blah, blah,blah.... blog - and "Enforced" Acadamy status

I have decided not to write a blog post every day!  (Hurray I hear some of you cheering!)  This is because not only do I have other things to do, two lively kids to contend with and the delinquent who needs 24 hour care, but also because I think I might actually be able to write something worth reading! (Optimism is my new middle name). When I decided to write a blog, as usual I did little or no research on the subject, just jumped in and away we went. The last few days have been filled with endless research on blogs, blogging, how to blog, circles of blogs, adding meaning and content to blogs, embedding buttons in blogs, blog, blog, blog.........

All I wanted to do was just to write a few things about my day that amused me, and hopefully anyone else that is kind enough to read what I do. The first thing I discovered is that bloggers are supposed to utilise social media all over the place.  This is in order to generate "traffic" and drive people to seeing what I write. At 40 something towers we do have a fair bit of information technology knocking about the place so I thought this would be a breeze.  WRONG!

The Facebook thing was quite easy, probably because I like FB, and I am pretty familiar with its set up.  Creating a page was well within my comfort zone and I felt pretty smug about the whole thing.  Then I realised that my blog was connected to my personal email. The last thing I want is a shed load of notifications and emails landing in already overcrowded inbox that I rarely clean up. Are you ready for this..... I had to create a new email, invite myself to be a co-author, accept the invite, log in, log out, log back in, accept it, then make myself a new admin, then delete my other self!  That did not take any working out AT ALL!

Creating an account on Twitter seemed quite easy.  Just sign up, stick a bit about yourself (which I copied from the header page) and away you go.  Then it asked me who I wanted to follow.  This stumped me for a few minutes as I don't use twitter and don't know anyone who does yet!  I decided to "follow" some eye candy so selected people who set my heart aflutter.  Then I had a panic because I realised that anyone who looked at my profile would think I was some kind of weird celebrity stalker so deleted some of those, (leaving Robert Carlyle in obviously!) and added some really not at all interesting news channels.  I looked at my feed and it was full of news!  This makes me look like some kind of political activist (which I am not) so I added quite a few comedians!  I am hoping this makes me come across as a balanced individual but  I am guessing probably not. Google + was straightforwardish but again needed some tinkering with.

Bubble, who has appointed himself "editor in chief" then said we needed "reddit"  I have never even heard of this.  He explained it is really popular and lots of people talk about it.  Bubble can be a geek about what he is interested in, and I am not sure that gamers who play minecraft and watch "The Yogscast" would ever find a 40 something womans blog about housework and dogs interesting!  The "reddit" button has been duly added.

Then I was informed that you should sign up to some blogging sites and get to know your fellow writers,  (do you have any idea how many of them there are out there?).  I signed up - verified myself and guess what?  I now have to wait for my application to be accepted!  Why is everything so bloody long winded and complicated.  All I want is a simple stress free blog!  For now, I have managed to put all the links onto the page and please do feel free to like, follow or share any of them, (although, I am not guaranteeing that the twitter thing will be a success) it's always kind of amazing when someone likes what I do, and I am truly grateful for the comments or shares.

The big news today is that it is looking likely that school is to have an "enforced" Academy status, we have a letter telling us all about it and asking us for our views.  It is NOT enough that as a single mum I have to do everything  - plait sawdust, cook, clean, paint, decorate, garden, do the DIY, fix the car, find enough money, be a counsellor, look fab, pick up poo and stay abreast of happenings in the real world, I now have to look into something else!

The first point the letter made was that the school have adopted and implemented a "robust improvement plan," for improving results and by becoming an Academy it will jeopardize this.  I have no idea how true this is, as I don't know what new measures would be implemented.  The second point was that in the opinion of the Governors, becoming an Academy would mean the Governing Body would be replaced by an Interim Executive Board during the consultation period and would consist of 5 individuals who have no current links to the school.  We would lose the people who represent parents, the community, church, staff and LEA.  My understanding of Academy Schools is that there should always be 2 elected representatives from parents on the board of Governors and so fail to see how replacing one board with another would affect parental representation.  I have no idea how long an Interim Executive Board is expected to be in place, but would assume that those appointed have the schools best interests at heart.

The Ofsted report has already led to the resignation of the current headmaster, a guy I have had no real issues with so I think his resignation is a shame. Bubble and Squeak generally do very well at school, are happy to go and with very few notable exceptions I think their time spent at school has been well spent. So what do I think about Academy schools?  I have no idea!  A quick google search told me the basics, another search revealed pro's and cons, and a last search revealed a lot of rubbish.  Do Academy schools show improvement?  I have no idea. Is it some part of some wider government agenda? - probably.  Is there a potential clash between the teaching unions and Academy status?- most definitely. If I am honest I think after the last terrible report the school had ANYTHING they do would will be an improvement and could not possibly make things any worse. Once you are at the bottom the only way you can go is up!.

Apologies if you were expecting more tales from the dog side -I decided to write about something else today.

I have discovered putting Harry Potter on the telly is the most effective way of getting half an hour to myself to write this blog!  Happy Days!

Thanks for reading