Well then, technically the first week of the holidays; I say technically, as I’ve still been busy!

As I was collecting my paper from the local shop this morning, the lady said: "A bit later for the paper today!" She lives opposite me and knows that I usually leave the house at 06:30 and go straight to the shop for a paper. She seems happy for me that at 08:30 I’ve had a lie in. So am I!

I replied: "The holidays still involve a lot of work for me, its just that I have more say in what I do and when!" She found this amusing…and thinking about it, so did I!

Even during the strike for UNISON members in the last week of term, my days were unaffected.  I still had meetings arranged, people to visit, etc…despite the fact there were no children at school!

I think as SENCos we sign up to teacher’s terms and conditions, but work a more conventional administration role.

How many SENCos work during the holidays? How many of us meet colleagues for working lunches and ‘pop into school’, when no-one else is around?

Lots of us, I venture.

I went into school to pick up a lot of paperwork, check on the new appointment letters and confirm a lunch meeting with our returning educational psychologist. She’s been on maternity leave and so much has changed, school-wise and with respect to how we support students, that I need to get her up to date.

I’ve also been trying to arrange meetings with LA Education Office with regard to some building work, but no joy…I’ll be on that one next week.

Meanwhile, at home, I’m spending a few days fitting a new floor in my extension. There is a life after school; isn’t there?

I watched Dispatches (about the new immunisation against cervical cancer) on Monday night. Various arguments were given both for and against the immunisation, but the one thing that horrified me was the group of mothers stating that they did not feel that they wanted their daughters to have the jab because they did not want to have a conversation about sex with a twelve year old. My God, no wonder six percent of teenagers in this country get pregnant every year.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I have two daughters and I would like them to hold on to their innocence as long as possible. But I don’t think that talking openly about sex and loving relationships is likely to deprive them of their childhood in some way. Having had an embarrassingly rubbish sex education at school, I don’t feel wildly confident about it, but I try my best to answer six year old Milly’s questions when they come up. The last time was in the supermarket - in a very LOUD voice she asked, “Mummy, is that apple bigger or smaller than a sperm?”

From my perspective, I blunder through things as best I can and pray that sex education nowadays is manifestly better than it was thirty years ago. So I just can’t understand these people who complain about sex education being ‘too explicit’. As far as I am concerned, the more that teachers take off my hands, the better and, in the mean time, I will try to be as open and unembarrassed as possible.

I would like to see a much more open attitude towards sex in schools – much more along the lines of that in Holland (where only one percent of teenagers get pregnant). I certainly wouldn’t complain if Milly and her peers were to be taught about sex and how babies are made (yes, and how big a sperm is in relation to an apple). Far better that she learns from her parents and teachers than from teenage magazines and other teenagers who have already ‘done it’. I don’t believe it would make her more likely to become sexually active in her teens. On the contrary, I think it would equip her with the skills to deal with sexual issues.

I've just spent two hours of my weekend updating the school profile. This was nothing compared to last year, when it needed completely rewriting.

This year, before changing the profile, I met with the Head and we discussed what needed to be changed/omitted/included. So that was half an hour of her precious time taken up during the last week of term.

Now, as far as I understand, the profile is to be written by governors and its aim is to tell parents and other interested parties about the school in non technical terms. Sounds like a great idea. However, when I went onto the website to update it, I was informed that it had been viewed a total of 35 times over the past year. It doesn't seem that people know that the profiles are there. And thinking about it, when I investigated schools for my children, I first talked to people locally, then looked at the websites and Ofsted reports. I didn't know back then that the profiles existed.

I wonder if other schools have found the same thing? Have many people visited their profiles? Do they think that people are aware that they exist? It certainly seems a lot of work for something that very few people are using. Or are there any parents out there who have found it useful to read? Does it give you information that you wouldn't have found elsewhere?