Saturday

Yay - Saturday.  It may be dull, damp, cloudy. misty-moisty but it is Saturday.  Lazy, restful day.  No need to water the garden either.  Three cheers.

The last-important-meeting-of-the-year went well, the paperwork has gone off and my mind is at rest on that score.  The reports went out yesterday.  Too late to do anything about them now.  I did the observation that should have been done weeks ago - all was well, everyone was happy.  I'm just waiting to hear about the Healthy Schools re-accreditation now so fingers crossed.  Best of all, we didn't hear from *FST*D this week.  They couldn't be so mean as to come next week, could they?
No, surely not.
Oh, dear.
Anyway, I shall assume that they won't.
It's going to be nice to wake up for six weeks without that fear that they might just possibly descend in the next few days.  And isn't it ridiculous that there's such a culture of  - let's call it apprehension - in schools.

Last week of the school year = minimal planning.  Yes, there is some stuff to do, I can't let them play non-stop, but with specials all week the windows for planned lessons is quite small.  There's the hour with my new class, the concert, the special assembly, the leavers assembly, the fun swim, the  . . . - oh, you get the idea.  And between times, we will do stuff around 'Little Ted Goes On Holiday'.  Packing his bag, deciding his transport, working out his activities, choosing his meals, paying for them, etc, etc, etc!  All jolly good fun and the last time I can do anything teddy based as, I can now safely reveal without giving anything away, I shall be teaching in year 2 next year.  The first time I have taught Y2 so it will be a challenge, not to mention the SATs at the end of the year and the moderation, as there is a teacher new to Y2 (me!). I will miss year 1 very much indeed but I have been so lucky to have so long with my favourite year group and I have been expecting it for years.  There's been quite a swap around of teachers this year so I'm not the only one to be changing and, with the change in the whole curriculum, things will be new to everybody anyway.

One helpful thing is that I won't need to make that huge mental shift back in September.  You get your children on, they make super progress, you hand them on and, somehow, you are always shocked at the difference between them and the new children you take on.  This year I won't have that.

Another helpful thing is that all the bases are changing.  By that I mean that the two Foundation Stage classes are moving out to the new build, the year one classes are moving into where FS used to be, the Year 2 classes are moving to the old year 1 class bases and so on.  As I'm moving from year 1 to year 2, I won't have to move base.  That's a huge relief.

I got a nice surprise yesterday.  I went to the office to ask how much I owed for the school dinners I have had this term and was told I am in credit.  I'm still not convinced and I queried it but it seems that I am.  I'm not sure how that happened but very nice it is too.  That means I can have two school dinners next week!  Excellent.

Apart from not planning for school, I intend to do some kitchen stuff.  For a start, my chilli plant has produced its first ripe chilli.  It's small so, I am guessing, quite hot, so I want to make some chilli with it.  I will have a rootle in the fridge to see what I have because if I can make a vegetable chilli, we can have it for lunch tomorrow with rice and some garlic bread, or maybe I could make some tortillas.  So must get some red kidney beans on to soak!

Also, after the success of the ginger cookies last weekend, I want to make some ginger nuts - the nice crunchy ones without that chew in the middle.  When we go away for our four days to Center Parcs, we will be staying in the hotel (bliss) and I want to take a selection of biccies with me for snacks, etc.  Al takes a lot of feeding and the shop prices are high!  Also, on Sunday he comes home from karate absolutely starving and it's a good idea to have crunchy stuff available or he heads for the fridge!!!  That's teenagers for you, isn't it?

I have rambled on for ages and it is nearly eight o'clock, so I'd better stop now and get going.  It may be Saturday but there are thing to do!