work-life balance - Balancing Act

I really can’t complain as I had 3 snow days “off” last week and besides I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of the events on at school this week.

Day one
Monday evening was the postponed 'Options' talk. It was brilliant (I know self-praise is no praise but this was the verdict of several parents). I was pleased with it. In addition to my own talk about what was on offer, and the assembly from subject leaders that the students had already received, we had the 14 – 19 team talking about Increased Flexibility, Diplomas, Young Apprenticeships etc.; Connexions were in to offer support; our own Year 10s did a fantastic job of telling Year 9 why they had to chose what they enjoyed or were good at rather than what their friends were choosing. We had another group of Year 10s talking about how grown up you have to be to become a Young Apprentice and go out to college and work once a week. I think we comprehensively covered all the issues that parents and students will need to think about before making the important decisions that lay ahead.

Day two
On Tuesday evening it was Year 7 parents. I don’t teach Year 7 but stayed for a while because Parents Evenings are my event management project. I was down to nitty gritty detail:

• Is the clock for appointment timings large enough to be seen from the back of the hall?
• Do the teachers drink the bottled water on their desks or just use the PTFA tokens for cups of tea?
• If a parent comes without their child can they still navigate the signs to get into the hall and find all the correct teachers?
• Did our evaluation sheets give an average of more than 5 (on a 1 - 6 scale) for all aspects of communication, hospitality and organisation?

Luckily the answer was “Yes” to all but the tea question which is great because it’s one less thing for the admin team to put out on desks in the rush between the 3.30pm end of school and the 4pm start of parents evening.

Days three, four and five
Wednesday (and tonight) it’s the termly Music Concert – at the Autumn ones I’d planned only to see one evening but once I’d felt the warm glow watching our children perform I had to return the next evening. This time I planned ahead and had Mr. OC for company last night and will be helping out the PTFA with refreshments tonight (they’ve cleverly planned to hold our meeting during the concert, stopping for just 20 minutes to help with interval top-ups). I’m saying that attending 2 events in one night is beyond the call of duty but I am a martyr to the cause!

Day six
End of half-term mufti-day's bad enough (it's something about removing the almost physical restrictions of uniform); I've organised a Year 11 study skills day so that they start the half-term with no excuse about not knowing how to revise.  Friday night is staff cook-in from 6pm. This is mainly to say goodbye to Ben, the Australian English teacher who’s heading back home. I’ve cooked up my lasagne and am looking forward to food, drink and merriment till the early hours (oh well nearer 10pm).

Day seven
Luckily I’ve had my stint on Saturday detentions so I can have a bit of a lie-in on Valentines Day and start to enjoy the half-term.

Day eight
I’m not actually involved but the Head of Music will be back in school on Sunday set-building for the main school production which is on for a four-night run in March. I will try to show my face although maybe I’ll leave it to the other end of the half-term when I’m a bit more rested.

So my other late night last week was senior team bonding.  Wednesday evening Julia, an assistant head, and I car-pooled over to Nigel the deputy’s house.  Matthew the Head and Sarah the Bursar also came along.

We each brought a dish – none of us knew what the other was bringing and so we might have ended up having to eat 5 puddings (oh how terrible that would have been!)

Originally - we were going to analyse our dishes as part of bonding process; we’d also planned to do some work on the school SEF but neither happened in the end and I don’t think it mattered because we learnt a lot about each other just  by chatting together in a relaxed atmosphere well away from staff or students. 

So what does it say about Nigel that he rang Julia and I to say he was running late at the shops buying the food for his dish.  I could have stomached this if his dish had been complicated but it was bruschetta !  Admittedly it was absolutely gorgeous, sharp but creamy buffalo mozzarella and crème fraiche with lemon zest and olive oil plus black olives on the side.  I guess as he’s the pastoral person the smooth, calming influence is about right!

I made sure my dish was hot and spicy but that’s all I’ve got say on that!

Anyway – we couldn’t help but talk about it in the staff room as we joined together for briefing and I think it came as a bit of a surprise that the senior leaders meet outside of school or that we needed to bond!  I think it’s especially important as we’re about to interview for another assistant head to 'complete' the team.

I need to rant and on here seems as good a place as any.

Firstly – another power cut yesterday afternoon. I completely misunderstood the problem; it was an internal fuse that had been blown. Not the sort that 10 minutes with the caretaker and a piece of fuse wire would fix but 1 hour with EDF energy having to be rung and then rubber gloves and face masks!

Somebody is plugging in a Christmas present and blowing the fuse – Sarah, the Bursar sent round an email asking us all to check carefully and consider what we’ve been doing the last two Mondays in a row!!

Secondly – our trainee teacher Saffron seemed to spend all of yesterday drinking tea and chatting with the other trainees. I asked about copies of lesson plans for her lesson today (as I need 24 hours in advance to have any hope of giving her meaningful feedback)

– “Oh it will be fine, I’ll email them” she simpers

At 7.09 this morning I get an email from her saying “I’ll just be observing you today and then teaching next lesson”. No apology, not even the grace to admit that she hadn’t done her planning and was just passing her problem back to me. Especially cowardly doing it in an email (and why not last night to give me more time).

I went mad at Nigel (who’s her mentor) and then bunged a whole load of photocopying in preparation for my lesson at her (activity resources not just worksheets) and THEN taught a fab lesson just to make myself feel better and also to help pile on the guilt (oh I’m mean I know it).

After words with Nigel she did apologise to me and we had a good debrief but HOW unprofessional!

Lastly I’m still at school at 7.45pm as the Chair of the PTFA decided last week that we needed an additional meeting. I did complain that I have Parents Evening and another session of senior team bonding – 3 late nights out in the second week back is a killer.