Getting there

Another situation update - I'm now officially checked and cleared. I am not a criminal!

By this I mean I got my enhanced disclosure CRB check back. 

However - I still need proof of good behaviour in Germany, to pass the French course (and I don't know if I'm even on it yet) and to sort out a student loan. 

Just to make matters more annoying, I received a letter calling me for jury service, in early July, exactly when I'm not really available to be away from work as it's my last month. I'm going to try and get excused, on the basis that I'm not really free in July and getting it postponed would be impossible due to the course. Oh, and it was sent to my parents house, I haven't lived in that part of the country for several years and I shouldn't even be registered at that address, so I'm not really available for jury service there anyway! Grr!

I seem to be ranting a lot, I do apologise. I'll try and be sunnier in future, promise!

More hoops

My university have contacted me, to 'suggest' that I get evidence of good behaviour in Germany as I lived there for 8 months and the CRB check won't cover it. This can take the form of a letter from my employer or a certificate of good behaviour from the authorities. To get this, I need to complete a form with basic identifying details on it, I then need to get this stamped by an embassy, consulate (£15), notary public (unknown charge) or public authority (whatever that really means) as proof that I am who I say I am and then send this, plus 13 euro to Germany to get this document! It's going to cost me about £30 quid once postage and any bank charges are taken into account, just to prove I was well behaved, add this to the original CRB charge and I think I have a right to be a little bit peeved. I know it's necessary to check I'm not a child-molester, but really..... this seems a little over the top to me. 

OK, rant over!

Revolutionary

This could revolutionise teachers' lives, this. 

Non-stick chewing gum! Think of the time saved by not picking gross, hardened chewing gum from underneath desks!

Spring is here!

After a nice walk that combines exercise with French learning I'm feeling really well! Spring is here and the warm weather is so wonderful - I just wish I could be sat in a beer garden (or any garden) right now, rather than being stuck in my office!

My new website

In order to take further my mission to track what I'm up to I've started a website to track websites and other resources as I find them. I've put a few up already, and I'll be updating it whenever I come across something that might be useful.

Visit my new site!

Update

Just to keep my loyal readers up to date with the story so far.

I have applied online for a student loan, I just need my OH to provide his financial details. 

I have contacted my bank to find out how to keep hold of my student account for another year (i.e., my interest free overdraft facility).

I have sent off my application for a French subject knowledge booster course and started an evening class for two hours once a week, as well as getting hold of every teach yourself course going.

I have completed and returned my CRB check paperwork and medical fitness questionnaire

I have accepted my place both directly to my institution and to the gttr.

I have also started a website dedicated to collecting useful web sites and resources for teaching languages in particular but also teaching in general. When that goes live I'll post a link to it here.

Now I just need to make sure I have gotten some of life's important things out of the way - doctors, dentist and opticians spring to mind. I also need to make sure my OH has a job and that we both have somewhere to live.

If anyone thinks I've forgotten something please let me know!

A work colleague recently referred to this as a major life reorganisation.  I can't think of a better way of putting it!

Universities like Physics A level - who knew?

Today's online Independent has posted this story. Apparently, the country's top ranked universities have a problem accepting the academic merit of such courses as drama, media studies and performance and tourism, preferring such old fashioned subjects as Physics, History and Languages ....... I can't believe this is even news!!!!! Surely this is so ridiculously obvious that anyone with two brain cells to rub together would have grasped this already.

I think that what worries me the most is the fact that our young people are being encouraged by the government and their schools to take these 'soft subjects' and told that they are considered as being just the same as the more traditional A Levels. While I have my own ideas about the validity of these subjects, I'm not going to go into that now. The fact is that universities want certain skills and they need to be sure that their applicants have learned them. The academics themselves don't have any experience of drama, media studies or performing arts, so they don't know what skills these pass on. What they do know is that Physics and Further Maths A Levels means that their applicants for science will have the appropriate level of maths for their course, that applicants for Law who have French A level have no problem with strange and difficult vocabulary and that Arts applicants with an A level in English literature have had plenty of practice writing academic essays.

By telling students that the top universities will consider drama on the same level as English Lit schools are potentially damaging their chances of getting into Russell Group universities. It's all well and good saying that these alternative options are just as useful, just as valid, but until universities come around to this way of thinking, the bright pupils should continue to consider 'traditional' academic A levels as their route to the top. 

And since Languages are widely considered one of the hardest subjects to get good marks in, teachers should definitely encourage their pupils to study them!