just another morning here

It is exceedingly rare that Josiah will allow me to take a photo of him, but he was obviously very pleased with the trophy he received at ECS Speech Day this evening – awarded for the most promising young musician. There are a string of names we recognise already on the trophy, children who have gone on to be inspiring people with their music – and, apart from that, it was the THIRD BIGGEST trophy of the night! (Obviously the most important thing )
I was hoping to escape having to attend the event, I confess, but actually it was worth it – we are very proud of him and also really grateful that he is part of such a wonderful school. I’m a sucker for being over-emotional at events like that but that is honestly how I feel!

Came home supposedly to plan lessons for tomorrow and have ended up falling asleep in front of the computer. Early morning instead I think …

Readers who know me well know that usually I am more concerned about winning than taking part – but today proves to be an exception to the rule

Josiah took part in his House Music Festival today and although his house didn’t win, he played his solo piece very nicely, as well as taking part in a House Ensemble. I couldn’t go because it was in school time (boo) but Steve went along and recorded it for me! I wish I could have heard the whole thing. Anyway apparently he got some nice comments from the adjudicator there so well done to him Unfortunately he’s come home fairly exhausted and therefore grumpy, but hopefully an early night will sort him out.

Meanwhile at my school I had a team of students from across the upper school in my class today taking part in an Enterprise Day – we had to produce something from a beetroot. My group decided to go for juice, but other groups produced everything from playdoh to crisps, and cakes to relish! It was a really fun day and I loved looking around the room to see all the kids busy and productive – from designing posters and labels, to making our presentation on the computer, chopping veg, and using a switch adapted juicer so that everyone could join in the juicing. We even had some sensory play with the bits of beetroot that were left over after juicing! It was fab, even though we got fired at the end

So, I’ve now held my first parents’ evening as a teacher. Lovely to meet parents, put names to faces, and hear about what they feel is important for their children. Not so lovely to have to set targets alongside them because I’m a rebel and I hate stuff like that – it feels like a paper pushing exercise when what the parents really wanted was just to chat- and they all needed more than 15 minutes to do it in. Ho hum.

I got to school at 7am this morning, managed to leave after parents’ eve at 6.45pm. I’m very lucky that I only live 3 minutes away, as I was home having tea at 6.50pm (the girls cooked ). Steve and I bolted ours down and then left them to it, as we were meant to be at Abbie’s parents’ evening at 6.30pm!

As it turned out, it was a Y7 new parents’ evening, where we were told about all the school rules (though we missed that part, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it), and lectured on e-safety. I sat at the back feeling very guilty that we don’t have parental controls on our internet, all our children have facebook accounts etc. etc. Although I felt slightly better that all our computers are downstairs in public spaces and I actively encourage ‘looking over shoulders’ – mainly I ask the kids to keep looking over mine to make sure I’m not on facebook when I should be working! When the teacher started talking about having googled girls’ names and found images of them I did imagine that she could have been reading here, but luckily having a boring surname helps with that – you have to google ‘beetroot risotto’ or ‘weight of a duck’ to find this page! Anyway. Our version of e-safety is very different to theirs

Then we were asked to enjoy mingling. Well, I can’t help it, but I don’t enjoy mingling. I was so tired, we almost left there and then – but forced ourselves to stay and chat to a few teachers. Actually it was ok – and we ended up talking about both girls, since all the teachers that we did talk to had made the link and talked to us about both of them. All fine

Home in time for Gareth Malone and a catch up on the internet, with my internet friends that I met online before knowing them in real life. They might have been stalkers ready to cyber-bully me, but funnily enough most of them are just real people that I rather like

Up early now since I couldn’t manage to do any planning last night so it will have to happen now … I’ve found I’m far more productive at school around 7am than the night before, and the kids don’t miss my nagging in the mornings, so it works all ways round.

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