Frazzled

Feeling stretched thin just now. Lots to do and I think part of the problem is that I am too tired to know where to start.

At a department meeting on Monday we were told about (yet) another Government directive, this time on Assessing Pupil Progress in English. Well, to be honest it looks to me like a step back to the first days of the National Curriculum, when we were constantly assessing pupil performance and recording it. It's not quite the same - we are only to focus on some pupils, at least initially - but we have to copy and annotate and level etc etc on a very frequent basis.

As a colleague said to me, "You don't fatten a pig by weighing it."

I believe I have a good idea of my pupils' abilities and skills in the subjects I teach )and beyond). I can tell you who forgets to use capital letters, who needs to use a wider range of connectives, who can retrieve information from a text and who can use deductive skills to read beyond the literal. I think that is more important that deciding what overall level they are working at every half term, recording that, copying and annotating evidence. I'd rather spend time planning lessons which will engage them, talking with them about their work, giving them feedback and praise.

OK. Rant over. No doubt I will end up doing this, ticking the boxes and producing the evidence. But I don't think it will make me a more effective teacher to do so.