Survival of the fittest?

Third day this week at the same school. Lovely staff but literally the worst behaviour I’ve ever experienced.

Kids having full-blown conversations on their phones, climbing in and out of the windows, locking themselves in classrooms, eating, taking other students’ bags and looking through them, banging on cupboards and walls, wandering in and out of other classrooms during lessons, switching off the teacher’s computers and smartboards, throwing tennis balls and basketballs around, no-one knew their own names, they couldn’t remember if they had exercise books, none of them had a pen and only a couple had any interest in doing any work. The senior staff on duty were very supportive but were invariably greeted with a very disrespectful ‘Wot’s your problem?’ when they spoke to the students. At one point, a large, heavy plastic item came hurtling across the classroom and hit me right on the head, which was very painful but seemingly hilarious. One boy was giving out sweets in the corridor, with a long line of ‘customers’, all of whom should have been in lessons, and in the last lesson, sixteen out of eighteen students simply walked out! Absolutely shocking.

Despite all this, I managed to calm things down and (apart from the last lesson where there was hardly anyone there) it actually ended up being quite productive. An LSA in one lesson said it was amazing how well I’d managed the students and the headteacher loved the star post-it notes I gave out to motivate them.

They want me back next week but thankfully I’ve already been booked into another school. I took everything today in good spirits but, phew, was I happy to see this lovely, peaceful view on my way home!