Saturday

The first weekend of the new term and there's plenty to do.  No time for slacking today.  The morning is going to be spent sorting house work stuff out and this afternoon is going to be time in school.  So much to do!

I'm really not sure where Mr Gove thinks I (and all other teachers I know) are going to be able to find the extra time needed to work a longer teaching day and still get all the other stuff needed in order to produce a good lesson done.  More other stuff, in fact, because we would be delivering more lessons.  That is, assuming that we have a little bit of home life too, in order to get all that other stuff done - things like washing, ironing, dusting, sweeping, cooking, cleaning . . . and maybe just a little bit of sitting down with a good book or a hobby/interest.  As it is, I am in at seven thirty and home by six, often working through lunch hour and playtimes.  You'd think that a minister for education (or whatever the title is nowadays) would know that the actual contact time is only half of the whole job but somehow that seems to have passed him by!
Perhaps that's the point.  Keep 'em out of trouble!!!

Mind you - longer contractual hours should result in an increased salary - or am I seeing flying pigs?

Anyway, this afternoon I need to mark some work, sort and file their phonic homework, put up a wildly exciting and eye catching display (cough) and write a few more lessons for a phonic intervention group.  Should only take about four hours so I will be home in time for Doctor Who!

It was jolly cold again this morning.  When I looked out, there was a frost on the roofs and hedges, lawns and fields - still is, in fact, despite the sun.  Spring may be here but there's still some danger of damaging frosts.  No point planting stuff out yet.  The garden is waking up thoroughly now though.    A few years ago I planted a cowslip along the front of the house, found looking rather sad and considerably reduced at a garden centre a few days before.  I now have around a dozen little plants coming up (they need moving soon) and will look lovely in a few weeks' time.    The same for the scillas - one plant in a pot = around six or seven now, and how they manage to spread themselves is a mystery.  I love scillas - tiny, shy, pretty blue flowers that somehow take me right back to my childhood when we had loads in the garden.  They're going to need moving too, before they die back and I forget where they are.

Well, enough waffling on.  I need to get started or it will never get done!