Day 30: Is this school called St Crock of Shit?

Friday morning started with panic: I had been put down for cover, the reason being "inset". Having had Wednesday off for training I was somewhat perplexed to see I was supposed to be somewhere else, presumably with my HoD who was away for the day. After some frantic questioning of colleagues, texting HoDs and running to speak to the lord of cover, I found out it was a simple mistake. Phew.

After all that excitement I had first lesson off to prepare for my year 10s. I luckily spoke to my colleague who also teaches top set and was talking about research she had set her top students. She sent me the powerpoint and I was relieved that there was something I could give to the kids who were desperate to do as well as possible. I felt guilty when I found out that most of my colleagues who had year 10s had completed their coursework; it would seem the fact that I'd told my guys they could redraft over half term was a big mistake. I'll have to see how well they do this week.

So period 2 rolled around and Year 10 turned up. I'm actually really beginning to like this group. We went through the powerpoint, I'd printed them off a copy so they could take notes if they wanted, and I told them about the sort of things they needed to research and discuss if they wanted to aim for A*. The majority of the kids really got into it, and we had a great discussion about whether or not Juliet was as innocent as we thought she was. I hope I haven't confused them, but some of them were coming out with some great stuff. I actually said to one of the boys, who was being particularly sharp, "I *love* you today - you're so on the ball!" which didn't embarrass him too much. I managed to make a pigs ear of the actual writing part of the lesson, but as I handed out essay plans to them all a lot were planning on writing it over the weekend. I think we'll definitely have some good work. I waved them off at breaktime and started preparing my classroom for year 7, as they would be reading out their little speeched they'd written about an exciting time in their lives. As I was pulling the chairs into a circle, one of the year 10s stayed behind to ask me for help with her essay. I think I gave a few answers away as I realised she was basically asking me what to write so I told her, although I deflected a few questions with "Well, what do you think?"

A couple of my year 7s turned up early and eagerly volunteered to help set up the room, which I was grateful for. Year 10 girl skipped off with a paper full of notes and the year 7s filed in excitedly; there's nothing like a change of furniture arrangements to thrill a year 7 child! We started with a warm up: they had to swap seats with others with "E" in their names etc. I managed to make this last longer than it should have done (I took time to explain the homework before we started so I wouldn't forget at the end) and I ended up having them stand in the middle and "pretend to be a tree!", "pretend to be a blizzard!" That's always fun.
We finally got to the speeches, although they all just read their books out, which wasn't the idea, but I suppose that was my fault for not modelling and also not really asking them to practice. Oops. A couple of the girls got a bit giggly and I sent one out for laughing when the sweet Polish boy was struggling through his speech about setting fire to a tree. I think she was laughing at something else but I was really annoyed with her and told her off in the corridor. She was up next to read out which was a bit of a shame as I knocked her off kilter a bit, but she did alright. I got a bit bored with the speeches, to be honest, but they were over eventually and we spent the last 10 minutes rearranging the furniture. There was a particularly wide aisle left on one side of the room so a couple of them told me to "do a catwalk" which I did, stopping every few steps to pose. I'm such a show off. The bell went and they went off to lunch. I was finished for the day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon smoking and sorting out paperwork. I was also thinking through what to do with my year 11s speaking and listening. A couple of the kids were so bad at it that I don't want to set that as their marks, so my colleague suggested I spend the last week of half term redoing it with them. I think I will. It doesn't have to be related to the text either, so I'll make something fun up they can do.

After the day finished I was excited to be going to the pub, but I was the only one. My colleague and I got there to find a couple of others, but there was no ritual (my colleague went straight home) and everyone left after one drink. I was pretty gutted, to be honest, so went straight home and was there by 5: the earliest yet.

Luckily when I got home my housemate was there and we had soup, pizza, icecream, wine, and watching movies for the evening. It was a pretty good end to the penultimate week of half term; I can't wait for next Friday.

As I was lying in bed Saturday morning I had an epiphany about smoking. Mainly, the cost. I don't really care too much about the health aspects, what with being sport-free at present, but I realised that if I smoke about 10-15 a day, that's 3-4 packs a week. Which, at £5 a pack, is at least £20 a week. If I plan on getting myself the present I want in March, which is a sizeable investment, I don't see how I can justify spending what I do on fags and booze. I am definitely going to quit at Christmas, if not before (she says before going down for another) because, frankly, what a rip off!