Thursday 3rd October 2024 - Juggling and Balancing (Finance)

 Hello all,

Today has been one of those days where I felt completely on top of everything—busy, productive, and quite fulfilling.

The day began with deep cleaning the dishwasher. It was long overdue, so I set it on a thorough wash to get rid of all the bacteria inside. With that small but satisfying task complete, I headed off to work.

At work, most of my day was spent untangling a payments record issue for a parent. There had been concerns that a technical error had caused over £600 to go missing. After thoroughly checking everything, I couldn't find any immediate issues. However, I went the extra mile and calculated every payment the parent had made, matching them up with our school’s records and compiling everything into a beautiful spreadsheet. Although finance work isn’t really in my job description, I couldn’t resist making the data clear and accurate. As it turns out, the issue stemmed from a system change when our School Trust updated its finance software a couple of years ago, causing some payments not to transfer over. I sent all the evidence to the Finance Team, and hopefully, they’ll be able to refund the parent soon.

After that, it was back to my usual duties! We had three new Early Career Teachers (ECTs) to register, which I quickly handled. Then I was asked if I could build some outdoor storage units for the Nursery to keep their toys in. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time today—it would have taken hours—so instead, I helped move the units into a safe storage space. I’ll build them next week when I can dedicate enough time.

As the day went on, I found myself juggling multiple tasks. I had an Appropriate Body Online Teams Briefing to manage while ensuring the technology (a laptop and projector) was set up correctly for a meeting in one of the school’s rooms. Multitasking these two events was quite the challenge, but somehow, it all went smoothly.

Then came a bit of drama—our School Trust’s Social Media team emailed, requesting admin access to post content. Our Senior Leaders wanted me to question why they needed this access and suggested they just send the content to us to post instead. A few hours later, I received a rather demanding email from a senior Trust member, insisting on admin access. Since it’s not my decision to make (I just manage the account on behalf of the school), I decided to hold off on responding and will speak to the Headteacher tomorrow to resolve this. Hopefully, it’s just a storm in a teacup that will settle quickly.

After work, I took the dog for a walk and combined it with a light run—two tasks in one! Dinner tonight was Swedish Meatballs, and they went down a treat with the family. I added a small touch of chilli con carne for a little extra kick, which was well-received.

The evening was incredibly relaxing. I spent time with Juli and Fearne in the now spotless living room, watching Fake or Fortune on BBC iPlayer. Once Juli went to bed and Fearne fell asleep, I carried her upstairs, tucked her in, and then stayed up a little later to clean the shower room. I’m delighted to report that it’s now sparkling and limescale-free! Before finally heading to bed, I gave the kitchen surfaces a wipe-down and mopped the floor, leaving everything feeling clean and refreshed.

It has been another busy but highly productive day, and I feel incredibly grateful for all I accomplished.