Tuesday

A pinch and a punch
For the first of the month.

Can you really believe it is July?  I'm finding it hard, I have to say.  The longest day is past and gone and the nights start closing in again.  Half way to Christmas.  Life is spinning away rapidly.  Mind you, the next two and a half weeks can spin away all they like but then it has to slow down for six weeks.  Teacher's orders.

Well, out came the 'pass mark' for the phonic screen and, would you believe, it was exactly the same as the previous year.  32.  After all that waffling about there being blips in the scoring at the 'pass' mark point (OK, the 'required standard' mark, pass mark is quicker to type), they still kept it the same.  And the test seemed a little bit easier.  More adjacent consonant words and fewer vowel digraph words, I think.  Mind you, to be fair, I haven't actually counted, what a waste of time that would be, and I could just be getting used to the test, couldn't I?

I managed to get two bits of important paperwork sent off.  Phew, a great weight off my mind.  There's more (does it ever end) but I am feeling relieved.  So relieved that I went to bed at eight, fell asleep over a book and woke at my usual time, having slept soundly all night.  It's a wonderful feeling.  More wonderful, I don't have a tight knot of tension in my stomach this morning which is something I have been living with for several weeks.  I daresay it will be back again before the end of term, but for now I feel more relaxed.

Today, being Tuesday, is coordinator/PPA day.  Thank goodness for that as there is such loads to do still.  I need to work on our stock order for next year as a matter or urgency and I've managed to grab the hall for a rehearsal this afternoon, no easy matter with the Junior Department's show next week.  It is our Family Assembly tomorrow and we are going out with a bang, presenting our version of Jack and the Beanstalk just as we do every year.  It is sad that, with the curriculum changes, it won't be a part of Y1 from now on, I think, although we may possibly be able to wangle it in somehow.

The bad news is that I have found two caterpillars on my tomatoes - the growhouse plants too!.  How very dare they!!!!  The are now gone-caterpillars and I shall be keeping a beady eye open over the next weeks, spray gun in hand (no, not that one, the bug one!), defending my wonderful tomato plants to the end of the season.

And now it is time to sort out the mess in my kitchen and think about lunch.  I might go for a school lunch today as it is lasagne.  The sun is smoothing away the shadows and I have to get moving.  Have a good day.