Tall fat and greedy
Silver Member
Hope you sleep well. As always your amazing willpower got you through "two bar trial"!!!!
Deflating the Bouncy Castle
- Thread starter spangles
- Start date
bettiesrevenge
Gold Member
Rah indeed, that is some kind of torture regime.
I am sure that "being managed out of your career" is downright illegal. Ofsted would at least be decent enough to give you improvement targets. Teaching at an academy, WHOA.
spangles
Bouncy Castle
the policies say that observations which count towards your perf mgt etc should be arranged in advance and have an agreed focus. these unannounced inspections don't give anyone a chance to shine.
so what happens if you get a 'satisfactory' is that they put in place a six week improvement plan. regardless of your experience you're submitting all your lesson plans in advance to your line manager for approval, being observed once a week, having an hour's meeting with your boss every week etc...
it's basically like being a student teacher again, and i don't know a single experiencd teacher who's lasted more than half of it without handing in their notice and throwing away their career. it doesn't sound too horrible, i realise - take it from me, it would make your ever working moment a hideous, hidous experience. and if you haven't made the (subjective) changes they want at the end of that period, you're put on 'competencies' and sacked anyway.
the media would have you believe that this is a good thing - weeding out poor teachers. but the sorts of thing you might get a satisfactory for include some kids being late arriving at your lesson, not pointing out explicitly when you are using literacy skills in non-literacy subjects, or not being able to prove how much progress each child has made within fifteen minute intervals.
it's hoop-jumping. the latest flavour of the month is that as well as student data and lesson plans being provided to the inspector, there should be a seating plan showing each child's attainment in every prior assessment, and colour-coding that against their target grades - plus a justification as to why they are sitting in that grouping based on this data. Not that teachers don't think about that anyway, but creating one of these charts takes about three hours. I teach 16 different classes. and every few weeks they change the compulsory format and required info (EAL/SEN/Free school meals data has been the latest thing we have to include). it has to be pretty much rewritten every half term to add the new data... and if you don't keep up to date, there's your 'satisfactory' grade.
and then, since january, all the lessons which were previously 'good' are now 'satisfactory' anyway, because they've essentially devalued the criteria.
it's so profoundly depressing.
when i was getting my feedback today, my manager said 'and of course the kids adore you, they were hanging on your every word...' aand it was just amazing because i never get the chance to just be pleased with being a bloody good teacher any more. it is literally the smallest, least 'important' part of my job and that's so wrong.
so what happens if you get a 'satisfactory' is that they put in place a six week improvement plan. regardless of your experience you're submitting all your lesson plans in advance to your line manager for approval, being observed once a week, having an hour's meeting with your boss every week etc...
it's basically like being a student teacher again, and i don't know a single experiencd teacher who's lasted more than half of it without handing in their notice and throwing away their career. it doesn't sound too horrible, i realise - take it from me, it would make your ever working moment a hideous, hidous experience. and if you haven't made the (subjective) changes they want at the end of that period, you're put on 'competencies' and sacked anyway.
the media would have you believe that this is a good thing - weeding out poor teachers. but the sorts of thing you might get a satisfactory for include some kids being late arriving at your lesson, not pointing out explicitly when you are using literacy skills in non-literacy subjects, or not being able to prove how much progress each child has made within fifteen minute intervals.
it's hoop-jumping. the latest flavour of the month is that as well as student data and lesson plans being provided to the inspector, there should be a seating plan showing each child's attainment in every prior assessment, and colour-coding that against their target grades - plus a justification as to why they are sitting in that grouping based on this data. Not that teachers don't think about that anyway, but creating one of these charts takes about three hours. I teach 16 different classes. and every few weeks they change the compulsory format and required info (EAL/SEN/Free school meals data has been the latest thing we have to include). it has to be pretty much rewritten every half term to add the new data... and if you don't keep up to date, there's your 'satisfactory' grade.
and then, since january, all the lessons which were previously 'good' are now 'satisfactory' anyway, because they've essentially devalued the criteria.
it's so profoundly depressing.
when i was getting my feedback today, my manager said 'and of course the kids adore you, they were hanging on your every word...' aand it was just amazing because i never get the chance to just be pleased with being a bloody good teacher any more. it is literally the smallest, least 'important' part of my job and that's so wrong.
lauren-1986
Feeling Motivated
Spangles! Very well done on the mockstead! My sister is a teacher so I have a feel for how many hoops you have to jump through just to be graded well!
Hope maintenance is going well for you! X
Hope maintenance is going well for you! X
Jelliebabe
Gold Member
Well I hope you don't mind me saying but that all sounds like a load of bl**dy sh*t. How are you supposed to do the important bit of Actual like der "teaching" if you have to fanny about with this rubbish once a term? Adjust 16 seating charts every three weeks with crap like fave colour, BFF and dietary tolerances. Its a disgrace. No wonder no one wants to be a teacher any more, it sounds more like a job for an accountant! We need passionate creatives to inspire children, not bore them to death.
Well done on getting through it.... until next term! You're a marvel!
Well done on getting through it.... until next term! You're a marvel!
jessicacaca
Full Member
I agree, what a crock of sh*t! As a parent I really really don't want the people who give their lives over to my kids education to go through this.
I'm cross now!
But also happy for you Spangles :0).x
I'm cross now!
But also happy for you Spangles :0).x
spangles
Bouncy Castle
thanks all - sorry for the seriousness... no wellness left to ameliorate the pessimism that michael gove et al beat into me with renewed vigour on a daily basis.
so I got home about four, tried on some new bras (can't really tell - a couple of them seem a bit small (i got 3x 32H and one 32HH) but i've got my period - need to try them in a week or so. and i do still have at least five pounds left to lose...) and then collapsed into bed. slept for acouple of hours til husband got in. dozed on and off, then forced myself to get up and make dinner (salmon and broccoli bake with carrots...) which was nice in the end but i have a pounding headache and ache all over.
i'm getting too old for all-nighters if i have to work the next day.
it's a blessing that i don't have to be in a state of readiness for inspectors in tomorrow's classes (she could've come at any point over today and tomorrow). swerved about 10 hours prep work which i'd have had to fit in between the end of school today and registration tomorrow. so, likely, another late nighter or all-nighter. i'd have ended up doing a bluegirl, I reckon
and people wonder why teachers get so defensive about all the jibes about the holidays etc...
role on the five pounds, commence operation 'baby', and let the countdown to mat leave begin. please.
so I got home about four, tried on some new bras (can't really tell - a couple of them seem a bit small (i got 3x 32H and one 32HH) but i've got my period - need to try them in a week or so. and i do still have at least five pounds left to lose...) and then collapsed into bed. slept for acouple of hours til husband got in. dozed on and off, then forced myself to get up and make dinner (salmon and broccoli bake with carrots...) which was nice in the end but i have a pounding headache and ache all over.
i'm getting too old for all-nighters if i have to work the next day.
it's a blessing that i don't have to be in a state of readiness for inspectors in tomorrow's classes (she could've come at any point over today and tomorrow). swerved about 10 hours prep work which i'd have had to fit in between the end of school today and registration tomorrow. so, likely, another late nighter or all-nighter. i'd have ended up doing a bluegirl, I reckon
and people wonder why teachers get so defensive about all the jibes about the holidays etc...
role on the five pounds, commence operation 'baby', and let the countdown to mat leave begin. please.
You'll need all the sleep you can get before baby Spangles arrives in the world 'coz unlikely you'll get much sleep thereafter!! hey! But that's a different kind of sleep deprivation!
It's odd how 5 pounds on one hand seems like so little an amount yet at the same time it is lot? Sorry, don't mean to put a dampner on things but I guess when one looks at the whole picture of your loss you are but only a faltering step away from goal. I'm actually more excited about you reaching your goal and getting rid of those wretched 5 b*****'s than I am about focussing my mind to continue with SS+!!!
It's odd how 5 pounds on one hand seems like so little an amount yet at the same time it is lot? Sorry, don't mean to put a dampner on things but I guess when one looks at the whole picture of your loss you are but only a faltering step away from goal. I'm actually more excited about you reaching your goal and getting rid of those wretched 5 b*****'s than I am about focussing my mind to continue with SS+!!!
spangles
Bouncy Castle
No, it does seem huge right now. The thing with the steps, I can see why people don't bother or give up, cos they're a pain in the arse and restrictive like any diet, but for no actual reward. Thing to remind ourselves is that they're the price you pay for all the benefits of a vlcd.
In a practical sense obviously I am benefitting because I'm re-glycogenating without gaining any weight. There's no way to avoid the glycogen bump otherwise.
But also, it really isn't hurting me to have t be so restrictive. I guess it would be so tempting to get to goal on ss and think "I'll just have one evening/weekend/week of freedom before I start healthy eating" and we know what that would mean for me and lots of others. The steps allow for those freedoms to come in gradually. There won't be much at the end of the steps that I won't have been able to have (if weightloss allows, I might allow myself a glass of wine at the weekends on step 5).
But yes. Those bloody stubborn five pounds. Thing is, ss had stopped working for me, even ss+ had slowed down. Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed at it for longer and made the steps shorter... But there's no saying what my losses would have been, and then I'd be blaming that decision if I'd gained during the steps.
Après la vacance, dietchef. Hopefully steps plus hols with have reset my body a bit, and dietchef will work for me at a reasonable pound or two a week. Just need to limit the holiday gain.
In a practical sense obviously I am benefitting because I'm re-glycogenating without gaining any weight. There's no way to avoid the glycogen bump otherwise.
But also, it really isn't hurting me to have t be so restrictive. I guess it would be so tempting to get to goal on ss and think "I'll just have one evening/weekend/week of freedom before I start healthy eating" and we know what that would mean for me and lots of others. The steps allow for those freedoms to come in gradually. There won't be much at the end of the steps that I won't have been able to have (if weightloss allows, I might allow myself a glass of wine at the weekends on step 5).
But yes. Those bloody stubborn five pounds. Thing is, ss had stopped working for me, even ss+ had slowed down. Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed at it for longer and made the steps shorter... But there's no saying what my losses would have been, and then I'd be blaming that decision if I'd gained during the steps.
Après la vacance, dietchef. Hopefully steps plus hols with have reset my body a bit, and dietchef will work for me at a reasonable pound or two a week. Just need to limit the holiday gain.
It really must be so frustrating. However,on the positive side the fact you are following the steps will mean you reap the benefits of not putting the weight back on. Whilst step 3 is still limited at least you have some kind of normality and can actually sit and have a meal with your husband! It's funny how simple things like sharing breafast, lunch or dinner from time to time becomes a wonderful experience after weeks (or in your case months) on a vlcd. Roll on the glass of wine.....better still you my dear deserve the finest glass of champers, Dom Perignon, Krug or perhaps Cristal?
Hopefully you cortisol levels will go down especially after the past couple of days you've had and maybe there will be a shift of half a pound or better still more next week.
Hopefully you cortisol levels will go down especially after the past couple of days you've had and maybe there will be a shift of half a pound or better still more next week.
spangles
Bouncy Castle
maybe not.
came home to a letter from a debtr collection agency. turns out that a car i used to own is still registered to me. I had it scrapped but the dvla apparently never got the notification. what i find so hard is that they never wrote to me in all that time, and now we have debt collectors.
which wouldn't normally be a disaster, but we were just about to apply for our first mortgage. life was slotting together. now we have to wait at least three months for my adverse credit scoring to pass - even if i can get the dvla to call off the debt collectors (and i don't hold out much hope - i bet everyone claims ignorance and that they didn't get any letters...) apparently you can't expunge the damage to your credit score.
i'm completely gutted - had a total tearful meltdown for about an hour and a half, which, when it happens, terrifies my husband, and reminds him that he's married someone with pretty profound depression issues (something we generally, obviously, prefer to ignore)... and then i see that fear in his eyes and it makes the whole thing worse. I hate myself for being so crap at dealing with stuff; for not keeping better records about the car; for living in a flat that's like something on a channel 4 shock-doc about mess; for being totally trapped in a job that makes me feel sick when i think of it... the whole thing spirals on and on and i get into this horrible horrible rage with myself.
i'm getting worse, and it's sharply worsened over the last couple of weeks - which i thought was because of work, but husband has just pointed out that it also coincides with the eating. it might be a factor. i dunno - i think i've found it easy but if i think about my future with food there is an anxiety there.
don't really know why i'm saying all this. probably a bit of an overshare - might delete later.
i know three months isn't a big deal, btw. it just set all the other stuff off.
came home to a letter from a debtr collection agency. turns out that a car i used to own is still registered to me. I had it scrapped but the dvla apparently never got the notification. what i find so hard is that they never wrote to me in all that time, and now we have debt collectors.
which wouldn't normally be a disaster, but we were just about to apply for our first mortgage. life was slotting together. now we have to wait at least three months for my adverse credit scoring to pass - even if i can get the dvla to call off the debt collectors (and i don't hold out much hope - i bet everyone claims ignorance and that they didn't get any letters...) apparently you can't expunge the damage to your credit score.
i'm completely gutted - had a total tearful meltdown for about an hour and a half, which, when it happens, terrifies my husband, and reminds him that he's married someone with pretty profound depression issues (something we generally, obviously, prefer to ignore)... and then i see that fear in his eyes and it makes the whole thing worse. I hate myself for being so crap at dealing with stuff; for not keeping better records about the car; for living in a flat that's like something on a channel 4 shock-doc about mess; for being totally trapped in a job that makes me feel sick when i think of it... the whole thing spirals on and on and i get into this horrible horrible rage with myself.
i'm getting worse, and it's sharply worsened over the last couple of weeks - which i thought was because of work, but husband has just pointed out that it also coincides with the eating. it might be a factor. i dunno - i think i've found it easy but if i think about my future with food there is an anxiety there.
don't really know why i'm saying all this. probably a bit of an overshare - might delete later.
i know three months isn't a big deal, btw. it just set all the other stuff off.
MinnieMel
Why Be Normal?
Call the Citizens Advice Bureau I am sure there is something that can be done.
Have you ever tried listening to Slimpods and/or other relaxation recordings. I tried them today for the first time while I was using the treadmill at the gym - and I could actually see my heart rate drop as I did the visualization and breathing. I think these could really help you during this refreshing transition.
Have you ever tried listening to Slimpods and/or other relaxation recordings. I tried them today for the first time while I was using the treadmill at the gym - and I could actually see my heart rate drop as I did the visualization and breathing. I think these could really help you during this refreshing transition.
scooterchick
She's me in a few months
Just write to them. A car I used to own was involved in an accident on the motorway (3 weeks after I sold it) and abandoned. Like you I'd sent the paperwork away and never thought anymore of it til I received a bill for recovery of the vehicle and a summons from dumfries and galloway police! A letter sent to all parties cleared it up and I never heard anything else about it.
Jelliebabe
Gold Member
Hey Spanglicious.... Humph thats another shitter. You can write to the credit reference agencies and get them to add notes to your record (kind of your side of things) which IS taken into account.
Your flat sounds like my house. As soon as we got the house I told my husband all teh paperwork was his responsbility! I filed mine under the sofa at the flat.
Think of it this way 3 months is nothing compared to how long you've been on this diet!
Your flat sounds like my house. As soon as we got the house I told my husband all teh paperwork was his responsbility! I filed mine under the sofa at the flat.
Think of it this way 3 months is nothing compared to how long you've been on this diet!
spangles
Bouncy Castle
yeah - it's a bit of a pisser but we'll live.
tbh i'm more bothered by the meltdown itself. my mental health is getting worse with age, despite being happier in myself (a contradiction which i hope some will understand can happen) - i'm developing anxiety issues. :hmm:
Jellie's correct you can write to Experian and Exquifax the other main agency to have a *note* put on your credit file explaining the *debt* then when lenders makes the searches they can see why score is lower. However, I don't quite understand how DVLA have called debt collectors in? What debt? Wt money do you owe them? Is it because you get fined for not completing the transfer form for ownership of the vehicle?
is it the money or this fine they ate chasing?
Sorry putting lawyer hat on so that I cn try and help you sort it out.
is it the money or this fine they ate chasing?
Sorry putting lawyer hat on so that I cn try and help you sort it out.
