Monday 18 February 2008

School stress...

Well, I hit the ground hard today on back to school day.

Driving conditions not ideal - very cold, very frosty and very foggy. Got to school to find 4 members of staff had not arrived (one car break-down, one delayed by the aforementioned fog, one whose return from holiday in New York was delayed due to plane failure and one with an appointment. So instead of having the time I anticipated having to print off worksheets and transfer files for my morning lessons, I was taking a registration. Oh well!

Morning lessons were going well - till the end of my second lesson when the power went off. I was teaching ICT at the time, and was just glad the power filed at the end of the lesson rather than in the middle of it. Assumed all systems would be up and running soon, especially since on teaching in another area of the school lesson 3 I found power was still on in most of the building. Not to be! The network was down (of course!) so I had to rapidly plan an alternative ICT lesson which did not need computers. Not an unfamiliar situation, as regular readers will know - but stressful all the same.

No power by the end of the day either in various parts of the school (notably, it seemed, those where computers were situated!) My mind turned to thoughts of lessons tomorrow and how I would deal with computerless ICT lessons for half of my day. Not easily, was the immediate thought, and my anxiety began to rise. I couldn't settle to any work during my non-contact.

By the end of the day things were somewhat clearer (I think) though the cause of the failure is still not certain. But school is closed to pupils tomorrow. Much delight there. Unfortunately staff are expected to attend. Oh joy! A hiatus of thinking what were the best arrangements for my daughter (who attends our school) - now solved in that she is going to a friend's house for the day. Another hiatus - "Please update the school website to reflect the closure.," requested the head. Well, I tried - but although the server was by this time up and running, it was not communicating with any other devices (something to do with switches I am told??) and that included the Internet. More joy. Website has been updated now that I have returned home.

Tomorrow staff will be in a building where a third of it has no light or heat. If a new fuse is the only repair needed, then all systems will presumably rapidly be returned to normal. If a new fuse box is required that will have to be arranged, all power will then be turned off and we will all be sent home. And it is unclear whether that can happen tomorrow at all.

Well, it's been a bit of a day!

4 comments:

Rainbow dreams said...

what an interesting and rather stressful day...
will hope tomorrow goes smoothly - and they manage to sort light and heat for you..
time to relax I think! x

Disillusioned said...

Thank you Katie.

Am feeling very stressed out tonight. Weird really - I should be feeling relaxed at the thought of no teaching. Guess reaction has a lot to answer for.

theMuddledMarketPlace said...

ah, but it's all uncertain isn't it?

( one positive is that it's No Kids..)

Disillusioned said...

For this relief, much thanks!