Well, I fooled them.
I’ve made it through my first week as Deputy Head without too many disasters.
True, there was all the Year 11s (except 1) without timetables! I still don’t know how I managed to tell the computer to print off the whole school but miss out the year 11s. It’s a mystery because that one boy had his …. Timetable fairies are out and about!
I’d forgotten that in September I’d have to field phone-calls from parents of pupils who had moved down a group. I am totally sympathetic to the cause but they have to understand that only 32 pupils at most can be in the group labelled ‘top’. I think we create additional problems in our school because all our other ‘sets’ in Years 7, 8 and 9 are mixed ability and the majority of our teachers haven’t got their heads around differentiation.
I’ve also had to sort out the mess caused by 8 students going to college for one or two days a week to study BTECs and Young Apprenticeships. Most of them miss a double PE lesson and one of either RE or Citizenship per week; however there are three of them missing Maths and either English or Science. If I was one of those parents I’d be livid and yet I haven’t heard much at all. Considering how much hassle it was to get them on the course and make it so they only missed 3 or 4 lessons I am glad that I haven’t had to apologise too much.
I am happy overall – if only the kids (and parents) knew just how much time and effort went into their timetable and curriculum.
