Welcome to Bulletin #37
Another week closer to the Summer holidays! It feels like an early finish this year, especially as most of our friends and colleagues at other Transform schools have at least an additional week to do after we’re done. This is the payback for their gloating during their extended October half-term break. They do (gently) tease us then, but in reality very few of them actually seem to like that holiday pattern – either personally or professionally – and would rather have the time now. We get the last laugh! 😉
Looking through the diary below, it strikes me how much above and beyond just being a school we do here. Staff work tirelessly to put on extra events and exciting activities. We have countless trips, residentials, community events, sports events, clubs, days-out, parties, celebrations, treats and more, all of which take a considerable amount of planning and effort. We have to remember that all of this is extra, in a period when teachers are supposed to be working to rule and doing absolutely nothing beyond their classroom duties; no admin, no trips, no clubs, no sports events, no parties or discos, no fair, no residentials, nothing beyond teaching and planning lessons.
Our staff continue to go above and beyond though, ignoring the work-to-rule, because they care about the children and the community. All of this beyond the fact that they also agree to work an extended day (unpaid) because the community told us they value the early drop-off option and we also recognise that we can do lots more fun activities – eg Golden Fridays, Forest School, Active Schools, etc – in the school day as a result.
I’m currently wading through mountains of reports produced by teachers. Again, they’ re ‘supposed’ to be doing the bare minimum- report the numbers, a comment briefly on the fundamentals and not much else. The reports so far are amazing – comprehensive, detailed and highly personalised to teach individual child. I’m grateful for this – it makes reading and commenting on over 460 of them a bit more interesting and makes the reports (hopefully) something to treasure and enjoy, rather than a lot of tick-boxes.
They don’t expect medals, praise or presents, but I think we need to remember what they do above and beyond for the children. I for one am certainly grateful to them. They work harder than I do now and harder than I ever did as a classroom teacher, under more pressure, on a smaller budget and in more challenging circumstances. They have to support more special needs and more social and emotional challenges than ever, with less and less additional help. They’ve become social workers, child-therapists and family support workers as well as teachers. I could no longer do their job – it’d be beyond me. I’d like my gratitude to them to be on record here.
Mr H
Diary
Reception Sports Day 2pm
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