I am starting to find my way in this new school. It has lots of challenging children who all want to be gangsters for some potty reason. There’s nothing funnier than seeing a 14 year old strutting around trying to act grown up. The dopey ones are also amusing.

While the children might be mad as fish, and the building all scuffed and one of those concrete monstrosities from the 60′s the staff are good and there is a definite feeling of working together – “yeah, the kids are mental, we know what you mean. Want a hand?”. You can accidentally wander through someone’s classroom and the teachers just say “hello” and might stop to chat for a while. Having a departmental office helps, as does having it in the middle of all the computer rooms so moving from one lesson to another is often a case of walking through a door or down a set of steps.

Now how to crack the problem of children who can’t be bothered. Some of them couldn’t care less and come from families who only send their kids in to school because it’s less hassle. It’s different to the last place, but it does make a change having children who don’t care, compared to highly intelligent rich kids who can’t be bothered. There’s a changing of mental gears that goes on – for some of the kids, the fact they turn up each day is an achievement.

It’s a challenge, but one of those challenges that are beneficial. Once I’ve been run through the wringer here I’ll be able to wander into any other school and not be too phased by crazies storming the room, running around and running out again (why invade a lesson? Surely it’s better to try and escape school?).