Friday 4th October 2024 - Collective Worship, Technology Troubles, and Family Time

 Hello all.

Today, I had to make sure I was on time for work, as it was a special day—one of our school where leading our assembly, or as we call it, a Collective Worship. These are always streamed online so that parents who can’t attend can still watch it from home. It was a great success, especially since this time it was our Year 2 class leading the assembly. They did an incredible job, projecting their voices so well that everyone could hear them clearly.

After the assembly, I stayed behind to help clear the chairs so the Assembly Hall was ready for the next activity. It’s always nice to lend a hand where I can.

The rest of the morning was spent helping our Year 3 class with their handwriting test. I had to create personalized sheets for each child, which took a little longer than expected because I was juggling multiple tasks—on top of printing the sheets, I was fixing two computers! One just needed a new modern operating system to make it useful again, but the other one was beyond saving due to liquid damage on the motherboard. It’s always a bit of a disappointment when something can’t be repaired, but I did my best.

You may remember from yesterday that I received a rather demanding request from our School Trust for access to our school’s Facebook page. Today, I had the chance to speak with the Headteacher, who assured me that he would raise the matter at the next School Governor's meeting in a couple of weeks. Until then, everything will stay as it is—so that’s one issue sorted, at least for now.

The afternoon took an exciting turn when I found myself teaching another IT lesson to our Year 6 class. We started with a fun team-building exercise where the kids had to draw a house, but with a twist—they could only mime instructions or speak in French! This was a clever way to show them how challenging teamwork can be without proper communication, and how technology can help overcome those obstacles when used effectively. We then moved on to making animations in Scratch. Each child had 20 minutes to complete a project, and I wasn’t allowed to help directly. Instead, I encouraged those who figured things out quickly to help their classmates. The lesson was a huge success, and I was so proud to see everyone working collaboratively and problem-solving together.

As the school day came to an end, I had one more task to complete—a poster for our school’s journal project, "Choosing the Jesus Way." I used my computer to create an image of Jesus with some scripture, and even used AI to refine and tidy up the artwork. I’m really happy with the result, and once it’s finalized and accepted by the school staff, I can’t wait to share it.

After work, I came home and took the dog for a walk, then had a chat with Juli about one of her kids starting to pay rent now that he’s 18 and working. It seems like a fair arrangement. We then settled down for the night with some TV—Taskmaster followed by the 2007 Transformers movie, which I’d never seen before. It was nice to just unwind.

I had planned to clean the cooker, bathroom, and bedrooms today, but sometimes it’s more important to spend quality time with family. The chores can wait until tomorrow!