Random days

Keith has decided that when he is put in charge of running the country (!!), he will pass a law to randomise days of the week. This will mean that we will never know, until we wake up in the morning, what day it is. If we are lucky, we could have 3 or 4 Sundays in a row - maybe not so good if you have to cook Sunday lunch for the in-laws each day!
On the other hand, you could end up with 3 Mondays in a row, or a fortnight of weekdays and no week-end. Not so bad if you work weekends, of course.
What about a week of Christmas days? Fine if you're a child, bankrupting if you're a parent, disastrous if you are trying to diet.
If, like him, you are a workaholic and work 8 days a week, I don't suppose it matters either way, but it would make life a little more unpredictable. I could live with that!

Key Stage 2 SATS results

The maths SATS results arrived this morning. These are the results of the tests the top juniors sat in May. The score for an average 11 year old is level 4. Here, there is concern that 9 of the 50 children achieved a level 3 instead. When the names of the pupils concerned were read out to me, I wasn't at all surprised, in fact I felt that some of them had done well to achieve the level they did. I had had most of them in Year 3, so I knew their capabilities.
But there is concern. We never do as well in maths as we do in English, was the comment, so we will not be setting for maths next year. It demotiviates those children in the lower sets and we don't set for English.
No! There will be no setting in maths next year because the pupil numbers and school budget dictate that the part time teacher, who taught one of the sets, has to be made redundant. (It's not just me!)
I put forward my view that in maths particularly, it is vital to establish an understanding of basic concepts and, in sets, this is easier to do with the lower ability pupils.
But concern continues to be expressed about these 9 children. They're not really classed as special needs pupils - they would have to be shown to be working a full year behind their age group for that. Then there might be some excuse! So what, I enquired, does that say about the Special Educational Needs system? No answer.
But, wait a minute, does all this doom and gloom mean that we didn't get any level 5's?
Oh yes, 19!
Well, that's excellent.....isn't it?
Yes but 'they' will be wanting to know why we have had 'so many' level 3's.
So, no credit to those children who achieved their potential even though their potential doesn't run to a level 4 then?
Also, why is it that 'they' apparently find it impossible to understand that 'average' by definition means that there will be some children above and some below - yer actual curve of distribution, mate!!!

In-car music

Having had my ears assaulted today by so-called music emanating from a nearby car at the rate of unmentionable decibels, I wondered why it is only afficionados of 'heavy metal' or similar who feel the need to pollute the airwaves like this.
Why is it that we never hear strains of Beethoven's ninth streaming down the local highways??? Maybe I should start a new trend..........!

Traffic again

3 mobile cranes on the way to work this morning and 3 very slow lorries.
Then, on the M56, a busy motorway at the best of times, a red double decker bus trundling along at at least 35 mph. Looking at it more closely (well you do get pretty close to something doing that sort of speed on a motorway!) it was from very near my destination. I thought about offering the driver a tow, but decided against it.
Mind you, I'm glad I'm heading Liverpool way in the morning. the queue of traffic stacked up waiting to cross the Runcorn Bridge in the other direction is frightening! And this at 7.10 in the morning. Don't people sleep any more?

The end is in sight

Well, I found my class's personal and social development sheets and have just finished updating them. I have signed my reports and they are now ready for the Head's signature. Other members of staff are starting to talk to me nicely about what they would like from my classroom as regards resources. As there will be one class less next term, my room will become vacant, so it's first come, first served for the pick of the spare resources and equipment.
2 weeks and 4 days left!

Having fun!

I am really getting into this html lark. Not that I am actually using it properly - more doing it the lazy way - copying and pasting - mostly from the Bravenet site, which seems to have tons of help, handy hints, information etc for a novice such as myself.
So you will see that I now have a selection of freebies on my sidebar. Yes, I know I've probably overdone it - Keith reckons it will soon take about 4 hours for my blog to load - but I view it more as 'learning by doing.'
AND it's Task Avoidance Strategy, for, while I have now finished and printed off the children's reports (YESSSS!!!!!) I now have to update their Social Development Profiles. But that's not the only problem......
First, I have to FIND them! (Don't tell the Head!!) :-0

Special Needs

Some children in schools have what are known as Special Educational Needs. These are the children who need varying degrees of support to help them learn. Some also have physical disabilities to contend with. If they were in special schools, they would have all the extra support to hand - physiotherapy, toileting facilities, speech therapy etc. However, current thinking maintains that it is more beneficial to most children to be in mainstream education, unless they have severe physical or learning problems. (It's called inclusion.)
A good point, except that mainstream schools, ordinary neighbourhood primary schools, do not have the same pupil/teacher ratio, nor do they have access to anywhere near the same level of other professional support. While it is good for special needs children and other children alike to have time together, perhaps this arrangement does not benefit the former to quite the same extent.
Still, our ordinary mainstream schools are able to call on the support of professionals such as the Local Authority Support Service, speech therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists, aren't they?
Not exactly. Speech and occupational therapists, physiotherapists and the like are in constant short supply - so much so that children have to be seen on a rota basis.
Educational psychologists?
Well, they apparently come from a different planet and are also in short supply. In fact good ones seem to be very hard to find. The best one can hope for in the real world is one with whom the class teacher can build up such a relationship that she can 'tell him what to think'. In practical terms, this means that the Ed. Psych.
1)comes in to discuss and observe a designated child. (It is a bonus if he can focus on the correct child.)

2)asks the class teacher for her opinion on
a) the problem
b) the required course of action.

3) Goes away and writes his report regurgitating information gleaned from the class teacher.
N.B. If he is really lucky, the said class teacher will have written down her thoughts, observations and opinions, so all he needs is a scanner and printer!
In the past, at least, if his report was relevant to the child's needs, the result would be increased funding to pay for classroom support or necessary resources. Now, we are lucky if the school even gets that.
Improvement through Inclusion? I don't think so!