It’s nice and quiet in here. The school is shut to students, and anyone who’s a member of the NUT are on strike. I’m not an NUT member, so I’m not on strike although I do see why it’s happening. Want to see what we’re griping at? Here’s an Excel spreadsheet explaining how much we get paid… And a small excerpt for those allergic to Excel:

So as you can see, in six years time I can look forward to earning £30,000 a year before tax.

It’s an INSET day tomorrow that we’re being given back as payment for overtime worked previously in the year. I’m using today to get all my work for next week done, saving me from having to do it tomorrow or at the weekend. I’m having an observation next Wednesday so it’s nice being able to faff about in my classroom sorting out time-consuming things like random piles of paper and junk that accumulates over time.

And for anyone wondering, there wasn’t anything interesting happening outside the school gates. Those that are on strike are simply not here and it’s all calm and quite relaxing really. Bizarrely I seemed to have more time this morning before setting off. I wasn’t in any particular rush and still arrived on time.

My washer likes to try and shake my house down when going into Hyperspin. The kitchen floor is a suspended floor consisting of beams poking out the walls with floorboards on the top. With 30-odd kilos of washing machine bouncing around on top the whole house shudders in a slightly alarming way. In an attempt to dampen the gyrations I went off to Homebase and came back with some concrete slabs.

Two slabs are now under the washer, and four more are outside by my car so I don’t get mud into it. The ones under the washer seem to have made a difference since the pots and pans on my shelves no longer vibrate and rattle. The floor still shakes enough to make eyeballs vibrate though.

It’s a three day week this week. On Thursday all the NUT members go on strike so the school is closed to students, and on Friday it’s an INSET day. I’m not in the NUT so I will be in work, but don’t worry - I won’t be doing anything that would ordinarily be done by an NUT member. Mostly I’ll be sorting out lessons and all the other little things that get put aside during the week.