So much to see when you do...
Very interesting chat with Rebecca today not least regarding the regional differences between schoolchildren (she gets around a bit doing her excellent school talks). Excellent behaviour in Hackney apparently. Would be interested to get sociologists looking in to the topic.
Three GT:
1. Catching up with my college friend Ross. Don't see him very often but we can fall straight back in to that friendship that comes from having lived in the same house.
2. Nice chat with the posh shed man though we still haven't nailed a design.
3. The arm chair that Nigel moved out of the 'gym' in to the greenhouse thinking that it would spur me on to ring the council to get it taken away. That chair is going nowhere - so comfy when the sun hits the glass - I had dog asleep on my lap, cat on the back of the chair and was in severe danger of dosing off myself but decided I had better go back in range of the doorbell.
The greenhouse is a great place to sit quietly out of the wind but in the sun! Unfortunately my greenhouse roof leaks! I have to arrange my pot plants under the leaks! Lovely to finally see the blossom!
That is so funny Judith, enjoying the cast out chair. Great place to sit I'd say, leave it there and sneak out for a little chill out time amongst your tomatoes and cucumber. Beautiful blossom, doesn't look too much worse for wear after last nights frost.
Must admit the first thing I looked at this morning was our magnolia - somehow managed to do OK even those it was a really bad frost.
Interesting what you say about the children't behaviour. I did my PGCE at Homerton and all of the primary schools I did my teaching practice in were quite small and rural. I did ONE DAY (!) in an inner city school in Hackney. I was a bit nervous, but like your friend said, it was the loveliest, best disciplined, relaxed atmosphere I encountered. Made me re-examine my pre-conceptions, that's for sure.
@jantan and it's not just the littles - my other neighbour's daughter is teaching in a 'deprived' inner city comprehensive in London and says the kids are focused, motivated and really appreciative and polite. It helps that those schools have hundreds of thousands of £ more than our 'bottom of the funding table' Cambs schools - they can provide a lot of specialist support and facilities. But there's a lot to it I think.
@judithg funding for schools....Pupil Premium Judith, if the student was ever on Free School Meals in the last 6 years the school gets extra funding to support them. They have to account for how they spend the money and show how it has improved the student. We have loads of pupil premium students at our school , i'm always building reports monitoring Pupil Premium cohorts (12 months ago I had no idea about education ...12 months in I know all the jargon) !
@phil_howcroft that's on top Phil - I'm talking about the basic rate per pupil. Cambridgeshire pupils get the least per head. 'Deprived' areas get vastly more per pupil and then they get pupil premium as well so it adds up to massive differences in funding. the definitions of 'deprivation' were set by county 20 years or more ago and even then were based on very strange criteria - Cambridge council was on some sort of subsistence budget so they decided that we could survive on nothing. Every year 'they' (different colours of gov) promise to rectify it.
@judithg it's a complicated world judith, surely it wasn't this hard when we were at school ...or maybe it was. I don't envy your position as a school governor, it's a very responsible and dare I say powerful position in today's schools.
A lovely bright spring shot. Not sure I agree on the discussion about pupils being more motivated in inner city schools. I've been into loads of UK primary and secondary schools whilst on a research project on gender, and I don't think you can generalise by region - there are good and poor schools everywhere. More anecdotally, my daughter who recently did some supply teaching on the Arbury, found the children little angels compared with those she was used to in a London comprehensive.
Interesting what you say about the children't behaviour. I did my PGCE at Homerton and all of the primary schools I did my teaching practice in were quite small and rural. I did ONE DAY (!) in an inner city school in Hackney. I was a bit nervous, but like your friend said, it was the loveliest, best disciplined, relaxed atmosphere I encountered. Made me re-examine my pre-conceptions, that's for sure.