Yes it is that crazy week when so many emotions will be in overdrive. Maintenance staff will have been busy for weeks, polishing, cleaning and fixing damaged furniture and fittings, floors will sparkle and even windows will be clean. Admin staff will have been doing all the mysterious things that they always seem to be doing and senior management will have been trying to work out the implications of whatever poorly thought through new initiatives have been thrust in their direction.
At home, teenagers will be contemplating the idea of getting out of bed before noon and having to wear uncool uniforms again, but secretly looking forward to being able to sulk in company, to bathe in pheromones and to begin new liaisons and relationships.
Timid toddlers will be dreading their first day of school having been terrified and intimidated by older siblings. They will don their loose fitting uniforms that they are told that they will grow into and pack their pristine pencil cases into equally pristine school bags; they will leave their beloved toys behind and begin the arduous process of social integration with children that most of their parents would want them to have nothing to do with. Lifelong friendships will be forged and enemies made.
Parents who have been on duty all day and every day for the last six weeks or more will be anticipating their freedoms or abilities to go back to work and hoping that their offspring will not embarrass them too much and keep out of trouble, and long suffering teachers will be dreading that return to the mayhem of modern education. New rules, new curricula, new legislation and a whole new bunch of material entering the machine.
Teachers are trapped between rocks and very hard places. On one hand a lot of children that really do not want to be in school, being served a poorly devised national curriculum, that each successive government fiddles with, and a pernicious Ofsted organisation that can descend without notice, catch someone on a bad day and ruin careers and lives. It is little wonder that many are giving up and that continuity is becoming a thing of the past. Many teachers will be starting their careers this week and will be full of enthusiasm and "fresh" ideas. Many others will have seen reality and will be back with a more cynical approach but will still do their jobs as well as they are allowed to, despite the fact that goalposts are both both moving and invisible.
I wish everyone luck and a successful year.
At home, teenagers will be contemplating the idea of getting out of bed before noon and having to wear uncool uniforms again, but secretly looking forward to being able to sulk in company, to bathe in pheromones and to begin new liaisons and relationships.
Timid toddlers will be dreading their first day of school having been terrified and intimidated by older siblings. They will don their loose fitting uniforms that they are told that they will grow into and pack their pristine pencil cases into equally pristine school bags; they will leave their beloved toys behind and begin the arduous process of social integration with children that most of their parents would want them to have nothing to do with. Lifelong friendships will be forged and enemies made.
Parents who have been on duty all day and every day for the last six weeks or more will be anticipating their freedoms or abilities to go back to work and hoping that their offspring will not embarrass them too much and keep out of trouble, and long suffering teachers will be dreading that return to the mayhem of modern education. New rules, new curricula, new legislation and a whole new bunch of material entering the machine.
Teachers are trapped between rocks and very hard places. On one hand a lot of children that really do not want to be in school, being served a poorly devised national curriculum, that each successive government fiddles with, and a pernicious Ofsted organisation that can descend without notice, catch someone on a bad day and ruin careers and lives. It is little wonder that many are giving up and that continuity is becoming a thing of the past. Many teachers will be starting their careers this week and will be full of enthusiasm and "fresh" ideas. Many others will have seen reality and will be back with a more cynical approach but will still do their jobs as well as they are allowed to, despite the fact that goalposts are both both moving and invisible.
I wish everyone luck and a successful year.
1 comment:
Well said.
Post a Comment