It has been a busy half-term I always thought work was meant to get easier but the last few years seem to have got busier and busier and harder work by the month. Now this year we have gone to starting our academic year in June, which might be one of the reasons for the tiredness as we were straight into the nitty gritty, none of the usual 'handing out books etc' you normally get at the beginning of term.
Now overall I think this has been a good move - before the summer the students were a lot more focused for a lot longer, there was a lot less of the silliness etc you get at the end of term. It has also meant that as soon as they were back in September they were back on task, working towards exams etc and with a real focus from the word go. However, there were issues with planning time etc as we lost a lot of our Y11 time (which overall I think we earn throughout the year with all the extra sessions etc) which we have traditionally used as planning and reflecting time. This has meant that our reflection on the previous year has been probably less which worries me, as it might mean some of the same mistakes are made as although we identified them we did not have the time to change much around it. Hopefully though we will recognise this and change it / think about it when the time comes.
At the beginning of the change I was sceptical, I didn't think that it would work, and I really thought the students would respond negatively. Now though, I think it was a great idea. Yes, there are improvements that could be made to the actual process (as there always would be from a new venture) but in terms of academic progress and student engagement it has been excellent. Who's have thought it!
Tom.
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