Day 25: RAPper's delight

Today we had an inset. I don't think I'm the only one who was expecting a relatively easy day, and like many of my colleagues, was shocked to discover that we would be doing quite a lot of work, actually.

For fear of boring you, dear reader, I will give a brief overview of the day's events. We began at half 8 in the theatre, where we were briefed on the reason behind the day's inset: targeting students who need extra help and encouragement in their final year of school. Basically, it's all about targets. What schools like is Cs. Tasty, tasty C grades. Any kid that looks like they could be capable of achieving one is snapped up, targeted and "converted". Or so the theory goes. I felt like I was quite safe with my kids in my year 11 group. Although two or three could, with the right support, time, and most importantly, motivation, they *might* be capable of achieving a C, for the most part the best my kids can hope for is an E.

Anyway, pep talk over, we split up into our faculties and got going on the fun pack of activities laid out for us. These ranged from making sure we know the exam rubric (that is, what coursework/exams etc go towards the GCSEs) to going over the results from last year's GCSEs (fun fact: the kids did twice as well in the exam they didn't have to revise for!) We then had to print off our class lists to see which of our kids in year 11 are on target (of mine, 3 out of 14 are on or above their target grades in their coursework) and devise fun ways to support the kids and get them on target. I've decided to redo all their speaking and listening coursework to make sure they have the best possible chance of doing well.

We broke for lunch, which was provided by the delightful catering students and food tech department; I had chili con carne and a rather dodgy "triffle". After taking a little longer than I should have for lunch, I returned to my room and started getting on with the important part of the day: all of the information was put into a "RAP" (Raising Achievement Plan) which was then passed on to the powers that be. After I completed that, I spent the last hour trying to put up a display to show off aforementioned exam rubric but was less than successful.

Eventually 3.15 rolled around and I escaped to the pub with some colleagues. On the way I came up with the following analogy for the Teach First experience:

Imagine you've entered a dance contest. You like dancing, you're pretty confident in your ability and enjoy doing it a bit in your spare time. However, you turn up to the dance contest and you're given elaborate and complicated choreography steps. Despite what you think you know about dancing, there's way too many steps to remember. You begin to panic, but decide to have a go anyway, it might be fun. You get on to the stage and start to dance. However, the audience is not just watching you politely, they are screaming and throwing missiles at you. Occasionally they pay attention, usually when you try a flashy dance move, but otherwise they turn and the abuse starts again. All the while the judges are sat at their table silently marking you.

That is how it feels.

At the pub I eventually partook in the weekly ritual and here are my week's highlights:

1. Little year 7 boy, after I made him cry, saying at the end of the lesson: "Thanks Miss, it was a fun lesson."
2. My year 10s working up until breaktime on a writing task I set them.
3. My year 11s working on a speaking and listening exercise nicely.

I also loved the blizzard my year 7 group "performed" and the girl who shouted over the top. That was really fun.

Anyway, I finally made it out of the pub, onto a train, a tube, another train and home to my parents' for what I hope will be a relaxing weekend.