Friday isn't a great day for updates. By the time it swings around, the ZPD is so drained, it becomes near impossible to relate an anecdote. I suppose we could do it in a montage. Or a Hill Street Blues roll-call..

Item 1

Jay has been stabbing the foreign children and racially abusing them. Bless his heart, he has settled in well. He has a tendency to target the children who can't actually relate that they are suffering, either because of language barriers, speech difficulties ('cause of brain damage) or profound communication difficulties. (like ASD)

Item 2

Apparently the management believes that "not all school trips have to be educational" (a direct quote, related by a colleague). The visits to the cinema continue apace. 

Item 3

Dee still refuses to get a calculator for maths class. "Sure what do I need a calculator for in maths?"

Item 4

The SENO informs us that the word of a psychologist alone is sufficient for a child to be considered ASD. You heard it here first folks, a psychologist can say "he has the ASD" and the spice will flow. I balk. I am visibly perturbed. I am told that despite other things (like "the moral and ethical questionability of such a decision") I should go whoop-de-doo for the hours it garners.Well, whoop-de-fucking-doo.

Item 5

A neighbouring school has been directing SEN students to our school on the grounds that they "can't cope with a child's needs" and "have only one resource teacher for 500 students" (this is either a blatant lie or evidence of  an actual deliberate and concerted drive to exclude children with SEN from their school) 

Item 6

I am dressed down in public for not including something on a piece of paper that I wrote even though the thing that was omitted exists only in the mind of someone with a psychiatric illness.

Item 7

Quotes of the week:

"He can be a little oppositional." (as good a euphemism as you will hear)

"They are around her like she is in heat." (about a twelve year old)

"He's doing fine. He sits by himself, never speaks, looks a little scared sometimes. But yeah. He's doing fine."

"Hey! Let's be careful out there."