Need to know?

We have one set in year 11 who are following a totally different syllabus to everyone else. They are all new students from overseas who joined us this year because they want to take IB in the 6th form. There was no easy way to slot them into the IGCSE course which everyone else is taking, so they are doing Edexcel GCSE additional science instead. The HoDs have organised most of this between themselves - they even ordered their own textbooks!

This GCSE course has a 'controlled assessment' element - essentially it's coursework. I've known this was coming up for a few weeks because my HoD emailed me all the paperwork to have a look at so that I could order any extra equipment we need. This morning he asked me to go onto the Edexcel website and download the paperwork for bio and chem and then email it to the techs. This caused a certain degree of confusion. Neither of them apparently had any idea that this controlled assessment even existed, and in chatting to the bio tech I discovered that she hasn't been given any info about the A-level assessed practicals yet either.

It's weird how our HoDs have such different approaches. I've been given login details for AQA and Edexcel so I can go to their websites and find out all the information I need about the practicals. For A-level ISAs, I did it back in september, so I've had plenty of time to order the equipment, trial the practicals and am now in a position to advise the teachers so that the students have the best chance to do well. It sounds like the other 2 HoDs like to keep all the information close to their chests, but I can't see why.

You're never going to get the best technical support if you don't give the technicians the information they need. Maybe the difference is that I'm treated as an integral and trusted part of the team by all of my teachers. It sounds as though my colleagues aren't getting the respect they deserve.

I hate ISAs

The thing that triggered me starting this blog almost 2 years ago was an ISA (the practical assessments for A-level physics) and they really don't get any better.

All of our year 13s are retaking the AS ISA so this week has been a non-stop flurry of practice ISA practicals and tests. We have 2 classes and my HoD is perpetually confused as to which set is doing which ISA and when. I'm mostly on top of it, but it's SO stressful. Today and monday will be the real ISAs, but that's not the end of it. Oh no!

There are 2 AS ISA experiments. They do both of them and submit the best one. Of course the year 12s also have to do their ISAs and the year 13s haven't started on the A2 ISAs yet either.

If I make it to Easter without either a nervous breakdown or murdering my HoD I think I will be doing quite well.

ISA time

Got a lovely big parcel yesterday with all the bits I need to start preparing this year's AS and A2 ISAs. Obviously I'm not allowed to talk about what the ISAs consist of, but they don't look to be nearly such a pain to set up as some we've had in the past, which makes me very happy.

I'll be trialling the experiments over the next few weeks and then I expect we'll start doing all the practice ones. At least this year we have no GCSE ISAs.
Hooray for iGCSE!

I don't want to hear it!

There are certain words and phrases that I really don't want to hear uttered by a teacher when they walk into the prep room. Sadly I hear most of them every week!

1) Help! - usually cried out in anguish by my HoD as he charges into the prep room. This generally means that he needs some last minute photocopying or that I'm going to end up doing a lot of tedious paperwork which is probably not my job.

2) Could you just.... - I HATE 'just' jobs. They always take 5 time longer to complete than the teacher concerned has estimated.

3) Can I do the ISA? - first things first. Which ISA? Are we talking GCSE, AS or A2? If GCSE then do you want P1,P2 or P3? If A level then do you want P or Q? And anyway, no you probably can't because they take far longer to set up than any teacher realises.

4) Are you busy? - You're about to make me far busier.

5) Can you just sit with my class for 5 minutes? - I'm not meant to be left in charge of a class at all, and 5 minutes has a nasty habit of turning into 15 minutes.

6) At my last school... - You aren't at your last school, you're at this school and we don't have the expensive piece of equipment that you are asking for. No amount of pouting or puppy-dog eyes will cause that piece of equipment to miraculously appear.

Happy New Year (slightly belated!)

Woo!! It's 2012 and everything is... well pretty much the same as 2011 actually.

Term is underway although thankfully there are mocks for 5th and 6th form this week so we get to ease ourselves back into things gradually. Once the exams are over though we'll have to hit the ISAs, especially for the 6th form.

The other headache on the horizon is that we are expecting an inspection this term. Word on the grapevine is that it'll be the week after next so the first signs of headless chicken syndrome are starting to appear. For my part, I shall attempt to carry on as normal although I may spend a bit of time making sure the notice boards look pretty. That always seems to make teachers happy.

Is that my job?

Every day I get asked to do a wide variety of stuff, some of which is very clearly a part of my job, but some of which really isn't. So, I present:

Stuff that's my job

• Preparing equipment for practical physics lessons and ensuring that it's in the right room at the right time.
• Repairing any bits of equipment which get broken. (Mainly changing batteries and fuses, sometimes a bit of soldering)
• Sourcing new equipment and dealing with ordering.
• Managing the budget
• Trialling new experiments eg ISA practicals
• Helping out in the lab during practicals
• Demoing experiments during lessons
• First Aid

Stuff that's not my job, but which I still get asked to do

• Booking plane tickets
• Invigilating exams when they can't find anyone else
• Contacting kids' parents
• Entering exam results onto the system
• Photocopying
• Setting work when a teacher is away but hasn't sorted out any cover
• Taking phone messages from my HoD's wife

And today's prize example - find out where the course is which my HoD is supposed to be on. Seiously, he called me at 9.15 to ask me to log on to his e-mails and check the venue for his course because he'd forgotten to write it down. Sometimes I despair.

Resistors, more resistors and some capacitors

There's an A2 ISA tomorrow morning. Cue the mass panic!

Obviously I can't go into specific details (despite the fact that kids have been discussing the items in various forums since september), but there's A LOT of electrical components needed. The instructions say that the resistors need to be clearly labelled.

Now, when I was in year 7 I got taught the resistor colour code.

It's not that complicated, and it means that any resistor you pick up is already clearly labelled. Apparently that's too complicated for our year 13s though. It would tax their little brains to have to work out the resistances for themselves! As a result I have had to spend hours printing labels and attaching them to the appropriate resistor.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - the capacitors need labelling so the little dears don't connect them back to front. Foolishly I assumed that our capacitors were already sufficiently labelled. After all, they have a very clear 'minus' sign on one side, and the leg is shorter on that side. Not good enough! More labels required.

The icing on the cake however came with the batteries. I had put the batteries in their holder with the pre-printed 'plus' and 'minus' clearly visible. Surely that would be ok?
Of course not! Each battery pack now needs a printed label attached to the 'plus' terminal.

So far I've spent a good 5 hours over several days prepping just this one practical. I'll be in early tomorrow to get it set out in the lab. Joy!