Back to School

[jackie j]

Where has the school holidays gone ? Over in a whiz, seem's like yesterday some were moaning about six weeks off. Daughter back tomorrow and she cant wait she hates the holidays.
No more lie in's

[SlugLobber]

Oh tell me about it! Can't wait to see all the 11 year olds carrying bags bigger than them. Reminds me of me school days, it does. Not looking forward to the traffic, though. What happened to kids having legs?!?

[Polly Fouracre]

I loved the school holidays and wished that I could keep my children at home all thetime!! We would do our household jobs for an hour or two in the morning and then take off,children,dogs and a day's worth of grub and not go home 'til evening. Baths,hot choc. supper and a good night's sleep. Often we would take other children as well, those whose mothers thought that school holidays were sent to try them!

[sharonr]

My son went back last Thursday. The only bad thing is that the high school he`s at has changed their times from 9 til 3.30 to 8.30 to 3. So I have to get up at 7 every morning now as he has to catch his bus at 8.

[Topaz]

Mine go back Thursday, although i must say it has flown by. What gets right up my nose is they should go back Wednesday but teachers have made that a teacher training day. Why couldnt the teacher's go in tomorrow for their training day???Very annoying. Daughter is just itching to go back in her new uniform and her bratz bag

[sharonr]

Teachers can`t have their trainging days in the holidays for some reason.

[rogesse]

Love the school hols too and will miss 'mummies special soldier' (he hates this - great wind up material) when he goes back on thursday. His C of E school starts 8.00am which will be a nasty shock to the system

Trouble is, I think I'm going to have stop feeding him and chop his toes off to afford the uniform which was only replaced a couple of months before the hols started - he's shot up to over 6ft and size 12 shoes at 13ys. I'm 5'2'' (& 3/4), dad ain't that tall, infact OH is trying to remember how tall our milkman was back in 1994

[kirsty b]

Mine can't wait to go back tomorrow and see her friends. Never mind the fact that her friends all live within 2 mins of us and she has seen them all through the holidays.

[BarleySugar]

Teachers have a number of non-contact days ('training days') for planning etc. Children have a set number of contact days per year, and the local LEAs set the term dates to include both of these. Schools usually choose to allocate training days at the beginning or end of holidays to minimise disruption to parents, however there is nothing to prevent schools from setting them in the middle of a week etc, which I am sure would be more annoying. It makes sense to have some before the children return after the summer break so new class lists, mark books and curriculum changes can be sorted out. In this way the children have a smooth transition into the new year.
Most teachers I know have already attended school for a number of days in the holiday to sort out rooms, check on exam results and prepare statistical data for departments to drafts reports on successes or failures. However as not all staff are in at the same time there is not the opportunity to collaborate on schemes of work etc.

I have to say I am interested to see how our female pupils come dressed on Thursday (I was back today). The directive was all skirts should be knee length and persistant offenders would be taken to the school shop to purchase a suitable length one if theirs was not long enough (�10, so reasonable price). They also need to wear it properly, i.e. not rolled up. It will make a pleasant change not to see a number of our pupils wearing 'belts', which was the situation by the end of last term. We had a purge on them rolling skirts up, 5 offences = 40 minute detention. Some spent most of their summer evenings in detention as they could be caught any number of times a day, slow learners at our school

The boys found it very funny, coming into class and showing their waistbands to prove their skirts weren't rolled up. Interestingly most of them supported the idea of longer skirts, and said they got embarrassed by some of the sights they saw

[squashysu]

i had my teacher training day today and we had the Police in with regards to important issues such as safeguarding children and child protection, these are things that cant be done when the kids are there, we also had a Diabetic Nurse in as a pupil starting has diabetes, we have also had training on epi-pens and numerous other things that some poor kids have.

thanks barleysugar for highlighting the need for training days, the problem being is that as most of us have kids we also have to get childcare for our kids when we are on our training days.

Back to the official teaching as from thursday for me (i am part time) and then back to school myself in 2 weeks!! argh scarey!!!

[BarleySugar]

Thankfully I don't need to worry about child care now, as my youngest is 16 and enrolled into the 6th form at my school today. It will seem strange I think, to have her in the same school. I have told her she must not repeat any inadvertant complaints I may make at home to anyone at school, although I have always tried to be circumspect, sometimes things may just 'burst out'. She has already said she hopes it won't be hard to remember to call everyone Miss etc instead of first name terms.

We have behaviour management techniques all day tomorrow, and of course all the new staff need to have induction and training on the electronic registration etc on Weds.

Have you posted what you are doing when you go back to school? I think I probably missed it if you did.

[squashysu]

i am starting Foundation Degree in Early Years, followed by the BA Hons at the end in order to get on PGCE course, which will be great, at the mo i am NVQ3 and work in a maintened nursery school, god its so daunting going back to school lol!!!!

I may be the oldest one there LOL! oh well, i can teach them how to smoke proper fags behing the bike sheds, as done it before lol !!

[lynda66]

i get a double whammy on the 21st, sons leaving home and going to uni ..... at least with school i knew he was coming home for his tea every night (even if his skirt was rolled up round his waist )..... dunno what on earth i'll do without him, it will be so boring and strange living on my own again after all this time .... i'm really not looking forward to it

[jackie j]

Daughter gone off to school well to her friends house first she couldnt wait to get out the door !!! Girls are allowed to wear trousers so no problem with being too short.
When I was at secondry school I rolled my skirt up, we had to kneel on a bench and if our skirts didnt touch the bench we were in trouble, when inspection was over we rolled our skirts back up.

[janeyo]

My little boy started primary school today and I was an emotional wreck! He LOVED it and is sooo ready.

Seems like last week he was BORN, this week he goes to SCHOOL, next week he'll be off to UNI and the following week he'll be married and I'll be a granny ----- EEEK! Where does the time go!!!!!

I took the baby swimming to take my mind off it all. He loves it. And will love the extra attention!

janeyo