I just looked through what I wrote at the last year’s summary point. Also, our internet was down because someone sliced through the cable over the road, which was really handy. I just imagine that now and get literal chills of horror! But my post was excited and buzzing full […]
Yearly archives: 2020
36 posts
This term has been a massive ridiculous mess of ridiculousness and messiness. The year since March has been insane. I saw a thing on Facebook the other day that read: January, February March, COVID, Christmas. It’s not wrong. The year has been pretty pants. And pretty pants is how I’m […]
Until the other day, the dogs had their own bedroom. They knew it was where they were meant to go to sleep, where they waited for us to give them their bedtime treats ,and where they were sent to when they tried to sleep in our room. “Go to bed!” […]
Today I broke our food processor. It’s not a £400 disaster, massive mess-up, that would have been the case if we’d had one of those lovely Kenwood ones or something similar. It was a second-hand one from my parents and they’d had it for ages, and even then I’ve not […]
Some of us are just more equal than others in this tale of two countries. Some of us are so equal that computers decide we’re allowed good grades and some of our equality means that the computers decides we’ll get lower than we deserve. And then the all-benign ‘powers that […]
Lockdown 1.0 was marked by Banana bread, egg shortages and toilet-roll stockpiling. For the new lockdown, we’ve had toilet roll stockpiling and it’s bleak out there. I’m pretty sure that gazillions of people everywhere are panic-buying eggs and flour like there’s no tomorrow and as though they’ve going to make […]
I draw an avatar for myself on my website. I’m not the best drawist in the world but it’s kind of nice to spend time and do stuff with colours and paper, because I spend so much time writing and reading. It’s a bit of a hobby that means my […]
The gravity of what I do when I work with kiddos hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday. A kiddo I’ve been working with also was always going to be assessed by me this summer, but it ran a little later than we were hoping to start everything off […]
On Tuesday, I had a twitter chat with a chap I met at a conference a couple of years ago. He’s a nice bloke and works in education policy, and computery stuff, and setting up what teachers need to teach. He has done some really important work and has raised […]
Today’s team meeting for the project I work on with Swansea uni was attended by all and good catching up was had. They are all such lovely people. Lyle has written a book and we’re all in it. We wrote stuff ourselves and she’s included it. I do sound a […]
Church was on on Sunday and for it being a bit apocalyptic with all the space and tape everywhere, it was actually quite good. It was good to be a building with people that are lovely and who I usually spend a lot of time talking to. After that I […]
… shouted the dog without using any of those words. Her Ladyship can convey so much with her expressive little eyebrows, that wibbly-wobbly tail and her throaty, “I’m going to eat that bird”- bark. Today, we’ve had a lot of the throaty bark to remind me that the only way […]
Back in the Day A ‘Walk of shame’ has always had really negative and stigmatised connotations for me. It was something to sort-of hide and sort-of revel in when I was at uni and playing rugby. It tended to be preceded by a somewhat jaunty and vivacious night out with […]
I’m not in charge of the world. I think it would be terrifying if I were. Unlimited Viennese truffles for me would be first order but then the real stuff would kick in. I think any world-domination plan/chocolate procurement plan should carefully consider what the values are that underpin the […]
I live in a strange old twilight zone between schools and Universities. It’s manifested in my home life and professional lives concurrently, and at the moment, it’s properly bruising my brain. Scottish Highers and Standard Grades. A levels. GCSEs. They’ve all been cancelled this year and SATs have been stopped […]
Anyone who knows me or follows me on any form of social media knows that I LOVE me my trampoline. I LOVE it beyond belief and I think that’s even more the case because I didn’t have one when I was younger. Me and My Trampoline It sounds like a […]
I’m in the National Education Union. I have been in the NASUWT in a past life in Yorkshire, before I went to South America for a while, then moved to the South West. I am proud Trade Unionist and I value what unions work for and their purpose of improving […]
I have the brain of an unreliable goldfish. I can’t remember anything. I would forget my appendages, were they not fully attached to my person. And even then, I have been known to fall over my own feet because I don’t quite realise where they are! And yet I’m not […]
Unprecedented. Unparalleled. Extra-ordinary. These are all part of words and phrases that we’ve heard a lot over the last 3 months or so since the COVID-19 lockdown. And it’s not wrong. We are in really strange old times and it may well be that way for a while yet. Shops […]
Mr Dr Ross and I are slightly bonkers. This is the caveat for everything that we do and live out in our house. Lockdown has somehow emphasised our bonkersness, but not in a grumpy, argumentative kind of way. Rather it’s that we’re bonkers in seeing new things we can try […]
This last month has been bonkers. It’s properly bonkers. May is usually a busy one with family birthdays, bank holidays and frequent trips up the A350. The weather is usually stunning (I’m a big fan of late spring and early summer), and we’re gearing up for a whole load of […]
“No they can’t. Or well, perhaps they can because parents are home-schooling perfectly well and they don’t need teachers at all.” “Look at the New Oak Academy materials that we’ve had to make because schools aren’t doing what they need to and it’s just not good enough. In fact it’s […]
That’s it. I confess. I have LITERALLY been watching grass grow. That is where my life has got to. The thing is, I confess again… it’s not the first time I’ve done it. About 5 years ago, our house and garden needed gutting and re-doing. Part of that garden re-do […]
Lock down is happening in spring, so each week the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. I like that. I am a daytime person and I love natural light. As I write this, I am next to our big front room windows that let light flood […]
When I’m in school it’s for 2 days a week. It’s a cracking 2 days a week and I enjoy is immensely. It’s a good chunk of my general weekly workload and it’s something that makes everything else I do feasible. But it’s also not that much of the week […]
I’ve got dogs. Anyone who knows me or follows me on Twitter or Facebook will know this and probably think I am a daft, dog-crazy pet-parent. I am. I am all of those things and soooooo much more when it comes to these hounds. They are absolutely my world and […]
Council for Science and Technology: Rapid Evidence Review on Using Assistive Technology to Support Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties I have been working with the Council for Science and Technology to provide professional expertise alongside structured, systematic review of evidence of how to best support young poeple with specific learning […]
Live streaming lessons? Me?!?! No-one needs to see that. EVER. I’m lucky (or actually, my kids are lucky) that no one is expecting me to live-stream. But some schools are. It’s not that I can’t do it. I can. But no. Just no. Not for a whole class, in the […]
I will preface this with the fact that I won’t use any references. I won’t cite anything proper. I’m just going to have a bit of a ramble. Lots of people on my Facebook (old grump here!) and Twitter feeds are talking about home-schooling their kids. And they’re finding it […]
Today, I got a lovely comment from a student on Show My Homework. The student doesn’t always find learning easy and has a wobbly time in life. But they engaged, did their work beautifully and on time. And I could give them feedback in a way that works for lots […]
I’ve got dyslexia and it can be a bit of a pain at times. Reading, writing and remembering stuff just isn’t the easiest thing in the world ever. But sometimes, I’ve got dyslexia and it isn’t a pain. Sometimes it leads to amazing things and opportunities. It spurred me on […]
“I can’t do anything with them at home!” “He’s at school, so you need to deal with him!” “She’s so moody! I just can’t talk to her!” The number of times I’ve heard these phrases (or something equivalent), I cannot tell, both as a form tutor and as SENDCo. Sometimes […]
Some people can be excluded by what is meant to be inclusion. For neuro-diverse people our classrooms can be a ticking time bomb. The sounds, the smells, the expectations, the infrastructure, the movement, the unpredictability, the inflexibility. All of these can push people whose world view is that little bit […]
I’ve got my feet in many camps and my fingers in various pies and I am very lucky for it. This term so far, my focus has been in the special educational needs and disability (SEND) camp, with a finger firmly planted into the ‘climate change education’ pie. What I […]
This week I’ve been back at work and started new work and it’s all been bonkers. Being back in school after a while out. I had the Little Dude and was on mat leave. Monday saw me go to INSET at a setting I know well and have enjoyed volunteering […]
I’d have written sooner, but someone cut through the internet cable in our road and we’re waiting for it to be fixed- it’s been more than 2 weeks and so far Open Reach have not been forthcoming! Then my laptop fell on the floor and the screen is pretty darn […]