Remember that scene at the start of "Independence Day," when the giant spaceship blacks out the sky? Well, that was pretty much how this last week went, as Ofsted chose to visit at two day's notice.
The school I work at was a good school last week, and it will still be a good school next week. There are those who favour unannounced inspectorial visits, with teachers arriving to find the team in the car park, although there would not be many teachers who would wish for this. We are told that Health Inspectors and auditors make unexpected calls, so that is the accepted practice. I would argue that teenagers are a less predictable commodity than spreadsheets, particularly on the first really hot day of the summer, as Year 11 leave.
The deal now is that less than 30 minutes of a randomly chosen lesson is observed and a judgement passed on that teacher. Or at least that is how it feels for the person involved, inducing sleepless nights and soul-searching before, during and after the whole process.
Suffice it to say that my mantra - "Time and the hour runs through the roughest day" - proved correct once again. Perhaps not so true for one of my colleagues who went into premature labour as the day started and gave birth through the night. Fortunately,both parties are doing well.
Enough of this - we have come through. On Friday we were able to walk out from home to the little village of Messing. We are refining our system of placing a car at the far end of the intended walk, so we can drive back. Last week we drove to Halstead and walked back. We were over half-way towards home when my husband realised that he had placed the house-key in the glove compartment for safe-keeping, so we could not get into the house nor access his car keys to recover my car. Fortunately a taxi provided the solution in short order.
We remembered the time that we were out walking above Honister Pass with friends. We had parked one car at the Honister slate mines carpark,and the other in Buttermare at the bottom of the pass. We were to walk along Dale Head and then down into Buttermere. As we enjoyed the view while eating lunch, our friend realised that she had put her car key in our boot, so that it did not get lost on the walk.
On that occasion, she and I revisited the thrills of hitch-hiking, and a very nice man gave us a lift back up the pass to recover the car, and her keys.
Finally, one little red glove, as yet unfinished. On our first walk this season we tried out our new waterproofs. I realised that, even in late Spring, emergency gloves might be sensible to add to the kit.
The school I work at was a good school last week, and it will still be a good school next week. There are those who favour unannounced inspectorial visits, with teachers arriving to find the team in the car park, although there would not be many teachers who would wish for this. We are told that Health Inspectors and auditors make unexpected calls, so that is the accepted practice. I would argue that teenagers are a less predictable commodity than spreadsheets, particularly on the first really hot day of the summer, as Year 11 leave.
The deal now is that less than 30 minutes of a randomly chosen lesson is observed and a judgement passed on that teacher. Or at least that is how it feels for the person involved, inducing sleepless nights and soul-searching before, during and after the whole process.
Suffice it to say that my mantra - "Time and the hour runs through the roughest day" - proved correct once again. Perhaps not so true for one of my colleagues who went into premature labour as the day started and gave birth through the night. Fortunately,both parties are doing well.
Enough of this - we have come through. On Friday we were able to walk out from home to the little village of Messing. We are refining our system of placing a car at the far end of the intended walk, so we can drive back. Last week we drove to Halstead and walked back. We were over half-way towards home when my husband realised that he had placed the house-key in the glove compartment for safe-keeping, so we could not get into the house nor access his car keys to recover my car. Fortunately a taxi provided the solution in short order.
We remembered the time that we were out walking above Honister Pass with friends. We had parked one car at the Honister slate mines carpark,and the other in Buttermare at the bottom of the pass. We were to walk along Dale Head and then down into Buttermere. As we enjoyed the view while eating lunch, our friend realised that she had put her car key in our boot, so that it did not get lost on the walk.
On that occasion, she and I revisited the thrills of hitch-hiking, and a very nice man gave us a lift back up the pass to recover the car, and her keys.
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1 comment:
Perfect shade for an emergency glove . If , Heaven forbid , you ever find yourself in a tricky situation , you'll spotted in a flash !
We don't have Ofsted , of course , being a playschool . Our inspections seem to concentrate less on the "do the children learn anything ?" than "do you lock noisy children in a cupboard ... and , if so , is the cupboard cobweb free and with suitable handwashing facilities ?" .
But , on the other hand , we can view the increasing edginess of the inspector as she is trailed by a persistent question-asker , two nose-pickers and a little girl who wants to try her shoes on !
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