Everything’s cheerier in the sun so I wandered aimlessly around the yard at break to join the general mellifluity. Even teachers whose duty day it wasn’t ventured out for vitamin D, so we discussed Hot Weather Dress For Men. Does a formal shirt look unfinished without a tie? Is it better if your sleeves are rolled up? How about a shirt with toucans on? What do you wear on the feet with tailored shorts? Meanwhile, half the boys were still wearing puffa jackets and one a pointed woolly hat, the chapeau of choice this season. ‘Must be malaria’ said PE Sir. DT Sir, still in jacket and tie, reminded us this would barely pass as a warm day in Jamaica.
Today’s yard was too hot for a serious discussion of the state of the world, so it was just as well that my political correspondent and I had already met. We revisited the quality of world leadership and the internal problems of our domestic political parties and found them unimproved since we last convened. She’s particularly worried about Brexit ‘Everything’s bad, but this is significant’. Good to be able to tell the difference.
Its recruitment season again and the timescales have concertina-d again. In the old days you put out an ad in the trade press, waited two weeks, read the applications and organised an interview day. Now we put things out very quickly – paying through the nose to do so, incidentally – with a short turnaround. If you’re lucky enough to have anyone apply for a job you invite them the day after the closing date, and sign them up if they’re plausible. We used to get frantic at the end of May, but now we panic in March and April, terrified of posts still filled by supply in September.
And that includes Geography. Geography! Ten years ago you could shake the tree and get 20 applicants, six to shortlist and every one of them appointable. Now Geography is a shortage subject, Teach First ranking them with maths and Science for scarcity. How? Well, part of it is the incompetence of a DfE strategy since 2010 which means that no one is in control of the number of teacher training places any more, yawn because you’ve heard me on this before. Part of it is the result of perverse incentives in school league tables which meant that fewer young people studied Geography in the early 2000s. That should fix itself, as long as the university places also haven’t been cut back. It takes time to grow a teacher, it starts in school and it’s a circular process. What with not being able to afford to buy anyone in any case, this combination of budget issues and teacher shortages is, as the lady says, not just bad but significant.
As I write the GCSE Art exhibition is on and I’m off to see the A level Dance showcase. Our young people produce wonderful stuff as a result of wonderful teaching and their own intrinsic motivation to create. Who wouldn’t want to be a teacher, especially on a sunny day?
And the sunny day brought a poem into the inbox from a parent, a lovely evocation of a happy trip to school and the perils of teenage road-crossing. We’ll get onto the road safety, but thank you for the poem, which I share.
Sunshine & Music Close to the Edge
Buoyed by sunshine and music
agree to a lift to school
Buoyed by sunshine and music
cosy front-seat-chat with my “Tallis Blue”
Buoyed by sunshine and music
navigating speed-bumps, twists and turns
Buoyed by sunshine and music
all our “Blues” converging on Tallis
Buoyed by sunshine and music
your Tallis Blue on pavement
head phone cords connecting ears, heart & soul
One sudden, diagonal step off the edge
Shock-waves through sunshine & music
Shock-waves through three hearts and souls
Your Tallis Blue, my Tallis Blue and this mother count our blessings
as we shiver at what might have been
CR
19.4.18
Image credit: Nicky Hirst 'Elemental 209 2017' currently on show at Domobaal Gallery until 26 May.
Today’s yard was too hot for a serious discussion of the state of the world, so it was just as well that my political correspondent and I had already met. We revisited the quality of world leadership and the internal problems of our domestic political parties and found them unimproved since we last convened. She’s particularly worried about Brexit ‘Everything’s bad, but this is significant’. Good to be able to tell the difference.
Its recruitment season again and the timescales have concertina-d again. In the old days you put out an ad in the trade press, waited two weeks, read the applications and organised an interview day. Now we put things out very quickly – paying through the nose to do so, incidentally – with a short turnaround. If you’re lucky enough to have anyone apply for a job you invite them the day after the closing date, and sign them up if they’re plausible. We used to get frantic at the end of May, but now we panic in March and April, terrified of posts still filled by supply in September.
And that includes Geography. Geography! Ten years ago you could shake the tree and get 20 applicants, six to shortlist and every one of them appointable. Now Geography is a shortage subject, Teach First ranking them with maths and Science for scarcity. How? Well, part of it is the incompetence of a DfE strategy since 2010 which means that no one is in control of the number of teacher training places any more, yawn because you’ve heard me on this before. Part of it is the result of perverse incentives in school league tables which meant that fewer young people studied Geography in the early 2000s. That should fix itself, as long as the university places also haven’t been cut back. It takes time to grow a teacher, it starts in school and it’s a circular process. What with not being able to afford to buy anyone in any case, this combination of budget issues and teacher shortages is, as the lady says, not just bad but significant.
As I write the GCSE Art exhibition is on and I’m off to see the A level Dance showcase. Our young people produce wonderful stuff as a result of wonderful teaching and their own intrinsic motivation to create. Who wouldn’t want to be a teacher, especially on a sunny day?
And the sunny day brought a poem into the inbox from a parent, a lovely evocation of a happy trip to school and the perils of teenage road-crossing. We’ll get onto the road safety, but thank you for the poem, which I share.
Sunshine & Music Close to the Edge
Buoyed by sunshine and music
agree to a lift to school
Buoyed by sunshine and music
cosy front-seat-chat with my “Tallis Blue”
Buoyed by sunshine and music
navigating speed-bumps, twists and turns
Buoyed by sunshine and music
all our “Blues” converging on Tallis
Buoyed by sunshine and music
your Tallis Blue on pavement
head phone cords connecting ears, heart & soul
One sudden, diagonal step off the edge
Shock-waves through sunshine & music
Shock-waves through three hearts and souls
Your Tallis Blue, my Tallis Blue and this mother count our blessings
as we shiver at what might have been
CR
19.4.18
Image credit: Nicky Hirst 'Elemental 209 2017' currently on show at Domobaal Gallery until 26 May.
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