What you wish you could write...

Yay. I have finally finished writing reports. I actually enjoy it, as it makes you focus on the positives which we really need at this time of the year. However, staying positive isn't always easy. For example, sometimes I wish I could write:

Personal, Social, Emotional development:
Jonny is a lazy little sh*t

Instead, I write, "Jonny is a thoughtful boy who always takes time to think through his actions."

English:
Jonny produces utter rubbish and talks through most literacy lessons. Jonny has no imagination and his vague attempts at writing are unintelligible. The scrawl he calls handwriting makes reading his work impossible.

Instead, I write," Jonny produces interesting written work. He enjoys sharing ideas with his friends. He has good ideas and is being encouraged to express them in his written work. He understands the importance of keeping his work neat, but this is still a target for him."

Still, I have learnt a few things while writing them:

1. Cut and paste are under-rated!
2. He is she if you're not careful.
3. They probably won't even read the last page so just cut and paste the lot!

Of to Dominoes in Sted

Today was one of those strange days. I got up at 5am to write some reports. I was so tired last night I thought I would be more able to do it in the morning after a good night's sleep. And I was right. I got about 3 sections of the report done before I had to go and wake Little Z and get myself ready for school.

My class went on a trip to Dominoes Pizza today. They had a long walk (25 mins) from school to Dominoes and then had to walk back too. It was fantastic. It didn't cost us anything and the children had such fun. They got to see how to make the dough and got to shape it into a flat pizza shape then put their choice of toppings on. The pizzas were cooked as we were walking back and when we got back to school the pizza's were delivered to the classroom. On top of all that, the staff also go free pizzas. And that's not all. Because the whole of year 2 go, that is 3 classes on 3 separate days, the staff get free pizza for lunch for 3 days running.

What a way to spend healthy school's week!

My parents helpers were great, although I had to laugh when I asked one of the mum's earlier in the week if she could help with dominoes and she replied that she couldn't play!

While handing out the pizza boxes to the children, the headteacher arrived and announced there was a staff meeting in the staffroom and I had to go now! My TA and I took the large pizza's to the staff room and announced as we entered a packed room that we came bearing gifts. No one smiled. ??? They were all sitting there looking like they'd just found out someone had died. "I expect you know why you are here." said the head. She then told us that we were going to be working loads more hours than we normally do and that we were going to be working on our displays in and out of the classroom, that we were going to feel stressed out and quite miserable for the next few days and that we were going to think of nothing but school until later next week. Well....ok. That wasn't exactly how she put it, her exact words were, "We have had the call." (I still didn't get it. Duh!) "OFSTED will be here on Tuesday."

So, we are now all rushing round trying to get everything ready. Well, all except me evidently. I am far to busy with my Blog to worry about the inspectors.

After this week, I feel exhausted. I need another week off school just to rest. I had wondered if it was such a good idea going away for the whole of half term. I had reports to write and it was not giving me much opportunity to get any planning done and I would not have the chance to go in to school to tidy my classroom ready for the new half term. However, I am glad I did go away. It was good not to go into school all week. My classroom is a mess and will need a couple of hours one evening to get it sorted, but it is worth it.

We had a fantastic week away. We went to Elvaston Castle camp site again and visited Sarah, Ben and Toby. Toby hid under the sofa most of the time (Z & J were too noisy and lively - I almost got under there myself!), but Sarah and Ben managed to stay out from under the sofa so we had a lovely catch up albeit for only an hour as we had to be at the campsite by 7pm.

From there we went to Seany's. We stayed at a campsite down the road from him for a couple of nights and then camped on his drive for the other 2 nights. He was happy for us to stay at his house, but we like sleeping in the van and it made more sense than Seany having to move furniture around to accommodate us. It worked out really well at the campsite. We were able to put the awning up for the first time and so we had more space. That also meant that Seany & my mum could come and visit us and had somewhere to sit. There was a large grassy area for the children to run around and so there was no need to worry about whether they were touching something they shouldn't.

The main reason for the visit was my mum's 70th birthday. She had a fantastic day. Actually the celebrations sem to have lasted a whole week as various people have taken her for a drink or sent special gifts.

At the end of the week was Larry's birthday. He's not 70, but I think he feels it sometimes. He enjoyed his day and we spent a lot of it playing Seany's Nintendo Wii.

I managed to get 5 reports written while I was there (although had a day off for Larry's birthday!) so I did not feel like I had loads to catch up on when I got back.

So there it was. Half term break came around quickly and was over almost as soon as it arrived. How long till the next one?