Happy new (school) year!

So, we're a week and a half into the new school year and already it feels as though we've never been away!

As always there have been lots of changes to the timetable, and which student is in which set, but I think it's just about sorted now. The only problem we're having in physics is the teachers who haven't checked their timetable to see which room they are supposed to be teaching in.

We have more classes, and teachers, than ever in science this year and still only the same 9 labs which isn't enough when up to 14 lessons can be happening all at once, so we have what is rapidly becoming the usual scenario of science lessons being sent to the far flung corners of the school. Sadly though teachers don't always check their timetable and assume that they will be in their usual lab. Several times already I have had to remind them that practical lessons are not a viable option when they are in a maths or business studies room.

Maybe by half term we'll all know where we are, but somehow I doubt it. :)

Preparations for this year's CERN trip are coming along nicely. We are going a bit earlier than usual this time and amazingly the process of booking flights was remarkably painless. HoD was a lot firmer about setting deadlines for the students to get their permission and passport info in and it really seemed to pay off. 35 students and 4 staff this time - our largest CERN trip ever. It's unfortunate that the school chaplain is coming again. I'd hoped last year was a one off, but with any luck the trip will be enough fun that he won't put too much of a damper on things.

Where's my class?

Last september I wrote about the problems we were having with overcrowding in the labs.
This year things are much better on that front and the majority of classes are small enough to fit in nicely. The way that has been achieved is by creating more sets, which has led to a different issue.

We now have an extra year 9 set and an extra year 11 set on top of what we had last year. In physics we also have one more upper 6th set. Obviously these extra classes have to be taught somewhere, but increasingly that is not in the science block.

We have 9 labs spread over 3 floors. Right now there are 13 science lessons on the timetable. Clearly they don't all fit in the science block, so where are they all? Well, we are having to use maths, psychology and business studies rooms which means that there are science lessons in just about all four corners of the school site. Business Studies is about as far from science as you can get whilst still being on site!

Some teachers are better than others at managing this game of 'musical classrooms'! When I get their requisitions for the week ahead I am occasionally having to point out that the practical they want isn't actually going to be possible in the room they will be teaching in.

I'm sure they'll get it eventually. Won't they?

Overcrowding

Our school is flourishing, which in the current economic climate was by no means guaranteed. However, this does have a downside. In order to make as much money as possible we take on more students, but I get the impression that no one stopped to think about whether we could actually fit them in!

One of my labs is tiny and can just seat 20. There's not enough room for them to do practical, but we can at least get bums on seats and teach them stuff. Unfortunately we have a couple of classes this year with 22 students. You see the problem? We managed to get hold of a couple of folding desks and some old chairs and shoe-horned them in, so the lab is crammed full of kids. I also had to order more text books once I saw the set lists, but I got enough and now each kid has a book, a seat and a desk.

It appears though that biology didn't take action in quite the same way we did.

All the biology teachers are away on a field trip today, and one of the new year 9 sets was due to have their first biology lesson this morning. I've just spoken to the teacher who covered the lesson, and he was not impressed! There was a seating plan, showing where each of the 22 kids should be seated in the lab, but, not only did 2 of the seats not exist, the bio teacher knew they didn't because he had written no seat on the plan.
Didn't think to try and obtain said seats then mate?

Makes my department actually look organised!