An Update on Me and Pride
So I'm finally sitting down with some free time and I thouhgt I'd explain what's been happening for the last month or so.
So first came christmas.
Now, I thought i was in for a nice relaxing christmas. Not much going on, nowhere to be, nothing to do, plenty of opportunity to write... What a joke. First we seemed to be going to friends, or having friends come to us every single day of the holiday. Add to that on the last day of term (if you didn't know, I'm a teacher) my faculty leader piled a huge amount of work on me and says he wants it done by the first day the kids come back. So between rushing around preparing food, looking after grandma, entertaining guests, keeping the house in order and spending time with my brother (who i hadn't seen since may) I had to try and work!!!
I failed. Big time. But at least I had two days back at work before the kids returned to get it all done.
Or so I thought.
For some reason that I cannot even hope to grasp, the senior managment team at my school decided that the two days that are usually set aside for us to catch up on our paper work and marking, should this year be used to for a staff development session on literacy. The same course i might add, that we all did back in july. can you say snore fest? waste of time?
So what happened? i had to use my weekend. But thats alright, because there was always the weekend after to write and relax right?
Wrong.
Friday. Midday. I'm winding down for the weekend. My classes for the week are over, I have a few bits and peices to mark, some things I'd like to develope for next term, but I'm all set for a nice weekend. That is, until all the staff get called into the hall.
OFSTED
There is no more dreaded word in the british teaching profession.
Her Magisty's Inspectors of Schools.
They were coming. In two days.
Now what you have understand at this point is that there is a difference between what OFSTED want and what is feisable in the real world. If we were to jump through all the hoops, write 2000 word lesson plans for each lesson, mark our books and fill in all the tracking, monitoring, inclusion, differentiation, profiling etc paperwork they wanted to the level they wanted, EVERY DAY, then we wouldn't actually have time to eat, sleep, and most importantly (to them at least) teach. We know this, I'm sure they know this, its just the beaucrats in government who haven't a clue about the real world. Don't get me wrong, OFSTED are evil, they will close a school down if they think we aren't jumping through the hoops well enough. They judge us on everything. They are not nice. And we have to get all this stuff they "expect" us to do on a daily basis, done and ready to show them for when they come in.
Between friday and when they arrived on wednesday, I slept a maximum of 7 hours in total. I have never been so terrified in my entire life.
My teaching was observed period two on wednesday.
By thursday night the school had the result. Its still technically confidencial until the report is published but... lets just say the Head Teacher bought us all champange on friday. I've never seen the entire staff at my school all smiling at the same time before. It was eerie.
With all that out of the way you would think that this weekend i would be relaxing. I wish.
The rents go away again (they're constantly back and forwards to spain) tomorrow morning, so this weekend has been a mad rush to get things done. But heck, I don't care. I'm still grinning, and since everything has been done work wise because of OFSTED, I'm looking forward to a relaxed few weeks ahead. Hopefully full of writing.
And that brings me onto the topic of my story. PRIDE.
Its not dead. My wonderful beta has already sent me a few chapters to look over and post, maybe even tonight, and the last of what I've already written is with her. I'll post slowly to give myself time to write more. But rest assured, its coming and soon.
Thanks for your patience everyone!
Happy New Year!!!
So first came christmas.
Now, I thought i was in for a nice relaxing christmas. Not much going on, nowhere to be, nothing to do, plenty of opportunity to write... What a joke. First we seemed to be going to friends, or having friends come to us every single day of the holiday. Add to that on the last day of term (if you didn't know, I'm a teacher) my faculty leader piled a huge amount of work on me and says he wants it done by the first day the kids come back. So between rushing around preparing food, looking after grandma, entertaining guests, keeping the house in order and spending time with my brother (who i hadn't seen since may) I had to try and work!!!
I failed. Big time. But at least I had two days back at work before the kids returned to get it all done.
Or so I thought.
For some reason that I cannot even hope to grasp, the senior managment team at my school decided that the two days that are usually set aside for us to catch up on our paper work and marking, should this year be used to for a staff development session on literacy. The same course i might add, that we all did back in july. can you say snore fest? waste of time?
So what happened? i had to use my weekend. But thats alright, because there was always the weekend after to write and relax right?
Wrong.
Friday. Midday. I'm winding down for the weekend. My classes for the week are over, I have a few bits and peices to mark, some things I'd like to develope for next term, but I'm all set for a nice weekend. That is, until all the staff get called into the hall.
OFSTED
There is no more dreaded word in the british teaching profession.
Her Magisty's Inspectors of Schools.
They were coming. In two days.
Now what you have understand at this point is that there is a difference between what OFSTED want and what is feisable in the real world. If we were to jump through all the hoops, write 2000 word lesson plans for each lesson, mark our books and fill in all the tracking, monitoring, inclusion, differentiation, profiling etc paperwork they wanted to the level they wanted, EVERY DAY, then we wouldn't actually have time to eat, sleep, and most importantly (to them at least) teach. We know this, I'm sure they know this, its just the beaucrats in government who haven't a clue about the real world. Don't get me wrong, OFSTED are evil, they will close a school down if they think we aren't jumping through the hoops well enough. They judge us on everything. They are not nice. And we have to get all this stuff they "expect" us to do on a daily basis, done and ready to show them for when they come in.
Between friday and when they arrived on wednesday, I slept a maximum of 7 hours in total. I have never been so terrified in my entire life.
My teaching was observed period two on wednesday.
By thursday night the school had the result. Its still technically confidencial until the report is published but... lets just say the Head Teacher bought us all champange on friday. I've never seen the entire staff at my school all smiling at the same time before. It was eerie.
With all that out of the way you would think that this weekend i would be relaxing. I wish.
The rents go away again (they're constantly back and forwards to spain) tomorrow morning, so this weekend has been a mad rush to get things done. But heck, I don't care. I'm still grinning, and since everything has been done work wise because of OFSTED, I'm looking forward to a relaxed few weeks ahead. Hopefully full of writing.
And that brings me onto the topic of my story. PRIDE.
Its not dead. My wonderful beta has already sent me a few chapters to look over and post, maybe even tonight, and the last of what I've already written is with her. I'll post slowly to give myself time to write more. But rest assured, its coming and soon.
Thanks for your patience everyone!
Happy New Year!!!