#i only know my rota on a weekly basis

[oops-ibrokereality]

How do people survive in jobs without a consistent shift schedule?

Ive not even started work yet an my shift has been changed already

Ive been blessed up until now to work for a place that let me work the same shifts every week but covid killed the hotel and now I'm starting a new summer job

Coming to accept that maybe my autism is real and not just something people tell me i have 😅

[freckleslikestars]

I find holidays hard. I know, right, who doesn’t? But it’s not just the winter holidays, it is every break from my weekly and daily routines. Even when I am sick, to an extent.

Let me explain.

I like my routines. They are how I function. And whilst each of the seven days of the week are different, each week is the same. Each Monday follows the same routine. Each Tuesday has its own pattern. You get the gist.

I need this. I need my waking up at specific times and eating specific things and my driving an hour and a half to uni and going to specific classes and learning what I know I’m going to learn. I need this predictability, because it soothes my anxiety and it means I know what to expect and the patterns relax me and I don’t get overwhelmed and so many other reasons I don’t have words for.

During a break, routines go out the window. My depression gets bad, because my routines are gone, and because I am forced to spend time around people and family, most of whom do not understand me and my specific needs, and I cannot do the things I love, like go to class and dance. My anxiety gets bad, because I do not know what is going to happen next, and because everything is much less planned and then I panic, and then I panic that I am panicking. My body dysmorphia gets bad, because without my daily dance classes and exercise classes at uni I feel like I am gaining weight, and without my routines I eat at odd times, or I don’t eat at all, or I just eat junk food. My insomnia gets bad, because I am too scared to leave the house because my anxiety and depression and body dysmorphia is bad, so I don’t use up all of the energy in my body that I don’t know what to do with and so I end up not sleeping, which means that I find it harder to control my brain, which makes it harder to sleep, all of which destroys any routine I try to create.

So I get told to get a job. That will give you a routine.

Except. No. Because the kind of temporary jobs I can get are always shift based and with a rota that changes each week, depending on who is available and what needs doing. So not only do I not know when I will need to go in every day without needing to think about it, I don’t know who I will be working with or what I will be doing. And I don’t like having to explain all of my difficulties and challenges to new people, like how I can’t be touched, especially on the back, and I panic if I get my forearms damp, and sometimes I won’t sleep, or sometimes I can’t leave the house for no rational reason other than that I am terrified. All these things make it pretty hard to get a job and keep it.

So when I don’t have a job, my anxiety is bad, but my depression and insomnia are the real problems, because I don’t sleep and my brain feels like every cell is exploding one by one whilst yelling about how worthless I am and I. Just. Don’t. Want. To. Live. Like. This. I want the numbness to come, but there is no external stimuli to overwhelm me and shut my brain down.

When I have a job, my depression and insomnia are bad, but my anxiety is debililatating. I can’t leave bed because I think I will fall over and break my neck the moment I stand. The minute I set foot out the door I will have to talk to someone and I just cannot deal with people and I feel like my heart is going to beat its way out of my chest with how terrified of everything I feel.

And then I go back to uni. And I spend weeks and months working on my anxiety and my depression and my body and my insomnia, and all of my mental health. I go to doctors and councillors, I get my routines back. I usually get about two weeks of feeling, if not good then okay - like, whilst my problems are still there, they are managable and in the background and really, I can cope and deal with them because I have an amazing support network of people at uni and at the doctors and all the people I see on a regular basis who I know are there to suppote me when I need it.

And then there is another holiday.

The last seventeen years of my twenty year existence have been like this. I honestly don’t think I have the energy to continue taking breaks. I find them more exhausting than time working.

I kind of get why most people need the breaks, but honestly, why can’t we just do three day weekends or something instead of having long breaks. Or take wednesdays off as well? Something that I can create a year long routine out of. And just be more flexible about people who want to take a week off to go on holiday?

[elkstudies]

Hi, guys! I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned, going from never sharing a room, to sharing a room & a tiny apartment with other people. 

You don’t have to be best friends with your roommates. Obviously, it’s good to be friendly with them but you don’t have to do everything together. Honestly, I found it better to have my own friends in college as well as being friends with my housemates as this way, I wouldn’t get sick of spending too much time with them. 

Have some boundaries. And, have them from early on. This is so so important, especially if you’re sharing a room, as it’s important you both know how each other feel about having friends in the room, etc. 

Speak up if you don’t like/are not comfortable with something! It’s your space too and if you feel something’s not right, tell your housemates in a respectful manner & try come to a different arrangement. You’re going to have to live with these people for the college year so by speaking up you’ll get any problems you have solved. 

Clean up after yourself!! It seems pretty obvious but after this past year, I feel like a reminder wouldn’t go amiss. If your accommodation has a kitchen, clean up everything you use when you’re done/as you go so the next person doesn’t have to clean it to use it. 

Also if you share a kitchen space or fridge, get yourself some lunchboxes!! These are a lifesaver, especially if you have a lot of fresh food! I had to share a tiny fridge with 4 others so it was very crammed and sometimes stuff was left there for a long time or was spilt and not properly cleaned up but having my food stored in lunchboxes saved it so I definitely recommend them.

On the topic of fridges, if you have space in your room, get yourself a mini-fridge. If you know you’re going to be sharing a small fridge with others it might be worth investing in your own mini one that you can use for snacks/drinks, especially if your roommates like to help themselves to your snacks! 

Have a house-fund. If each of you chip in a small amount each week, it can be used for things you all use such as toilet roll, cleaning products or basic cooking supplies you all use. It will save one person from having to buy it all the time & spend their money on something everyone uses.

Make a cleaning schedule. Obviously, after you cook/after you make a mess, you should clean it up but there are other tasks that are going to have to be done on a weekly/monthly basis such as hoovering or cleaning the bathroom/kitchen/communal area. If you all have a rota for cleaning, these tasks will be shared equally & make everything easier. 

Set yourself a budget for your food shopping. Before you go make a meal plan for yourself & then write a list of all the ingredients and items you need to restock. Only buy what you know!! I have a guide to saving money in college that offers some more tips on this! 

If you can, get most of your study/work done in college/ in the library. Housemates can be the biggest distraction when trying to do work, even if they don’t mean to be. I always preferred getting all my work done in the library and then coming back to make food, watch Netflix & sleep. 

You don’t have to go out if you don’t want to. It can be hard to say no if all your housemates are going/asking you to. Instead of going out, you could arrange to do something else like have a Netflix night or go to the movies some other time. If you do decide to go out, make sure you stay safe & have fun! 

If your room has windows, open them! Fresh air makes such a difference to a room & can help with damp which I know a lot of student accommodation buildings can suffer from! Also if you do have damp, invest in a dehumidifier, it makes such a difference!

Change your bed sheets, please.

Bring things from home such as photos. They really help if you get homesick & also work as a nice reminder to keep in contact with your parents/friends from home. 

Instagram || Other Posts || Resources || About || Ask

[elsewhereuniversity]

Library Services at Elsewhere University: A Guide and Compendium; Part Two: Staff Handbook - General Introduction

Crossposted to AO3 

Disclaimer: Public libraries are my jam, but I know enough academic library types and hear enough odds and ends of workplace gossip to make an educated approximation. Any factual errors of day-to-day inner workings might be my mistake–or, maybe there are other powers at work…)

ia) The official staff handbook (with some additions and annotations)

The library has an elaborate structure of treaties, truces, contracts, curses, oaths, prophecies and traditions that stretch back to the university’s founding, and in some cases even earlier. Union negotiations for library staff include clauses that are non-standard by every sense of the word. A minimum of seven different collective agreements apply to various library staff groups:

Librarians are tenured faculty, and fall under the auspices of the Faculty Association.

The Non-Academic Staff Association’s collective agreement covers the rest of the staff.

The treaty with the Court of the King of the Cats is negotiated in partnership with Facility Services.

Facility Services has their own binding contract with specific chapter and verse relating to library services. Groundskeeping is a sub-local of Facility Services.

A spoken agreement never to be captured in the written word governs the rooftop and all that dwell there.

There is at least one more that is never spoken of outside of the eighth floor.

Librarians (Masters’ degree from a nationally accredited program) are tenured faculty. Library technicians (two-year college diploma) are not. In many institutions, this is cause for bad blood. At EU, it is relatively unremarked upon. Everyone knows that The Library will take a tech on occasion, as well. (An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered under some circumstances.) Besides, librarians get hazard pay for additional job duties as required, but somebody needs to keep their feet on the ground and make sure that the new pages all get workplace health and safety orientation, that the schedule for library instruction class spots goes out to all departments in time and that the sign-up deadlines are enforced, that each service point has enough petty cash, salt packets, and emergency iron bolts and washers, and that there’s a back-up person to tell the bees in the rooftop garden any important goings-on in case of sick leave or conflicting vacation time.

A bachelor’s degree or other related post-secondary education is an asset but not required for library assistants or other specialist positions. Specialist positions include diviner, beekeeper, and marketing and media manager. Library-wide training coordinator, departmental exorcist, and occupational health and safety committee chair are all additional job duties that may be taken on by a qualified staff member in a senior position.

Library staff may serve on interdepartmental and campus-wide committees such as the ethics review board and any resulting subcommittees, grievance committee, campus-wide events and initiatives, and the bargain, geas, curse, and wager review board.

Interlibrary teams and committees include the missing persons search party rota, library-wide policy committee, training and professional development team, and Deep Library liasion team.

Other library committees and workgroups include the circulation policy committee, digital resource committee, open access textbook working group, and curse and hex disarming team. The Honourable Order of Bibliographic Cartography and Strange Space Spelunking operates in spring and summer semesters outside of peak semester workloads.

The Library does not have a formal dress code per se. Business casual attire is preferred for public-facing positions. Iron accessories in moderation are strongly recommended for all staff, although some exceptions may be made on a case by case basis. Staff are encourage to take advantage of the arrangement negotiated between the Library and the metalwork shop to test the iron content of any protective jewelry, wards, or other personal items obtained through unofficial channels.

Departmental staff meetings are generally held bimonthly, at the discretion of the department manager. Library-wide staff meetings are held quarterly, at the end of each semester. All library meeting start times are based upon the clock in the room in which the meeting is scheduled.

The muster point when the evacuation plan goes into effect is the bloodstone circle in the west corner of the Commons. This is the only time when it is safe to use the crosswalks in front of the library. The muster point when the shelter-in-place plan goes into effect is the brass fountain on floor twelve and half. Turn around and take the first left turn you see.

Seeking the thirteenth floor is grounds for disciplinary action.

All new staff must complete the instructional videos and/or related worksheets on the following topics within one week of their official start date:

Library mission values, and core principles

Evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures

Ergonomic workstation adjustment

Card catalogue safety and containment

Library navigation and wayfinding

Timesheet reporting in a chronologically challenged workplace

Salt lines and thresholds - when to call facility services and when to run

ib) The unofficial staff handbook (Kept in the green binder in the staff room, and revised as needed. Has been known to update itself on numerous occasions)

There are numerous challenges to working in a university library. Shrinking budgets, rising costs, proprietary and predatory database licenses for peer-reviewed content, entitled faculty, clueless undergraduates, and inappropriate behaviour in the stacks. Predatory shadow creatures, migrating stacks leading to misplaced range markers on the shelves in the Deep Library, time management issues, and the inevitable workplace frustrations of whose turn it is to clean out the staff room fridge, and how come the same three people are the only ones to sign up for the weekly search party rota out into the Deep Library stacks? (Those last two have been taken care of by establishing a set schedule for fridge cleaning by department, and by handing the search party organization off to the manager with the best scheduling mojo. If you do not volunteer, you will be voluntold.)

Here are some helpful hints and tips from your coworkers:

There are communal cartons of cream and milk in the staff room fridge. If you use them, it is appreciated if you contribute to the cream fund in the owl mug on top of the microwave. Do not use the staff room cream and milk to fill the saucers outside the second floor quiet study rooms at the end of the night, or the saucer of milk for the seventh floor shelving art. (It’s arguably all the same cream, but there are a couple of people who get cranky about it because Reference Services has a separate jug of cream paid for out of their departmental supply budget for this purpose.) And don’t forget to put your quarters in the owl mug before the first of the month.

The north elevator is the slow one. The east stairwell is a prime make-out location for undergrads that we are actively trying to discourage. Barge in often, and loudly. The west staircase literally leads to nowhere. Don’t take the west stairs. (it is a proven fact that one out of every three libraries has a stairway to nowhere. Nine out of every ten libraries have multiple leaks in the roof.)

Elevators and stairs often do not connect in the ways you would expect them to. Breadcrumb trails do not work. Bagel crumb trails are unreliable. Donut crumb trails will get you back the way you came, but will irk facility services. Don’t upset the janitorial staff. The time spent coaxing them out of the gloomy mood this will cause, and the cost in bringing in cupcakes for them all for the next week is something that the senior manager of administrative services will never get back. Don’t be the cause of that. The senior manager of administrative services controls the departmental supply budgets, among other things.

Don’t try to find the thirteenth floor. This is posted on the staff room notice board, in the orientation manual, written into library-wide policy, and part of the quarterly reminders at the beginning of each library wide staff meeting.

Don’t mess with the seventh floor, either. The second sub-basement is a bit risky. Floors ten though twenty-three may not officially exist, but can be navigated with caution.

Be cautious about accepting help from anyone not wearing a library-issued name tag.

Watch out for Mildred-and-Ethel in the stacks. Mildred-and-Ethel look like twins. They look like every stereotype or caricature of a librarian out there, the prim elderly lady with a bun, wearing pearls and cardigan. They look kind and harmless. They are none of those things. The first two times you accept their help, you’ll find what you’re looking for in no time. Don’t accept a third time. If you’re lucky, you’ll be left with a scorch mark on the floor, and the indelible memory of a ravenous hunger and a truly improbable amount of teeth. If you’re not lucky, you won’t remember anything ever again.

Any library staff foolish enough to get caught hanging around the mysterious staircase behind the library during the first night of the full moon will find themself in danger of formal disciplinary notice, and assigned some required reading by Christina Rosetti.

If you find three stacked pennies on a shelf in the stacks, leave them and proceed with caution. If you need them, you’ll know.

If you are in the stacks, and a child’s ball rolls towards you, send it back the way it came. Don’t follow it. If a wasp’s nest rolls towards you, evacuate the floor immediately and report to the senior staff member on duty. Someone must tell the bees.

An empty circle of chairs in the group study rooms is safe to rearrange. An empty circle of chairs in either sub-basement is not.

Library staff don’t eat the baked goods from the coffee shop in the foyer if they can help it. They’re not dangerous, just stale. (Time passes differently in the library.)

Part One, Part Two (Parts Four to Seven forthcoming)

x

[dxmedstudent]

is it true paediatrics is one of the most difficult specialities emotionally? i adore kids (half my work experience placements were with kids and I recently got a job where i essentially play with disabled children/children with special needs). It's just that people are already warning me that the speciality can be very difficult emotionally because it is children you are working with and i was just wondering if that's true?

That’s a hard question to answer, mainly because what is difficult (and how difficult it is for us) varies a lot from person to person. I couldn’t do some of the jobs my medical friends do, or I’d gain little enjoyment from them, and many of them would say the same for paeds. Paediatrics is the most recent speciality I’ve worked in, and now technically the speciality I have the most experience with. It’s a speciality I’ve considered seriously, though it’s not currently what I plan to go into.When I started paeds I was terrified of experiencing paediatric deaths. This is partly because of my experience with adult medicine. I’d done a few adult medical jobs where nearly all of the patients were elderly. And my favourite specialities included geriatrics, which pretty much involves visiting the bereavement department about your patients on a weekly basis. In adult medicine, and particularly geriatrics, death is very much a part of the job, and I just didn’t think I could face the same amount of death when it came to kids.But paeds is different. For a start, death is much less common. The vast majority of our patients are relatively healthy children with an acute illness; an exacerbation of their asthma, babies with bronchiolitis, children with suspected sepsis or meningitis but more likely a viral illness. Severe tummmy bugs. Most children are discharged in a few days; they bounce back really quickly from their illnesses. Due to  hard work and vigilance, it is not very common at all to lose paedatric patients like this. However we do see quite a few children with chronic problems and disabilities. Kids with heart problems, kids with debilitating and life-limiting genetic diseases. Kids with a huge medical history and lots of  medications. Oncology patients with suspected febrile neutropaenia. Kids whose problems are more serious, and who are at much higher risk than the general population. Kids with illnesses which will only go one way.  But because we work hard, they don’t tend to pass away with us, either; most children who have terminal  illness die in hospices or at home. Even with these children, most chronic illnesses take their course over a long time period; you look after them, take extra care and patch them up as best as you can, even though you know it won’t stave off the inevitable forever. But you can make such a difference to their care, and to supporting their families (because in paeds you are never just treating the patient. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard when we deal with suspected non-accidental injury (child abuse). It’s something we’re always on the lookout for, but nothing prepares you for realising the baby which was ‘accidentally dropped once’ has multiple fractures of different ages. I don’t think you ever get used to it. I don’t think we should.The horrible cases; the times when you lose a child, truly do cut deep. I’ve been fortunate enough to not be on-call when we unexpectedly lost patients as a team, but I know the effect it can have on even seasoned paediatricians.  I know that whilst we all have self-doubt and all mess up, do do paeds you have to be better than usual at quelling those fears, and more uptight than usual about exacting standards on yourself. That’s another thing; paediatricians are famous for being cuddly and friendly and quirky; and they are. Which is precisely why I felt really welcome in our teams. But behind it all, paediatricians are anal, have the most exacting standards and can be absolutely ruthless if you make a mistake. Because they have to be; the stakes are so high with children that it brings out the anxiety and complete lack of chill in all of us. It’s not a speciality that keeps you relaxed, but one in which you are always on your toes. But because of that, it’s a speciality where your seniors are very fast to support you, and is very well-supervised. Because kids can go downhill fast, you aren’t left to your own devices as a junior and get more supervision than juniors in other specialities. Which means that you learn a lot, but also that you aren’t left to deal with too much on your own. And that makes  the stress and the responsibility much more manageable. But it’s not all bad news. When you make a patient better (which you do, all the time, and with much more frequency than with grown-ups), it makes a huge difference. When someone who came in listless and sick is now bouncing around the ward, you helped that happen. When a mum excitedly tells you they have a match for your patient’s bone marrow transplant, you smile with them. When the oncology kids finally get to ring the bell, there isn’t a dry eye in the house. And even when things don’t go the happy way, when the parents send a note thanking you for everything, you did your best.  The people you’ll work with are so, so invested in making patients better and doing their best; it’s an immensely supportive, welcoming  and rewarding speciality. The reason why this question is hard to answer isn’t because paeds is easy; the rota is intense, the on-calls busy, and on the rare occasion things go south; but these things all affect us differently. The things that are ‘dealbreakers’ are different for all of us. I can’t tell you what your ‘dealbreakers’ would be; and often this isn’t even something you necessarily always know in advance. This is somethin you usually discover when you get there. For example, my main difficulty with paeds isn’t the above ‘bad bits’, which were hard but which I felt I could cope with.  But the rotas and combining that many on-calls with further study and life. It’s particularly bad for work-life balance and I felt that in the long run I would love my job (but grow to hate my life) if I took that direction. I just couldn’t see how it would be sustainable for me without burning out. But for some people, that’s not a problem, so it depends on what makes you happy, and how much different aspects affect you.

[awaragainstboredom]

Writer’s Block: The RPG Method Part 1

I role play a lot. Like I’m currently a player character in 4 games, and I run my own campaign, and working on the world for my own homebrew campaign. This is also done in regularity on a weekly basis, which is completely different from back in the day we were lucky to get a few weekly sessions, and reconvene months later in the same campaign, only to never get back to the game again. 

Things like family, work, depression, etc. would end up putting those games on the back-burner, which was really a death flag for a campaign. I’ve made so many characters for so many role playing systems, just to never play as them ever again.

I honestly never thought I would become one of those guys who plays tabletop rpgs as much as I do. I mean, in the past when someone would share with me that they were in two D&D campaigns, and was part of a LARP over the weekend I would think it was ridiculous and laugh at their fervor for wanting to be in that many games. Well, the joke’s on me now.

However to my defense, this isn’t mostly about escapism. Okay, not to say that it isn’t, but I took on this many games to help out with my writer’s block. I see role playing games as a different way to explore narrative. 

You not only act out your characters, but you have to overcome challenges with a game of chance. And even though the person who is running the game and helping direct you through the story, that dice roll, whether it passes or fails the challenge (or check, if your nasty), effects the tale that is being woven, and you played an active part in it. That’s really amazing!

I’ve also read that a good number of fantasy novels that have originated from role playing campaigns. George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, and Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard books are couple of examples. Game of Thrones was born from a Roman rpg, and Gentleman Bastard’s main character Locke Lamora was based upon a character Lynch made for D&D (which to my delight, I learned was also based on the “treasure hunter”, Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI).

This was enough to influence me to try and do the same. Universe building is hard for those who prefer to write in such a manner, because it’s hard to balance out how much detail do I want to write about said world and not get obsessed with it and never actually finish it, or at least that has been my experience. 

My goal here is to document as much as I can about things that I have made for my games in the way of world creation, and characters for other peoples games. I know some Dungeon Masters don’t want a novel for character backgrounds, so give them a short and concise one, and you can go and expand on it more on your own.

Or maybe you can just make it as you go along in the game that you are playing in currently. As an example for character background here is mine for my D&D character Rota.

                                                  ***

                                     Rota Grendelstadt

Rota, the magic academy drop-out turned sellsword, ventures forth to find knowledge in all things, and the true path of a warrior. Hailing from the cold north in the fishing town of Grendelstadt (located close to Neverwinter), she stands at 6 foot 5, with a lean muscular build, moonlight-pale skin, with silver hair in a fringe style cut and silver eyes to match. And if that doesn’t make her stand out, then perhaps the fact that she is a tiefling without a tail (Her mother and her father were the same, as well as most tieflings of Grendelstadt). Though tall, and muscular she is surprisingly bookish and introverted. She is brash, quick-tempered, prone to violence, fiery, socially challenged, but has a good heart, quick on her feet, tenacious, dependable, and has an weird natural charisma that draws people to her.

She is highly knowledgeable in magic theory and formulae, however she cannot connect to mana in order to cast spells. She has spent a lot her time honing her physical skills and researching why she in not able to use magic. She is working with a theory that she heard about when one exceeds their mental and physical limits, perhaps they can open a channel that can connect to the magical tapestry.

Growing up in a family of adventurers definitely was not the most normal of upbringings. Even with the simple life on a farm, Rota’s mother Herja wanted her to be as strong as she is and would put her through rigorous training that even the militia of Grendelstadt wouldn’t go through. And her father Beolf, a skald, would be off travelling to do research for his book of races and culture of the world. Because of this she hardly saw her father, but Beolf would make sure that when he was home he would bring her back books.

Beolf was rather awkward when he would see his daughter, and the only things that would break the silence between the two were to talk about books, and her mother’s crazy training routine. Though Beolf loved her, and tried his best (that he could muster) to be a parent to Rota, his trips back were too short and very infrequent, which caused their relationship to be a distant one.  

The dramatic change that shaped Rota into who she is now begins with the death of her father, Beolf. She spent the rest of her life being raised by her mother, uncle and various friends of the family. It wasn’t a normal childhood, being that she had to flee for her safety and train to become a warrior to be strong enough to defend herself and help others. It was a kind of splintered family unit with a bunch of troubled, dysfunctional adventurers. And though they all mean well in their way of bringing Rota up, they struggle with their own egos and misconceptions of what makes one a hero, and is there really such a thing?

Rota’s  father was killed in a fight with his cousin, over the spoils from an adventure that her father had owed to the cousin. And it was within the laws of their country for those who have been wronged by their neighbor or kinsmen, by settling things out in a physical challenge. Her father, Beolf and their cousin, Thorfinn chose to have a wrestling match as their way of settling their differences, while the Jarl, Falken was to oversee the fight and uphold the law.

Of course it was all an act to misdirect the Falken, to make him think that he and Thorfinn were on the outs. And by with Beolf creating a schism in the Grendelstadt family, the gamble was to perhaps draw the attention of the jarl to try pull Thorfinn on his side, allowing him to gain Falken’s trust and be the inside man. The jarl was pursuing Beolf and his comrades who had found the underground site for the earl’s humanoid smuggling ring that was being overseen by The Order of the Unspoken Rhyme (which Falken is a member of).

The Order of the Unspoken Rhyme is connected to the Cult of the Dragon, and handles underworld business for them making them an enemy of Beolf and his friends, who have vowed to take down the Order and their allies at any turn. Upon dismantling the slave trade, they also came upon treasure that Falken thought would be well hidden from anyone but himself. However the quick eyes of the bard Beolf found it. And within the cache of treasure was an ancient tome most dangerous, and Beolf knew he had to find a safe place for it.

He took all of the treasure and sent it to three different locations and had cut a map into 6 pieces to be found in order to find the treasure, and secretly sent the tome to his wizard friend and adventuring partner, Touchstone, who keeps it locked away hidden in the wizards’ academy, Hippocampus Scale, that the earl would focus on searching for the other treasures. Foolishly, death was the last thing that Beolf was prepared for in his plan. Thorfinn broke Beolf’s ribs which went directly into his lungs. He could have been healed, but Falken didn’t allow any outside potions, and only his healers at the fight. It was said he also might have had some responsibility in the “accident”.

At the age of 9, Rota saw her father die before her eyes, but did not shed a tear for him. Not because she was trying to make herself seem strong in front of the jarl and his men - she just didn’t know how.

Rota’s mother Herja, uncle Sigurd, and cousin Thorfinn were  devastated by these events and knew that things would become tough for them in Grendelstadt. Though being the tough battle-hardened adventurers they were, they knew that they would be alright.  However, as the years went by the concern was growing that Rota would be used as some sort of bargaining chip to find the treasure. the Grendelstadt family knew they had to send Rota off before things would get really dire.

At the age 12  it was decided that she were to be sent away from her town of Grendelstadt to attend a wizard’s academy, Hippocampus Scale and learn to become a wizard like she always wanted to be (Thorfinn pays for her tuition to account for the death of a kinsmen, as per the law of their country), while being under the watchful eye of her godfather, the human wizard Touchstone (who’s equally sassy as he is powerful).

She learns that she does have amazing aptitude for understanding magic formulas and theory. However when it comes to practice, she is terrible at actually manifesting the spell. Not because she doesn’t understand it, but because her connection to the source of mana is weak. All the spells would just fizzle right in front of her.

And although her grades were high in every other course of study except for spell casting, she became the object of ridicule among her peers (which would end in episodes of violence, mostly by her). Whenever there were spell casting exercises she would spend most of her time reading, and doing physical training that she learned from her warrior mother, who pushed her not only in farm work, but also learning how to fight with weapons.

Later on the headmaster of the Hippocampus Scale, upon Touchstone’s suggestion, wanted her help out with what they called “Battle Training”, or “Real Life Combat”, in which she would be the physical combat participant for her peers, so they would learn how to use spells effectively in combat. Normally they have hired swords stand in for this, but they thought it would be interesting to have someone who could understand spellcraft, formulas, and theory, and apply them to fighting against a mage, and see how they would react to it. Her popularity rose in both positive and negative ways after this, but she was known not to be a simple challenge to her rivals anymore.

She was going take the job of becoming a researcher in Hippocampus Scale, and then maybe some way she could find out how to connect with the source of mana. Touchstone, though proud of her accomplishments, saw that she was only making things harder on herself in her pursuit learning how to cast spells and felt that she need to find another path to become what she wanted.

And sent her off to become an apprentice to one of he and her father’s other adventuring comrades, the master swordsman, Dragnar Fafnirson. He thought perhaps that her connection to mana will come from a battle-borne soul. However before he sent her off from Hippocampus Scale, he gave her the ancient tome that her father had found to protect it (He was beginning to see the Order’s shadow reach out to his academy).

After her training with Dragnar, she was pitted against Herja, to test her strength. Her mother quickly dispatched Rota, and sent her back to continue her training, but not after scolding Dragnar first. And though she won’t tell Rota this, she did get some good hits on her mother, which excited her blood to see what potential her daughter has in the way of battle. With a few more years of learning under Dragnar, her master sent her out to get some experience, by sending her out in the world to test her mettle.

Other notes:

She would get in trouble with her mother, Herja when she was reading instead of doing farm work, or physical training. She learned how to workout and read at the same time because of this. And when she is not fighting, she is never without a book. She also likes to visit libraries of each city she comes across. Rota also cannot stand wizards who have semi-useful spells, and thinks it is a waste. She is also very arrogant when it comes to talking with spell casters.

She was estranged with her father Beolf, and spent most of her early years being raised by her mother and uncle. Beolf was thought to be a gallivanting bard, getting caught in women and wine, and was just a deadbeat father (or at least how those in Grendelstadt saw him), he really did care about his daughter and would bring her books whenever he came back to town.

She really didn’t know how to react after his death, because she felt she didn’t know him really well, except for the fact that he was the nice guy that gave her books and would share his love of them with her. It was after his death that she learned he was actually trying to save the world from evil. And it was only years later did her tears come after reading a poem that he dedicated to her in the signed copy of the book that he wrote.

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple:  Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple:  Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple: ��Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple:  Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple:  Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

[careergrowthblog]

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters.

Image: Business Horse Power

Everyone is talking about workload and rightly so.  It’s even becoming a line of enquiry for inspections.  The folk up at Wizard of O HQ are banging on about it – because they are the new Good Guys –  and Headteachers now have an extra incentive to make sure they are doing something.  This time, happily, this bandwagon is something we can all agree is necessary.  Even though real terms budget cuts mean schools have fewer admin staff to make people’s lives easier and teachers have MaxPlus timetable loadings and bigger classes – making workload potentially harder to manage – there is still plenty that we can do.

Some workload issues require a major culture shift; some simply need us to rebalance the trade-off between the benefits of autonomy  and the benefits of working collaboratively within an agreed system; others need us to stop doing certain things altogether.

Here are some workload reduction approaches you might want to consider:

Marking

Change marking expectations explicitly and publicly.  Change all the language around marking  to feedback.  Make it clear that only specific pieces of work will be teacher marked.  Keep the marking very lean and very selective.  Introduce whole-class feedback as the default method replacing teacher red pen in books and don’t make your book scrutinies into marking-checks.  They are for looking at standards and progress.

During testing periods – like mock exams – cut back on the scale of each exam and be clear that test marking will replace other forms of marking during that period.

Remember – the learning impact of marking is very very low. If your main reason for maintaining an intense marking culture is parental expectations, then just tell them you’re changing things and explain why.

Planning

In my view, there is way too much duplication of effort across schools – and the nation (See this Reinventing the Wheel post).  If you are taking workload seriously you can make a big difference – and support setting standards – by making sure that every unit of work has one central scheme of work with one set of default resources: questions, reading, worksheets, slides etc. This then provides everyone with a backbone to deviate from if they choose to; if they have time.  But – it means that, at any time, you can use the standard materials without having to create anything extra most of the time.

For this to work, because teachers often don’t like using other people’s stuff, you need to produce as much of this as you can collaboratively with everyone contributing and, thus, developing important curriculum design skills.  Agree on the format and standards and don’t be too precious about sharing or about using materials other people have produced.   If you invest in this this year, it will make future years so much easier, replacing the culture of teachers scrabbling around making their own resources, making tests, planning good learning sequences etc.  This should all be there for you, allowing you to focus on how to deliver the lessons.

Reports

This is simple:  Ditch writing subject comments.  It’s a massive, massive workload burden with very little gain in terms of learning – alongside all the nonsense of creating ‘meaningful’ comments and the tedious, laborious proof-reading that is required.   If you do one overall tutor comment per year and report all subject progress through codes and grades, it cuts workload massively.  My son’s schools did this last year; it worked well. The Head wrote to explain and that was that.  It makes total sense.

Forms

Every time you make pro forma and think – it will only take a minute – multiply that by 100 and then ask whether you really need the information.  Are you asking because you genuinely want the information or is it really a form of control.  Keep information requests to an absolute minimum in the most streamlined format.

Duties

I don’t think schools can run safely without teachers doing duties. It’s always going to be part of the deal.  However, I recommend that staff consider switching to duty weeks instead of weekly duties.  I have used this system in some previous schools and staff were very positive about it.  Duty weeks generate a rota where you do a duty every day for a week – thus making plans to allow that to be a focus – but then do no duties at all in the other weeks.  Give it some thought.

  Data

The answer here is: Cut it right back.  You just do not need to collect so much data centrally at departmental level or whole-school level.  My challenge:  if you halved the number of data drops, what difference would it make?  Do it – try it – and see if you really, really need more data to know what is going on with students.

Meetings

Make every meeting count. One meeting per week can feel difficult to achieve if you factor in parents’ evenings, open days and all the rest – but it isn’t so much the number of meetings as the quality of them.  I suggest that most meetings should be designed around collaborative planning and CPD – and that’s about it.  Of course there is a need for open-ended discussion and for sharing information but most meetings should help to reduce workload by being productive rather than adding to it by leaving everyone with a list of tasks and no time.

I wish I had followed some of Andy Buck’s advise from Leadership Matters – having more meetings standing up, quickly agreeing a plan and then using the time saved to do the actions. Avoid dustbin syndrome:  setting an hour aside for a meeting and then filling it.

Always live type notes and minutes during a meeting. It’s so easy to do and saves hours of faffing afterwards.

Protect Tutors

Ever been a form tutor?  It’s busy.   I remember the old days of collecting trip money but there is still a lot to do, especially if there is a programme of PSHE or reading to support and tutors have a role in backing up behaviour and rewards systems.  Alongside the day-to-day attendance monitoring and pastoral care, that’s about enough isn’t it? So, if you hear some say ‘we could get tutors to do it’, just stop them. They’re already busy.  There is a graveyard of failed initiatives across the system that have relied on tutors finding magic minutes.

Emails

Teachers  like freedom and trust when it comes to emails – but this needs to be balanced against workload.  I think email systems should have a gate-keeper who has a workload reduction brief.  Allstaff emails should only be sent by a small group – perhaps including the Head , a couple of deputies, the business manager and staff association rep?  This means you don’t get bombarded and you can control the culture about emails that require quick responses.   Personally, I prefer to manage my email when I want to in my own time – but I recognise sending emails out of office hours can be seen as stress-inducing. I think this needs serious consideration . Email traffic can be ludicrous and tackling it is a good place to look.

Cover

I imagine that most schools have moved toward a ‘rarely cover’ situation.  If not, then that is certainly the way to go. Aim for Zero Cover.  We’ve come a long way since the days of checking the cover board daily.

However, there is still scope for staff to help each other and the SLT to balance a healthy ‘family first’ culture, opportunities for CPD and keeping the cover budget under control.  This requires agreeing to cover each other on a reciprocal basis to oil the wheels of the system.  If you always expect supply cover, it simply means that fewer things can happen – because the money isn’t there.  In terms of workload, I find that it is much easier to liaise with a colleague than to set cover work and pick up the pieces after a lesson that has had supply cover.

And then there are these things:

It’s worth looking at this and holding O to their word.

Tackle Workload. This bandwagon actually matters. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo