Art Afternoon.

Another grey day, thankfully more wild and windy than wet and cold. I thought that since Peter had done the hall light despite his swollen and painful joints I really ought to get on with the outside lights. My procrastinating brain suggested I might get blown off the ladder but I knew that wasn't actually a risk. I got everything ready, turned off the power and climbed the ladder to sort out the first light. That was at the back and not too high due to the sloping roof. It wasn't too hard a job and I felt quite pleased with myself once it was done. Then it was time to tackle the other light. This was much higher as it was at the front of the house. Not only that but the ladder would be against the end of the building while the light was at the front so I would have to work leaning around the corner. Feeling almost ready to give up at that point I decided I would tackle one thing at a time and see how far I could get. Moving the ladder - done. Extending the ladder to full length - done. Siting it firmly against the rough stone wall - done. Climbing almost to the very top and cutting off the old light - done. Then came stripping the plastic cover off the electric cable and that's when things got tricky. Unlike the other light which had plenty of cable to work with this one didn't. The cable is flat rather than round and my first attempt using the wire stripper went too deep and I could see the glint of copper wire where I had gone into one of the inside wires. I cut the cable shorter and had attempt number 2 using scissors  as I had for the other one. I had nearly done it when again I saw a glint of wire. That's when I tucked the wires up under the eaves and gave up. I hoped in vain that the back light would work on its own but it didn't. There was a second unattached cable by the front light that I think leads to the back light but I couldn't have done anything about that anyway. It's now a job for an electrician or simply to be left.

I got to school early for my afternoon with a Year 1 class as today I was being officially 'observed' with my appraisal scheduled for later in the afternoon. I thought the art went well though it was quite noisy. In Year 1 there is such a pressure on English and maths that children don't have the opportunity to select independent learning activities. They do have 3 afternoons for 'independent' activities including the role play area but then they are told which activity to do. A big change from Reception where a lot of the time they are choosing between a varied range of activities. I had planned 3 independent art activities; drawing, using shape tiles to make pictures on the carpet and a drawing program on the computers. The IT let me down and the drawing program which used to work no longer does so I had to give them a more structured program where they built aliens or rockets from different coloured pieces. I didn't get my appraisal/feedback in the end because something urgent had come up which the Head teacher needed to deal with. 

After work I went down to the carpet place to make the arrangements for a new carpet. I've booked a date in December, after the wedding, to have it laid and somebody is coming this week to take proper measurements.