Good Times
1979! Chic brought this song out in 1979! Well, doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself? I am a hoarder – I blame it on the whole teacher thing; I still see things and think how I could use it in class even though it is several years now since I actually had my own class. Our loft was a treasure trove of all sorts of games, toys, clothes and some items that we actually had no idea where they came from or what they were for. Then there were the photographs; our son’s life so far frame by frame and the many hairstyles (and colours) I have enjoyed, places we’d enjoyed, friends whose company we still enjoy and some people who have moved on from our lives. Good times indeed. We spent a week of our recent holiday finally clearing through years of “stuff”. It got me thinking about how quickly things move on and change. It also made me stop and think about all the time we spend worrying about things when we should just do our best, be kind, and get on with enjoying things.
From a school perspective it got me thinking about all the “good” things we do. I have mentioned so many times of the interesting and engaging learning and teaching that takes place within our learning community in these blog posts and I could write as many again. Sometimes it is hard just to find time to take stock of all we achieve. Like the stereotypical Scottish trait we seem to find it hard to be pleased with our achievements, and instead dwell on the things we could have done better. Now, self-evaluation is a key component to any school and it keeps everyone improving and developing new skills and knowledge. Sometimes though, just as when I looked at the decades of our life through those photographs in the loft, I wish we would stop and just enjoy what is going on now and what we are accomplishing.
Part of this train of thought is due to the time of year; spring cleaning at home and starting the final term of another busy year at school. We have already had conversations as a school team, and with associated colleagues about what we are going to focus on next session, what we are going to further develop and what is going to bubble along nicely. It isn’t anywhere near the finished plan but we have an overview and we have sought ideas and opinions. My job is to have an initial go at bringing it altogether in a “this is what it might look like, sound like, and feel like” type of draft before we get together again to tease it out more. Given time, budget and other challenges, sometimes this can be a very frustrating process. What can we realistically achieve balanced by what we’d like to achieve. Throughout every school session we meet formally and informally and review, evaluate and plan. We always inevitably feel we have fallen short. Sometimes we have, sometimes the challenges did get the better of us, or time was against us, or a hundred other things. However, more often than not we do as we planned, we change and adapt to best suit our young people and what they need to do to improve, and we do some really interesting, enjoyable and worthwhile things. From gardening to creative writing, from a Fairy-tale Wedding to mental maths strategies and recall; we all improve and develop.
Occasionally I can lose sight of our achievements. Occasionally individual staff, young people and their families lose sight of how far we have travelled and how much has been gained. Part of my job is to remind people that as we prepare for the Commonwealth Games we should remember that there is no finish line in this education race – it is a life long journey and it is full of good times. Yes, we are accountable, yes there are challenges, but we do make a difference and we do have good times. Take a minute to look through our class blogs on our school website and you’ll see good times aplenty, each one born out of planning, engagement, evaluation and team work. As we begin our final term I know we will have lots of work to do and it will be busy but, as always, I look forward to the good times to come.