I had a lovely lie-in this morning, all warm and cosy in bed listening first to the rain hammering down and then the wind blowing wildly. I wasn't having a day off work, it was just that I woke at 4.15 and my head was so full of plans and ideas that by 5.00 I gave up any thought of going back to sleep and simply decided to enjoy my 'lie-in'. Apart from the tedious process of collating material for APP, (Assessing Pupil Progress), so that numerous forms can be filled in to show the bureaucrats how well the children are doing, there is the juggling act we have to do at this time of year balancing curriculum requirements vs fun stuff like making Christmas cards and presents. The trick is to combine the 2 but that isn't always possible especially when there is a Christmas play to rehearse. I'm amazed we ever learnt anything at all in the days before there was a national curriculum. I'm not saying that there wasn't poor teaching back in those days but we have gone too far the other way and now there is such pressure for the children to achieve high SATs results that we daren't spend extended time developing the children's creativity and
interests. The government is so obsessed with tracking children's progress that there are 'milestones' laid down from 6 months and any child going to child care (more pressure from the government to get mothers back to work asap), has to have its milestones recorded in more paperwork. Even re-reading that has made me feel stressed so to chill the timbre of this post here are some calming rock forms from yesterday's walk.
Is it rock or is it an elephant?
Have a good week.
