Oops

I actually forgot all about this Blog :) I guess I so rarely have anything much to say. Major news since the last post? Well I was offered and accepted redundancy from my job as Sixth Form Administrator 3 years ago, probably the one thing that I regret most in my life and I tend to NOT do regret if I can help it. Still, onwards and upwards....trying to get a new job when you are 59 is very difficult and, in fact has proven to be impossible.

We lost the two dogs, Delta and Hudson, we bought 3 more - Mac the Malamute and then more recently, Jack and Charlie the Jack Russells :)

Hubby is still working in Teaching, I have more Grandchildren (6 now) , children have grown older, some have moved further away ..life progresses at apace. I am now 62 and hubby 57, children are 42 , 40, 36, 26 and 24 , Grandchildren are 17,16. 13, 9, 2 and 2 . I childmind for one of them each Wednesday - Quinn.

I was recently elected as a Town Councillor and I am really enjoying my role - throwing myself into it totally.

So that is the update - cant think of anything else to say at the moment

Oh my goodness, the biggest news of all - I managed to stop smoking 3 years ago :) *smug smile*

Proportional Representation

*Humph*

So then, proportional representation. We are being asked to vote on whether we want this form of voting or not but I doubt many people fully understand it. What occurs to me is that anyone who votes Conservative usually will NOT put Labour as their second choice and anyone who votes Labour will never put Conservatives as their second choice. So then, I ask myself, who will benefit from this? Oh ..hang on, could it be Liberals? This would be the same Liberals who are pushing for proportional representation to be bought in.

Oh how I will chortle when we see the Houses of Parliament full of BMP and UKIP MP's because people just couldn't make their minds up .....

Odd Sox

So this is me - yup, I love my odd socks that my daughter in law bought me for Christmas last year. I wear them to work and they do provoke some odd looks and comments :)

Saturday ......

David Cameron has decided in his infinite wisdom to criticise Oxford University for only having one black student last year. What is this man on? Why doesn't he look at our absolutely appalling school system which hasn't produced any black students capable of getting to Oxbridge?

Schools in England at this present time are being judged on results. Because of this, schools are teaching to the tests, they have to in order to get results. My own husband was told to pass a student in an exam - the student in question did not understand the majority of the test despite having had the same tuition as the rest of the class. She had not received the individual tuition that she should have got and indeed, deserved, because the school chose to use the Teaching Assistants elsewhere in the school.

What has gone wrong with schools over the past 20 years? In my very humble opinion one of the major things is the lack of streaming in schools. The idea that all pupils should be taught in the same class regardless of ability. Where does this leave a teacher you have to ask yourself? In a good school based in a good neighbourhood there won't be too much of a problem but in some schools, where the disruptive children are not interested in learning and are determined to stop other pupils from learning it is a disaster. This is compounded in schools where there is no back up from the Senior Management Team (SMT) and where there are no definite strategies in place to help teachers.

Imagine yourself in a classroom - you have 30 pupils aged 14 or so. Fred, Sam and Jim are not interested in learning about French/ICT/Maths - all they want to do is leave school and get a job with the local farmer. They begin low level disruption, muttering and giggling quietly whilst the teacher is talking to the rest of the class (despite sitting away from each other)...this escalates into throwing things. The Teacher asks them to be quiet, which is ignored, then tells them that they will be removed should it carry on. They do carry on and the Teacher leaves the class to make a phone call to the office requesting that someone comes and takes the disruptive students out. He/She goes back to the class which has become very noisy in the meantime, to try and carry on with the lesson. During all of this, the 3 pupils in question have got up and started walking around the room, possibly aggravating other pupils and causing more trouble. After 10 more minutes of this, no one has arrived to help the Teacher so he/she goes to make another phone call only this time he/she is told that all SMT members are busy and they will just have to cope.....Already the whole class has missed about 20 minutes of the lesson and what chance has the Teacher now got of getting the class under control?

This happens across the country every day ....because someone, somewhere decided that all children should be treated the same and included into everything whether if affects the rest of the class or not ..

That is just ONE of the problems faced by Teachers every day and also one of the problems faced by the pupils who actually want to learn - our schools and school system is an absolute disgrace to the country and to our children

Photo of the Day

Photo of the day - Honesty!

Holidays

I work at a school and this means I get seriously good holidays. The downside, not being a teacher, means that I get paid pro rata i.e. I do not get paid for the holidays but I do get paid each month. So my wages are spread over 12 month even though I only actually work for 40 weeks of a year.

Whilst I would love to get more money, I do love the school holidays and would find it really hard to get back into working all year and only having 20 days or so a year off.

Today is the fourth day of the Easter break only it isn't actually called Easter break any more -far too politically incorrect - and I have spent the time so far cleaning the house up. Next week I will need to get on with my photography A level exam prep. I need to be looking into the work of Uta Barth who's work I love. I also need to do some actual photography ..I have the idea of doing a stained glass window type effect so possibly a window might be a good idea!

That was the week that was

The last week of a term is usually quite exciting whether it is the old half term break approaching or a full blown holiday. The last week of the term this time was very stressful with the funeral of one of our 18 year old students on the final day. Hollie died following a car accident and the school closed early on Friday as a mark of respect and to allow teachers and pupils to go to the funeral.

Funerals generally are not fun places to be , the last one I attended was over 20 years ago, for my mother. This particular funeral was harrowing for different reasons. Because of her youth and vitality, the snuffing out of such a vibrant person shook everyone to the core and bought home the necessity of living life to the full whilst you can. I was fine until Hollies dad was talking. He went through the alphabet ..'Hollie was Amazing, Artistic ' etc etc but, when he got to M and ended by saying 'she was mine' I crumbled. Here was a daddy talking about his precious little girl and it broke me in ways I didn't think I could still be broken...Hollie is gone but will never be forgotten by her family, her friends and anyone who knew her.

I dont think many people read this blog (I know, I know...rambling middle aged woman stuff LOL) but IF you do, then please think about donating to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital who assisted both Hollie and her family during the last hours .

The photo of the day was taken in Paris last year