Windy.

An overcast, warm and windy day. I spent the morning in the kitchen. First I baked some flapjacks and in my usual  disorganised fashion had the butter melting in a saucepan before I discovered that I had used up all the white sugar baking cakes when our visitors were here. Luckily I had some demerara sugar in the cupboard so used that instead. I also spent an hour peeling and chopping apples to cook and freeze as stewed apples to use in crumbles or on porridge. Then it was off to school for back to back phonics lessons and getting the children changed for PE. As I walked across the playground a 5 year old girl said "This has been the worst day of my life." I've known her for a year and she has never been the cheery sort. Apparently she had a tummy ache after eating lunch, so many of our children do, and she had just bumped into something. I gave her a sympathetic word and sent her on her way down to the playground.

After school we had a 2 hour training session on how to use the latest version of the all-singing, all-dancing assessment and tracking programme. There was just so much that our brains turned to mush after the first half hour or at least mine did. So many things have changed or gone for good and all the new jargon! - cognitive rating, digging deeper, golden points etc. Like the original format I'm sure it becomes much clearer when you start to use it but guess what? In my role as a cover teacher I don't have access to the system and I don't need to input any data. But I was told that I should stay for the session. At least I will be even more sympathetic over the class teachers' workload.   

Driving in to work at lunchtime my way was blocked by this digger. Here he is just about to pull over onto a wider part of the verge to let me pass.