Angus MacRury’s Weblog

It has been a number of weeks since my last blog and I have not been nominated for any award. In the past few weeks I have just about kept my head above water with a combination of sick teachers, no admin assistant and a sick child at home. The teacher absence is a chalenge to all schools in that although we have an absence budget it is prudent to not to spend it all by October, therefore I feel that I have to provide the classroom cover. I was 2 weeks in class and it is always a sharp reminder that in order to be an effective teacher you need to be organised and pre-plan for every child. I found the first couple of days a challenge as a number of groups were on new concepts in Maths and a lot of direct teaching and groupwork was required. On day three I was out of school so at least I had a break. By day four I felt organised and ready for the challenges of a 4-7 composite of 24 straddling all levels up to E. It is no mean feat even for teachers of 16 years experience. It reminded me of my days as the HT/teacher in Eoligarry Primary Schoool in Barra with 24 pupils from P1 to P7. Sometimes I was the only person in the building with all these children, and the isolation was very apparent.  There are times in teaching when you wonder whether you are making the desired impact in your school and whether as a Headteacher you have lost the skill of being able to be an effective teacher. A couple of weeks in class is all you really need to get you thinking about why you became a teacher in the first place and that maybe the most important thing any Headteacher could do would spend more time in the class and less time in the office. I am writing this is a room of 20 pupils at 4pm at out year round ICT club. Two groups are animating using I can animate, 5 groups are on the Web (mostly bbc.co.uk/cbbc) One group is on iTunes 3 groups are on kid pix. The club has pupils from four years of age(2 Nursery Pupils) up to twelve years of age and the learning  happening in the room is unrivalled. I am blogging and supporting. This is what Innerwick Primary School is about.