FFT results analysis lands in Inbox this morning. Bold change of direction in 2020 sees this document re-position itself in the Fantasy Fiction genre. Provincial School therefore happy to trumpet Best Results Ever but wryly notes that this makes us Underperforming. Refection on this underperformance suggests Other Schools obviously making more judicious use of Generosity plot device in narratives or, if feeling less forgiving, have overplayed the Dishonesty card. However, if present government have taught us anything in recent months it is surely that we ought always to assume that No-One Is Being Honest Ever. This is a Valuable Life Lesson.
Month: September 2020
Nothing is Normal except…
It is only with almost all students now back in school that levels of anxiety felt by Other People really come into focus. After five months of very happily living inside own rural bubble with only occasional visits into The Wider World (not been Up To Town since February and still not been in a supermarket since, was going to say March but actually is probably something like a year, supermarkets really not being Part Of My Life anyway). Genuinely surprised therefore to see so many colleagues wearing Face Coverings of various descriptions in areas and circumstances outside of those included in Guidance. Must stress that whilst I admit may be moribundly attached to many of The Old Ways, am resolutely not some anti-mask lunatic who sees themselves as ‘free thinking radical’ (for which read person who thinks ‘research’ is reading some memes on The Social Media). Seems clear that all talk of getting used to a New Normal has significant roots in reality.
Pleased to note, however, that The Old Normal is swiftly re-established in Leadership Team Meeting, where ‘strategic’ meeting instantly becomes mired in detailed thirty minute discussion argument about glue sticks and pens. Only when it is finally agreed that perhaps students should bring own to school does meeting move on to thirty minute discussion argument about Handing Out Books. At least there is no mention of chicken burgers.
Something To Think About (Welcome Back)
Back in school today ‘properly’ for the first time since The Lockdown. Like many of my colleagues I was of course in school on a weekly basis during the entirety of The Lockdown but it is certainly the strangest Return After Summer I have experienced in my twenty eight years in the profession. Challenges include getting used to being surrounded by so many people, familiarising self with Bubble Zones and, most critically, reacquainting self with the controls of the (personally funded) coffee machine in office.
Have interesting conversation with C. who tells me that The Lockdown has helped him Reappraise Life and that as consequence he is committed to taking The Retirement just as soon as he possibly can. He suspects that many colleagues Of A Certain Age will have had similar epiphanies and I agree that the influx of emails advertising Retirement Seminars would bear this out. As we go our separate ways I tell him it is certainly Something To Think About.
(Secret) Diary of a Provincial Teacher 