Many people see me as a highly motivated person and I guess that in some ways I am. But in others I do struggle. When it's cold and damp it would be only too easy to just pull the duvet over my head and stay in bed. But I never do.
Some days I just force myself to get up and I think it's the volume of things to do that makes me do that.
On Monday evening I attended what turned out to be a long parish council meeting and I hope the council don't mind me saying that at times it was rather tedious.
So yesterday morning I was up early in order to write up a few reports from that meeting for the next Hethersett Herald.
The time just flew by and it was soon time to pop off for the latest Forget Me Not Club. This is now a thriving group. Again we had over 20 people there for a chat and cup of coffee/tea and, of course, biscuits. People are returning time after time so we must be doing something right. I think this is a valuable group for the village.
On the way to take granddog out for a walk, I drove through the back way to the next village to Hethersett - Little Melton. It showed the enormity of the new building in and around our village. You used to drive pretty straight with just one road junction. Now there are two junctions and the new development seems to be joining up with the previous lot to almost make a village within a village. And the building is nowhere near finished. I have to say that at times I got disorientated and didn't quite know where I was. Sign of things to come methinks.
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The news that a Head Teacher has killed herself due to the pressure of an Ofsted Report brought back memories for me of my days as chair of Governors of what was then Hethersett Middle School. I know how stressed out the teachers were when it was announced that an inspection was scheduled and I know the extra work they had to put in to prepare for it.
The problem I have with Ofsted (and it is a big problem) is firstly the ability of the inspectors and what gives them the right to sit in judgement on fellow professionals and secondly the fact that all they see is a small snapshot of a school on a particular day or series of days when individuals may not be quite on their game for any number of reasons. This is what is judged and not the overall picture of the school.
The school in the news this week went from Outstanding to Needs Improvement which rather suggests and it's all subjective anyway. I remember at work one year receiving a bonus for a good performance and the next year being criticised. I hadn't changed but the person judging me had. The first one appreciated what I did and how I did it and the second seemed to think that he knew better and wasn't averse to telling me so.
As chair of Governors and a volunteer in that position, I wasn't going to be criticised by Ofsted Inspectors and had made my mind that if they criticised staff or the school I was going to ask them to leave. I knew the staff at the school and how professional they were and I wasn't going to take what I saw as unreasonable criticism.
Luckily I didn't have to activate my threat as the school was graded overall Good with some areas Outstanding including the running and management.
But I do know the stress these inspections cause and have very little respect for those carrying out the inspections who can at times be overpowering. Luckily the inspectors we had were reasonable people, but that isn't always the case. I am no longer involved in education but still wince when I hear of the hassle caused by an inspection.
Today I'm off to give my talk to the arthritis group. I'm looking forward to talking and even more looking forward to the cake they provide.