A constant annoyance with the need to provide "cover" for the various absences of colleagues, is the specific impact of inadequate specialist teachers. When a departmental colleague is absent, it is a relatively quick "five-minute" discussion about content to teach the cohort concerned. No so if a school chooses to buy external staff, or has to use non specialists (often from other departments). With managerial diktat, the aforementioned brief chat becomes a more arduous twenty-five minute detailed description of baby-sitting "learning" tasks to occupy the so-called cover lesson.
A few days ago, overhead some children complaining about the prospect of the summer holidays being reduced. A quick search suggests the culprit is the Nuffield Foundation and yet another pseudo sars-cov-2 longitudinal study, suitably "sexed-up" for the mass media. In personal honesty, holidays are the perk of the job. There should be two week half-terms in addition to the sancrosanct six week summer holiday! :)
Probably not on the syllabus these days, but to this day still remember the boredom of that poem. As the Oxbridge Boat Race starts this weekend, am interested to read of water quality has been a news topic. Seems that weak regulation and profit extraction by owners of Thames Water have worked nicely to achieve a return to the river as literally a sewage dump. Time well tell if the 'Tideway' will reverse the decline in water quality. It should do, but at what cost? Thames Water have proposed 40 % increase in invoices to pay!
Holiday is the time to allow the mind to wander...Was reminded of an exhibition that was visited during the last holiday, about small dwellings in cities around the world. Whilst interesting, was depressing. Recently dawned upon citc that extant live space is less than that available when as a child. Am beginning to wonder that insufficient space is the cause of personal adverse mental health. For example, how to adapt to develop new hobbies and interests that require minimal space, if space (in a city!) is a fundamental source of enjoyment? Are such pleasures, by definition, the preserve of the international elite that can readily afford such a luxury, as urban space?
