End of term thoughts

Today is the last day of a very hectic and hugely enjoyable term. It was always going to be a challenge switching schools after so long in one place, especially since anxiety is practically my middle name, but it really is the best thing I could possibly have done.

I've gone from a medium sized boarding school in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields to a small day school in the middle of town. Being a smaller school means that there is much more of a community spirit than I'm used to which could have been quite intimidating but I took the decision early on to try to get involved and become a full part of the team. This has meant occasional trips to the pub after school on a Friday, where the Head buys everyone a drink and then leaves! It's also meant joining the staff choir and performing at the carol concert which was just brilliant! This afternoon I'll be attending my first ever staff Christmas party, after avoiding them for the past 17 years. Part of this is obviously due to a change in my mindset but it's also the atmosphere of the place and the people.

The really big difference though is in my relationship with the teachers. At my last school the physics teachers quite frankly took the piss! They's say 'you're a superstar' or whatever but only because I was putting up with their shit without complaint. Yes I'd get a bottle of prosecco or similar at the end of term but I don't think I ever really felt appreciated and valued. It's easy to say to someone that you value them, but it means nothing if you don't show it. Here things are different. On a number of occasions my HoD has missed his break or part of lunch to help me clear up after a particularly big practical. Not because I asked him to but because he cares enough to want to help. The other physics teachers are the same. Not a day goes by without one of them asking if I need help to carry things around or to put away the equipment. Honestly that's worth more than all the fancy bottles of wine in the world!

Hello again!

Good grief, has it really been almost 3 years since I was last here?

There is a good reason, honest. I've spent the past 2 years out of the prep room, working as a Science Administrator which has mostly involved spreadsheets and minute-taking. Not exactly thrilling, either for you or for me! Eventually the mind-numbing tedium wore me down so around Easter this year I started looking for technician jobs and I got lucky.

A lovely school much closer to home than my last one was looking for a Physics Technician so I applied and I got the job! I've been here for a week and am starting to get settled in and I really think I'm going to be very happy here. The other technicians are lovely and the HoD has been really supportive. Students don't start until Friday, so that's when the job really gets going and I honestly can't wait.

Just a normal Monday...

Sometimes you have to stop work and go outside because the fire alarm has gone off.

Sometimes you have to stop work and go outside because an 'old boy' from the school is going to fly past in his spitfire.

Today it was the second one!
 

Start of Term catch up

We've been back at school for just over 2 weeks now and everything is starting to settle down.

The main change in the physics department is that we have a new teacher. She used to be a technician before crossing over to the dark side and so far she seems very switched on and organised, which is a dream come true in comparison to my other teachers! 

The big change for me is that I am now senior technician AND will shortly be getting an apprentice technician to train. Our apprentice is only 19 and makes me feel very old! I'm going to have to remember that I'm his supervisor and not his mum.

I also finally finished my Teaching Assistant qualification. This year I have been given 3 classes to work with but just this morning HoD came to tell me that the new chemistry teacher, who is also teaching some physics, is having trouble with his year 9 set and I might need to start helping him out as well.

And so it begins!

Becoming senior

It seems reasonably certain now that when we start the new academic year in September I will be senior technician. I'll still be a TA for around 10 hours a week as well, and our bio tech is wanting to go part time, so at the moment HoD is trying to convince HR to hire at the very least an apprentice although someone with experience would be better.

This then is about the worst possible time for our new chem tech to go directly to HR and complain that she doesn't have enough to do! Any fellow techs reading this will currently be choking on their coffee. There's always something to do, if in doubt ask your HoD for some tasks. HR have of course taken this as a sign that there isn't really any need for extra help and HoD is really angry.

In fairness to her, chem tech has never done this sort of work before and probably doesn't realise quite how the workload ebbs and flows through the year and if she's complaining of boredom then she obviously hasn't fully grasped what a technician's role actually involves. There's so much more to it than just prepping experiments.

HoD asked me to have a word but I pointed out that since I'm not senior tech yet, I don't have any authority to tell her what to do. What I have done though is sent a friendly, chatty email with a list of all the jobs I try to get done during this quieter term as well as some suggestions which are more related to chemistry. Just tidying and reorganising the labs could easily take the next couple of weeks.

Apparently HoD has forwarded this to HR and pointed out that there is in fact plenty of work. I really hope this doesn't mess up our plans for next year.

The Invisible Woman

My HoD had a meeting, so he asked me if I could supervise his lower sixth class. They were doing a practice ISA which was a fairly straightforward experiment so I agreed.

We have 2 AS physics sets and this was the lower ability group so some of them needed a fair bit of help setting up their circuits, designing results tables and even understanding what the instructions meant. Obviously in a real ISA we wouldn't give them much help but as it was their first practice one I was nice and gave all of them as much help as I could.

Towards the end of the session one of the lads asked me if I teach physics. I explained that no, I don't and I am in fact the physics technician. Then he asked me what a technician does. I explained that I'm responsible for all the physics equipment and that I get it all ready for every lesson they have. They looked so shocked! I don't know where they thought the equipment comes from but clearly they hadn't realised that it's actually someone's job to manage it all.

This made me wonder whether all our students are so unaware. After all, these sixth formers have been with us for over 3 years now and for all that time I've been in and out of lessons doing my job. Did they never notice me? Also most of this group came on the trip to CERN in October, but never questioned my presence.

One thing I found very interesting - at the end of the lesson they tidied their equipment away with far more care than I have ever seen from one of HoD's groups before. Maybe realising that someone has to deal with their mess made them rather more considerate.

I think from now on I am going to make a point of introducing myself to classes at the start of the academic year.

Panic stations!

Last week we got the call all schools dread - it's inspection time again. Usually this is the cue for science teachers to go mad ordering all manner of complicated experiments they've never tried before in an attempt to impress the inspectors and be judged 'outstanding'. Inevitably all this achieves is a huge amount of extra work for the technicians and the inspector probably never came to the lesson anyway.


This inspection is slightly different and the panic is coming from a different side.


As a boarding school we are not only judged on the education that we provide, but also on how well we care for the students and this current inspection is an interim one focussing on boarding and welfare. For the teachers there is very little impact, but senior management have been bombarding us with emails about the various welfare and H&S policies and wanting to make sure that we all know the official line on anything an inspector may want to talk about.


The Health and Safety manager had warned that they would be very interested in seeing the science facilities and checking all our H&S paperwork, so we made sure we were all prepared before he brought one of the inspectors round yesterday afternoon. What an anti-climax! The guy asked me where we keep the radioactive sources and that was it.


Don't know why everyone gets so worked up.