Return to school

 It has certainly been an odd sort of summer holiday and not quite the exploring I had hoped to do if you'd asked me my plans in January. But we have enjoyed some visits to National Trust properties near us (Basildon Park and the Vyne are the latest), and I am very sad to see my late mornings disappear with the new school year. 

Basildon Park

Basildon Park

The Vyne

The Vyne

We've all been understandably wary of the return to the classroom but I feel very lucky that school has been very open with their decisions and it really feels like there isn't much else they could be doing. We had a staggered start over the first 5 days so each year group could be introduced to all the systems one at a time. It meant we didn't have the full school in until most of the problems had been ironed out as we added students throughout the week! The school is doing its best to implement everything they can think of (and that the government has suggested) to reduce risk but you could see the hackles go up when Boris Johnson announced on Monday that schools are "Covid secure". He knows full well that it is impossible for schools to put into place everything the government said they should do and still have all pupils back in the classroom. Plus, nothing can truly be "covid secure" anyway! So, we have our students in year group "bubbles" with everyone on different timings throughout the day for breaks and moving around the school at different times. This had made teachers' timetables a bit crazy, check mine out! (we run a two week timetable)

We also have sanitising stations in every classroom for students to use as they come in and all desks are sprayed and wiped down at the end of a lesson. I've separated my desks into pairs but I'd say there's less than half a metre between each pair of desks, simply because there isn't enough room in the classroom. I have managed to get all the desks over a metre away from me at the front of the room which is wonderful and I basically stay there during a lesson. School has provided us with visors to wear if I have to venture out amongst the students for any extended period too which I really appreciate. The most positive thing to come out of all this is that I'm not allowed to collect in students' books to mark! All homework etc is going to be done online through Microsoft Teams so my marking load is greatly reduced. I've been really impressed with school's attitude to seeing this as a chance to really improve our systems and teaching and they won't go back to that kind of marking even when this is all over.

My classes seem to be all going fine so far, it's so nice to have some students I have taught before and not have to completely establish myself from scratch. I'll admit I went in with some trepidation about seeing my tutor group again and they were an absolute nightmare on Tuesday. It's tricky having them every day for 35 minutes at the end of the day - last year I only saw them for 15 minutes in the afternoon and we often had assembly. I came home on Tuesday feeling like a failure for not being able to get quiet in the classroom and about ready to quit and come back to NZ - yes, it was that bad. But I talked with the head of year about some different behaviour strategies to try and it has gone much better the rest of the week. It has been a good opportunity to expand my skill set and the new strategy is one I can try with other potentially tricky groups. Long may the peace with the tutor group continue!

Our new housemate Chris is settling in well and we are all enjoying having a little more routine and normality in our lives. Esther's work have said they may not reopen their office for a long time (potentially not ever), so she has gone home for awhile to see her family. The cats continue to be up to their usual tricks, we thought for awhile there might not be any frogs left in our pond! It will be interesting to see how the next couple of months pan out with covid cases on the rise again but hopefully we won't be too badly affected!