A Whirlwind Tour of My Day

Arrived at school. Went to staffroom. Started marking. Remembered one member of staff is off school. Went to set up cover. Bell rang for first lesson. Waited in room for supply teacher to arrive. Class arrived. Told them what to do and sat down to try and get some marking done. Teaching Assistant arrived. Went to office to find out if there was any news about the supply teacher. Told that two were late. Went back to class. Helped pupils and marked for about half an hour until supply teacher arrived.

Went to staffroom. Had some computer stuff to do, as well as exam papers to mark, and was then going to phone the Chaplain of another to school to see if he might be able to find us some priests to come to the school for Reconciliation later this week. Five minutes into lesson, the TA found me and told me that five minutes before the end of the last lesson, a couple of the boys had started play fighting, and when they wouldn't stop, the supply teacher gathered up all her things, including all the cover work I'd set for the day's lessons, and had left, in a distressed state. I phoned over to the office, and was told that she was in tears in the office and was going home, and that there was no-one free with non contact lessons to cover. I said that I would go and sit with the class, but I had already spent half of a lesson covering already, and had lots to do, and wanted someone to come and take over from me. She said she'd see, but there was no one available. Since there were other teachers sitting in the classroom, I knew she meant no one who had a period marked as available for cover. Which included both those free periods on my timetable.

Anyway, off I went to the class. About ten pupils were sitting around already, playing cards. I told them to put the cards away, and they ignored me. One girl started muttering comments. No one was remotely bothered. I went out and called the office, asking them to send the on-call person round. I went back to the room. Still playing cards. I handed out the books, and told them to put their cards away, sit on their chairs, get rid of the sweets, and put the mobile phones and iPods away. Would have been as effective if I'd been sitting in the staffroom. Remembered I had a video camera in my bag. Took a video - they hid the cards away and at that point the on-call arrived. He immediatelty took about seven of them away. The others settled a bit, and opened the books. Still didn't do any work.

Break. Off I went to my office, and almost immediately got a call from the on-call asking me to write up the incident, which I duly did, and delivered to the office before the end of break. I then had to stay there for about fifteen minutes, going over the incident with the on-call, who had already arranged for some pupils to be excluded for refusing to follow instructions and playing cards in class. This then meant I was late for my Sixth Form lesson; by the time I arrived back, most had left, so I taught the six or so that were there.

Period four, I had arranged to show a colleague how to access a certain website; just as we started, the office phoned to tell me that someone I had expected to see during lunch had arrived early. Off I went to collect him and bring him back to the office, where we spent the rest of the lesson planning a revision lesson for during the holidays. Walked him back to the office and caught up with my other colleague as the bell rang - managed to show her quickly how to access the website, then we went to the staffroom for lunch.

I was trying to complete some more marking, then suddenly remembered we had a meeting at 1pm. Saw a couple of other colleagues to remind them, then went back to my room at 1pm for the meeting. Discussed quite a bit, including how to make revision cards.

Just before the end of lunch, someone brought the new supply teacher over. I took her back over to the room she was teaching in, at the other side of the school ... she needed a board marker and rubber, so I then had to find that for her, by which time the bell had gone. I rushed over to the other side of the school, where I discovered that the head was in my room with the class. Since I hadn't finished marking the answers (all three of my free periods, during which I planned to mark them, had gone), I then had to quickly plan what to do, so I started going over the questions. They were too chatty, and since I hadn't let them in, I felt not quite in control!

Most eventually did something, though, and we got to the end of the lesson. I then had to rush over to the computer rooms, where I had told my year 7s to meet me. But the room was being used, and the year 7s were getting loud and restless. Fortunately some of the teachers over there helped me out and we found another room, and the pupils then got on with the work I wanted them to do quite well.

Tidied up the computer room at the end of the day, and went straight to the Extended Leadership Team meeting which ended at 5pm.

Whew! A busy day.

Great to be home!