Disheartening day

Training day - says it all, really! I'd far rather have been teaching.

The morning was OK - we discussed ways of making the "most of the opportunities" provided by the latest curriculum changes about to hit us. I've seen so many changes it is hard to be excited about them any more, particularly as it so often seems to me "more of the same".

A stressful challenge was finding that the internet connection was down. It is now, thankfully, repaired, but I felt rather caught in the middle in the ensuing anxieties, and found myself needing to try to provide a solution.

In the afternoon we had joint meetings with colleagues from our local area. We were meeting in subject teams. I just found this incredibly frustrating - even annoying. All our upper school colleagues seemed to care about was their exam results. I suppose there is some justification for that, but what was dispiriting was their obvious attitude that there was no interest to be generated in our subject and their suggestions that we are not teaching the pupils things they need to know, Which is very frustrating, because all of us know we are teaching those things. For some reason that is not being conveyed by the pupils in their new school. We had some "lively debates" (a polite way of putting it) but came away feeling pretty hopeless really. It feels as if we spend a lot of time with younger pupils generating interest and enthusiasm, only to be told that is not important and not what we should be doing. I still beg to differ.

Then, on a very late arrival home, I discovered I had missed an appointment. Added frustration.

Now I'm tired, and still have lessons to prepare. I'm leading the after school training tomorrow as well.