Intensity.

Three weeks out of Jehovah knows how many left. It's been quite a year so far, with more twists and turns to come.

It started with a push on differentiation, had a brief Ofsted scare before Christmas, saw the gestation of the spawn of Dermot throughout, then saw the death-eaters pop in to spend two days wearing Doc Marten's and asking oddly phrased questions, before moving on to a focus on developing some bottle and making the pupils do the hard work so we can write questions in their books more often. It seems to have lasted about as long as that last sentence.

In short, it's been intense. Intensity in ten cities. Can we keep that going for the next few weeks? It's vital that we do. Personally, I think the change to 'next year' has been positive so far. But we have to capitalise on this. We have to ensure that the feeling of maturity and of having stepped up is maintained.

Let's make the most of this. No excuses. Those lessons won't teach themselves.

Long View

Regular victims readers of this blog may remember this edition from just over a year ago. Apart from being based on some memorable staff training, it was some gibberish about using a range of tools to achieve a goal. 

Today, on this longest day of the year, birthday of our once and future King, William the last, I'm sitting in the sun, enjoying the fruits of that labour. The turf is green and even, there's a little wall with plants on; what is now proved was once imagined. 

Aside from laziness, the reason I'm on about this is because we're not doing things the easy way. I've taken the long view over the last few years. Arguably, we could have done more at times to secure flashy, short term progress which drops away like leaves in autumn when the wind turns cold. But that's not how we roll. 

The proof of the pudding, they say, is in its existence. Last week, I took over a few new classes, as we all did; many of my new pupils were ones I knew by reputation or from meeting them on the corridor. What I've learnt, however, is just how good you lot are. These pupils have been well taught. The fact that you've worried and mentioned their lack of work or progress reassures me. It shows how high your standards are. These pupils know more than you might have though they did - you've done a great job with these pupils, despite the challenges they often present. 

Nice one. Keep the faith. The slow burn works.

Happy New Year!

It's next year! Time, obviously, does not exist, so fear not about this bizarro leap into the near future. Not much will change. Just the school day, your timetable, and the Earth's magnetic field.

The main change, really, will be that we are now promoting British Values (Copyright the Union of British Fascists  Tory party) above all else. Differentiation? Forget it. Progress? No more an issue. EAL? What are you? Some pinko hippy commie? As such, I have planned and taught a lesson in preparation about these esteemed values, which Johnny Foreigner could never share; it ends with this quintessentially British song. Feel free to use this to indoctrinate educate our pupils as to how a true young Brit should act.

On a serious note, this is an excellent opportunity. We can teach punchy, sharp lessons - trim the excess, keep then lean and mean, like a low-fat grill popularised by a legendary boxer cashing in on years of being punched in the head. We get opportunities like Extended Reading, where we can cover Literature texts, or just read for the sake of it - more to follow on these.

Most importantly, we can cash in on the feeling of progression the pupils will have. They're a year older now. Or so we have to make them believe. Create this - create a sense that they're stepping up, intellectually and emotionally. Push them.

Have a great new year!

Gove Tell It On The Mountain

Awful pun. No apologies. Here's the predictable link to the song, but it's not the Dolly Parton version, which is reprehensible. More importantly, it allows me to link to Mr Gove's wonderful week, in which he annoyed the Home Secretary and his ham-faced boss with his prejudice (ban all faith schools, say I) and announced a hilarious policy which displays his gnat-like insight into humanity. The neo-conservative fool.

Cheer up - I won't rock the boat any more. Only joking, you'll be waiting in vain for that to happen. It would take some sort of ambush in the night to stop me stirring it up. I'll stop that train now, even though I could have continued burnin' and lootin' the great man's inexhaustibly brilliant body of work for a while longer.

Perseverance. A quality that links many people - from the Gove to the good. My parents have been married forty years today, which must have taken some stick-ability, a growth mind-set and a lot of tolerance. These are the qualities we need to model, and expect, and value.

With these, it only takes a small axe to chop down a big tree, we can conquer any duppy.

Let's have a good last week of the year (!) and make sure that we're ready to make the most of the rest of this term.