What is 'free'?

'Time winds its way through a repetitive process of hours, minutes, seconds
The partitions of it seem so heavy and time is lost in the relentless darkness of this life
Days become blurred into periods of day and night, good and bad, illness and death,
As we move through the process of routine and towards the conclusion of it all.

I used to love the song of the birds, but now there is only silence
They know not to be here, where life is measured in usefulness and names replaced with numbers.
Through the small bars I see the clouds and the shapes they take gives me a moment of escape from all this
Which is soon lost

The time for death is upon me, moved into this pen, herded with so many to await those who would seal our fate.
But I am calm.
If hell exists then it is here, where I am, but soon I will be free.
What is 'free'?
Its release from the monotony of time, from the routine of fear.

Death does not scare me for with it will come peace, a freedom they cannot take away from me.
What is 'free'?

I am.'

An important moment to stop and think...

About 2 and a half years ago a plan hatched in my head to take a group of students over to Auschwitz and from that experience impact the school in some way. It seemed impossible but through some out of school funding it happened and last November half term we set off with 4 students to Poland.

This week has seen the fulfilment of this dream as the assemblies all week are being taken by these students to silence and respect from all year groups and incredible feedback from all staff.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Today period one the whole school had a PSHE lesson on the Holocaust set out by these students from their experiences and their thoughts. The feedback has been fantastic, so positive with no hassles and focused discussions from all year groups.

Its been a difficult journey and a very emotional week - with 2 assemblies to go - but the impact has been tangible and I feel proud of what has been achieved.




Spend a moment today to remember those who's lives were so brutally taken because they didnt fit into to someone else's plans.

When you know youre doing the right thing...

Its days like this that remind me why I became a teacher.

Its my birthday...relevant to the story not pushing for presents...OK maybe a little push!...and every child coming into my room seem to know this and have wished me happy birthday.

On top of that I have a pile of cards next to my desk from all year groups and have had happy birthday sung at least 5 times!

Its when things like this happens you feel like you are making a difference!

'Herd' of this one?...

Recently I have bought in a new marking system into the faculty which we have worked on and tweaked and involves using small red yellow and green stickers to mark work. The key to understanding these stickers is on a sheet in the front of their books and involves them answering some questions to self evaluate how they are doing and what they can do to improve.

All was working well until...8S3...this would need some thought!

I decided to herd them together in terms of the colour of the sticker achieved and see how it would go. So we had the red table..s and a yellow table.

To begin with they needed some nudging as to what to do and the TA in the room with me and I wandered round answering questions and keeping on task. Then it took off.

Someone on the red table said 'I don't know what to do to improve?' and before we could get there someone else on the table responded 'Oh I know you haven't...'

The conversation took off! They began to peer assess and evaluate and then cross table conversations started as the reds wanted to know what the yellows had done to get a yellow.

We just stood back and let it happen...quite an eye opener for the both of us and a great way to end the topic.

snow fun....

Watching the world change to white over the last 24 hours I was hopeful that we may see 'Snow Day 4:The final moments'.

This would follow last weeks:
'Snow Day'
'Snow Day 2: The unexpected'
and my personal favourite 'Snow Day 3: I've only done a one day week!'

However, powers that be have decided and Snow Day 4 has become 'Ice Slush Hell'... really not looking forward to getting out of this car park!

Day after tomorrow...is today!

Loved the film and now living the reality...some areas of the UK as cold as Moscow...Isotherms doing their thang!!!!

New Year ReVolutions...

2010...time to try something different in the classroom...be daring!

Happy New Year