Questions

A couple of fine days, partly because of the support I have received from other members of staff in helping get classes settled. With the new Year 10 groups, it's important that they follow the rules from the start, and see that they will be able to learn in the lesson, so it was great to have people around at the start of the lesson as I placed pupils in the correct seats. Hopefully pupils will eventually get the message ... I had to send one pupil to the Referral Room because he moved seat after being told not to. They don't seem to understand the concept of a seating plan ...

Other than that, the highlight of today was chatting well into lunchtime with a few Year 10 boys. There had been a very small class because most of the class were sitting an exam, so we used it as an opportunity for them to ask questions, and for us to discuss such issues as "Why did Jesus not come down from the cross?", "Why are we here?", "Are ouija boards 'real' in some way?", "What will happen to good people who do not believe in God when they die?" and "What if Jesus had got married and had a child?" One boy sort of pulled me up when he said that I hadn't once said, "I don't know" - I'm not sure if he meant it as a criticism or a compliment, but I used that opportunity to point out that I (obviously) don't know the answers to these questions, but since I'm interested in them anyway, I've spent a lot of my time reading up on and finding out about the alternative answers.

My Year 11 class was also quite focused (well, some of them were for most of the time, which is saying something ... and those that weren't were sleeping or simply staring straight forward with a blank look on their face, so at least they weren't disturbing others!).

I hope Friday passes smoothly ...