Occasional Tales

Perhaps for all the right reasons. The results for English this were about the same as usual even though I predicted a decline. We got a couple of 4s, but at least it wasn’t more. One of the laziest little buggers in my class got a 6, which though I should be pleased, is annoying. I’ve run into this sort of thing before, where some revolting child could be inspiring the dunces to aspire, but instead, behaves like a dunce. With the A-level pupils, the disastrous HL~SL split of last year was reversed, thus providing some evidence that largely barring them from HL is beneficial (and besides, as we all know, they don’t need to do HL). And thus, this year’s A2s may not do too badly since almost none of them are doing HL. How­ever, I still think we’re likely to see a few more 4s unless, on the basis of their dreadful IGCSE results, we can see shed the worst performers. Curiously, I know next to nothing about this year’s IB1~AS classes. Normally, I hear names and get to know re...

The end of the term is nigh. Not nigh enough, though. The term has been dragging painfully to a conclusion. The one bright spot is that we don’t have to come in on Monday. Yeah, Monday is the actual last day of term. Could this Empire be more stupid? What has term been like this year? Short for one thing. With the Spring Festival being so early, term is ending nearly two weeks before it usually finishes, but that means the second term will drag on even longer. Even so, in spite of a shorter first term, I’m feeling knackered. It may be an age thing, but getting up at 6.00am while it could still be any time during the hours of darkness has had a worse effect on me than previous years. There’s a reason why I hate alarm clocks: I inevitably wake up before they go off, and that might mean anything up to an hour. I did it twenty years ago and I still do the same today. But, as I said, it’s felt worse this term to be getting up so early and to be arriving at school just as the su...