Thank you to everyone who commented with the upsetting news that I am indeed going to have to fettle the rescue dahlia to enjoy it next year. I have some newspaper reader. It is still in flower so I will be watching and waiting. I will nurture it and hopefully bring it back to life next year .
* I wrote this at the end of term but now our Oreport has been published and we did OK I can share *
**WARNING***
Contains MANY sweeping generalisations and it's a bit ranty in parts.
I am a dreadful blogger really because I have so many unwritten posts, due to
So many long days at work!
At the end of June I turned eternally 28 + 27!
This means I have matching numbers in my age. It also means, should I want to or need to, I can officially get my mitts on my pension pot. Not that I plan to.
So on Monday 15th June, the dreaded O call came to school. The new rules mean that they call on a Monday before 11am. They then come into school Tuesday and Wednesday and leave by 5pm on the Wednesday. We started the new year with a new Head and she had all her ducks in a row in anticipation and we were just waiting for it really. Every Monday since Christmas, when we approached our 'window' we all breathed a sigh of relief by 11.15am because no call had come!
Now I've been around the clock so many times with Ofsted. Ofsted schmofstead effofsted I calls it. However, it was gruelling and I was in 5 meetings due to the nature of my role in school and the absolute focus on inclusion and what are we doing for our disadvantaged learners. It is very easy to prove because 85% of our school are classed as disadvantaged so it is our bread and butter and also the new head wanted me in as one of a few who has worked there the longest! I am Pastoral, Deputy Safeguarding Lead and staff Governor.
But, here is an annoying fact - and I am not giving any thing away around the new grading in the reports, because that has all changed too.
This is just a fact about the new areas Ofsted look at. For anyone who does not know.
Tell me, how can any school be judged on 'attendance' when it is the parents who basically drive that??? You can be the best school in the world with the best resources, teachers, building, staff, bouncy castles in the playground and the Kind Of England sitting - there are still children who would not be at school because of the parents failure in their duty, even with the most intensive support, to bring their children to school on time, every day. Government say schools should do more. WHAT MORE CAN WE DO?!!!!!
****I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS AND A TINY % OF CHILDREN JUST SHOULD NOT BE IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOL AT ALL AND WOULD BE BETTER HOMESCHOOLED OR IN SEN PROVISION BUT ON THE WHILE, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THESE FAMILIES*****
And remember...
There are SO many complex reasons behind poor attendance - EBSA, Emotionally Based School Avoidance - used to be called school Refusal but you are not allowed to say that anymore. Parental capacity to parent when faced with daily stresses of their own meaning they cannot get up in time to get their children to school. Many say COVID closures are STILL having an impact giving the message that school is not important. Nationwide and locally, attendance figures for school have never recovered, year on year.
So how can school 'fix' this???????
The next point is what annoys me even more.
Also 'interestingly' and UNFAIRLY,, the category of 'attendance' is linked to 'behaviour'
So in an ideal world a school would like to be graded 'expected' ( which the government framework states cannot be compared to old style grading of good and outstanding etc ) for behaviour and attendance.
But
If every single pupil is there on time every single day, attendance would be 'good'
But if those pupils then dicked about every single day and were little horrors, behaviour would 'need work' or however they put it and so overall the school would get the lowest grading.
And vice versa
If the pupils at school behave like little angels day in day out, the schools care for behaviour was good, but if attendance is below a certain atandard then the whole grading is again pulled down.
I do not understand how they can be lumped together. They are very two different kettles of fish
And I can now say we should have had a higher grade because the inspectors were very impressed with the good behaviour we have in school. The kids are amazing generally. Really good culture of behaviour for learning in the classroom and even the most challenging children have their plans which were seen to work etc so we should have had the higher grading - but because the attendance figures are not showing signs of improvement - a few die hard families choices affect an overall grading. Ridiculous. The whole thing is.
Because also
In my experience and definite line of work, a lot of the children I work with, come from horrific home life, are very challenging with their behaviour, yet turn up, day in day out. Yet little Cressida and Horace, who are lucky enough to have working parents with a good source of income will be pulled out for a term time holiday because the family can afford the fines and pay little heed to rules or disruption to their education. Cressida and Horace are generally compliant and cause no challenges to staff - but the parent's attitude will cause school's attendance to look bad. Term time holiday prices are horrifically higher - Inhave no choice. Also also, holidays are a PRIVILEDGE not an absolute right. No one HAS to go on holiday. It's nice. That's it.
Oh and the government don't seem to care that cases of chicken pox and jorovirus etc which can knock swathes of children's attendance askew, are also unfairly judged
Because they go on the hard figures in black and white.
Oh and whilst I am on my high horse
SATS
The debacle of the fact the marks are now not out until July 16th. The Govt spent BILLIONS on the company running them. The whole of Leicestershire break up on July 10th.
Schools are so desperate to have their hard data up, they will scrutinise the papers and request remarks where they think a pupil has missed out unfairly on 1 or 2 marks which is the difference between a pass and a fail
So they will have a week I think to submit papers
Here's the thing. Schools will be CLOSED by then for the hard earned Aummer Break from work/school - NOT A HOLIDAY - a break hahaha
It is a total farce and a shambles and it also does not recognise the pupils who may not have been fluent readers u til Y5 or grasp basic numbers and shapes but because they cannot be disapplied, the fact that they
1. Turned up and sat the paper
2. May have got 10 amazing marks which is an absolute achievement
MEANS NOTHING.
Can you tell how near to burn out and retirement I am?
I have even been looking at jobs I could do where I would get paid for 52 weeks in the year. This is still a foreign concept to me because as school support staff we are STILL only paid term time only. Yes, they do some jiggery pokery with the money and holidays ( I think I am paid for the maximum 46 ?? Weeks a year - I can't even think - it might only be 43
When it is divided by 12 - it is not much more than minimum wage for a whole heap of heart attack inducing stress.
Which is what happened to my lovely friend earlier this year. I'd argue she did her job - which is what I do - harder than me. She had a sudden heart attack and died. Out of the blue. Horrific. I still can't believe she has gone. She was a truly kind soul who went over and above and then a bit more for the teenagers she was working with.
Anyway, my lips are sealed re Ofsted and because they came in June, the time line of the process means our full report will not go live until September! ( Disclaimer - it is out now and it is what it is and school goes on a offstead schmoffstead - I will carry on regardless knowing I work in an amazing setting with dedicated and hard working staff doing what we can to squeeze every single bit of potential out of our Childers so they thrive and achieve and strive to be the best human being they can be with hope for the future. We want this for those children at home who have parents who actually could make more of an effort and for those who can't - there's a team of us working behind the scenes , offering support and help to try to get it to improve. We would not change a single thing if Ofstead came next week or the whole inspection system was scrapped. We are now not due another visit for four years - will I still be there?!!
Probably hahaha
It makes no difference what it says, as the last 4 I have endured. The job is the same, sparking heartache and joy, every single day.
Wow that was a rant. Anyway, my birthday week was the week after Ofsted and I was so poorly with a virus that was sweeping the Childers - a few hospitalised with croup like symptoms ( never mind, get them in school please because the government was attendance figures up ) I was off for a whole week. Absolutely floored I was. So was the head.
It annoys me because so far, I had not had one single day off due to my ill health.
I'd had one day when my Mum's partner died, one day for his funeral and two separate afternoons for my shoulder hospital appointments. And on my birthday, which was also slap bang in the middle of that stinking heatwave, I spent in my sick bed, quietly panting, like the dog, feeling like a wring out dishcloth!
The tonic came at the weekend back in June in the form of Oliver and my daughter and hubby. They paid £15 to book the guest room at my Mum's sheltered accommodation - it's private rental flats complex over seen by a warden - it's lovely- but for that bargain price I did not have to move all my craft room away and wash bedding etc which was a bonus given I was still post viral weak and it was so hot.
We got the bus to the seaside on the Saturday afternoon and had a lovely day. Oliver is a smashing little lad, talking in upto 5 word sentences now
Everything is
'My do it' 'my want to go outside and gut the grass'
Mr Independant! He is growing up so fast into a very headstrong I will say.... typical two year old....but loves being outside, stickers, helping doing jobs and just life itself. He brought much needed joy and lives and all round good feelings! Even though I was completely knackered when he went!!!
My HG bought me a new watch for my birthday as my original one would t match my much newer phone. I also got some birthday money for some perfume. I bought myself a new raincoat from reincoat! So very waterproof.
Anyway - it is now Sunday morning 6th September and my weekly shop just got delivered - no loo roll or bread and no substitute - is this because people are panic buying because of WL Nino and the news saying we should stock up?
I wasn't stocking up - it was just my usual fortnightly buy! I will not panic buy anything! But I now will have to go into an actual shop in our day of visiting the elderlies to pick some up. Tsk.
I'm lucky I get to be annoyed by this. I'm luck to be able to go to an actual shop.
We live in such an entitled want it now world, we forget we are so lucky to be who we are where we are.
Off to get cracking!
