Notes on happenings and non-happenings:
routine reports from a 50-year old comprehensive school
DECEMBER
Root word of the month is quir and ques
Week 13 (cont.):
Wednesday 1st
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Briefing in masks, Y8 parents’ evening replanned remotely, challenge to all about positive rewards and different punishments for different children.
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Thursday 2nd
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Governors meet to take a long, cool look at our budget forecasts which are, as the man said, not a pretty sight.
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Friday 3rd
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OU academics come to visit, thinking out loud together about different kinds of university for different kinds of young adults. The comprehensive university!
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Week 14:
Monday 6th
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Signing Christmas cards: 400 internal, another 100 or so to post. Printing on matt card this year takes an hour off my previous personal best time. Challenging all the unmasked in the corridors
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Tuesday 7th
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Ejected form the office so an Oxbridge candidate can be interviewed in peace with two screens. This may well be a fairer way of doing it for our young people – will it make a difference to the outrageous inequality of access?
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Wednesday 8th
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Second Christmas cards day. People come and talk to me while I’m doing it, confident that I can multi-task. Lord knows what I’ve agreed to while concentrating on spelling folks’ names right.
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Thursday 9th
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Meeting in town and working at home thereafter – an undisturbed stretch of six hours helps clear the backlog. Live winter concert cancelled, under the circs. Children covid cases rising.
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Friday 10th
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Christmas Jumper day: so many teachers seem to have a full week’s worth of the confounded items. Me? A thousand times, no. governors come visiting to discuss the way we plan and report. Staff Christmas party goes well, everyone as friendly at the end as they were are the start, a simple requirement.
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Week 15:
Monday 13th
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Leadership meet as usual at 0800: counting the hours to the end of term. Usually a reasonably mellow week, behaviourally. New planning docs coloured up nicely and posted for the board meeting tomorrow.
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Tuesday 14th
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Equality Policy second review: how to make fine words actually do something? Progress review meeting with an external friend: how are the children doing?
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Wednesday 15th
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Finally, year 11 mocks end. Staff covid cases jump from 4 to 11. Final assembly moves online and a new producer found. First-take Roberts needs four goes to get it right. Videoed concert!
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Thursday 16th
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Goodbye to 2021 at lunchtime with filmed Heads of Year Jingle Bells Rock and Starman. Staff Christmas lunch split into many venues. Thinking about remote learning. Planning for testing. January will take care of itself.
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