blu tac thief!

There is a little bit of a mystery going on within Form One at the moment. We have a blu-tac thief! On Monday, I came in and someone had taken the blu-tac from the name cards. Tuesday, it was the posters lining the staircase outside their classroom. Today, the name cards again. We all have our eyes and ears peeled, to catch this criminal red handed :)

Last Monday was full of drama. I had my hands full at 8.30am with 3 hysterical 7 year olds. E (who can be a bit of a bully) broke D's waterbottle - a gift from D's mum (who is away for 2 weeks with her fiance without her daughter, and making her board...yeah I know, that's a whole other rant. Parents here are ridiculous. CARE FOR YOUR CHILD). D burst into tears, E started crying because she knew was in big trouble, then S decided to start because everyone else was crying, and she thought it would be fun to join in. Trying to comfort D, tell off E and make sure S wasn't throwing herself onto the floor was extremely difficult. This is why I am going to teach high school. At least teenagers don't decide to throw a tantrum and bang their fists on the floor!

Little rant here - sometimes I want to get some of the students here and throw them into the real world. Some of these girls are so mollycoddled. There is a girl here who is 10, and we have to look after her in form time because she doesn't like school. I REPEAT. SHE IS 10. OH MY GOD, SUCK IT UP AND ACT YOUR AGE.GROW UP. I'm pretty sure the only reason we do it is because her dad is the third richest man in Britain. GAH, private schools are fucked. I hate the class system over here. Australia isn't exactly 100% egalitarian, but we're a lot closer than England!
I got on my high horse yesterday with L, who I help with Maths. I like to think I'm extremely patient with her - she has learning difficulties, but her attitude is shit, which really gets me going. I don't care how smart a kid is, as long as they try their hardest, that's all that matters. When a kid tries to give me attitude, angry Georgie emerges. I hold Angry Georgie in 99% of the time, but yesterday, after 20 minutes of trying to convince her to finish a timetables grid, she threw her head onto the desk, pushed my arm away from her desk and declared 'You're such a pain, why are you here, I hate my life, it sucks'...and other things to that effect. I told her in no uncertain terms that she was extremely lucky to get one-on-one classroom help, some kids don't even have the chance to get an education (real high horse with that one, phew.) and if she wanted to make her life harder and muck up her future, then it didn't matter to me, and I turned around and helped T and R, who were struggling with their 12s. Ignoring her worked a treat, she pouted and sighed in my direction for about 5 minutes, then realised I didn't actually care and wasn't interested unless she wanted to work. And she finally got on with it and we finished the exercise. Thank the Lord.

The past week or so has been more relaxed than usual - it's such a difference from the beginning of the year! We have two new gaps, and they are both ridiculously sporty so they've taken all our sport classes, which leaves us with classroom support, duties, and everything that is INSIDE. Godsend. Winter is fast approaching and I'm so grateful to not be out in the cold. Games lessons when it's 2 degrees outside is hell.

It's been really warm latel!. They are all complaining about the 'boiling' 28 degrees, but to be fair I complain when it gets below 10, so I guess they're allowed hahaha. Sometimes. The IVs tried to tell us that school should be cancelled, because to 'work in this heat is inhumane'. Guys, try a 39 degree day in a classroom with no air-conditioning, then take a packed tram and train home, and see how bad 28 is then.

Man I sound so grumpy! I'm really not. I like work, it's just when I finish work and keep getting invites to things I can't go to back in Melbourne that my homesickness kicks in. Watched 'I still call Australia home' last night - BIG MISTAKE! Tears everywhere. Didn't realise I was that bad!

Dinner tonight was shepards pie. Yummy. The girls are as lovely (and as spirited) as ever. A and P, true to form, jumped on me as I walked down the link to dinner, and P decided to jump onto my hips, pull my shirt and announce loudly 'Miss P, your boobs are big!'. A then announced that she liked them because it means that 'Miss P is cuddly', so maybe that evens it out? Crazy girls, but I'm going to miss them!

This time exactly in 10 weeks I will be sitting on the plane, having just taken off from Heathrow. This is going to go so quickly, but drag at the same time....