Florida

Just went for the dream job.
Didn't get it.
Compensating by listening to lots of Billy Bragg.
Also growing a beard for charity.

Looks like an Al Gore moment to me.

Faux pas

Me, at a science thingy.

Oddly enough, the moment I started talking the whole room seemed to go quiet. 

Woman approaches me and says "hello! Alex, How are you? It's great to see you!"

(at this point the room quietens)

"Oh hello! Wow! Hello! great to see you too. (I turn to my boss)

Carole, this is Linda, we were both on the same headship interview, the one were neither of us were appointed Grrrrrr! (I ACTUALLY SAID GRRRRRR!). Wow, Linda and I spent  alot of time locked in rooms together and being all strung out and interview crazy. How are you Linda? Who are you here with?"

"I'm not Linda"

"Yes you are"

"No I'm not"

"Oh god I am so sorry. You look a lot like LInda"

"I am not Linda"

"OK Who are you?"

Fortunately the answer to my last question turned out to be along the lines of "A really nice person with a forgiving nature" although she did not actually say that.

Poetry

Right now I am in the middle of a very exciting and busy phase of my professional development.

I am working long and hard and am spending alot of time in a small office , or having intense conversations and trying to prove myself.

I am giving alot of me to others. I am not giving enough of me to my darling family and am pretty much ignoring myself.

I don't mind this too much as this will soon pass and it's all part of a journey I have chosen to undergo.

Still, it occurred to me yesterday.

There needs to be more poetry in this world.

File under fuckwit.

I have a 45 minute commute. I have a busy day. I do a lot of things. I help a lot of people. I have a lot of things going on in my mind at all times of day (and night). At the end of the day I drive 45 minutes home and look forward to seeing my family. I park the car close to my house. I get out. I check my phone. 3 messages. I check my pockets. I get back into my car. I drive 45 minutes back to work. I return my bosses car keys to her.

Persuasion and voting habits.

Today we looked at persuasion and how people can be persuaded to vote for specific groups or ideas.

Three groups (Purple, Brown and Green) had different ideas for running the school.

The purple group wanted to start early in the morning and finish by lunch. There would be compulsory sports clubs after lunch.

The brown group wanted to slightly alter the length of the day, shorten some breaks but offer a wide range of cross cultural pursuits in an extensive afterschool programme.

The green group would keep the school day as it is, offer more trips and employ excellent teachers.

I consciously avoided words such as 'parties' or 'election' and a class discussion followed about the merits of the various groups. 

After a few minutes we held a quick vote, an opinion poll.

The purples were clear leaders, the browns were next with a tiny minority of children voting for the greens.

Pointing out to the class that this was just an excercise, I then amended some of the group's published ideas. The purple group promised greater choice at lunch, the brown group (second in the poll) offered a one hour breaktime in the middle of the day and the green group proposed to abolish all homework except for the Year Six kids taking exams.

The class went into a mild frenzy. "Can I change my vote?" "What?" "ONE HOUR BREAK??YEAH!"

I assured them that it was just an opinion poll and yes, votes, opinions and minds could be changed. Another fantastic discussion took place.

Another straw poll and then I asked the class.

"The Leader of the brown group is a  bully, would you still vote brown?"

"Even if he was a bully, he wouldn't bully kids"

"Sometimes you have to be a bit of a bully to get stuff done"

A heated debate but the upshot was a completely unchanged total for the browns.

"OK, how about this? 10 years ago on an exotic holiday, the leader of the purple group ate dog soup. Would you still vote purple knowing that the leader is a one time dog eater?"

Fury soon gave way to comments such as "It was 10 years ago" and "What does his diet have to do with running the school?"

"The leader of the green group has been married seven times"

"Was he horrible to his wives or did they die?"

"Loads of people get divorced"

A half hour of fantastic, open minded, open hearted political debate with some of the best 10 and 11 year olds around.

22.02 hrs

Stuck at school with two of the nicest carpenters known to man, a cuppa and some biscuits.
Just hoping (before hope turns to prayer) that they can get their work finished reasonably soon.

With management responsibility comes a set of keys and alarm codes.

the awkward squad

Co Worker "You into Billy Bragg then?"

Me "Yes"

Co Worker "You look the type"

HARVEST rhymes with ...

So, it's the harvest festival in the parish church, all are gathered, the children, the parents, the elderly, some rioting toddlers.
Class 3 do a thing with the letters H.A.R.V.E.S.T
I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have but it seemed to be something about different words you can make out of H.A.R.V.E.S.T such as S.H.A.R.E. and R.E.S.T. and H.A.V.E and they relayed a meaningful homily after each new word. Was it me or as they changed the order of the letters during their thought provoking activity did I notice the word A.R.S.E

You couldn't make this stuff up.

The Governor

I'm a school Governor.
This is an important job.
It's the type of important job that you have to do for a while before you realize how important it is.
It's also the type of important job which makes you yearn for a benevolent dictatorship.
With you as the dictator.

This evening I spent three and a half hours in a Governors meeting mostly listening to other Governors talking about very dull but important stuff.

I did my small share of dull but important talking, made the odd bad joke (the Headteacher offered his father's jazz band as entertainment for a fundraiser for a nearby field, I said "oh no, not them, they're awful!" The joke being that I've never even heard his father's jazz band! We all laughed because it was bloody HILARIOUS!)

My god.

There was one 37 minute section of the meeting where everybody seemed to forget everything.

The Vice Chair of Governors kept waiting until we had all almost finished with an agenda item, he would wait until we were all waiting for the chair to say "right, onto item 67, use of knives and forks in school on a Tuesday during Lent"

At that point he would ask a very important question about item 66.

I'm sure you can imagine our frustration.

Senior Teacher

Hey, in the last post I wanted to mention my promotion. I forgot. I guess I was to busy being busy.
I'm now the senior teacher (asst principal) in my small village primary school.
Yeah!

To borrow, to borrow

"There are so many things I want to do, such a better person I want to be. But I really just need to go to bed".

Seriously lame blogging to borrow wholesale from another but I feel just the same way. First week back at work is always an absolute killer.
Thanks to Unwellness for the quote.

Why I blog.

I blog because I have just looked in my diary and realised that the deadline I was getting all nervous and sweaty about was in fact July 1st.


Not June 20th!

Deputy Head interview questions

These are a bunch of questions I've been asked at interviews for Deputy Head jobs at village primary schools.
I'm publishing these from my black book of inset and professional development notes as a sort of public service. I hope that anyone else in my position will get some use out of them.
As for the normal readers, normal service will be resumed shortly.

"How has your teaching been affected by the renewed frameworks for Literacy and numeracy?"

"Describe a situation when you have raised standards, How did you do this?"

"Describe a situation where you have introduced and led an initiative to staff. How did you do this?"

"Tell us about your strengths."

"Tell us about your weaknesses."

"Describe a whole school situation you have helped to lead."

"What do you do when a teacher disagrees with your leadership?"

"Why did you apply for this post?"

"You spent five years in New York (this could easily translate to any large chunk of time in your CV), What did you learn from that time?"

"Why do you want to be a Deputy Head?"

"What will you bring to this post?"

"Tell us about an achievement that you are most proud of."

"How do you feel about parents?"

"Why do we assess children's learning?"

"What are your views regarding the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment)?

"Which part of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda do you think is most important?"

"Can you explain how you have used ICT in lessons?"

"What are the strengths of the topic approach?"

"How would you assess learning in a topic based environment?"

"What do you do if a parent starts shouting at you?"

"What do you do if you profoundly disagree with the Head?"

"How do you use assessment?"

"In your opinion, what is the point of the KS2 SATs in their present form?"

"Give an example of how you have made a difference to a child with special educational needs and how did this impact on the human rights of the other children in the class?"

"How would you support well being for support staff?"

"What do you see as the role of the Deputy Head in a small school?"

"How would you facilitate communications between the Head and staff?"

I spent some time online seeking out such questions and trying to formulate some answers. I found very little that was useful.

If you get an interview for a DH position be prepared to do a lot of homework and preperation, a great presentation, dress right up, play it like it's your own FA Cup Final and hit on the Governors, they will play a large role in your fate. 

I hope this will help somebody. The questions in italics were the ones that I have actually been asked, the rest are ones that I created based on advice and experience.

I've left out my responses because, well, I wasn't that successful, and I don't have all night!

Interview.

Apparently I waffled on a bit and didn't get straight to the point (BUT THAT"S MY CHARM!!!)

I'm not too worried, this was the last one this year so in a way it's nice to be able to relax a bit and not spend anymore evenings creating bizarre presentations and thinking of answers to every conceivable question that could conceivably be asked.

If truth be told I really only applied for this one because I was so spun out about not getting the last one.

There's footy on the telly tonight (can they both lose please?) Frau Random Doubt and The Wee Hen are both just fine, the sun is out and the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Why Worry?

In a truly Mondale obsessive moment I should point out that I was beaten to the job by a young(ish) man with a very familiar surname. Makes my liberal credentials all tingly!

Interview

So the self indulgent quest for a promotion continues.

This time, instead of reading runes and drinking tea backwards for three days and nights prior to the interview I thought I'd just shout it out and let the blogworld know. The blogworld can than wish me luck and good fortune on Wednesday as I attempt (for the last time this academic year) to achieve a long held ambition.

As well as letting the blogworld know I'm also rather keen to get in there and do really well so that they have little choice but to offer me what seems to be a fascinating position.

The image?

Lovely isn't it?

It popped up when I google imaged 'Deputy Head'!

The Johnson Treatment

So, I didn't get the job, the dream job, the job I really wanted.

So I made some enquiries.

It's brilliant, this next level of career, you can call people up and ask them stuff and they respect you enough (or pretend to?) to tell you stuff. I respect her enough to believe her, my unnamed source at the highest levels of the 'job I almost got'.

OK, I buggered up a deeply technical question about computers. OK, I'll work on that.

It was the other gossip that was great.

They were deeply upset that I didn't get the job because I had been the clear favourite. The source had detailed inside knowledge that there had been lengthy wranglings about ignoring some of the practical aspects of the interview (i.e that question and my ropey answer) and hiring me anyway.

A couple of the Governors (the two who had asked me the question ) were not impressed , OK, live with that.

Everyone else had been very impressed. Sheeeeet.

I need to sell myself a bit more in person. A bit less Gordon, a bit more Tony. My response? This is a very serious job, not a time for soundbites.

But I am the clunking fist of primary education!

There's an identical job going only two miles down the road, give them a call!

I'm meeting them on Monday.

I just love the networking and intriuge!

Yesterday I was so upset, then I understood, Frau Random Doubt and The Wee hen were both OK and laughing and giggling, my day will come.

Career travails in Democratic electoral defeats.

So, I went for another interview.

This job was amazing, the school was great, the teachers seemed nice, the job was big but I felt good about doing it.

And, oh, oh, oh.

I almost, nearly, nearly, almost.

But not quite.

Got the amazing, beautiful, challenging, well paid job that would have seen me not bothering the vacancies website for the next four years.

Damn!

And double damn because I could have, should have got this job.

I later found out that the difference between me and the successful candidate (nice guy, we got on well, good luck to him), the only difference was the answer to one question.

A day full of questions and it comes down to ONE question.

Sheeeeeeet.

If my last interview was a  Nixon McGovern this one was definately a Bush Gore.

Hey, I just want to reassure you, I will not be growing a beard.

(Or in English, The last interview was John Major in 1997, this one was Neil Kinnock in 1992)

In any language, this one hurt.

Oh, the things you find when tidying up the classroom. Part Two in a series of two.

Theo has opted for the old favourite, putting the 'F' into 'art'. A classic move I'm sure you'll agree.

Oh, the things you find when tidying up the classroom.

I'm pretty sure I know who wrote this.
I don't know who it was sent to.
It made me laugh after a very busy day.

J ' Gagne!

I won the Teacher's section of the school Easter bonnet competition!!!!!!!!

I have no pictures of my splendid creation but imagine if you will, a Napoleonic style hat covered in brightly painted cardboard bunny rabbits (I've had a thing about bunnies since reading Watership Down)

The children had to vote by a show of hands in front of loads of parents and all the other teachers.

A public vote.

And I won!

It was like being a Communist Dictator and I loved it!

Yeah!

In the children's section the kid in my class who treats school as an optional debating club won. He's a practising Pagan, intensely competitive about religion and was delighted to win "the Christian Easter thing" adding "I'm only here today because I know there's chocolate somewhere". In another category two other Pagan kids won! It's a church school but, like, whatever!

Oh did I tell you?

I won!

And I had an acceptance speech in my pocket.