Lucy loves helping in the garden! 

gardening anyone?

A few weeks ago, the back garden consisted of a lawn (stretching the imagination somewhat!) and 1 solitary shrub at the bottom. Keith being adamantly NOT a gardener - green concrete is his idea of a perfect garden - it fell to me to make some attempt to provide a reasonable outlook for us when sitting on the patio on summer evenings sharing a cigar and a glass of wine. Not that I am an expert or a possessor of green fingers. I would love to have the gift that some people have of being able to stick a plant in the soil, tell it to grow and being instantly obeyed, but that one passed me by. Still, I do my best, in fits and starts. I dug the flower bed and border - it is only a small garden - bought huge sacks of compost, some shrubs and some bedding plants. I went for anything that claimed to be happy to grow in any conditions, planted them and waited.
Since then, I have learned two things:
1. Many of the plants that bore the claim that they could be planted anywhere, quite frankly, lied!
2. This garden is not going to be one of those 'chuck in the plants, leave them to it and when you next look, you'll see a riot of bloom and colour' types. This garden SULKS!
It sulks if you don't look at it, walk round it and congratulate it on the efforts it's making every day.
It sulks if you don't water it whether it has rained or not.
You can tell when it has been feeling nelected. Plants which days ago seemed green and ready to grow for England (Sorry - Wales) have suddenly transformed into wizened sticks.
Those that are still 'flourishing' (I use the word advisedly), on closer insepction, are now sporting reddish brown patches on their leaves. Those which have escaped both aforementioned fates now have leaves with frilled edges and holes in the middle - in others words, they have been a la carte for the snails, of which, incidently, there is never so much as the faintest glimpse, no matter how hard you look! Very sneaky, these Welsh snails!
So what is the solution? Could it be that Keith was right after all? Shall I be spending my summer holidays with a can of green paint and a paintbrush? Watch this space.......

P.S. Keith has just reminded me that he made history on Wednesday by mowing the lawn in my absence - first time for 20 years!!! (How can any self respecting male get out of mowing the lawn for 20 years???)

Bartholemew and Barnaby in the park 

Bartholemew Bear

Much of the key stage 1 geography programme is delivered these days through a character called Barnaby Bear - one of the more inspired aspects of the national curriculum. A few months ago, I got in touch with an old school friend (through Friends Reunited of course) who was in the process of travelling round New Zealand, having decided that there is more to life than slogging it out in local government in the UK! (Good thinking!) Anyway, whilst on his travels, he met Bartholemew Bear, a Great White Southern Alpine bear who does rescue work on Mount Cook. Bartholemew decided he would like to start writing to the children in my class, so he did and they wrote back. It must have done some good because they have mostly done well in their SATS in writing!
The other week, my friend, now back in the UK, brought Bartholemew to visit my class for a day and great fun was had by all. The scarey thing is being aware that we are emailing each other about Bartholemew as if he were real - another sign that it is time I took that redundancy???.............

Wasting time and resources

Another reason for wanting to leave my present job is the waste of time and money. In our Infant department we currently have 2 kettles which don't work properly, an oven whose door has had no handle almost since it was bought, a video which no longer works and a laminator which has also given up the ghost. However, let's look on the bright side! The local primary and high schools recently banded together in order to be in a stronger position to bid for all the money allegedly floating around waiting to be snapped up. Among other things, a substantial amount of this money was used to provide an extra in-service day in which various astounding pronouncements were made - eg. children learn in different ways (Why didn't anyone ever tell us that before???) However, the comment I REALLY took issue with was that newly qualified teachers should keep away from older teachers who tell them that they have been teaching for 25 years, because what they really mean is that they have taught 1 year and repeated it 25 times. This from a middle aged colleague who had obviously forgotten (or maybe had been living on another planet!)that our generation has experienced more changes and upheavals in education than anyone ever before! What message does that convey to our younger colleagues, many of whom give the impresssion that anyone over 35 has nothing to offer the profession anyway? Then there was the suggestion that if a teacher has to send a pupil to the head teacher for behaviour problems in class, the problem is with the teacher, who has mishandled the situation. Head teachers off the hook in one fell swoop! Why is anyone surprised that teachers are climbing over each other to leave the profession! Anyway, enough serious stuff for one day - it's still half term and I need to go and do something recreational - weeding the garden maybe.....?

Back in England

Popped down to Bristol today for a couple of days. Having nearly had the side of the car taken off by a mercedes whose driver suddenly decided he didn't want to leave the M5 for the M42 after all, I arrived in the suburbs of Bristol in due course. There I was met by an enormous juggernaut in a road the width of a garden path, bearing down on me, in full and confident belief that an obstacle on his side of the road did not mean that he should give way to oncoming vehicles. Might is right?? Interesting how driving varies in different parts of the country. A less than sympathetic visitor to these parts might write off local drivers' grasp of the Highway code as haphazard to say the least! But then, I have heard it suggested that some Welsh drivers don't actually know how to put their cars into reverse - only very ignorant people would entertain such a belief, of course - although, such a tactic can be very useful when faced with oncoming traffic in a country lane in the Welsh countryside!

The future?

So, what to do with all this wonderful free time that is going to sweep me off my feet in 6 weeks time? The best thing about 'downgrading' from deputy headteacher, as I did last summer, was that I actually had time to pursue other interests. Not a lot, but enough to take on a course in counselling (2 hours a week plus homework) which I have enjoyed so much. I can't remember the last time I had time to do any further study that wasn't school related! Now, I have applied to do a certificate in counselling, precursor to a diploma which should lead to a new career of some sort.
Still have to have some sort of income, so I shall be signing up for supply work in the local area - which will be interesting as it will be a chance to get a look at other schools and to teach without being bogged down by all the inevitable paperwork and responsibilities that go with permanent posts. Then there is Keith's business - I enjoy helping out in his computer shop whenever I can and I'll continue to do that.
Best of all will be a trip to France for us both - in September, when everyone else is back at school - because I CAN!!! Well, it will be more fulfilling and less annoying to past colleagues than making faces through their classroom windows! (As if!!!)
In the meantime, any other spare time is spent meandering round North Wales. Keith and I are thinking of writing a book about travels around North Wales. He seems to know every nook and cranny of the area and now he has me to get out to open and close gates for him - and sweet talk the sheep and cows out of the way. He has fascinating theories too - like the mysterious mini monument to be found on the way to Ffestiniog from Pentrefoelas, which he maintains is a prehistoric bus shelter (The Welsh being a very forward-looking race!). Then there is his theory, until now, top secret - remember you saw it here first - that the windmills around the north west coast are eventually to be harnessed in separating Wales from the mainland, along Offa's Dyke of course. If that should happen within the next 6 weeks, it would be most useful as it would provide a cast iron excuse for not being able to get to work - even the Runcorn Bridge wouldn't be much use to me then!

Reflections of an overworked primary teacher

At long last, after more years than I care to count in the world of primary education, I have been offered voluntary enhanced redundancy! Enhanced is important - it means a small cushion of money to allow me to explore other avenues. Voluntary - as one colleague remarked to me last week, "I have never seen anyone so keen to get out of a place!"
Not that I have always wanted to leave teaching - I still wouldn't if it was just teaching and not dealing with mountains of paperwork, accepting and managing constant change so that politicians can score points off each other (And you thought it was all done for the benefit of the children! Dream on!!)
Of course, there is also the fact that I now live in Wrexham but still commute to Liverpool each day - 2 hours drive time added to a busy day, getting up at 5.30 every morning to beat everyone else in the race to get over the Runcorn Bridge. Coming home on a Friday evening is the best - fighting off the caravan trail as the whole world decided to take off for North Wales for the weekend.
As I shall be leaving at the end of the summer term, (31 days - 30 and three quarters because we finish earlier on the last day - but, hey! who's counting!) I have negotiated with my long suffering head teacher that I needn't attend any more staff meetings - a welcome release as, guess what! it's time to revise the curriculum again. I sat through a recent staff meeting listening to the aforementioned head teacher extolling the virtues of a new idea - let's teach by linking different areas of the curriculum instead of teaching subjects separately. Silly really, but it just sounded awfully like topic based teaching which we employed in those heady years B.N.C. (Before National Curriculum) My imagination, I'm sure, after all, the H.T. did say this was NEW!!