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The Wicked Witch of the South East - Part 1

PART ONE — DECEPTION Once upon a time, in a kingdom not so very far away, there lived a witch of a most peculiar sort. She was proud, spiteful and thoroughly unpleasant. Those who crossed her path wondered what terrible enchantment had taken hold of her heart. Had some dreadful misfortune befallen her in youth? Had a wicked curse been cast upon her? Or, as some whispered behind firmly closed doors, had she simply been born with a swinging brick where a heart ought to be? Whatever the truth, the witch grew older and more ambitious. She set her sights on becoming Head Witch at one of the kingdom’s most respected schools of magic, nestled among the leafy hills of the south-east, close to the great capital. It was no small undertaking. She had already travelled from school to school, leaving behind quarrels, broken spirits and considerable destruction. But she was not one to let her history stand in the way of ambition. Armed with a cunning disguise, a silver tongue and no small amount of ...
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Idle hands are the devil’s plaything

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It wouldn’t be a proper summer holiday if I didn’t revisit the blog in some way. I actually tried to give it up a while back, but there are too many thoughts up in the air all the time. I need it more than I thought: a way to liberate myself from some of the anxieties in life – a form of therapy.   So, today’s trip down memory lane is going through comments I’ve received over the years to my posts. Most of them have been lovely, others have been downright odd. Below are the majority of them with a bit of contextualisation. ____________   The first set of comments were in response to a post about hypocritical relations between the head of that school I worked for and the NEU. As you will see below, a parent had asked if other members of staff could corroborate what I had put in the blog – the responses were unanimous in their judgement…   21/11/22 I’m a parent of children who’ve been at this school and am sad to read this. It would be very interesting to have other teache...
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A Reckoning

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One of these days, There has to be a reckoning.  Wishful thinking?  Probably.  One of these days,  There should be a reckoning.  Definitely.  Probably won’t be. If there were,  We’d be on the right side of it.  I reckon. Others wouldn’t.  Though they probably wouldn’t care.  Some definitely.  Still.  There you go. 
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Robin Ince

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It's the summer holidays and they've  been a long time coming. As usual it's taken me a while to unwind and get into the spirit of things. But it is a little easier this year with the diagnosis. The inner critic and Rejection Syndrome Dysphoria (RSD) have not gone away but they're not constant noise, nor are they as overwhelming as they have been. I recognise and deal with them faster.   I'm really impatient to get to the actual titration period, but I'm still waiting for the call to actually arrange an appointment to discuss different medication.    In the meantime, last Friday evening I went to a Robin Ince event in Sandwich where he was discussing his recent book about his ADHD diagnosis:  Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventure in Neurodiversity .   What an incredible evening: engaging, moving and reassuring. I'd read his book the week before and so much of it rang true. To actually have the chance to see him discuss it, and then talk to him was...
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Nothing to see here, again...

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The end of the school year approaches and I cannot but help ask my contacts about developments at  that  school. You know: the one  where I had the breakdown which was the genesis of this blog .   Well,  the pattern of substantial yearly turnover continues to hold true: six teachers this year… Six,  i.e.  nearly 50% of class-based teachers. Nice.    I’ll look forward to  reading a newsletter where  the head us es  their double speak to explain the normalcy of that outcome: the  usual nothing to see here  approach, I’d wager.  And I’m sure that the useless governing body and local council won’t bat an eyelid. Why change things now? Integrity is so passé…   Anyway, w hile I’m here: here’s o ne from the vaults  that has been bugging me of late.  I  just  cannot let  it  lie . And now I have a sterling  excuse  what  with my recent diagnosis !  If you can't milk ...
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