Escape Artists

This morning we had a runaway. One of our newest recruits, a little boy in Year 1, decided that he did not want to stay at school at the end of playtime and he simply ran home. How? Well we are situated on a big site and although we have security gates we cannot lock them due to Health and Safety restrictions. He simply decided to take advantage of a gate that was left open by a parent leaving the site. He was seen running out and despite a school policy of not chasing runners we did make sure that he was safe and that he went home (one of our LSAs followed him with an older child). The little boy was returned to school by his parents but he was in no fit state to stay in school so he went back home and will start the day again after lunch. Now we only have the problem of how to ensure that the gates stayed closed!

New Half Term

Another half term has started and we are half way through the academic year. Time flies when you have targets to meet!

Earlier this week I met with my School Improvement Partner - part of an initiative launched by the Government to enable schools to have access to advice, support and challenge from an external person other than the local authority. In essence this is a very good idea - but our SIP is actually the same person as the local authority used as their link adviser to the school so nothing has really changed. We have a three to four hour meeting every half term and we discuss issues pertinent to the school at the time. Mostly we discuss data - figures that show how well our children are progressing towards the targets that have been set for them and collectively how the targets compare with our current academic position. We also talk about contextual issues and matters relating to the future of the school. The process is not a great deal of fun and involves lots of paperwork and poring over figures. The government intention is that the process is useful to Headteachers - well it isn't to this one!

Last night after school there was a Governors Personnel Committee meeting. The agenda wasn't particularly full but there was a lot to talk about. Most of our time was spent discussing something called "Single Status". This is another Government initiative that is supposed to address a few issues in relation to the employment of staff members who are not employed on teachers contracts. The intention is to ensure that people employed in the same or very similar jobs are paid the same or very similar and have common working expectations. Sounds simple really. Sadly it isn't and has caused quite a lot of work, some anxiety and tension. The process may calso cost a lot of money to implement and may result in less people being employed in the long run. What is supposed to be easy and straightforward has turned out to be a bit of a nightmare!

Holidays?

Don't they say that teachers have long holidays? Well I suppose that is partially true but this week when the school has been closed a lot of teachers have been in school. As the Headteacher I have an excuse - trying to catch up with the many forms and bits of paperwork that make the job so interesting. I am completely SEFed to the eyeballs and am also quite happily SIPed! The other staff are here because the job of teaching has not got any easier in the last few years. In fact the amount of planning required and the research to be done is never ending. I hope they all manage to have a rest because the next half term is going to be very hard work indeed. Tomorrow I'm off to Seville in Spain for a few days - to escape the cold mornings for a little while!