Just back from the finance and premises committee, where I have sneezed and sniffled all over everyone. Oops. Highlights included a thrilling and blow-by-blow account of a sewage leak (featuring the title statement above), and an equally thrilling burst pipe (with actual burst pipe, in fact FOUR burst pipes). The caretaker has done his back in, so the head (approaching retirement) has been doing heroic things with manhole covers.
Also discovered that the school dinner provider is changing at the beginning of April, a fact I see is on the council's website and various other places, but hadn't been flagged up to parents.
The (potentially) Good: online payment system planned; much blether about quality local ingredients; doesn't appear to be a monster catering firm like the previous one (I hold this against monster firms, our work catering is done by a GIGANTIC corporation who defend every price raise by whinging that they don't have the purchasing power of Tesco); actual staff remain the same, and apparently the cook is very good.
The (again potentially) Bad: will the online payment system work (it was compared to the one for the milk, which worries me, as they cocked up Daughter's free milk for weeks); they don't have menus online, which is a shame as I always lose the hard copy; the specific menus I've seen for schools in other areas aren't great (one choice every day is salad, which Daughter will not eat).
The (definitely) Bad: price goes up 10p (defended in press release by someone who you'd think was working for the company, rather than being an elected councillor).
We will see. I'm not heartened by them being chosen by the county council, who do not impress in other ways. Things like paying over the odds for utilities, not being able to run their own financial systems, making schools pay for consultants to run tendering processes for them, but accepting no liability if the process fails to deliver what the school needs, or indeed what the council stipulates ...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
A new year stumbles into being
Obviously, Daughter is back at school now. Less obviously - not actually today. She was sick in the middle of the night, probably due to scarfing a huge bag of Tesco rip-off Skips while we weren't really paying attention. Oops. Husband took the day off work; I got to work longer than usual to make up for last week's flexitime disaster. The disaster being:
Monday - Get up at 6.30. Roads are so icy anything above 8mph is lethal. Get into work at 8.45.
Tuesday - Get up at 6.30. Faff about. Car needs de-icing. Get into work at 8.45.
Wednesday - Day off to wait for new PC.
Thursday - Get up at 6.45 due to motivational failure. Get into work at 8.45.
Friday - Get up at 7.15 because Daughter has come into bed with me after bad dream, and doesn't need to be woken at 6.30. Get into work at ... 8.45.
What do I DO in the mornings?
I also forgot to make Daughter her packed lunch on Wednesday, I remembered just as Husband was taking her to school, so I'm doing REALLY well so far.
I finally have an idea of the timetable at school - PE Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; literacy Monday and Tuesday, numeracy Wednesday and Thursday, creative stuff and finishing things off on Friday. Oh, and show-and-tell that's now called something else on a Thursday. And library on a Thursday. Despite this when Husband asked Daughter last Thursday if she'd done any numbers, she said 'no' (definitely no, not the usual 'don't know' or 'can't remember'). Mind you a lot of the numeracy stuff they seem to do at this age is about shapes, patterns, sizes etc - not explicitly numbers, so that may explain it.
I will learn more shortly, as I have an appointment with numeracy governor hat on to see the teacher responsible for numeracy ('maths with Miss S', the post-it says) so will find out about new-fangled maths teaching.
Monday - Get up at 6.30. Roads are so icy anything above 8mph is lethal. Get into work at 8.45.
Tuesday - Get up at 6.30. Faff about. Car needs de-icing. Get into work at 8.45.
Wednesday - Day off to wait for new PC.
Thursday - Get up at 6.45 due to motivational failure. Get into work at 8.45.
Friday - Get up at 7.15 because Daughter has come into bed with me after bad dream, and doesn't need to be woken at 6.30. Get into work at ... 8.45.
What do I DO in the mornings?
I also forgot to make Daughter her packed lunch on Wednesday, I remembered just as Husband was taking her to school, so I'm doing REALLY well so far.
I finally have an idea of the timetable at school - PE Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; literacy Monday and Tuesday, numeracy Wednesday and Thursday, creative stuff and finishing things off on Friday. Oh, and show-and-tell that's now called something else on a Thursday. And library on a Thursday. Despite this when Husband asked Daughter last Thursday if she'd done any numbers, she said 'no' (definitely no, not the usual 'don't know' or 'can't remember'). Mind you a lot of the numeracy stuff they seem to do at this age is about shapes, patterns, sizes etc - not explicitly numbers, so that may explain it.
I will learn more shortly, as I have an appointment with numeracy governor hat on to see the teacher responsible for numeracy ('maths with Miss S', the post-it says) so will find out about new-fangled maths teaching.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
On the downward slope towards term 2
I've been neglecting this, with good reason, there having been no school for over a week now (that doesn't excuse me from having written nothing since two weeks before the end of term, but whatever).
The last week of term didn't contain much of any great excitement, as Reception don't do a nativity or Christmas concert or suchlike. Apparently this is because of how tired Reception children get in their first term, and nothing to do with the propensity of over-stretched Reception mothers to sob pathetically at the spectacle of small children singing 'Away in a Manger' (or is that just me?) There was a Christmas party, which required a small plate of sausages and some money. Daughter used her money to buy a bright pink bauble (which doesn't go at all with my silver and red tree) and something else, which escapes me now. Husband had to lend another mum a pound for her child, which said mum paid me back the following day, only for me to have to borrow an extra pound from her to pay for a quiz sheet. Which we have now lost.
There was also Christmas dinner in the canteen on the Friday, about which I heard nothing, par for the course for school dinners.
Reception and Key Stage 1 finished at their normal time on the Friday, and Key Stage 2 15 minutes early - ie the same time. Okay, NOW I see why they're normally separate. The doors opened at 3pm on the dot and the bigger kids came out like a tidal wave just as the parents of the smaller ones were trying to get round the corner to where they're let out. It was madness. Daughter came out in tears, and when I finally calmed her down enough to speak I found out she was upset because she had too much to carry. I'd taken everything off her by this point! She had her book bag and water bottle as usual, and a large paper folder of festive bits of art, which was all a bit too much. Later that day (while Husband and I were out drinking on respective work dos, having delivered Daughter to her grandparents for the night) a small bag of Daughter-made festive sweeties arrived in the porch, having obviously been forgotten and subsequently hand-delivered.
Christmas has been very nice, now getting a touch of cabin fever so got a couple of play-date-ish things planned. Daughter is getting ready to celebrate a new year by having her tooth fall out. I can't believe she has a wobbly tooth - it seems like five minutes ago I was going around saying I couldn't believe she had a tooth (at four months).
The last week of term didn't contain much of any great excitement, as Reception don't do a nativity or Christmas concert or suchlike. Apparently this is because of how tired Reception children get in their first term, and nothing to do with the propensity of over-stretched Reception mothers to sob pathetically at the spectacle of small children singing 'Away in a Manger' (or is that just me?) There was a Christmas party, which required a small plate of sausages and some money. Daughter used her money to buy a bright pink bauble (which doesn't go at all with my silver and red tree) and something else, which escapes me now. Husband had to lend another mum a pound for her child, which said mum paid me back the following day, only for me to have to borrow an extra pound from her to pay for a quiz sheet. Which we have now lost.
There was also Christmas dinner in the canteen on the Friday, about which I heard nothing, par for the course for school dinners.
Reception and Key Stage 1 finished at their normal time on the Friday, and Key Stage 2 15 minutes early - ie the same time. Okay, NOW I see why they're normally separate. The doors opened at 3pm on the dot and the bigger kids came out like a tidal wave just as the parents of the smaller ones were trying to get round the corner to where they're let out. It was madness. Daughter came out in tears, and when I finally calmed her down enough to speak I found out she was upset because she had too much to carry. I'd taken everything off her by this point! She had her book bag and water bottle as usual, and a large paper folder of festive bits of art, which was all a bit too much. Later that day (while Husband and I were out drinking on respective work dos, having delivered Daughter to her grandparents for the night) a small bag of Daughter-made festive sweeties arrived in the porch, having obviously been forgotten and subsequently hand-delivered.
Christmas has been very nice, now getting a touch of cabin fever so got a couple of play-date-ish things planned. Daughter is getting ready to celebrate a new year by having her tooth fall out. I can't believe she has a wobbly tooth - it seems like five minutes ago I was going around saying I couldn't believe she had a tooth (at four months).
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Rite of passage: Christmas fair
Despite having said to one or two people today that I consider myself immune from parental-involvement-guilt (being a governor) I did try to make some contribution to today's Christmas fair. That contribution being:
- a small box of board books for a nearly-new book stall
- 23 cinnamon-cranberry and white chocolate muffins (I made 24, but the paper plate supplied by the school was smaller than my own paper plates, so I could only fit 7 on it, which meant there I could only send in 23)
- half an hour personning the loot bag stall (which turned into 50 minutes because no one relieved us)
- £2 actually spent on the loot bag stall, 50p on face painting (butterflies were discounted, although Daughter actually had a rather lovely and ornate butterfly), £1 on some sort of draw, and whatever Husband and Daughter spent while I was on the loot bags
It was all fairly jolly, although extremely crowded (Daughter had a meltdown at not being allowed to stand in a queue which didn't exist for something we couldn't work out). I saw one face from work that I'd not seen at school before, and numerous other familiar school, work, nursery or any-combination-of faces. Bumped into the chair of the board of governors, and her husband who is tres senior at work - latter said hello to Husband, by name, as we went in our separate directions. Husband said 'is that how you get to be senior, by remembering people you have absolutely no reason to remember?' I said it certainlly seemed to help, and could almost hear him mentally recalculating his career prospects (he is truly atrocious at remembering who people are, especially out of context).
I was much taken by the human fruit machine, consisting of teachers doing funny arm/hand movements in response to a bell, and plucking fruit from a box. THE PTA mum was doing the announcements for that. She is a proper larger-than-life looking character, but nonetheless comes across as oddly approachable, at at least from a distance. I'm fairly favourable inclined towards our PTA after they supplied wine at the new-parents evening, though they do seem as scarily organised as PTA as reputed to be (my co-stallholder pointed out the woman who came and reorgaised our bags half-way through our shift as an example). Anyway, I've said a million times and will again - I'll play to my strengths, and full PTA involvement would not do that. I'll bake, I'll man a stall, I don't sell raffle tickets, I don't have ideas, I don't organise people, I will cough up. Job done.
(Disclaimer - I do have ideas, just not fund raising social ideas!)
- a small box of board books for a nearly-new book stall
- 23 cinnamon-cranberry and white chocolate muffins (I made 24, but the paper plate supplied by the school was smaller than my own paper plates, so I could only fit 7 on it, which meant there I could only send in 23)
- half an hour personning the loot bag stall (which turned into 50 minutes because no one relieved us)
- £2 actually spent on the loot bag stall, 50p on face painting (butterflies were discounted, although Daughter actually had a rather lovely and ornate butterfly), £1 on some sort of draw, and whatever Husband and Daughter spent while I was on the loot bags
It was all fairly jolly, although extremely crowded (Daughter had a meltdown at not being allowed to stand in a queue which didn't exist for something we couldn't work out). I saw one face from work that I'd not seen at school before, and numerous other familiar school, work, nursery or any-combination-of faces. Bumped into the chair of the board of governors, and her husband who is tres senior at work - latter said hello to Husband, by name, as we went in our separate directions. Husband said 'is that how you get to be senior, by remembering people you have absolutely no reason to remember?' I said it certainlly seemed to help, and could almost hear him mentally recalculating his career prospects (he is truly atrocious at remembering who people are, especially out of context).
I was much taken by the human fruit machine, consisting of teachers doing funny arm/hand movements in response to a bell, and plucking fruit from a box. THE PTA mum was doing the announcements for that. She is a proper larger-than-life looking character, but nonetheless comes across as oddly approachable, at at least from a distance. I'm fairly favourable inclined towards our PTA after they supplied wine at the new-parents evening, though they do seem as scarily organised as PTA as reputed to be (my co-stallholder pointed out the woman who came and reorgaised our bags half-way through our shift as an example). Anyway, I've said a million times and will again - I'll play to my strengths, and full PTA involvement would not do that. I'll bake, I'll man a stall, I don't sell raffle tickets, I don't have ideas, I don't organise people, I will cough up. Job done.
(Disclaimer - I do have ideas, just not fund raising social ideas!)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Settled
"Mummy?"
"Yes"
"I am used to school now."
"Oh ... that's good."
"Yes, I used to go to nursery, and now I go to school, and I am used to school now. I have been waiting to be used to school, and now I am."
So that's good news. She has been a lot more favourably inclined towards school since she discovered school does have a television after all (they seem to watch Come Outside on it).
"Yes"
"I am used to school now."
"Oh ... that's good."
"Yes, I used to go to nursery, and now I go to school, and I am used to school now. I have been waiting to be used to school, and now I am."
So that's good news. She has been a lot more favourably inclined towards school since she discovered school does have a television after all (they seem to watch Come Outside on it).
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Speechless
I'm struggling to express how stupid it is that the local authority can allow an admissions appeal, pushing class size over 30, then with the next breath come down on the school for having an oversize class. And that the suggested solution, should it not be possible to even up classes within the year, is to put a child in a different year group, but continue to teach them as the year they're supposed to be in. As in put a child who will turn 6 within the academic year (ie Year 1 age) into a class of rising 7s (Year 2 age) but continue to teach them to the Year 1 syllabus. *boggle*
Same local authority that has been paying supply teachers working in one school out of another school's budget - endemically, across the region - and is incapable of putting this right.
Well, I guess the former thing is a widespread stupidity of the system, rather than just our local authority, but still. On what planet is it better to take a child out of their peer group and put them in a completely different group, singling them out by teaching a different syllabus to them because they're younger, that to have a class of 31?
Yes, had another governors' meeting. Didn't get to talk numeracy to the relavant teacher as she was going home sick. I asked how to get in touch with her in future, and was told I would need to find her after school. Ho hum. I guess that's the way to do it. But I'm a bit of a control freak; I like to arrange things with people. Plus hanging around after school doesn't go down well with the Daughter. I had to ask her teacher after school today if a letter had made it into school last week (it was sent on the same day as dinner money which apparently *didn't*, hm) and after about 15 seconds' conversation with her was told 'we could have been home by now, mummy'. Monkey.
Anyway, Daughter is coming on leaps and bounds, and is starting to read. Yay! Very exciting. We now have word strips coming home - the first three are duplicates of the first three in the phonics book I've got, but #4 starts with 'pub'. I think it's a ringer. The second word is 'gun' - it's the non-PC word strip.
Same local authority that has been paying supply teachers working in one school out of another school's budget - endemically, across the region - and is incapable of putting this right.
Well, I guess the former thing is a widespread stupidity of the system, rather than just our local authority, but still. On what planet is it better to take a child out of their peer group and put them in a completely different group, singling them out by teaching a different syllabus to them because they're younger, that to have a class of 31?
Yes, had another governors' meeting. Didn't get to talk numeracy to the relavant teacher as she was going home sick. I asked how to get in touch with her in future, and was told I would need to find her after school. Ho hum. I guess that's the way to do it. But I'm a bit of a control freak; I like to arrange things with people. Plus hanging around after school doesn't go down well with the Daughter. I had to ask her teacher after school today if a letter had made it into school last week (it was sent on the same day as dinner money which apparently *didn't*, hm) and after about 15 seconds' conversation with her was told 'we could have been home by now, mummy'. Monkey.
Anyway, Daughter is coming on leaps and bounds, and is starting to read. Yay! Very exciting. We now have word strips coming home - the first three are duplicates of the first three in the phonics book I've got, but #4 starts with 'pub'. I think it's a ringer. The second word is 'gun' - it's the non-PC word strip.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Money, money, money ...
Title refers to the Finance & Premises Committee, meeting this evening. However, this is the school blog, not the school governor blog, so what has Daughter been up to? She had a proper afterschool playdate, where I picked up both her and her friend. They played, they had tea, friend was collected (and threw a huge paddy because she didn't want to go home - am perversely flattered by this). She had school photos taken - whole school one day, and individual the next. They're very nice. I have a soft copy of the individual one, and need to order a copy of the whole school one. She went on a field trip. To a field. They had to take wellies in, named wellies, pegged together, in a named bag. I guess they have problems with wellie loss. I put her initials on the clothes peg I used to peg the wellies together, just to be on the safe side. And this afternoon she went on a reciprocal playdate, which also went very well, except at the end when her friend had a tantrum which I'm expected to see replicated at home any time soon (according to Husband it involved some new and innovative ways of misbehaving that Daugher won't have previously been aware of).
I wasn't there because I was Financing and Premising instead. We approved spending some money on some fun things (play equipment and books) and some dull things (insulation and checking out what needs doing with the roof). I was handed a FMSiS document in which I have to record my governor competencies. Obviously having got myself through the heavy-handed promotion process at work in May, and now being partway through converting my old-style (experienced-based) professional logbook in the new style (competency based) I am delighted to be doing this. Not. I think I can consider myself competent in 'understands finance and budgeting' and 'has numeric and analysis skills' and that's about it. Most of the rest is quite school-specific. Ah well.
Oh yes, Daughter had a half term as well, obviously. Husband took the whole week off, and I decided on the Tuesday that I could do enough hours Monday to Wednesday, plus the following Monday (when my parents had Daughter overnight) to add to a little flexi credit I already had ... and not work Thursday as well as Friday. So that was pretty good, especially as I wasn't very keen on cycling to work four days in a row (and on the Tuesday he didn't even take the car out, I am so furious!) She seems quite happy to be back at school, so all is well.
I wasn't there because I was Financing and Premising instead. We approved spending some money on some fun things (play equipment and books) and some dull things (insulation and checking out what needs doing with the roof). I was handed a FMSiS document in which I have to record my governor competencies. Obviously having got myself through the heavy-handed promotion process at work in May, and now being partway through converting my old-style (experienced-based) professional logbook in the new style (competency based) I am delighted to be doing this. Not. I think I can consider myself competent in 'understands finance and budgeting' and 'has numeric and analysis skills' and that's about it. Most of the rest is quite school-specific. Ah well.
Oh yes, Daughter had a half term as well, obviously. Husband took the whole week off, and I decided on the Tuesday that I could do enough hours Monday to Wednesday, plus the following Monday (when my parents had Daughter overnight) to add to a little flexi credit I already had ... and not work Thursday as well as Friday. So that was pretty good, especially as I wasn't very keen on cycling to work four days in a row (and on the Tuesday he didn't even take the car out, I am so furious!) She seems quite happy to be back at school, so all is well.
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