At last, a clear view of distant Dartmoor at sunrise this morning on my way into school. I had a very useful morning with the reception class teacher going through all the assessments we have to do in the foundation year and the all the forms we have to fill in. In the foundation year at school there are 6 areas of the curriculum, each of those is broken down into 5/6 sections and each of those sections has a whole list of sub-sections which we have to assess, with evidence - 80% from independent activities ( not tasks or questions initiated by the teacher), and this has to be done constantly for each of the 30 children in the class. It is good to have objectives and know where your children are but the government is obsessed with records. There are so many documents published that we are supposed to read and every year there are several radical changes. The foundation stage guide lines actually goes right down to birth with the government stating achievement targets from 3 months. This is to ensure that parents will be confident leaving small children in childcare while both parents go back to work - a government aim. And then the politicians complain that children do not have good parenting role models. I didn't work at all until Romas was 6 as we chose to be poorer but for me always to be there for the children. But that's not economically good for the country !!
I spent the afternoon teaching the reception class, already the school is fully in the Christmas mode. In every corner there are costumes, (for the Christmas play and the Nativity service at the Church), toys & stuff for the Christmas Fayre, ( next week) and shiny paper, glitter & sparkly pipe cleaners for Christmas art work.
After work I popped into town to return some library books and do a little Christmas shopping but I only bought 2 very small items. There weren't that many people as late night shopping hasn't yet started. I don't think people are spending that much as there is the feeling that we all need to be careful with our spending. Woolworths has folded though the shops will stay open till after Christmas. In general there did not seem to be a lot in the way of Christmas displays ( I suppose it is still November), and the street decorations could either be described as minimal and tasteful or basic and penny pinching. I can't quite make up my mind.
