Requisition sheets

The concept of the requisition sheet or book should be one familiar to all senior school science teachers. It's the method by which they let me, the technician, know what equipment they need for each lesson.

My requisition book

There are various methods that I have heard of, but the one I prefer is for each teacher to give me a copy of their timetable with their requirments written in for each lesson. I then take the sheets and transfer all the information into my requisition book which is a day to a page and I can see instantly what the days lessons are looking like.

I like this method because as I'm transferring the information into my book I can see where there might be clashes or rapid turnarounds and it helps me plan my week.

This only works though, if the teachers get their sheets done in time. The official science departmant policy is that all requisitions should be handed in by Thursday lunchtime of the preceeding week. I give a little more leeway than that and have told my guys that Friday lunchtime is ok. But how many of them manage that?

Well, I have 4 teachers this year. 1 of them doesn't do much practical, but when she does, she manages to plan well in advance. This week she came and wrote in my book on thursday. NQT did his sheet on friday with a number of trips to the prep room to check what we have available. This is great, because it means that he has only asked for things that are actually possible. HoD did his sheet some time on sunday and emailed it to me. Not a huge amount of help since I didn't see it until this morning.

And then there's astroboy. Just lately he seems rather more interested in the observatory and astronomy club than the mundane business of teaching physics. It's currently half way through lesson 1 on monday morning and I have yet to see any sign of his requisition sheet. I guess this means he doesn't want any equipment this week?!

Return to Work interview - the fallout

Well it wasn't exactly a simple box-ticking exercise yesterday.

Apparently I have had too many days off sick and now I'm going to start losing pay if I am ill again. Initially HR reckoned that I had taken 27 days sick this year. I looked back through all my e-mails and could only find 20, which of course includes 17 days signed off by the hospital because I broke my arm and couldn't work. HR however are counting an overall 12 month period, so the stomach bug I had last November counts, as does the streaming cold I had in October. I still couldn't get it to 27 days, until I noticed that they'd counted 4 days in January before term started, when I wouldn't have been at work anyway! I got them to discount those days but they aren't prepared to budge on the rest.

What does this mean? Well, basically I can't afford to be ill again until mid January. Or alternatively, I can be ill but I have to come to work and infect everyone else regardless of whether I am suffering with a streaming nose, projectile vomiting or bubonic plague. I'm sure that will make everyone very happy - NOT!!

Told my HoD all this when I got to work this morning and he was not amused. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Head to discuss the past year in Physics, and apparently I came in for a lot of praise for all the stuff that I do for the department above and beyond my job description. So while the Head thinks I'm doing a great job, HR think I'm slacking. Nice!

HoD has told me to start logging all my hours so we can prove the extras that I do, and has also told me that if HR carry on being obnoxious, he'll just go to the Head. It's good to know that someone's got my back. I may grumble about the guy, but I have a really great HoD!

Return to Work interview

Back in January, I had to take a month off work thanks to a broken and dislocated bone in my arm. When I got back something was vaguely mentioned about needing to give me a 'Return to Work' interview to make sure I was ok to do my job and assess whether I needed any extra support. This never actually happened and now, 9 months down the line, I'm pretty much healed although still with reduced mobility and some pain.

11 days ago I took a day off because I woke up with a killer migraine - nausea, visual disturbances, the works! Apparently a day off for a migraine is more important than a month off with a broken arm because I've just been informed that my absence means I have to have a meeting with the Head of Science this afternoon to fill in the return to work form.
Not entirely sure what this is meant to achieve. Sometimes I get migraines. Nothing the school, or I, can do is likely to change this fact. It's been this way for 20 years or more.
Sounds like an HR box-ticking exercise to me!