Thank god for M&S. Thank god for colleagues using the Occasional
Day on Monday to visit aged Ps in Great Britain.
The spirit of Chocolate Week lives on!
The end result is two buckets (poetic
licence) of chocolate coated goodies with the style and quality of that most
wonderful of shops. And in the other
staff room a delicious chocolate roulade cake!
Delightful. I used to think that
getting soft toilet paper introduced into a school in which I taught was my
greatest achievement in education – but I do think that chocolate week,
extending as it is into its third or fourth great week is a greater triumph to
put to my credit!
Not of course that I actually shop
there.
Even when I was living in the UK I did not
shop there, but I liked living near a store.
I heard/read that geographers used the location of M&S stores as a
shorthand way of finding out the socio-economic status of a particular area: if
M&S was there then you could assume that all the requisites of a normal
middle class life were to hand; if M&S were not there then you were in
Skelmsdale or equivalent. I therefore
made it a rule not to live more than three miles away from an M&S store.
The equivalent in Spain of M&S is, in
my view El Corte Ingles and, although I had to be a little more flexible on
distance, I am now delighted to report that the whole system has reversed
itself and the store is following me! We
now have a branch of El Corte Ingles (admittedly a discount store, but it still
has the name) well within the three-mile limit of my present domicile!
Another glorious day made that little bit
more squalid because I am looking at the sun’s refulgence through the grimy
window of a staff room rather than in the free space of the Third Floor. Still, it’s better than looking at rain.
As far as I am aware, the day today is one
ravaged by examination supervision so that the normal timetable is in
shreds. There is also a colleague absent
which always adds its own dash of chaos as we work so near to capacity – so who
knows what might happen today!
First lesson and it’s payback time!
I gained part of a period last week and now
my colleague has claimed her rights and I am stuck in front of a class revising
or should that be “revising” for their examination. To be fair since so much of the ethos of the
school is taken up by the process of examinations the pupils are well versed in
the niceties of the system and knuckle down to work in a much easier way than
other pupils I have taught. Generally
speaking (except for the usual suspects) they are all now working and as I
touch type I can watch and type at the same time so they realize that they are
under observation even if I appear to be working.
As this is my six-period day I welcome the
disruption of examinations, as they tend to break up the long slog that this
unnatural day brings.
Now is the time to think of more pleasant
things and to hope that Toni is phoning the superb restaurant in Girona to find
out if there are any places left to sample the gastronomic dinner that Ceri and
Dianne did not have the last time they were here.
If everything goes according to plan then
we should be able to sample the world famous cuisine during their next visit –
and drink a few tasty wines as well.
If that doesn’t work out then there is
always the fall-back plan of going to the restaurant in Hospitalet and hoping
that the restaurant in the “flying saucer” has cooled down a little so that we
are able to eat in a place with truly spectacular views. One does wonder about the quality of an
architect who designs a building in Spain which cannot be used in a Spanish
summer! We shall see, but it is
something to look forward to whatever location we finally decide to eat in.
There is still no absolute clarity about
what is going to happen to our pay this year.
I have been told conflicting stories about what the government is going
to do and all we have is rumour and not hard fact. The school does not seem to have set a time
aside for a meeting to inform staff about the probably deductions from their
pay and I have to say that my colleagues seem remarkably, even shamefully
resigned to the possibility of 5% of their total income being deducted in two
tranches of 3% and 2%!
The date for the strike has been set for
the 29th of March and I am more than inclined to take part. I realize that it might be something of
futile gesture as none of my colleagues seem inclined to take part, but the
situation is so serious that to do nothing seems to me to be a complete
abdication of union responsibility. But
it is also the loss of a day’s pay and god knows what complications with the
tax authorities etc. However, this
really does seem to be a time, if ever time there was, to take some form of
action to tell the government in no uncertain terms that their actions are not
acceptable to working people. Or me!
The next period is a “study” period with
the equivalent of Year 9. Need I say
more? However, this penance is
compensated by the next period being made into a free as my colleague is
compensating for me taking a whole class rather than our individual
groups. It all works out in the end.
Perhaps this is the time I should be taking
to get ready for the Great Change which usually catches me out. One of my classes is divided into three. Our school year is divided into three. It follows that each of the classes should
last a term. Wrong. The date for the Great Change seems quite
arbitrary but, this year, for the first time, I think I know when it takes
place. So for the last class of the year
I will have one week and two days of this term and the rest of the summer term
in which to teach them. Previously my
class has simply disappeared to be replaced by another group of bemused looking
kids drifting into my class.
At least I have two days notice this time
and some spare examination gained time in which to prepare.
It does mean, however that the introduction
to the subjects are lost in a general lust for holidays and the usual mind-wipe
of the school holiday makes the start of next term something of a trial when you
are building on material and knowledge that the kids have long lost! But, there again, it all adds to the gaiety
of nations!
We are also, on the very day of the
changeover, starting the projects which are supposedly taking up a swathe of
time during the day. However, with the
change in approach that has been brought in with little or no consultation I
think that it means that after a whole day of being off timetable, my ordinary
classes will be there waiting for me to teach them. A rabble mentality having been established
for the majority of the day I suddenly have to bring the kids back to
conventional teaching. O Joy!
It is now, at long, long last getting on
for the end of the day. I am stuck with
a Year 9 class for a double period and have suddenly been informed that the
periods last Wednesday that I took to be the end of the course were not and the
two this afternoon are. Well, stuff
that. I am not in the mood to magic up a
sudden lesson or couple of lessons for these unreceptive people when I have
work to do for the next group.
I have now designed and printed out the
cover sheets for the work that these kids are going to do. Not unimportant because if work is not
recognized as having a mark these kids consider it worthless. A cover sheet (an A3 printed single sheet
folder) therefore gives legitimacy to all the work it contains. As it will get tatty by the end of the course
- part of the mark includes designing a replacement!
One of my courses is made more complicated
by my having a pupil stay on from the group that I am supposed to be giving up
because he does not speak fluent Spanish - so he is going to have to do
everything again. Actually this is not
as futile as it sounds because he came late to my course and anyway I change
things that I have done so there will be enough there which will be different
to keep his attention. I hope. And my attention as well which is, after all,
much more important!
By the end of the day I can look back on
the production of two folders for my two credit classes; pages printed out for
my Making Sense of Modern Art class; a bluffer’s guide to how to paraphrase; a
guide to the writing of effective magazine articles and the consumption of numerous
cups of tea
But today has been thoroughly
unsatisfactory in all sorts of ways.
There is a growing tension in the school about all the work that has to
be compressed into the last two weeks of term before the holidays and there is frustration
building up about what exactly is going to happen to our money and about the
strike which is going to take place on the 29th of March.
The school management have stated that the
school will be open during the strike and, from what I have heard from my
colleagues, shamefully there are going to be plenty of teachers who are
prepared to come in to keep the place going.
As time goes on I am more and more prepared
to go on strike and I have had support from one other member of staff. Two of us out of the whole of the teaching
staff! It’s pathetic!
And, let’s be realistic, we haven’t
actually done it yet.
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