Day 97: Antithesis

Is the grass always greener on the other side? I've been wondering that myself, especially considering the questions I've been asked from staff and colleagues at both schools today.

It is not without a profound sense of irony that I sum up as follows: today, I was kindly given a lift in to work from a couple of colleagues at school. I had planned on taking the normal bus and timing it so I could stop off for a chat with my smoking colleagues at 8am. Thanks to the lift, I was able to do so, and was somewhat surprised upon reaching the school to see a row of twenty or so police officers in lurid fluorescent jackets flanking a shiny knife arch at the school gates. Some welcome.
"Oh, is this your first knife arch?" my colleague asked, dryly.
How long had I been gone?

Upon eventually reaching The Outstanding School, one member of the English department there commented that she'd seen our students "being frisked" on their way in.
"They're not that bad." I protested. Although she did also mention that she saw police there "all the time." Apparently at The Outstanding School, they only turn up when the students there get mugged occasionally.
"By our kids?" I joked. Not funny, really.

I was given the privilege of attending a whole school assembly, and witnessed an aspect of The Outstanding School's 'high achievement' ethos - The Jack Petchy Award. This is given to pupils who go out of their way to help the community, make a difference, or 'overcome adversity' to succeed academically. The (clearly prejudiced) cynic in me asked what sort of adversity these students have to overcome, especially compared to my kids, although I tried to suppress that thought.

I was also delighted to witness an annual tradition at the school - Valentine's Day serenades. There, in front of my eyes, was an actual real life barbershop quartet, in full costume (I thought they were butchers to begin with, and this was some sort of meat-related school competition. Not quite.) For the measly price of one pound, students could nominate someone that deserved a serenade, and they would be visited during lessons and, well, serenaded by the barber shop quartet (or a girl band equivalent - nail bar quartet?) I was flabbergasted. A lovely idea, but I wonder how it would go down with my kids?

Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty relaxing, just observing a few lessons, including Latin, which has inspired me to set up the Latin Club I'd been toying with. Or research it, at least. I also saw the year 10s I'll be team teaching on Thursday. The lesson was pretty interesting, although when I went to speak to a few students I felt a little intimidated and just listened to their ideas without being able to think of any questions to ask them, other than what they thought. I'll need to work on that by Thursday.

Reflections on the day... Well, the most striking is just how normal and nice the staff were. I'm not sure what I was expecting, presumably some sort of educational Stepford Wives setup, which is far from the truth. The only difference at this school is that *all* the kids are very clever. Of course, there are clever kids at my school, but just not as many in the same class.

I went back to my school after the day had finished to set the cover for tomorrow, which was irritating to say the least, but I did manage to tidy up my classroom a bit. It's parents' evening for year 11 tomorrow, so of course I'll be back again to sort it out. In the meantime, I was pleased to see some of the work my students managed.

I'm looking forward to the end of the week, although to be honest, I'm more so looking forward to half term, and sorting out my mounting piles of paperwork which are building up at an alarming rate.