Wednesday 6 April 2011

Ah, Matthew, I knew you would like that weird mobile phone story. It is true, you couldn't make it up could you? Today I got an email that started 'Hello dear Friends' . Which almost makes you stop reading right there. R and I have been working crazy hours lately, every night we sit and tap away at plans and mark schemes, so you, dear reader, have been neglected in favour of the education of the young of Hampshire. I have been offered and accepted a new post at my current school, the offical title is Key Stage 1 leader, the unofficial title is 'general lacky and mopper up of administrative issues and stray children no one else has the effort or enthusiasm to deal with'. I do get paid a bit extra for the wearing of a prefect's badge. I am genuinely delighted with this turn of events, as I like where I am and want to help build the team and make it even better than it is at the moment, and it is the perfect next step up on my campaign to become secretary of state for education when the revolution comes. Until it does, I will carry on drumming finger spaces and capital letters into the minds of children who will probably never hand write anything in their adult lives and be used to a world without capital letters as they have been born into it. We had a lovely sunny games lesson today, we are doing 'inventing our own games' and they all played brilliantly on making up games and then testing each other's games out. And the sun shone. We had lots of space on the field and no injuries and only one argument that I had to arbitrate on. Isn't the sun an amazing invention? In the winter, I would have had injuries everywhere - after 3 I blow the whistle and go in, as experience teaches me that if you carry on, the injuries get so thick and fast that you reach a tipping point where more of your class are sat in the medical room than on the playground, there are none left to stretcher bear for their buddies and I and the chapping wind are alone picking up balls and limbs. And the secretary is discreetly typing 'child protection' into Google and seeing if there is a technical loop hole that allows teachers to avoid being strung up by the hamstrings for child cruelty when all they were trying to do was the unit on skipping and hopping, as per the Scheme of Work, and not deliberately maiming children by scraping them along a cold playground. I speak from experience, as my best friend at Infant school and I were skipping along with our arms crossed and I fell over, but she carried on skipping and dragged me the length of the playground - or a few metres anyway, dredging grit and agony into my knee. It was probably the same Scheme of Work. After a fruitless visit to my GP and a faintly hopeful one to my podiatrist, who I am paying, so have more faith in, I am out jogging again, about 1km tonight, but it is better than nothing and desperately needed as I am planning on running 5k at the start of May on a dodgy ankle that has been ill since December. No quick fixes, but another gadget purchased from the 'fitness fund' a wobble board to strengthen my ankles. Do you know of another family that has a fitness fund, that is about 75% of its disposable income. Wobble board, new bike bits for R's faithful commuting and hardworking road bike, two triathtlon entries for the club Tris for H, sailing lessons for h, diving lessons for H and A, swimming lessons for A - swimming training extra session for H . Tri suit for H. Flippers for me and R. The diving people sent a letter asking if H wanted to be fast tracked ( at a cost) and we decided no, even a Bowen girls can't do all that exercise. Goodness, membership at the Hampshire ( not missed - when did we find the time?) is beginning to look like a bargain compared to all this add on expenditure here and there of a triathlon family. The girls are both going on brownie camp this year, perfectly timed to mean we don't need to worry what to do with them whilst we do our biggest triathlon yet. They are staying in a village hall in Owslebury, which is not very far away, but further away than last year which was staying in Manor Farm. When I went on Brownie camp it was always to a village hall somewhere in Surrey. Glad the Brownies are keeping hold of important traditions.

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