I've taken a phone call this morning from a school regarding the possibility of my at least getting some time in the classroom as a volunteer, or even some paid time as a supply teacher. So that's promising. I've also handed in my application form for that 3 days a week part-time job. Again, promising. Onwards and upwards as they say in Rotherham (I believe).
No, don't answer, it's a rhetorical question. It may be that I just need to pull myself together and get on with it. Or not. I have just finished my PGCE - I am a qualified teacher. Grounds for celebration, optimism even, yes? Well maybe. You see the fact of the matter is, I don't have a job. In the rush to finish my course, I've not felt it possible to give enough attention to the task of securing a position. Call me what you like, that's the fact of things. Other people on my course have found the time to finish the course and get a job, so why couldn't I?
It's not that I haven't applied for any jobs, I have actually applied for about half the jobs local to me that I have seen. I've had one interview. I've been to look at several schools, like they recommend, but my application form has been good enough to get me on the short list for just one position. I have had my letter of introduction looked at my the head at my last placement school and my college tutor, herself a former headteacher. So it's not too bad, surely?
Anyway, enough already. I actually do feel a little better now. I'm off to drop off an application form off at a nearby school - it's 3 days a week, so part time. But it's a job and it'd be a good place to start, perhaps giving me time to do supply work on the other two days. I'll keep you posted.
I do love it when politicians are shown up for what they are. In my local council area, controlled by the Tories, though I didn't vote for em, there has been a lot of talk recently about the need to reduce the number of schools in order to save costs. This has been subject to a long and somewhat painful consultation process over the past few months. Well today the council finally gave its verdict and a number of schools are now to close.
But the schools are fighting back. At least one of them is promising to use the national government's Academy Schools legislation to wrestle itself away from local authority control in order to save itself. Where will the money come from to fund this new academy? Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I wouldn't mind betting that money will be removed from the local council's education budget in order to fund it, even though it now has no control over it and indeed had planned to close it because it couldn't afford to keep it open.
I've been on a course these past nine months, so I've not been able to keep up with any of my blogs. This one is no exception. But now I'm not so stressed about course work - most of which was writing essays and lesson plans - I'm now looking forward to spending a good bit of time blogging. This means... yep, you guessed it, writing.
Sounds like a name for a bar in Spongebob does it not? It may even be the name of a bar in Spongebob. But anyway, I digress. The boys' school had its annual school fare last week - as usual bets were hedged with the weather and it was decided to stay inside the school. Of course the sun shone and it was absolutely sweltering (nb last year the decision to go outside was rewarded with it fine mizzle for the duration and this wasn't from the local fire brigade's appliance - see, you can't win with the British summer).
One activity which was held outside, with the chance for some fresh air, was the coconut shy. Throw three tennis balls at 5 traffic cones with coconuts perched atop. If you can knock one off, win a coconut. Well, without being too big headed, I managed to win myself a coconut - it wasn't difficult, throwing the ball anywhere near the cluster of cones was good enough. Once I'd got it home, extracted the water and dropped the thing on the floor a couple of times I was in, and the pure white flesh of the Cocos nucifera was revealed. My question is, how much of your coconut do you need to eat for it to count for one of your five-a-day?
Well that's that then isn't it? We had the chance to vote for a change, for a more representative form of election to our legislature and we blew it completely. I don't think that I will ever bother voting again, certainly not in a UK General Election. My vote is meaningless. Like I have said before, a dustbin with a blue rosette would be elected as MP in our constituency. I don't want a Tory MP, I would never vote for one, yet living where I live, I will always get one. Similarly, if I lived in a constituency in Liverpool or Manchester there would be the same chance of not having a Labour MP. Nothing that I could do in voting for somebody else would make the blindest bit of difference.
Forget the House of Commons expenses nonsense, this was the biggest scandal in British political history over the last few years. We had a chance to change things, to make parliament better reflect the will of the people and we fouled up.
Shared by cosmicjellybaby
Well what do you think? I'm not prepared to stick my neck out too far, being a singles buyer rather than an album person.
 SodaHead News | What Was the Best Album of the '80s? SodaHead News by SodaHead Music It's not often that one thinks back on the '80s music scene with nostalgia -- unless you're thinking about the "Breakfast Club" soundtrack... maybe. But given comparisons between that decade and the one that just ended, Rolling Stone ... |
Shared by cosmicjellybaby
Yuppie and Bonk must be the worst pair of 'words' to have come out of the 80s. Hates em I does...
Diary of a Yuppie, 1986.
Shared by cosmicjellybaby
Yuppie and Bonk must be the worst pair of 'words' to have come out of the 80s. Hates em I does...
Diary of a Yuppie, 1986.Shared by cosmicjellybaby
Back in the day... when I celebrated a royal wedding. Well I was only 11.
Riots rocked inner cities across the country - etching names like Brixton and Toxteth on all our minds...
... and, wildly contrasting, Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, causing an epidemic of Royal Wedding fever...
Oh the romance, the pomp the ceremony...
There is a glowing moment every bride remembers. When she steps into the sunlight for the first time - as a wife.
Charles and Diana starred on a very special Rubik's Cube, featuring images of them both and the union flag.
There was a flood of memorabilia...
Royal Wedding - the tray.
And here we have a lovely book about the Royal Wedding. Oh, I'm sorry - it's Not.
