers that be have decreed I am to teach ‘General Studies GCSE’. Something I have not done before. And I have to do it in 1 year. And it’s at the same time as Philosophy A level. In the Same room in fact. And I’m Teaching both. At the same time. And I have to write the Scheme of work. Hmmmm.
The reason for this particular example of SNAFU is that the management would rather the pupils who have already got a GCSE for Philosophy and ethics take a different GCSE, than go on to the A level. Many reasons are given for this (they will probably get a better mark etc.) but what it boils down to is that the School gets no points for the A level results - they go to the collage who enters them, not the school who teaches them.
Now personally I don’t care - the A level is more beneficial to the pupils when they leave school and go on to collage, and is a much more interesting course. But the school needs the points. Why? Because my ultimate boss - Ed Balls M.P., a man whose name could only be more fitting if he was called Thicko McSpackypants M.P. (thanks Zero Punctuation) has followed in the footsteps of Ruth Kelly (don’t get me started on that woman) in viewing that the purpose of all education is to get numbers on Excell documents. Thus what is best for the pupil is crushed under the colossal weight of Government targets, league tables and the ‘I don’t care if you have a passion for the subject - your only here to learn how to pass an exam cos we need to beat our target’ mindset.
Anywho, the addition of two new courses to my workload (bringing it to a total of 7) has resulted in me spending a lot of time researching precisely what is involved, either online or on documents 130 pages long with a typeset so small the full stops must have been added by coating individual photons with ink. The combination of VDU and fonts designed at the LHC mean I have been getting headaches, so a quick trip to the opticians later and I should be getting reading glasses this week to combat the eyestrain.
In much better news, Eve is learning a word every 3-4 days, which is Fab, and I’m finally happy with the overnighter dungeon for SoS. Just a few more things to sort and it will be good to go.